Today, an interview with songwriter and Grammy winning record producer Jim Rooney. He and his wife Carol live in an old farmhouse in Sharon, Vermont, but Jim is still back and forth to Nashville, where he spent thirty years playing music, writing songs, and producing some of my all time favorite records with artists like John Prine, Nanci Griffith, Iris Dement, and Townes Van Zandt. Record producers are the people responsible for getting great performances from singers and session musicians in the weird, blank atmosphere of a recording studio. I’ve always wondered how they do that. I also wonder how they know when a record is ‘cooked’…and when to let it go.

I sat with Jim at his kitchen table and we talked about all these things. And more. Welcome.

Credits and Links

Link to Jim’s blog, his books and his music is here.

Additional music for this show by Vermont musician, Brian Clark