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Benjamin Wagner joins the guys for a frank discussion about mental health in the midst of Mental Health Awareness Month. He's spent a good amount of time thinking about -- and researching the subject. His new film, Friends & Neighbors, is the result of that work. Benjamin tells Jeff and Matt how his own mental health struggles influenced the movie -- and what he learned once he finished the project.

In Friends & Neighbors, Benjamin thinks back to the words of his friend, Fred Rogers -- known to the world as Mister Rogers -- and how he always encouraged people to "look for the helpers." For Benjamin, one of those helpers, beginning in his formative years as a teenager, was definitely music. One of the key albums was R.E.M.'s Reckoning. He shares his love for both the record and the band itself -- and why he really respects what they did from the beginning to the way they handled the end of their career.

We also discuss Benjamin's first interview -- which happened to be with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe -- and moments from his incredible run at MTV News which lasted for nearly two decades. As it happens, you can hear a whole lot more about Benjamin's time at MTV. He's got an essential podcast, You Hear It First: An Unofficial and Unfiltered History of MTV News, where he's been interviewing an incredible mix of people from the network -- including many of his former colleagues. For those of us who grew up with MTV News -- and perhaps eventually worked in the industry themselves -- it's a fascinating journey.

Friends & Neighbors is screening this month at select locations and will feature panel discussion with Benjamin and others. You can find information on those screenings here. And If you're not in range to attend a screening, you can stream it during the month of May by visiting the film website.

You can also find information on Benjamin's previous movie, Mister Rogers & Me at the film's official website. The movie is available for streaming on many major platforms.

Thanks so much for listening to the program as always! Join us for further discussion at Jeff's website at Jefitoblog. We'll see you there (and we'll be back soon enough with Benjamin #3. You'll see what we mean after listening to this episode.)

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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!

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Legendary producer Tom Werman joins Jeff and Matt to talk about one of his favorite albums, Who's Next, by the Who.

Tom is one of the best kind of people you can hope to meet in the music industry, because not only is he very talented as a producer, but he also is a music fan at heart. That's something that comes through again and again as you're reading his new memoir, Turn It Up: My Time Making Hit Records In The Glory Days Of Rock Music (Featuring Mötley Crüe, Poison, Twisted Sister, Jeff Beck, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, And More).

Yes, that's a very long title, but the good news is that if you needed a refresher course about Tom Werman and his life's work, you just got it! One of the great things about Turn It Up is that you get the stories about Werman's experience working with the mentioned artists (and more), but you also really get an inside look at what a producer does -- and how they do it. It's a valuable fly on the wall perspective on a number of levels, but Tom is able to explain the very technical job he did -- without getting overly technical in the way he illustrates that process.

As it happens, the roots of the book began with a column that Tom wrote, The Producers, which ran at Jeff's website, Popdose. It's an interesting prequel that Jeff and Tom talk about as the interview begins. Tom has long been one of our favorite people when we think back to all of the albums we own that have his name in the liner notes, so it was a real joy to get a chance to dig in with Tom and discuss his career.

P.S. Are you reading Jeff's words at Jefitoblog yet? Goodness gracious, get on over there and become part of the discussion!

P.S.S. Here's a link to the Who's Next / Lifehouse box set that Matt mentions during the conversation with Tom. It's essential if you're a fan of the album.

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Andy Timmons is one of our favorite folks to talk about music with and he returns to the program -- with his guitar once again in hand -- to discuss his love for Peter Frampton's fourth studio album, 1975's Frampton.

Andy tells Jeff and Matt why Peter has been such an important influence on his own career -- and he shares the story of how he came to write his newest single, "The Boy From Beckenham" as a tribute to Frampton. Happily, Frampton himself joined Timmons to play on the track. It's a heartwarming look at how a musical friendship deepened between the pair as a result.

We discuss a lot of different things with Andy on the Frampton tip, including the Sgt. Pepper movie -- and yes, as you might expect, there are some side topics as well, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. and Andy's surprising connection to the late, great Louisville record store, ear X-tacy. We're up to our usual BS, in other words. But in all seriousness, it was a wonderful hang with Andy, which wrapped up with each of us dashing out the door to go get Thai food. A perfect start to the weekend!

Our thanks to Andy for the time. You can see the music video for "The Boy From Beckenham" right here. Make sure to visit Andy's website to stay in tune with everything that he has going on. Thanks for listening!

Related Links:

Andy's GuitarXperience
Andy's Electric Truth album.
The Shout! Factory reissue of the Sgt. Pepper movie.

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The Reverend Shawn Amos is our guest today on the podcast. Matt has had a conversation with Shawn in the past, so he knew that Jeff would love speaking with The Good Reverend.

Shawn opened up right away, getting deep and personal with Matt and Jeff about a wide variety of sociopolitical topics surrounding his latest album, Soul Brother No. 1, including the reckoning with past traumas that informs the music making up the album. But don't let us give you the wrong impression — much like many of the songs on the record, this was an honest, joyous exchange rather than a truly heavy conversation.

Long story short, we really loved talking with Shawn — in fact, it was so satisfying to talk about Soul Brother No. 1 that we almost didn't have enough time to get into his love of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's Ain't That a Bitch. (Never fear; we did get there eventually.)

Soul Brother No. 1 is out May 3 on Immediate Family Records. You can find more info via Shawn's links here.

Here also is a link to his book, Cookies & Milk, which we discussed during this episode!

Our thanks to Shawn for spending the time with us!

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UCR's Allison Rapp is back with Jeff and Matt for another episode of The 1974 Project. This time, they're talking about On the Border by Eagles and digging into a bunch of related (and yeah, sometimes, unrelated topics). For instance, why do so many people hate the Eagles? Why do people get worked up about calling them "the Eagles" instead of "Eagles" when the band is discussed.

What was it like covering the recent trial regarding the allegedly stolen Hotel California lyrics and being in the presence of Don Henley? Allison shares details about that experience. For those of you who take a drink every single time that Jeff says, "It's fine," you're in luck once again this episode.

Because this is The Record Player, there are also stray references to Michael McDonald and Chicago. P.S. Make sure that you read Michael's upcoming memoir, because it rules.

Our thanks to Allison as always for joining us. You can catch up on her latest work at Ultimate Classic Rock by following this link. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Some of our favorite lists from Allison -- including a couple mentioned in this episode:

55 Times Albums Shared a Name
Shelved Songs: 22 Songs That Took Years to Complete
24 Songs About Managers and Record Executives

Oh yeah, please don't forget to read Jeff's stuff at Jefitoblog. The universe thanks you.

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We couldn't miss out on the chance to post a new episode of The Record Player on a rare Leap Day!

As one of our comrades said very recently, "Happy Leap Year, to all who celebrate!"

We're back with the latest installment in The 1974 Project, our ongoing collaboration with Ultimate Classic Rock spotlighting a variety of albums that were released, as you might have guessed, in 1974.

UCR's Nick DeRiso joins Jeff and Matt to discuss What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits by the Doobie Brothers. The wide-ranging conversation touches on a number of topics including a Doobies song that was once compared to both Chicago and Eagles, bands with two drummers, the Doobie Liner and five-time Grammy Award winner Michael McDonald.

There's more, but those are the dubious highlights of our discussion. Nick also shares details regarding Journey: Worlds Apart, his new best-selling book about Journey and its many eras and side projects. Our thanks to Nick for taking the time!

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Mike Duquette of The Second Disc and Duque's Delights is in the hot seat with Jeff and Matt to discuss The Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears.

Matt has been waiting two years and several days to have an in-depth conversation with Mike. But he's also been waiting since the early '90s to find someone to have a similarly long conversation about The Seeds of Love. On this day, two dreams came true at one time.

For only the fifth time in the history of this podcast, Jeff and Matt agree on an album. (Okay, now you can really tell that Matt writes these dumb episode descriptions.) We celebrate some important life happenings for Mike and in general, have a great conversation about Tears for Fears.

Our thanks to Mike for joining us.