Brad Smith stopped by to record Episode No. 108 with me, and it was an absolute treat to meet/get to know him.

I'm excited for you to get to know him a bit, too, but before you dive in to our lovely conversation, please know that you can catch his band, Eggs on Mars, tomorrow (Friday, March 8th, 2024) at Hillsiders in KCK.

That's in Strawberry Hill, specifically at 403 N. 5th Street.

And if you can't catch them there, be sure to follow them on Instagram so that you can keep tabs on their goings-on, i.e. their mini regional tour in April, which features gigs in both Oklahoma and Missouri.

Anyway, apart from being the Eggs' frontman, Brad's also a baller (see: Pleasant Hill Roosters High School boys basketball record books), and a heckuva nice guy.

Thirty episodes ago, that week's guest discussed with me the notion of this podcast being a one-man weekly endeavor.

"That's a grind, man," he said. "That's a grind."

He was right when he made that comment, and it made me realize that that was a good summation of what the thing had been to that point. And it hasn't changed. It really is a grind to do the outreach and the scheduling, the interviewing and the editing, the prep and the getting the thing to the places it needs to be.

And since you were wondering, there are five essential components that make it all worthwhile:

1. meeting new people and hearing their stories

2. getting exposed to music I've either never heard of or listened to before…

Pleased as punch to have had Kirstie Lynn join me for Episode No. 106 of Badass Records, and I'm just as excited to have you check out our conversation.

I ran into Kirstie in the ol' downtownage, and -- before I knew it -- we were swapping e-mail messages in order to get this chat on the books.

She's a classically trained opera singer, a songwriter, a musician, a live-music performer, a veteran of the gigging road, and -- if my two hours with her are a good measuring stick -- she's one heck of a fascinating human being. One might even go so far as to say wonderful.

Sid Sowder! Episode No. 105! Too Much Rock!

Wow! So much coolness.

I was honored to meet and visit with Mr. Sowder, who has been doing his Kansas City music-community thing for a quarter of a century! Insane!

Too Much Rock is his Web site, and I would really appreciate it if you would check it out. Even if just for a moment.

Richard Davis is a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a veteran, and a local musician.

He's also a fascinating dude with a fascinating story, and he's my guest for Episode No. 104.

I'm thankful that our paths crossed when they did, and I was able to talk him in to swinging by to sit down for a bit.

We chatted life, growing up, recording music, and of course, a couple of Richard's favorite albums. Those were these…

Fritz Hutchison trekked over on a January snow day and sat with me for two hours to bullshit about music and life, and I gotta tell ya' -- it was one of my favorite conversations in recent memory.

I couldn't put a finger on it until several days after we recorded, but there were a number of reasons why I was -- more so than others -- looking forward to this interview. My son -- perpetually eyeing in some fashion or other my calendar of upcoming guests -- made me giggle a time or two about Fritz's upcoming date. And after an oral-surgeon appointment for both of our kids, my ex-wife helped me connect that dots that I know his dad.

Neither of those mattered, though.

Delighted to've had the lovely Autumn Hayes join me for Episode No. 102.

Stream her single, "If You Stay" wherever you get your digital music, and be sure to check her out on Facebook and Instagram.

In our conversation we talked about growing up with music, developing relationships with stringed instruments, plus recording and gigging. We also talked about a few of Autumn's favorite records. Those were these…

Ethan Brown is one of my favorite human beings on the planet.

He joined me 20 months ago for Episode No. 14 (which you should totally check out), and he's back again for the second installment of Wu-Tang 101, in which we examine the solo work of the Rebel INS.

Yes, indeed. It's Episode No. 101, and we're talking Inspectah Deck.

Under zero pretentiousness and -- in my case -- even less than zero knowledge, we took a peek at the following albums…

Reaching this milestone shouldn't go unmentioned and so it shan't; I'm pretty gosh-darn jazzed.

The year it took to get this thing alive and breathing felt like two, and the two years of recording episodes I'm closing in on have flashed.

And I'm embarrassingly proud of the whole thing.

I've had upset and disappointment, frustration and humiliation. I've laughed and smiled more than I knew was imaginable, had more than a couple late nights trying to meet self-imposed deadlines, met a bunch of really cool people, and learned a ton of neat things while listening to a bananas amount of music.

Mike Garry is a son, a brother, a dad, a businessman, a podcaster, a friend to many, and he's my guest for The Wayne Gretzky Episode, a.k.a., #99.

Mike and I connected via a pair of mutuals, and sitting down to chat with him about his journey was a pleasure and a treat.

We talked about The Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, microdosing, life, family, and his adventures with the Let Freedom Trip podcast.

Peregrine Honig is a daughter, a sister, a wife, an aunt, a friend to many, and an artist (or so she's told).

She's also my guest for Episode No. 97.

And before you read any more about her, please know that she has a solo show on display right now in two spaces. And before I tell you where they are, know that one of them closes this Saturday, December 23, 2023. So you literally have to go today, tomorrow, or the day after that. Otherwise you'll have missed out on a tremendous opportunity to see some super-cool pieces that were crafted by one of Kansas City's own.

I had the pleasure of meeting Shawn M. Stewart when we convened to record Episode No. 96 of Badass Records, and what a delight our conversation was.

Shawn is a son and a brother and a husband and a father and a musician and a fantastic fat-chewing partner.

Please consider checking out his musical endeavors on Soundcloud, Spotify, or on his Web site, and thank you in advance for tuning in to our chat.

Shawn and I talked musicianship, recording, and many of the other ins and outs of artisanship, as well as life and love and the pursuit of happiness.

Mr. Mojo Risin'!

Yes, yes, it's Episode #94, featuring the astute-and-talented Andrew Morris, ladies and gentlemen.

What an absolute treat.

I can't tell you how excited I was to become acquainted with this perfect stranger and rap the evening away talking life and music. Many thanks to Andrew for being so giving of his time.

Please give it up for #KCgirl, April Lemon, y'all!

Yes, yes. It's Episode No. 93, and it's one heckuva party, for sure.

April and I go back a few clicks to the early 2000s, when we were doing the hospitality-industry thing together, which -- for the record -- were such good times. Thank you, Mark & James, for opening cool joints.

Anyway...April is in the event-planning/P.R./promotions world these days, and you should check her out both here and here.

It was really fun seeing April and getting to hang out with her after some 20 years. And, it wouldn't be an episode of Badass Records if we didn't touch on a few of April's favorite records. Those were these…

Dan Jones, Dan Jones, Dan Jones.

What an absolute treat it was to meet the Squidmaster himself and chat a little bit about his life, his journey as a musician, and a few of his favorite records along the way.

Dan and I had a fantastic phone call at some point over the summer, and my gratitude for him seeing our conversation through is really firing on all cylinders. Even now, three weeks after we sat down together.

Those albums worthy enough to make Dan's cut for Episode #92 included the following…

What's crackin', y'all?

If you read these on the reg', thank you. I appreciate you.

You might know that I'm prone to screw things up from time to time when a) interviewing, b) recording, c) producing, and d) all of the above.

Nothin' sweeter than doing it on consecutive episodes, though.

Yep.

I goofed. Again. And as a result, the guest video comes in late. So...my apologies to Will Moulthrop, my partner in crime for Episode No. 91.

It's the Ryan O'Reilly episode, y'all...#90!

Okay. Silliness? Check. Now let's get the gaffe outta the way. In a nutshell, I was so excited to have this week's guest in the chair that I literally forgot to hit "record" on her camera. So...no video, which is a shame as Meg Kumin's face is far too adorable to waste on the incompetencies of a cotton-headed ninnymuggins such as myself.

I did, however, take the liberty of plastering the video file with some of my favorite pieces of her photography, which you can view/purchase at megkumin.com, so there is that aspect, which makes this episode even uniquer than it already was.

Sometimes I nerd out and assign the jersey number of one of my favorite (current or former) players from one of my favorite teams to the episode I'm posting about. So, for Episode No. 89, the default move would be to go Otis Taylor. I could also throw in Jason "Big Diesel" Dunn or Keith Cash, but -- since Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes came up in this episode's conversation, it's gotta be the Andre Rison episode.

And what a trip this episode was. Figuratively and literally.