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Australia’s Roots Music Bible
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On The Record’s Episode 23 leans in to great songs, better stories, and the strange afterlife of pop careers.
Michael Mackenzie’s big night out is Split Enz at Rod Laver Arena, a reunion-sized crowd of “people in roughly our same demographic” packed into a venue that, he notes, holds 14,860.
The gig itself? A triumph. Plus UK crime reviews and the long overdue recognition of The Zombies.
Show Notes
Split Enz Forever Enz Tour
Bergerac Series 2
Legends | Official Trailer | Netflix
Hung Up On A Dream: The Zombies Documentary | Official Trailer | Utopia
The Zombies - She's Not There
The Zombies - Odessey And Oracle (2025 Mono Version)
The Zombies Reveal the Real Story Behind “Time of the Season” | Hung Up on a Dream
Friday May 08, 2026
Friday May 08, 2026
On his final night in New Orleans, Brian Wise files a slightly frayed dispatch that captures Jazz Fest’s defining tension: a festival big enough to feel infinite, and a schedule brutal enough to make you choose your regrets in advance.
Episode 22 becomes a story about how festivals actually unfold—less like neat recaps and more like a sequence of weather calls, crowd-panics, and last-minute pivots.
With the festival reckoning done, the conversation swings to another kind of canon-building: Joni Mitchell. Sparked by a Mojo “top 50 songs” feature, the hosts trade favourites (Wise namechecks “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter” and multiple Court and Spark staples, plus “Magdalene Laundries,” “Amelia,” and “River”), and Wise recalls seeing Mitchell at Jazz Fest in 1995, performing with her VG-8 guitar setup.
They also discuss an attention-grabbing industry development: a Joni Mitchell biopic being directed by Cameron Crowe, with Meryl Streep cast as the older Mitchell and Anya Taylor-Joy as the younger. The enthusiasm is tempered by a journalist’s instinctive question: can a close friend make an objective film?
Show Notes
Fred Wesley & The New J.B.'s | Live at Moods
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
Wilco - Impossible Germany with full solo recorded live at the Saenger Theatre May 2026
Mavis Staples Chicago May 3 2026 New Orleans Jazz Fest
Herbie Hancock - Chameleon (Official Audio)
Joni Mitchell's 50 Greatest Songs In The New MOJO!
Little Feat - Spanish Moon (Official Music Video)
Friday May 01, 2026
Friday May 01, 2026
By Episode 21, On The Record has moved beyond anticipation and into immersion. Brian Wise is no longer circling Jazz Fest—he’s in it, navigating its scale, its heat, and its constant, often punishing, decisions.
Broadcasting from the French Quarter, Wise paints New Orleans as it always is: chaotic, convivial and faintly surreal. One moment it’s a communal gumbo dinner with locals and visiting friends; the next, pre-dawn screams echo through the street—mercifully revealed to be part of a film shoot rather than something more sinister.
But Jazz Fest remains the centre of gravity. The conditions alone are a test: 30-degree heat, heavy humidity, and crowds pushing well beyond 80,000 across the main days. It’s a physical endurance exercise as much as a musical one, and Wise is candid about the toll—even for a seasoned attendee.
Show Notes
Brother Tyrone and The Mindbenders - 6/1/2025 - Maple Leaf Bar Live
Nicholas Payton + Butcher Brown - “All Blues” (Official Live Performance)
GA-20 - Naggin' On My Mind (with Charlie Musselwhite & Luther Dickinson)
Ani DiFranco: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Joy Clark - Lesson (Official Music Video)
Glen David Andrews - Medley: Iko, Iko & Right Place, Wrong Time
Marcia Ball - They Don't Make Em Like That
Things They Like To Do by Jon Batiste Swamp show New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival April 26 2026
Ron Carter: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
Lucinda Williams Bus To Baton Rouge (Album Version (New Mastering)
Bob Dylan I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You : Beacon Theatre Mar 2022
The Lowdown | Official Trailer | Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David | FX
Elvis Costello Meets Jeff Tweedy in Mojo
New Elvis Costello Boxset To Feature A Wealth Of Never Before Heard Punk Era Recordings
Bruce Springsteen My City of Ruins (Live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006)
Friday Apr 24, 2026
Friday Apr 24, 2026
Episode 20 of On The Record finds Brian Wise reporting in from the field—first Austin, then New Orleans—with the kind of on-the-ground detail that reminds you why festivals still matter, even as many struggle to survive.
There’s even time for a detour through Austin’s bookstores in search of Dylan literature—because some habits travel well.
Show Notes
Railroad Earth - Been Down This Road
The Last Revel - Iron and Ore
Billy Bright + Geoff Union Trio : "Fischer Flood Take 1"
Shelby Means - "Million Reasons"
Shinyribs - Bitch Better Have My Money (Rihanna) / Long Train Runnin' (The Doobie Brothers)
RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert
Goose - Elmeg The Wise - 4/10/26 Asheville, NC
After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan's Memory Palace Hardcover – by Robert Polito (Author)
Friday Apr 17, 2026
Friday Apr 17, 2026
Episode 19 of On The Record kicks off with one foot in the present and the other firmly planted on the long tail of rock history—touching on new Rolling Stones material before sliding into an excerpt from Brian Wise’s recent interview with Mike Mattison of Tedeschi Trucks Band.
It’s a neat juxtaposition.
From there, the episode turns toward what’s ahead, with Wise preparing to head to Austin and New Orleans. What really comes through is a sense of curiosity about what the trip will feel like this time around.
Show Notes
Tedeschi Trucks Band website
Check out The Rolling Stones’ vinyl-only new single ‘Rough & Twisted’ as The Cockroaches
Listen to Michael's debut (and possibly last) album Oversharing With Strangers
BRUNSWICK BALLROOM Presents MIKE RUDD DOCO + Q&A + LIVE BAND SHOW WITH GUEST ROSS WILSON - HOST BRIAN NANKERVIS 6:30 pm, Wed 20 May, 2026
Friday Apr 10, 2026
Friday Apr 10, 2026
There are episodes of On The Record that wander; Episode 18 plants its flag firmly in one year—1966—and dares you to argue it wasn’t the moment pop music grew up.
Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie mark the 60th anniversary of Revolver not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a forensic examination of how four-track limitations, studio ingenuity and sheer artistic restlessness combined to reshape recorded music.
Show Notes
The Comic Strip Presents s01e01 Five Go Mad in Dorset
THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE Trailer #2 4K (2026) |
THE ROSES | Official Trailer
Revolver (2022 Mix) Full Album
I'm Only Sleeping (Take 1)
Thane Russal - Security
The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Official Lyric Video)
The Turtles You Baby TRUE 1966 Stereo
The Righteous Bros (You're My) Soul And Inspiration
The Knickerbockers - One Track Mind
The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
Them Call My Name
Simon & Garfunkel Homeward Bound
Jan and Dean Batman Theme
The Kinks - Till The End Of The Day (Official Audio)
The Beatles - Doctor Robert (Remastered 2009)
Saturday Apr 04, 2026
Saturday Apr 04, 2026
If you want to know the exact moment legacy radio started to feel its age, it might have been when a major Australian station began giving away lacy doilies.
In the latest episode of On The Record, Michael Mackenzie and Brian Wise—veterans with a combined 70 years behind the mic—stage a fascinating "in-house" intervention for the medium they love (and occasionally despair over).
Joined by global "radio futurologist" James Cridland, the trio moved from a high-tech April Fool’s hoax involving Bob Dylan to a deep-tissue analysis of why the ABC is shedding listeners while community radio and podcasts are booming.
Show Notes:
Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer
Sign Up for James Cridland’s weekly radio newsletter
Friday Mar 27, 2026
Friday Mar 27, 2026
The long goodbye to Bluesfest continues in Episode 16 of On The Record, but this time the tone shifts from shock to something closer to forensic analysis. If last week was a reaction, this is reconstruction.
If Bluesfest is a case study in organisational failure, Scarpetta is its televisual equivalent. The long-gestating adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s crime novels earns a near-unanimous drubbing.
Redemption comes via The Outlaws, Stephen Merchant’s Bristol-set series, which earns a glowing recommendation for its balance of humour, character, and social observation.
Brian Wise reports from Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal, where the “Man Out of Time” tribute to Broderick Smith becomes a reminder of what Australian roots music does best: community, continuity, and songcraft.
The episode closes on a note of tentative optimism, with Wise anticipating a film adaptation of The Magic Faraway Tree, his “favourite book of all time.” Whether it will soar or suffer the fate of Scarpetta remains to be seen.
Show Links
Rolling Stone ‘It Wasn’t A Sudden Collapse. It Was a Slow Bleed’: Former Bluesfest Executive Speaks Out
Jay E Clair The REAL Reason Bluesfest Fell Apart: From Sold Out to Collapse
Check out Michael's debut album 'Oversharing With Strangers' under the moniker Imposter Syndrome
Scarpetta - Official Trailer | Prime Video
The Outlaws - Official Trailer | Iview
The Magic Faraway Tree | Official Trailer
Tedeschi Trucks Band website
Tedeschi Trucks Band - "Midnight in Harlem" (Live on eTown)
Florry - First it was a movie, then it was a book (Official Music Video)
Geese – Taxes Jimmy Kimmel Live
AUSTRALIAN GOOD FOOD GUIDE Origini in Castlemaine
Broderick Smith - Snowblind Moon
Thursday Mar 19, 2026
Thursday Mar 19, 2026
Episode 15 of On The Record is the sound of a long-running Australian institution going quiet — followed by the louder, messier noise of what happens when a festival doesn’t just “take a break”, but goes into liquidation.
Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie devote the bulk of the episode to the sudden demise of Bluesfest after 36 years, and they do it with a guest who knows the event from the inside: Sarah Ndiaye, now Mayor of Byron Shire, formerly the “head honcho” of the Bluesfest photo tent — the social headquarters where media, and photographers regrouped each Easter.
Important Links
Bluesfest Reportage
Variety: Calls Mounting for a Class Action Against Bluesfest After 2026 Event Cancelled By Neil Griffiths
ABC News: Confusion and anger as Bluesfest ticketholders question timing of cancellation By Julia André
Byron Shire Echo: Bluesfest ancillary event in Bruns cancelled By Hans Lovejoy
AFR: Refund complication as Bluesfest collapses owing $5.7m by Michael Bailey Arts & Culture editor
Opinion If the Bluesfest era has ended, I’ve lost something more precious than money by David Free
Pharaoh Sanders The Creator Has A Master Plan
Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands (Official Music Video)
Friday Mar 13, 2026
Friday Mar 13, 2026
The latest episode of On The Record opens where any self-respecting Australian roots podcast should: the Port Fairy Folk Festival. It then takes a characteristic detour into aging payment technology, Formula One, Mick Turner guitar lines and the comedic chops of Steve Poltz.
Show Notes
Queenie & Hank - Anyhow I Love You Video
ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS – Wrong feat. Deborah Caldwell Moore (Official Music Video)
Kasey Chambers - Runaway Train (live)
Mary Coughlan - 'I Can't Make You Love Me' | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One
Liz Stringer – 'The Metrologist' (Live at Triple R)
Liz's Final Show in Aust before heading back to the UK
Steve Poltz - "The Son Of God" (live on eTown)
Jim Lauderdale "Artificial Intelligence" Live From The Opry
Shane O'Mara · Jac Tonks Sorrow Hides the Longing to Be Free - The Songs of Bert Jansch Blues Run the Game
Emma Donovan - Take Me To The River (Official Show Trailer)
Sons Of The East - Come Away [Official Video]
Sons Of The East - Sweet Thing
Mick Wall Eagles - Dark Desert Highway: How America s Dream Band Turned into a Nightmare
Mick Turner - Don't Tell The Driver (2013) [Full Album]
Mess Esque "Take Me to Your Infinite Garden" (Official Music Video)
Messesque on Bandcamp
Detectorists on Amazon Prime
Steve Poltz Aust tour dates