Robbie Fulks released his debut album back in 1996, and here we are in 2025 with him, at age 62, still on the rise. His awesome guitar-picking skills and singing drew the attention of Steve Martin, who added him to his bluegrass band for performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, at the Hollywood Bowl and beyond. Fulks also has a brilliant new album, Now Then, that covers much stylistic ground while digging deeper than ever into his memories and the past's impact upon the present. The sharp-witted Fulks is a freewheeling conversationalist who tells how his move from Chicago to Los Angeles affected his life and career, how he got connected to Steve Martin, what happened the first time he went to Martin’s house and why he continues to hit artistic peaks in his early 60s. Has Robbie Fulks become an overnight sensation at last? (Photo by Beth Herzhaft.)
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Chris Difford (Squeeze)
Squeeze’s Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook are one of rock’s greatest songwriting tandems, with Tilbrook crafting indelible melodies around Difford’s emotionally detailed lyrics. Here Difford digs into the evolution of his and Tilbrook’s partnership. When Difford hands over his lyrics, does he suggest a musical direction to Tilbrook? Did Difford know that “Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)” would be a rocker, “Labelled with Love” a country song, “Slaughtered, Gutted and Heartbroken” an old-timey shuffle? Was he surprised that "Hourglass" became their biggest hit? When they write together now, is there tension over tackling more political topics versus pursuing Difford’s brand of personal storytelling? Difford also discusses singing in octaves and taking the occasional lead, the impact of producers such as John Wood and Elvis Costello (and the song he co-wrote with Costello), why so many keyboardists joined and left Squeeze and the reasons the band broke up and regrouped the first time.
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Summer Recess
We're going on summer recess--for a good reason: Caropop is getting a long-awaited tune-up. We’ll be tweaking the presentation and improving the way we let you all know about episodes. In addition to keeping them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the RSS platform and caropop.com, we’ll also be posting them on a new Caropop YouTube channel. Stay tuned for more details, and please subscribe to all of the above. We encourage you to explore any of the 191 Caropop episodes you may have missed, and we’ll be back after Labor Day with more great conversations with artists you love about their creative work. Happy end of summer, everybody!
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Craig Finn (The Hold Steady)
No surprise, talking music with Craig Finn is stimulating and a lot of fun. The Hold Steady’s frontman/lyricist recently released his sixth solo album, the character-driven song cycle Always Been. He also hosts the podcast “That’s How I Remember It,” which explores the relationship between memory and creativity, and writes the Substack “Versions of Security.” Finn has thoughts on the power of his own memory and how it fuels his songwriting. As someone who formed the band Lifter Puller in Minneapolis and the Hold Steady in New York City and recorded his new album in Los Angeles, he also considers how a sense of place factors in. How much back story does he conceive for his characters? Does he write the songs in the order of the plot? Did Finn ever consider becoming a short story writer, poet or journalist? And what’s with the Randy Newman nod on the cover of Always Been?
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Gina Birch (The Raincoats)
Bassist Gina Birch is a founding member of the legendary British post-punk band the Raincoats, whose self-titled 1977 debut album is an off-kilter classic. More Raincoats albums followed, as did stints with Dorothy and the Hangovers, but it wasn’t until 2023 that Birch released her first solo album, the acclaimed I Play My Bass Loud. Now she’s made Trouble, which again draws on dub, reggae and electronica textures while exploring the intersection of art and the often-troublesome outside world. Birch is fierce, funny and down-to-earth as she tells how she approaches and creates her art, which includes painting, filmmaking and an appearance in the Tate Gallery’s “Women in Revolt!” exhibition in London last year. She also reflects on Kurt Cobain’s Raincoats fandom—and his death a week before the Raincoats were slated to open Nirvana' 1994 UK tour—and the power of female artists “Making Trouble Again.” (Photo by Dean Chalkley.)
There may be nothing more inspiring and entertaining than relaxed, candid conversations among creative people. Mark Caro, a relentlessly curious journalist and on-stage interviewer, loves digging into the creative process with artists and drawing out surprising stories that illuminate the work that has become part of our lives. The Caropopcast is for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the music, movies, food and culture that they love.
Ireland