RAINY DAYS PODCAST
Seattle’s Music Scene Then & Now

Maybe it is the 6 months of the rainy season driving bands into garages or maybe its because Seattle is geographically isolated from any other major city, or maybe it is the city’s legacy of gritty upstarts dating back to the gold rush, whatever it is, Seattle has always been the birthplace history-making. Growing up in Seattle, Danny Newcomb (Shadow, Goodness, The Rockfords)  has witnessed and participated in a lot of it.

 A natural storyteller and conversationalist, hosting a podcast interviewing Seattle’s music makers from the past and present is a natural fit for a pandemic project from Newcomb. His story starts with a cheap acoustic guitar in a bedroom in the Seattle neighborhood of Laurelhurst, once a working-class suburb,  learning and honing his skills, writing songs, and building the backend of his iconic electric guitar playing that later led him to play with great bands over the arc of his musical adventuring that includes Shadow, Goodness, and The Rockfords before launching his solo career under his own name.  

“Rainy days podcast is a platform to talk about the Seattle music community, both past, and present, a topic I live and love.  Rainy Days gives me an opportunity to cut it up with musicians and industry people I admire, I’ve worked with, grown up with, and some that I’ve just discovered through this project. It’s important history to preserve and I have to admit is a great way to pass the time in a global pandemic.” said Newcomb about his inspiration for the podcast. 

After each episode listeners can head to The Homestead, Newcomb’s members-only site for bonus clips and content. 

EPISODE 1: MIKE MCCREADY, PEARL JAM

Kicking off the series, Rainy Days episode one features a conversation between friends of 40 years, Danny Newcomb and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. They reminisce about their first guitars, first bands, first shows, and show never before seen photos from their personal collections.

EPISODE 2: MATT VAUGHAN, EASY STREET RECORDS

Rainy Days episode two features a conversation between friends, Danny Newcomb and Easy Street Records owner, Matt Vaughan. They discuss, how he grew up in town with a single mom who was an independent radio promoter, how he went on tour with Alice In Chains, started his independent record store, and fostered and encouraged local acts like Brandi Carlisle and Macklemore since the 1990s. Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, and Woody Guthrie’s visits to Seattle get tossed in the hopper as they further discuss the epic myth of the far north.

RAINY DAYS PODCAST EP 3: NANCY WILSON, HEART

Rainy Days episode two features a conversation between friends, Danny Newcomb and Nancy Wilson of Heart. They discuss the early days of Heart and their grueling touring schedule, scoring films, her first solo record, and what makes Seattle’s music scene so unique.

RAINY DAYS PODCAST EP 4: ANNE POWERS, NPR

Rainy Days Podcast episode four features a conversation between host Danny Newcomb and Ann powers a music critic for NPR, a Seattle-grown music writer with two books, a myriad of essays and articles to her name, and a kind, sweet person who is a fierce advocate for new music and a challenger (in the best rock and roll spirit) of convention and limitations in the voicing of the American soul.

RAINY DAYS PODCAST EP 5: SHELBY EARL, SONGWRITER

Rainy Days Podcast episode five features a conversation between host Danny Newcomb and Shelby Earl, a Seattle-based songwriter and singer. Shelby Earl’s first two albums earned the kind of raves any musician would kill for. Upon hearing her 2011 debut, Burn the Boats, NPR’s Ann Powers called Earl her “new favorite songwriter,” and she wasn’t alone. Accolades followed from Rolling Stone to the Wall Street Journal and a million music sites in between that positioned her somewhere to the left of Neko Case, a few blocks from Sharon Van Etten, catercorner to Angel Olsen. She toured everywhere, playing with the likes of Loudon Wainwright, Rhett Miller, and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, who spoke for many people when he said Earl had “the most heartbreakingly beautiful voice in Seattle.”