The Guest List
Thursday September 21st, 2023 with Joe Reilly
Interviews with Kalle Mattson of Summersets and James McMurtry

We open the show today in conversation with Kalle Mattson, talking about his musical project Summersets. In this group setting, Kalle makes music with his long time friend, Andrew Sowka and they recently released their first full length album Small Town Story. The album includes 8 songs that previously appeared on two EPs (Small Town Saturday and Small Town Sunday) as well as 8 brand new songs. Together, all of these songs tell the story of a relationship between two people, starting with their first encounter and then moving through their history together. No spoilers here in writing... you'll need to listen to the album (or this interview) to learn some of what happens to these two characters. Kalle tells us how freeing it felt to write and record songs that were not about him and how they will present these songs live at Red Bird Live on Saturday night (Sept. 23.) It's always a pleasure to talk to Kalle about his musical projects and if you want to hear more about Summersets and the group's previous EPs you can check out these two editions of the Guest List from 2020 and 2021. Small Town Saturday https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/107/49398.html Small Town Sunday https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/107/53108.html Here is where you can get tickets to the Summersets show at Red Bird Live: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/summersets-tickets-629310543777?aff=oddtdtcreator Here is a link to the Summersets website: https://www.summersets.ca Then we feature an interview with James McMurtry, who is appearing in a sold-out concert tonight (Thursday, Sept. 21) at the Rainbow. Several songs and large segments of the interview were edited for the FM broadcast of the Guest List, but are included as part of the On Demand version of the program available here on our website. We mostly listen to music from James's latest album The Horses and the Hounds - although I could not resist including his classic song Choctaw Bingo. James tells us about how that song came about and about the rap elements in a new song Ft. Walton Wake Up Call. He shares with us how the oral storytelling of his father, novelist Larry McMurtry, influenced his direction in songwriting and we talk about the politics behind his song Operation Never Mind. It's always an engaging conversation when we get a chance to talk to James McMurtry. For more information about James McMurtry visit his website: https://www.jamesmcmurtry.com I wish I had know that James had appeared in drag on stage back in May, as part of his personal protest against a growing number of laws in the USA targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Considering the protests that happened in Canada this week, it would have been an interesting part of the conversation. Maybe next time. Read James McMurtry's opinion piece in Rolling Stone using this link: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/james-mcmurtry-drag-concerts-tennessee-texas-1234738670/?fbclid=IwAR2cN39YnH5iqw8K6gIKZShfhpZ1kbBbgTngT_xNwUYi1w4Lo09dtPaHvz0 Thanks for listening to the Guest List today. Get out and see some live music and support independent music in any way that you can.