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
Microdose: Taylor Leonhardt
On this "impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com" we revisit our conversation with the always impressive and effervescent singer, songwriter, and producer, T…
Microdose: Michael Roe
On this "True Tunes Microdose" (an impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com) we revisit a short bit of our chat with Michael Roe of The 77s and The Lost Dogs.…
Microdose: Amy Grant
Welcome to the True Tunes Microdose, an impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com. As we look back on our first 100 episodes we have gathered some of these "gr…
Microdose: Charlie Peacock
Welcome to the True Tunes Microdose, an impossibly short version of the ongoing conversation you'll find at TrueTunes.com. As we look back on our first 100 episodes we have gathered some of these "gr…
Mylon LeFevre (In His Own Words)
Mylon LeFevre was an award-winning, genre-defining, trailblazing artist and songwriter who had a song cut by Elvis when he was just a teen, got kicked out of his family's legendary Souther Gospel ban…
@45RPM The Choir’s 1988 Classic LP ”Chase The Kangaroo”
The Choir's 1988 LP Chase The Kangaroo is a classic, and when we heard that they had launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the necessary funds to remaster and re-release it on vinyl and CD, we dec…
@45RPM John Pantano (Pantano/Salsbury) On Their 1977 Larry Norman Produced LP ”Hit The Switch”
John Pantano’s rock and roll roots go back to the 1960s psychedelic rock scene and the very genesis of the Jesus Movement. He and his friend, the late Ron Salsbury, were the core of JC Power Outlet -…
Loving The Alien: JJT & Allan Aguirre Talk Bowie (Plus Scaterd Few & Spyglass Blue on the Jukebox)
On this episode we are joined by veteran artist and author Allan Aguirre (Scaterd Few, Spyglass Blue) to explore the artistic legacy of the late – and truly great – David Bowie. We’ll also crank up t…
Special Edition: Couples Skate (Jukebox Takeover)
This special Couples Skate episode of the True Tunes Podcast started out as a normal Jukebox feature for the Wild Harbors In Paris episode. But as we dug deeper and deeper into the world of amazing m…
Wild Harbors in Paris: Safety Is Overrated
We often hear that being in a band is like being in a marriage. But what about when being in a marriage is like being in a band? What about those truly crazy people whose marriage IS a band? Chris an…
@45RPM Did The Joshua Tree Fall on The 77s? (More Roe From The Cutting Room Floor)
The 77s' 1987 self-titled album was not only that band's first real shot at the "big-time" success their fans knew they deserved. It was also the climax of a creative explosion from a unique Sacramen…
More ”Alternative” Than You’ll Ever Be (Randy Layton’s Long Strange Trip)
Randy Layton may not be a household name, but that's not the point with people like him. Layton has been advocating for some of the most important - if not famous and successful - artists of the last…
@45RPM Charlie Peacock Revisited (From The Vault)
The very first episode of this podcast - which premiered back in 2019 - featured a conversation with award-winning producer, songwriter, and artist Charlie Peacock. Charlie, one of the artists who in…
@45RPM U2’s Achtung Baby Jukebox Rewind
This 45RPM episode opens the True Tunes Vault and finds a conversation host John J. Thompson had with friend, fan, and artist manager Nick Barre about U2's initially shocking album, Achtung Baby, 30 …
Outsider Art w Finster & Yingst + Mountain Goats on The Jukebox (True Tunes Live)
True Tunes host John J. Thompson recently traveled to Cleveland, TN, to speak at a festival in honor of Rev. Howard Finster – the enigmatic painter, pastor, and musician who first came to internation…
Tonio K. Walks On: Notes From A Lost World
It takes some special instruments and a unique perspective to appreciate the frustrating version of "success" that weaves in and through Tonio K.'s long strange trip of a music career. He should have…
Drew Holcomb Comes To Class
Drew Holcomb is one of the most successful – and innovative – independent singer-songwriters working today. His rootsy, unadorned style has filled theaters and halls around the country, driven severa…
@45RPM Calling Out The Ghosts: JJT & Michelle Thompson (The Wayside) + Producer Matt Goldman (Underoath, Luxury) discuss new music
If you think True Tunes host and founder John J. Thompson is objective about music - merely a dispassionate observer or fact-gathering journalist... think again. "Before I wrote about music," he admi…
Prog Rock, Complex Art, & Cultivating a Discerning Ear: Neal Morse’s Epic Journey
We finally scale the misty mountain of PROG ROCK on the True Tunes Podcast - with none other than the venerable Neal Morse as our guide! As a founding member of Spock's Beard, Transatlantic, Flying C…
Singing In The Choir w Nikki Lerner + Over The Rhine’s Nowhere Else Fest rocks the Jukebox
We knew that Over The Rhine’s Nowhere Else Festival was going to be something special. We've heard about the meals, the music, the songs being sung under a big tent in their wide Ohio backyard. And y…