Behind the Setlist

Melissa Etheridge had wanted to perform at a prison for decades. In fact, she grew up within a stone's throw of a penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, where Johnny Cash performed in 1970. "Prisons must be a place of great entertainment," she thought to herself, "and someday I'm gonna grow up and play a prison." Decades later, after a string of platinum albums and multiple Grammy Awards, Etheridge fulfilled her wish. The concert is memorialized in a moving two-part docuseries, "I'm Not Broken" (available not on Paramount+) and a new live album, I'm Not Broken: Live at Topeka Correctional Facility. Melissa talks to Billboard's Behind the Setlist podcast about how the show and series came together, her new song "A Burning Women," and why it was unlike any other concert she's ever performed. Links Melissa Etheridge's home page Melissa Etheridge's tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Jul 202430min

Mat Kearney's self-titled, 8th studio album (released May 15 through Middle Kid Records) adds a dash of the early '80s to his highly crafted songwriting. Mat was enamored by the band The Brook & The Bluff, he tells Billboard's Behind the Setlist podcast, and had them back him in the studio to capture the exact sound he wanted (he also went for the sound of one of his favorite albums, Paul Simon's Graceland). Mat also talks about the contentedness he feels at this stage in his career, why he loves playing mid-sized theaters, his creative process in the studio, his popularity on the West Coast, the joy of touring and performing as a trio, the rising cost of renting a tour bus, and that one time he played Camila Cabello's "Havana" at a show in Oakland. Links Mat Kearney's home page Mat Kearney's tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Jul 202437min

Pat Monahan co-founded the rock band Train and gave his soaring voice to such hits songs as "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)," "Meet Virginia," "Calling All Angels" and "Hey Soul Sister." Pat joins Billboard's Behind the Setlist to talk about building a setlist for the band's current tour with REO Speedwagon, his wine businesses (Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co.), his talented bandmates, how he takes care of his voice while constantly touring and performing, some differences between audiences in Europe and the United States, and what it's like to perform on a cruise ship surrounded by fans, comedians and other bands. Links Train's home page Train tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Jul 202426min

Adam Lazzara is the frontman for Taking Back Sunday, whose single "S'old" from the album 152 spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart in late 2023 and early 2024. Taking Back Sunday broke out of Long Island, New York to put four albums inside the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart: Where You Want to Be, Louder Now, New Again and Happiness Is. 152 is the band's 8th studio album and 1st for Fantasy Records. Links Taking Back Sunday homepage Taking Back Sunday tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Jul 202436min

Rising country star Chayce Beckham wrote and performed the song “23,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in April. He also performed the song on season 19 of "American Idol" and joined such luminaries as Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and Scotty McCreery by winning the talent competition. To support his album Bad For Me (released in April 2024 through Wheelhouse Records), Chayce is hitting the road this summer and fall with a slew solo dates as well as shows with Luke Bryan's Mind of a Country Boy Tour and Parker McCollum's Burn It Down Tour. Links: Chayce Beckham home page Chayce Beckham tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Jun 202427min

Birdy (Jasmine van den Bogaerde) broke into the mainstream in 2011 when, at the age of 14, she released a cover of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," a song that remains a staple in her live performances. "Skinny Love" was a hit in the U.K. and Australia and helped her debut, self-titled album top album charts in Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Birdy's latest album, Portraits, is a blast of '80s orchestral synth-pop that recalls the best of the Eurythmics and Kate Bush. She will perform at festivals throughout Europe in the summer of 2024. Links Birdy's home page Birdy @ Setlist.fm Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Behind the Setlist archive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Mai 202434min

K.Flay (Kristine Flaherty) released her latest album, MONO, on Sept. 15, 2023 on Giant Music. Known for songs like "High Enough" and "Blood in the Cut," K.Flay says she recorded MONO like it was a debut album. "I just didn't have a ton of judgment," she says. "In a good way. I wasn't self censoring, or self judging, going, 'Man, that's a stupid idea.'" The result is "a no-holds-barred futuristic rock record" (When the Horn Blows) with "a fresh and rare auditory experience" (Spill Magazine). On Billboard's Behind the Setlist podcast, K.Flay talks about her live shows, how she connects with her audience, the value of collaborating with other musicians, her hesitancy to use social media, how artists deal with mental health issues and what she does when she comes off stage. Links K Flay home page K Flay tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Apr 202441min

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney join Billboard's Behind the Setlist podcast (Glenn Peoples from Billboard and Jay Gilbert from Label Logic) to talk about the upcoming album, Ohio Players, out April 5. The debut single, "Beautiful People (Stay High)" and other tracks were inspired by the rock, R&B and funk 7" singles they played during their Black Keys Record Hang gigs at clubs around the U.S., Europe and Mexico City in 2023. "The way that a lot of those classic 45s are, there's there's no wasted space," says Carney. The guys talk about writing the song "On the Game" with Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame at a studio in London and, separately, the advice his brother Liam Gallagher gave them about how to build a setlist for a festival gig. The Black Keys currently have some European dates set for April and May and one U.S. date, the NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend two-day festival on July 6. Links The Black Keys home page The Black Keys tour dates Jay Gilbert @ Label Logic Glenn Peoples @ Billboard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

21 Mar 202430min