I speak with director Spencer Glover about his experience with Disney as a participant in their coveted Launchpad program. Selected from more than 2000 applicants, the longtime Nashville filmmaker spent a year in the incubator, honing his skills under the auspices of industry execs.

The experience culminated in his Disney directorial debut BLACK BELTS, a coming of age Kung Fu story you can watch right now on Disney+.

Black Belts went on to win a 2024 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series.

Prior to the Launchpad experience Spencer created several films focused on stories that blend genre elements and grounded emotional characters. We met somewhere around 2018 when I was working on the web series version of Morse Code and he had just finished his award-winning film Message Read.

We talk about the launchpad experience, what was good and bad about it, and discuss the phenomenon known as “industry brain” — how in wake of that extraordinary opportunity Spencer has had to learn to resist the temptation to write or direct what the market says it currently wants.

We wax a bit nostalgic for the big budget films we both enjoyed as kids and then Spencer offers his perspective on whether it’s necessary to move to LA to elevate your film career. He himself moved for the Launchpad gig with his partner Kariss and has since stayed.

Finally we talked about the importance of spending your young years as freely as possible. In that context I share a couple stories from my younger years, including the time when I was 21 and drove my VW Bus to the end of an unmarked dirt road in southern Utah, hiked a days’ walk into the canyon and spent 5 days and nights in the with nothing but a gallon of water and five oranges.

Oh to be young.

Find Spencer:

Website: https://spencerglover.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spenceglover.mov/

I speak with award-winning music photographer Michael Weintrob about his unusual path through the visual side of music, and how keeping his head down and his heart open has resulted in one of the most exciting careers in the business.

Michael and I met around 2013. I was instantly struck by his combustible hustle, a kind of leaning forward in life. I was rocking bowties back then (call it my Willie Wonka phase) and… he grabbed me in my native habitat.

I’ve been following him ever since — through his launch of the Instrumenthead series, his installations at Jazzfest in New Orleans, the two exquisitely crafted Instrumenthead coffee table books, and the Instrumenthead Live concert series he produced during the pandemic, which featured more than 70 concerts filmed and broadcast out of the Weintrob studio.

Pivot, move forward, pivot, move forward.

Along the way Michael has cemented his reputation as a go-to live concert photographer for some of the coolest venues in the world: Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Ascend Amphitheater, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, the Barcelona Jazz Festival and Bluegrass Underground.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talked about the evolution of Instrumenthead, from its genesis as a spontaneous idea backstage, to a slowly accruing catalogue of artists and opportunities. How it was anything but an overnight success.

We also share stories of loss and tragedy — Michael going through a cousin’s suicide and the death of my little sister — and how those life experiences changed our perspective and priorities.

I also share a story I’ve never told before about a fated trip to see the Grateful Dead my senior year of high year, and the tragedy that happened along the way.

Throughout, we take a look at some of the artists captured in Weintrob’s camera, and learn why he chose the poses he did. Artists like Derek Trucks, Rhiannon Giddens, Bootsy Collins, Mickey Hart, and… me.

I have a ton of respect and admiration for Michael Weintrob. A guy who not only blazed an original path through a fraught industry of intense competition and constant uncertainty, but who came out of it creating somethingculturally important, historical even.

Website https://michaelweintrob.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaelweintrob/

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I speak with author Liz Riggs about the impending publication of her debut novel, Lo Fi out on Riverhead Books June 9. Liz’s publisher was kind enough to send me an advance copy, and from paragraph one I recognized the reverb-drenched setting — the live bands, late nights, broken AC, unravelling yard parties, and half-remembered conversations over hand-rolled joints — as my own.

I was a devoted participant of the world of Lo Fi, namely the post-flood Nashville of the 2010s.

A lot of us hit the clubs, played on their stages, closed down the dive bars. Some remain (The Basement, The Blue Room, The 5 spot) many do not (RIP Mercy Lounge, 12th and Porter, Radio Cafe) but Lo-Fi’s long lines and lazy dreamers was for me an irresistible reminiscence of a Nashville that no longer exists.

Because the protagonist was so well-drawn, I assumed Liz herself worked at a club in town. She didn’t, it turns out. We talk about what she did do, and how her fangirl inclinations (she admits to a teenage fascination with a well know 90s boyband) were easily grafted onto her enthusiastic main character.

I’m always fascinated to hear an author describe her path to publication — everyone’s is different, and in listening to the particulars of one I find inspiration for my own way forward. We talk about Liz’s journey, from writing drafts in longhand, to the nail-biting weeks, days and hours where she awaited her prospective publisher’s final word as to Lo-Fi’s fate.

We discuss her decision to set the story in a time that predates the social-media everything culture of today, and how that absence made it easier to tell a story about criss-crossed communication and the innocence of fledgling love. We compared notes and found some shared ground in our attraction to artists who write their own material, as opposed to those who sing the songs other people make for them.

Finally we talk about what’s great about living in a town with enough neon appeal to be called “It City” by the New York Times, and what’s maybe not so great about that.

If you like books like Nick Hornby’s High-Fidelity, or Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments, you’ll find a lot to love in Lo-Fi. Here’s a link to pre-order the book, and if you live in Nashville Liz is celebrating with a release show June 9 at the OG Basement with performances by Chris Housman and Vinnie Paolizzi.

Find Liz:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/riggser/

Website https://www.lizriggs.com/

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I caught Ryan Culwell — singer-songwriter, panhandle poet and father of four — on a recent pass through town, to talk about songwriting from a personal perspective, growing up in the Texas Panhandle, and what made him move back after a decade in the Nashville hopper. I’ve know the man for almost twenty years. I’ve been his fan and I’ve caught his shows. A few weeks ago I saw a post he wrote in white heat and flung against the wall like a dish in a fight. Anyone who has driven five hundred miles too far to play a show that didn’t mean much beyond the comped meal will recognize the pain and frustration and insane hope in it. “Sometimes,” he writes, “I wake up in a panic at 3am or drift off into nightmares at the dinner table only to have my kids pull back into the real world when they ask if I can pass the salt.”

I don’t have kids but I do know the kind of paralyzing scary that comes with the head-first approach to life-leaping. Take your shots, sure, but miss too many and the hunger stops being poetic.

It’s one thing to do that when you’re twenty-two and single, it’s another thing when you’ve got a wife and a family. Ryan’s been married I don’t know how long, and with four kids, prudence might suggest a turn toward the surer waters of life’s long river. I asked him about that. It was the one time in the interview he got emotional.

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I won’t spoil the surprise but I will say there’s a celestial oasis out there somewhere for the artist partner. These brave and faithful men and women are hitching their wagon to a summer tornado. Aren’t sure where you’re going and you don’t know when you’ll land.

This was one of the more candid conversations we’ve had on the podcast. Like Ryan, it was raw and honest and with a kind of heartbroke hope I’ve come to recognize in artists who do what they do because there’s nothing else they can.

We talked about how pretending everything is awesome gets you nowhere. The idea that if you leave home, you won’t come back; even if you do, home changes, you change. He landed on Wendell Berry’s advice — that you can’t fix the world, but you can put two things back together. We discuss Voltaire’s similar take two centuries earlier, take that the best you can do in life is tend an admirable garden.

In discussing his rural Texas background, we hit on Ryan’s love for people with a “knowledge of the hands” who can fix things, build things and the pleasure that comes with seeing the results of your labor.

Finally we pick a couple songs together — two Ryan Culwell originals.

I hope this conversation puts a crack in your heart. I hope it makes you less sure about what you think you know. And I hope it compels you get a little more familiar with Ryan and his music. He’s a good one and he’s out there. Go find him.

Find Ryan instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanculwell/ website: https://ryanculwell.com/

I speak with novelist Claire Gibson about her unusual journey toward publication, from roving the country as a young Army brat, to living at West Point as a faculty daughter, to the fateful day when a close friend made a galvanizing observation: she was in a unique position to capture the lives and experiences of the women of West Point in the 9/11 generation. The result was Beyond the Point, published by William Morrow in 2019.

Claire and I met last year at Writerfest in Nashville — I found her soft-spoken demeanor belied a shrewd eye for the interior dramas of other people. Reading Beyond the Point I knew I had to have her on the podcast. Listen above or watch below.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel involved her descriptions of the setting and the community of West Point itself. We talk about Claire’s childhood growing up in a military family and how, in her own college experience, she faced opinions antagonistic to some of the values with which she grew up.

We talk at length about the struggles particular to the writing life, from the nagging sense that there’s always something you ‘should’ be doing that would better serve those around you, particularly when you’re a parent, and how creating space in your routine to allow for imagination’s work is a prerequisite for everything that follows.

Claire is currently at work on her second novel. She shares a piece of invaluable advice from author Dani Shapiro that may sound brutal to the uninitiated…

As an avid reader I’m always down to talk books. We trade a few favorite recent titles. And I remember saying something about being intimidated by the same writers who inspire me.

This was a great conversation between two bonafide book nerds and I hope in listening you’re inspired to write something, read something, feel something.

Find Claire:

instagram https://www.instagram.com/clairecgibson website https://www.clairegibson.com/about

I speak with artist and multi-instrumentalist Robert Ellis, one of the best singer-songwriters of his generation. I'll tell you why: first, his songs do what great pop songs do - grab your attention with a hook as sticky as hot honey (check out “Bottle of Wine” for an example), but you get a sense there’s always something held in reserve, something that won’t be revealed until you come back for a second or third or fourth listen.

That might have to do with Robert’s respect for the mutable laws of music theory (we talk about the relationship of the V to I cadence as the backbone for all music since Bach), or his sense of play evident in a catalogue that already spans 6 albums across genres as diverse as bluegrass-inspired ripper (“Sing Along”) to 70s’ Rock (“Nobody Smokes Anymore”), or the soft spun album “Yesterday’s News” reminiscent of Willie Nelson’s “Rainbow Connection”.

Or it could have to do with the fact that while guitar is his primary instrument (he is a *very* good guitar player) his chops on piano are formidable enough that not only did he release an album on ivories (2019’s Texas Piano Man), but he toured it heavily - in a white tux and top hat, often solo at the keys.

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Robert has played Tiny Desk, Mountain Stage, and more recently, Carnegie Hall and collaborated with countless musicians from Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes to Jamestown Revival to Tift Merritt.

A few weeks ago he took time off his tour with Parker Millsap to talk with me about his free-spirited approach to songwriting, playing and creativity in general.

In this wide-ranging conversation we talk about the narrative parallels between music and literature, and how even chord progressions have a narrative arc. We talk about the importance of — when evaluating a prospective work of art — shifting the question from “Is it perfect”? to “Is it me?” We even venture into territory of a purely philosophical bent, discussing Free Will and its role in a empathic worldview. Robert is consistent with his meditative practice, and as a father of three, his kids often join in for the morning meditation. We hit on the importance in being absolutely present while both performing and producing, and how that ethos applies to acting. Robert recently acted in a short film, directed by his wife, filmmaker Erica Silverman. He talked a little about that experience which I found revealing and charming and hilarious.

Finally, the Texas Troubadour sat down to play his original “On the Run” live in studio on solo guitar. Watch and listen below.

There's a lot more in this conversation, one of my favorite ever on this podcast.

On the latest episode of the Morse Code Podcast I speak with singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer Anthony Da Costa about the unique trajectory of his musical path, already nosing into its third decade.

At 33, Anthony has continued to forge a symbiotic balance between helping fellow artists realize their own visions and making songs that are uniquely his own.

We discuss his early history as something of young folk prodigy, spending his teenage years opening for artists like Loretta Lynn and Suzanne Vega. It was 2020 that saw him diving into the studio bunker, first with his own music and later, as a producer for hire.

To my mind, Anthony is one of the most interesting song-forward producers working today. In a first-time feature for this podcast, we break open a Logic session for a track he produced for me — “Meet Me at the End of the World” — and talk through some of the color choices he made, and why.

Finally, we play an unreleased song — “When You Get This Close” showcasing Da Costa’s heart-on-sleeve lyrical approach and delicate musical touch.

Song: When You Get This Close

Anthony Da Costa - Vocals, Guitar Korby Lenker - guitar, harmony vocals

I hope you enjoy this conversation and I hope it inspires you to pick up your guitar.

Korby

On the new episode of The Morse Code Podcast I speak with singer-songwriter and ultramarathon runner Jeremy Lister about his unusual - and unusually successful - path in music, starting with his emergence in Nashville as a breakaway artist in the late 2000’s through his recent gigs singing with Eric Church at Coachella to his latest synch on Grey’s Anatomy a few weeks ago.

You never know how these conversations will go - the second half is spent unpacking Jeremy’s addiction, before and after he got sober (he just celebrated his ninth year alcohol-free) and how his decision to leave it behind led to an passion for running, marathon running, and finally, running ultras.

We also play an unreleased song of Jeremy’s, performed live in the studio - “Dirt”.

This episode got into some sensitive territory, including what was going on behind the scenes during the last Street Corner Symphony tour - an a capella group Jeremy co-founded that won Season One of the Sing-Off on NBC, hosted by Ben Folds. I’ve known Jeremy for almost twenty years, including the stretch he describes here. I had no idea what was going on with him personally at the time. It’s a testament to that quote by Socrates, invoking us to Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Below is a direct link to “Dirt”. At the end of the video there’s an invitation to listen to (or watch) a playlist featuring all of the songs recorded live on the Morse Code Podcast. We’re up to about twenty.

Hope you find these conversations as inspiring to your own creative journey as I’ve found them to mine. ~Korby

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