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Australia’s Roots Music Bible
Episodes
Friday Feb 06, 2026
Friday Feb 06, 2026
Episode 8 of On The Record opens with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie doing what many seasoned music listeners now do instinctively when the Grammys roll around: stare at the screen and wonder which planet they’ve accidentally landed on.
Brian reminds us that the Grammys permanently lost their way the moment they abolished the polka category.
This wasn’t a niche concern, either. For years, Brian faithfully rang Jimmy Sturr, the undisputed Muhammad Ali of polka, who won his Grammy almost every time. A system so reliable has no place in modern music awards culture, clearly.
The tone shifts sharply—and respectfully—with news of the death of Sly Dunbar, one half of the mighty Sly & Robbie. What follows is a proper reckoning with just how vast Dunbar’s influence was: reggae, dub, dancehall, pop, rock, Dylan (Infidels), Grace Jones (Nightclubbing, Warm Leatherette, Living My Life), even a dub version of the Rolling Stones’ “Undercover of the Night.” Sly and Robbie weren’t just players, they were architects.
See the list of some of their important work below, along with links to every other turning point in the conversation.
From there, Episode 8 pivots to the curious durability of certain artists who simply refuse to age in the expected way. David Byrne is a rare example of someone who keeps recalibrating his work, with his latest tour behind Who Is The Sky garnering rave reviews in every state.
That thought feeds neatly into a wider cultural question: why the Australian Open continues to thrive while music festivals across the country are quietly collapsing?
The answer, the hosts suggest, has less to do with sport versus music and more to do with clarity of purpose. Tennis delivers a fixed narrative, star power, and infrastructure, while festivals increasingly ask audiences to tolerate inconvenience, rising costs and vague promises of “vibes.” It’s a sobering comparison given the state of live music in Australia right now.
The episode closes with genuine surprise at the quality of Van Morrison’s latest release, an album that sidesteps the curmudgeonly baggage of recent years and reconnects with the musical instinct that made him essential in the first place. It’s not framed as a comeback so much as a reminder: when Morrison stops arguing with the world and channels his Celtic soul, something powerful still happens.
Important Links
Grammys 2026 list of nominees and winners
Jimmy Sturr website
Jimmy Sturr youtube channel
BAD BUNNY Wins BEST MÚSICA URBANA ALBUM | 2026 GRAMMYs
Bad Bunny Tiny Desk Concert
BAD BUNNY - NUEVAYoL (Video Oficial) | DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
The Goodies Pirate Radio (A Walk In the Black Forest)
Chat GPT’s Top 20 Albums Featuring / Produced by Sly & Robbie
- Black Uhuru – Red (1981)
- Black Uhuru – Chill Out (1982)
- Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (1981)
- Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette (1980)
- Grace Jones – Living My Life (1982)
- Sly & Robbie – Language Barrier (1985)
- Black Uhuru – Sinsemilla (1980)
- Gregory Isaacs – Night Nurse (1982)
- Peter Tosh – Bush Doctor (1978)
- Sly & Robbie – Rhythm Killers (1987)
- Culture – International Herb (1979)
- Ini Kamoze – Ini Kamoze (1984)
- Serge Gainsbourg – Aux armes et cætera (1979)
- The Gladiators – Proverbial Reggae (1978)
- Bunny Wailer – Rock ’n’ Groove (1981)
- Sly & Robbie – Dub Experience (1979)
- Black Uhuru – Anthem (1984)
- Bob Dylan – Infidels (1983)
- Jimmy Cliff – The Power and the Glory (1983)
- Sly & Robbie – Reggae Greats (1984)
Uncut: interview with Sly Dunbar on music
Undercover (Of The Night) (Dub) with Sly on percussion
Black Uhuru Sistren
Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper
David Byrne Tiny Desk Concert
David's Reasons To Be Cheerful newsletter
FRANKENSTEIN Trailer (2025) Guillermo del Toro
Michael's fave food movie Chef is on Iview
STEAL - Official Trailer | Prime Video
Van Morrison Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge (full album)
Gillian Welch talks to Brian about Her Forthcoming Tour of Australia with Dave Rawlings
Lucinda Williams On her new album World's Gone Wrong
Friday Feb 06, 2026
Friday Feb 06, 2026
Lucinda Williams talks to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about her new album World's Gone Wrong, a scathing commentary on current political events in the USA.
Thursday Feb 05, 2026
Thursday Feb 05, 2026
Gillian Welch spoke to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about her forthcoming Australian tour with her musical and life partner David Rawlings. David was set to join us but was held up in the studio mastering the vinyl version of the Time (The Revelator) album.
Music included: Neil Young’s Albuquerque from the album Live & Obscure Vol. 1, Mavis Staples' version of Gillian’s ‘Hard Times', Emmylou Harris with Gillian’s 'Orphan Girl' from Emmylou's 1995 album Wrecking Ball produced by Daniel Lanois and 'Revelator' from Gillian’s Time (The Revelator) album and 'North Country' from Woodland.
Details of the latest tour which begins on February 13 in Brisbane can be found at lovepolice.com.au/tours
Friday Jan 23, 2026
Friday Jan 23, 2026
On the latest episode of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie ease into their weekly cultural ramble with the sombre news of Bob Weir’s death—remembering an artist whose band (The Grateful Dead) they half‑followed but wholly respected.
Weir, who died on January 10 at 78 (the same date as David Bowie’s passing—coincidence or cosmic scheduling?), becomes the launchpad for a surprisingly affectionate exploration of Deadhead culture. Michael recalls the excellent Long Strange Trip documentary—long enough, Brian notes, to break a Melbourne Film Festival projector—and the pair marvel at the Grateful Dead’s unique talent for turning concerts into economic ecosystems.
From there, the conversation pivots to David Bowie's The Final Act documentary (streaming on ABC), Crowded House opening the Australian Open (a first for tennis, apparently), and the AFL's ongoing failure to book local acts for the Grand Final. Why Snoop Dogg over Emma Donovan? Why not Troy Cassar-Daley? The hosts are baffled.
Then there's Bluesfest's controversial booking of heavy metal act Parkway Drive, which has purists clutching their harmonicas. Festival director Peter Noble defends the choice, arguing you can't limit festivals by genre.
The episode meanders through Lucinda Williams' new album, Russell Crowe's Oscar-worthy turn in Nuremberg, and the existential challenges of songwriting.
On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie is available on all major podcast platforms. Rhythms Magazine subscribers can access exclusive bonus content, including Loretta Miller's debut CD.
Episode Links
Grateful Dead Doco Long Strange Trip – Official Trailer | Prime Video
David Bowie/Mick Jagger Dancing In the Street
Bowie: The Final Act on Iview (2025)
David Bowie - Changes (Live performance Glastonbury 1971)
Split Enz reuniting for first time in 17 years | 7.30
Lucinda Williams - World's Gone Wrong
NUREMBERG | Official Trailer #1 (2025)
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII
Jeff Tweedy: How to Write One Song
Loretta Miller on Bandcamp
Subscribe to Rhythms to get Loretta's album on cd
Friday Jan 16, 2026
Friday Jan 16, 2026
If On The Record were a boxing match, Episode 5 would open with the bell ringing and Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie already mid-ring.. The topic? The Golden Globes. The real issue? Whether a film can be called a “musical or comedy” when it is clearly neither, and whether Paul Thomas Anderson should be declared a genius by popular vote or sent to the cinematic sin bin.
Two overly seasoned cultural obsessives staring at the same screen and seeing entirely different movies.
From there, the episode sprawls—happily and unapologetically—into a wide-ranging conversation about awards hype, viewing expectations, and the strange disconnect between critical acclaim and lived experience. One host praises audacity and subversion, the other demands coherence and restraint. Nobody backs down. Nobody changes their mind. Which, frankly, is exactly how these debates should be conducted.
Luckily, special guest Liz Stringer moves the conversation into other areas that are slightly more important - touring her latest album and raising money to address housing insecurity along with the uncomfortable truth that this is no longer a fringe issue confined to capital cities or stereotypes.
The show rolls on, touching on music-making, self-management, creative independence, reality TV guilt, Russian books that are abandoned for the sake of mental health, and the eternal question of why we all say we won’t watch that show again… and then absolutely do.
By the end of Episode 5, On The Record has done what it does best: entertained, provoked, and digressed wildly. It’s messy, funny, opinionated, and oddly comforting—like a long conversation you didn’t plan to have, but are very glad you did.
Episode Links
Liz Stringer website
Liz's album The Second High
One Battle After Another - Official Trailer
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You | Official Trailer HD | A24
Sam Fender - Remember My Name
Audrey Powne - From The Fire (ALBUM)
The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
The Pitt
Succession
THE HISTORY OF SOUND | Official Trailer
SENTIMENTAL VALUE - Official Trailer
The Faces Ooh La La (2004 Remaster)
Saturday Jan 10, 2026
Saturday Jan 10, 2026
Episode 5 of On The Record, and the conversation has hit its sweet spot: loose, curious, opinionated—and occasionally interrupted by reality.
There’s a healthy scepticism about hype, a refusal to confuse longevity with importance, and a shared belief that some things still genuinely matter—even if the algorithm disagrees.
Brian Wise brings context and deep musical memory; Michael Mackenzie brings reflection, curiosity, and the occasional philosophical swerve. Together, they interrogate nostalgia without fully surrendering to it, defend enthusiasm when it’s earned, and question why so much modern culture feels like it’s passing time rather than saying something.
There are laughs, strong opinions, thoughtful pauses, and moments where the conversation snaps into focus just long enough to land a point before wandering off again. It’s not a panel show, not a lecture, and definitely not a hot take factory.
Episode 5 doesn’t shout. It knows what it’s doing. Sort of.
Important links
Norma Tanega - Walkin' My Cat Named Dog
Stray Cats - Runaway Boys
Ram Jam - Black Betty
The Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away (Mono)
The Uncool - the new memoir from award-winning filmmaker and journalist Cameron Crowe
Grover Lewis article - Hitting The Note With The Allman Brothers Band
(first published in 'Rolling Stone', November 25, 1971, Issue No. 96)
Kid Creole & The Coconuts website
Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Stool Pigeon
Du Fermier Restaurant website
Florry - First It Was A Movie, The It Was A Book
Florry website
David Bowie - Lazarus
David Bowie website
Wednesday Dec 31, 2025
Wednesday Dec 31, 2025
Brian Wise talks to Paul Kelly in depth about Paul's latest album Seventy.
Wednesday Dec 24, 2025
Wednesday Dec 24, 2025
Episode 4 of On The Record opens exactly as listeners now expect: however, the technology relents and the Christmas episode is officially underway.
What follows is a warm, rambling, oddly moving conversation about Christmas music, memory, faith, food and survival, with plenty of laughs along the way. Michael Mackenzie declares Christmas music a minefield of bad taste, arguing passionately for carols, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Otis Redding and Silent Night—while firmly rejecting novelty songs, forced cheer and anything involving Santa “rocking.”
Brian revisits his Catholic childhood as an altar boy, including midnight mass duties, Latin confusion, and the moral courage it took to tell an aunt that Sadie the Cleaning Lady was, frankly, not a great gift for a teenage boy. There are transistor radios from Liverpool, early playlists, and the dawning realisation that taste can arrive early—and stay stubbornly intact.
Michael counters with one of the great Christmas stories: a white Christmas spent working illegally in the Swiss Alps, dodging passport checks, sledding home from work, eating communal meals by candlelight, and throwing snowballs under fir trees. It’s nostalgic, cinematic, and only mildly incriminating.
Things take a darker, funnier turn with memories of Christmas stress, maternal meltdowns, and the single most divisive festive dish ever discussed on the podcast: mango pie with gelatin—described as having the texture of a stuntman landing on cardboard boxes.
The episode winds down with gift ideas, band-of-the-year talk, the weaponisation of Santa for child behaviour management, and a surprisingly tender close as the year ends and real life intrudes.
It’s funny. It’s nostalgic. It’s messy. And it’s the most On The Record Christmas you could hope for.
Important Links:
Alligator Records - A Genuine Houserockin' Christmas (2003 Full Album)
Friday Dec 19, 2025
Friday Dec 19, 2025
Episode 3 of On The Record once again proves that no matter how long you’ve worked in media, technology will always sense weakness.
Once operational, the episode quickly becomes a rallying cry for the quietly furious demographic known as Grumpy Older Men Who Have Had It With Banks. Michael officially embraces his new identity after discovering his bank changed everything without warning, while Brian counters with tales of frozen debit cards, vanished tellers, and the most devastating bank exit in history...
From there, the conversation widens—considerably.
There’s a surprisingly heartfelt discussion about the best technology of 2025, which turns out not to be AI, crypto or anything with a subscription fee, but a lightweight laptop, a digital library card, and apps that simply work. Radical.
Travel takes centre stage next, with Michael recounting a punishing but transcendent hike through Albania’s Accursed Mountains, involving donkeys, snow-capped peaks, dodgy knees and a journey that somehow includes minibuses, boats and a black Mercedes. Brian counters with a pitch for Tulsa, Oklahoma—a city with no tourists, no traffic, a Bob Dylan Centre, a Woody Guthrie Centre, and an offer to pay you $10,000 to move there (family approval not guaranteed).
Music eventually breaks through—this is a Rhythms podcast after all—with Christmas gift recommendations ranging from Mavis Staples and Paul Kelly to Dylan box sets, Patti Smith anniversaries, Springsteen gloom, and vinyl for hipsters aged anywhere between 30 and 60. There are also book tips, documentary detours, and a shared belief that Brad Pitt shirtless does not automatically equal a good movie.
By the end, Episode 3 has covered banks, libraries, hiking, Dylan, Tulsa, laptops, Formula One, Christmas shopping and the philosophy of buying technology like a V8 Mustang—all without ever fully sticking to a plan.
Which, frankly, is exactly the plan.
Essential Links
Brian's fave tech of 2025
Michael's fave tech of 2025
Michael's Journey through Albania's Accursed Mountains
Tulsa's Bob Dylan Center
PBS Documentary on the Tulsa Race Massacre
Live, work, and grow in Tulsa (incentive program)
The Watchmen TV series that is built around the real life Tulsa massacre
Louis Theroux talks with David Byrne on Apple Podcasts
Adam Buxton talks with David Byrne on Apple Podcasts
Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Season 7 | Official Trailer |
Victorian Record Stores to shop at or online for Christmas
Captain Stomp
Greville Records
Rocksteady Records
Rathdowne Records
Brian's Musical Christmas Recommendations
Mavis Staples Sad And Beautiful World
Van Morrison Remembering Now
Paul Kelly 70
Loretta Miller Loretta
Geese Getting Killed
Recommended Box Sets
Bob Dylan Through The Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18
Patti Smith 50th anniversary of Horses
Rolling Stones Black and Blue Remixed
Bruce Springsteen Nebraska
Re-released on vinyl
Chris Wilson King For A Day
Recommended Books
Patti Smith: Bread of Angels
Cameron Crowe: Uncool
Peter Wolfe: Waiting On The Moon
Tom Piazza: John Prine - Living In the Present
Mike Campbell: Heartbreaker
Friday Dec 12, 2025
Friday Dec 12, 2025
Episode two of On The Record begins exactly where great podcasts are born: with the crushing realisation that nothing has been recorded. After a brief collective sigh (and a generous decision to “power through”), Michael Mackenzie, Brian Wise and guest Nick Corr regroup and press on—braver, wiser, and still dangerously unsupervised.
What follows is a gloriously eclectic ramble through:
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A shamelessly persuasive plug for Rhythms Magazine, which somehow doubles as relationship advice
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A sold-out theatre talk about fungi, proving that mushrooms now draw bigger crowds than indie bands
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A deep dive into Pluribus, the Apple TV series that turns hive minds into a philosophical Rorschach test (Michael finds it calming; Brian finds it terrifying)
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The long-awaited final album from Chris Bailey of The Saints, hailed as a dignified, and moving farewell
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Lucinda Williams, political defiance, and why some albums are necessary whether America’s ready or not
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A prolonged, reverent detour into Tom Waits, including birthdays, movies, glitter-filled pockets, and the universal agreement that everyone would still fly overseas to see him
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Talking Heads nostalgia, Bluesfest ticket shock, and the unsettling concept of “cover bands with original members”
The episode wraps with movies (Dead of Winter, Train Dreams), tears shed in unexpected places, and the firm belief that art about love, loss, and grief is best discussed at length—preferably after checking the record button.
On The Record is a podcast where culture is taken seriously, and tangents are treated as the main event.
Useful Links
Rhythms Subscription For Your Loved One At Christmas
Order Your Rhythms T Shirt For Christmas
Merlin Sheldrake Interview
The Saints Long March Through The Jazz Age
Lucinda Williams new album World's Gone Wrong
Lucinda's Honky Tonk in NYC
Documentary: Finding Lucinda
Jay Buchanan - Caroline (Official Music Video)
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Official Trailer | Netflix
Tom Waits - "Come On Up To The House"
Tom Waits Glitter and Doom Live
Tom Waits - The Acting Years
Snocaps band site
The Lemonheads New Album
Remain In Light feat. Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew | Full Set | Hollywood Arts Park | 3-2-2024
Caught Stealing Trailer
Dead of Winter Trailer
Train Dreams Trailer