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Emmy-nominated songwriter Ben Arthur released his third album, Edible Darling, in 2004. A longtime friend of the podcast (long before there was a podcast, in fact), Ben joins Jeff and Matt to look back on the album in its 20th anniversary year. He recaps his rollercoaster experience navigating the music industry in those early years and how it ultimately influenced where he's gone with his life's work since then.

To date, Ben has released 10 albums and an ongoing series of singles, with his most recent song release being "Bless Your Heart" earlier this year. He is the creator and host of SongWriter, a podcast that turns stories into songs. SongWriter is launching its sixth season and has featured guests/collaborators that include Questlove, Joyce Carol Oates, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Susan Orlean, Neil Gaiman, George Saunders, Katie Melua, David Sedaris, and Steve Earle.

Our thanks to Ben for hanging out with us. We had a blast looking back at one of our favorite albums and learning more about what was going on at the time.

If you're new to The Record Player, check out our extensive archive of past episodes wherever you get your podcasts! Keep the experience going and visit Jefitoblog for more thoughts from Jeff (and more abuse from Matt). Thanks so much for listening!