This episode transpired last year but this podcast that is hosted by Robert Earl Keen is currently ongoing. There are seventeen episodes with the most current one including James McMurtry. So, right now I am currently listening to the one containing Steve Poltz. See I am one of those nerds that immediately write down all of the names dropped, and research them!
I met Steve Poltz last spring at the Suwanee Music Festival for the first time, but I certainly have been familiar with his contributions to music of many decades of a career that spans many genres. Perhaps the hardest one that I listened to was the one of Todd Snider. However I recently dug one up from last year from a personal friend of mine Shooter Jennings. I do not know what happened to Todd Snider and I am not one of those people that will speculate anything, I just miss him so much. Just the fact that I can no longer buy a ticket to see him makes me really sad.
I am just an ordinary guy that likes music and writes about what he likes. I really do identify with Shooter in many ways, and I live my childhood through my friends like him that still keep Snake Mountain alive. He does eccentric things that trigger my childhood, and the business man in me thought his Skeletor poster was marketed RIGHT TO ME! And THAT makes me smile….take my money! I enjoy buying his music and his stuff because I love him, and I want him (and ALL my artist friends) to be able to support their family with me buying their music.
But every time I see him a part of ANY podcast I usually hit it up quickly, because the insight I get from him is invaluable to a brain like mine. It soaks up names and starts rabbit holes….ugh…The episode with Shooter contains some really good stories and memories, but I like to listen to him talk about the production side of it…because I know very little. IT REALLY IS all about the music and Shooter GETS IT. Do we 100% like the same music? No. But let me tell you, I for one cannot ever lambaste someone for their love of any kind of music.
Here is the media release:
Robert Earl Keen Taps Shooter Jennings For A California Road Trip Episode Of Americana Podcast: The 51st State
Watch or listen now; New episodes are out on the last Tuesday of each month
Nashville, TN – July 18, 2025 – Right before his performance with Tyler Childers at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, Robert Earl Keen sat down with Shooter Jennings for an epic on-location episode of Americana Podcast: The 51st State. Recorded at Jennings’s Los Angeles studio, Keen and the GRAMMY-winning producer talked about the historical differences between LA and Nashville “country music” and classic A-list session musicians. They delved into Jennings’s process in the studio with artists he’s producing, and the story behind putting out the series of upcoming releases from his dad, Waylon Jennings’s, archives.
This episode of Americana Podcast: The 51st State is the latest from the current 2025 season, where the ever-evolving project now includes a video component and some bonus performance footage, to boot. Episode #142 with Shooter Jennings is now available to hear or watch at this link, and new episodes will air throughout 2025 on the last Tuesday of each month. For more information, please visit americanapodcast.com.
All About Americana Podcast: The 51st State: Clara Rose plans and produces every episode. Host Robert Earl Keen, equipped with his 21 albums and 30 years in the music industry, knows a thing or two about Americana. REK’s music was genre-bending making him a veritable singer/songwriter without definition until 1997 when radio trade magazine, The Gavin Report recognized “Americana” music. With REK on the cover, The Gavin Report, published the first known comprehensive list of Americana artists, placing him in the top 10. With a long-running, vested interest in the Americana music scene, Keen intends for this project to be a method in which musicians, music lovers, and artists come together over storytelling. Americana Podcast is not sponsored. We keep the vision of this project pure and without distraction or bias.
