The True Tunes Podcast
Music industry veteran, author, artist, and producer John J. Thompson hosts conversations with a diverse panel of artists, songwriters, producers, and industry innovators who seek the deeper resonances in music and culture. Classic and contemporary music is explored for signs of life, light, and beauty on the ”Jukebox” feature as well. Knowing that all music is spiritual, can we sing along with the good, the true, and the beautiful in ways that make us better neighbors, more compelling artists, and richer reflectors of the light by which we live and move and have our being? Let’s try.
- Update frequency
- every 10 days
- Average duration
- 51 minutes
- Episodes
- 107
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
@45RPM The Sound of Revolution; JJT Speaks at Audiofeed 2025 (pt 4 of 4)
In the final installment of our "True Tunes Live at Audiofeed 2025" series of 45RPM episodes, we listen in on John J. Thompson's speaking session dubbed "The Sound of Revolution." What does revolutio…
Memento Mori: Remembering Chuck Girard (with Alex MacDougall, Bruce Brown, and Terry S. Taylor)
Chuck Girard, one of the architects of Jesus Music and founder of the band Love Song, recently passed away at the age of 81 after a battle with cancer. On this special episode of the podcast, we visi…
@45RPM "Ask Us Anything" - (True Tunes Live at Audiofeed Part 3 of 4)
In part three (of four) of our "True Tunes Live at Audiofeed 2025" series of 45RPM episodes, we open the floor for questions about anything! The panel included Gileah Taylor, Chris Taylor, Matt Hammi…
@45RPM Matt Hammitt (True Tunes Live at Audiofeed '25 - Part 2 of 4)
In part two (of four) of our "True Tunes Live at Audiofeed 2025" series of 45RPM episodes, we visit with Matt Hammitt, former frontman of the rock group Sanctus Real and currently ramping up a new ba…
@45RPM - Gileah Taylor (True Tunes Live at Audiofeed '25 Part 1 of 4)
In part one (of four) of our "True Tunes Live at Audiofeed 2025" series of 45RPM episodes we visit with one of our favorite independent artists, Gileah Taylor. The Velvet Blue Music artist joined JJT…
Phil Madeira's Falcon Flies
The public may best know Phil Madeira as an ace-in-the-hole sideman for high-profile Americana artists like Emmylou Harris, while Nashville insiders know him as a songwriter's writer and a go-to stud…
@45RPM Backstage with Sam Wade of the Hadestown Cast Band
The Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown is a fantastic retelling of the myths of Orpheus’ journey to the Underworld to rescue Eurydice alongside the marriage of Hades and Persephone, set amidst the …
Dug Pinnick of King's X: 50+ Years of Musical Passion
King's X, the band formed by bassist, songwriter, and vocalist Dug Pinnick, guitarist Ty Tabor, and drummer Jerry Gaskill roughly 40 years ago, has pushed musical, lyrical, and even technological bou…
@45RPM "Jesus Music" pioneer John Fischer & Counterculture V. Subculture
John Fischer was making "Jesus Music" in the mid-1960s - before it was even a "thing." At a recent live event in Fullerton California, JJT invited Fischer to join the conversation and talk about thos…
@45RPM Robert Deeble on the Therapeutic and Spiritual Power of Music to Bridge the Space Between Us
We've loved Robert Deeble for a long time around here. His brand of thoughtful alternative folk fit right in with artists like Over The Rhine, Vigilantes of Love, Innocence Mission, and Victoria Will…
Chris Taylor Carries The Flame (+ Sixpence on the Jukebox!)
Chris Taylor is a lifer. His first bands, (Windows and Love Coma,) were covered by True Tunes when we were just getting started back in the early 90s. While his bandmate Matt Slocum went on to form t…
@45RPM - The Choir's Translucent Ambience
Derri Daugherty, Steve Hindalong, and Dan Michaels surprised all of us when THE CHOIR dropped a fully-realized, manufactured, and ready-to-ship ambient instrumental project called Translucent in late…
Special 45RPM: Ballad of the Lost Dogs of East Nashville (Live Conversations w John J. Thompson)
True Tunes Podcast host John J. Thompson recently celebrated the "soft-release" of his new novel, "The Ballad of the Lost Dogs of East Nashville," with live events at Vinyl Tap in East Nashville and …
Give Up The Dream? (JJT Talks To Writer/Director Thomas Torrey about Long December film)
There’s a new “melancholy Christmas musical” to add to your list of indie film favorites, and when we had a chance to see an advance screening, we immediately knew that this story was YOUR kind of st…
Checking Russ Taff's Cover Story (with Taff, Steve Taylor and John Mark Painter)
6-time Grammy winner Russ Taff’s voice has defined the emotional potential of Gospel music for over half a century. His perfectly raspy tenor transcends genre and era, first as the lead v…
Jennifer Knapp Goes Back to Kansas
There’s nothing like a relaxed, sit-down conversation – especially when discussing complicated things like faith, love, and art. True Tunes is committed to long-form dialogue in a world that is incre…
@45RPM - Fred Armisen, Daniel Smith, Chris White & Mike Norman (on the set of the Come And Save Me film)
On this “Extended Play” 45RPM episode of the show, our good friend Chris White, writer and director of the romantic comedy/road picture Electric Jesus, takes us to the set where he recently directed …
Microdose: The Prayer Chain
On this "impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com" we revisit our conversation with the pioneering LA-based alternative rock band The Prayer Chain back in 201…
Microdose: Roemer
On this "impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com" we revisit our conversation with the Berlin-based American ex-pat indie artist Roemer.
About The True Tune…
Microdose: Bill Mallonee
On this "impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com" we revisit our conversation with the prolific and acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter Bill Mallonee (of V…