The Next Track

A podcast about how people listen to music today.

About the show

Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn discuss music and musicians, and how we listen to music, whether it be analog or digital, downloaded or streamed, audio, or video.

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Episodes

  • Episode #179 - Pianist Marc-André Hamelin

    April 24th, 2020  |  43 mins 22 secs

    We talk with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, whose repertoire, in more than 60 recordings, covers many little-known composers, as well as a number of twentieth-century works, by composers such as Ives, Rzewski, and Feldman.

    Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks!

    Support The Next Track.

  • Episode #178 - Lieder and Opera Singer Ian Bostridge

    April 17th, 2020  |  40 mins 3 secs

    We talk with Ian Bostridge, Kirk's second-favorite lieder singer, about life in lockdown, and about Schubert's Winterreise, the song cycle that Bostridge is best known for, through his many performances, recordings, films, and a book he wrote about it.

  • Episode #177 - Author Michael Connelly on Music in the Harry Bosch Novels and TV Series

    April 14th, 2020  |  34 mins 55 secs

    Michael Connelly writes crime fiction, and his character Harry Bosch loves jazz. We talk with Michael about how he decided what music Bosch liked, and how he uses music in the novels and TV series.

    *Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks!

    Support The Next Track. *

  •

    Episode #176 - How to Stream Music From Your Home

    April 10th, 2020  |  33 mins 52 secs

    A lot of musicians, suddenly faced with no opportunities for public performance, are opting to stream live from their homes. Andy Doe joins us to discuss what it means for all the musicians to have to build streaming studios in their homes from scratch, and gives tips on how best to set up cameras, lights, and microphones.

  • Episode #175 - Violinist Alina Ibragimova

    April 7th, 2020  |  29 mins 32 secs

    We chat with violinist Alina Ibragimova, who is taking advantage of the lockdown to learn the Paganini caprices in her home in London.

  • Episode #174 - Pianist, Composer, and Author Stephen Hough

    April 3rd, 2020  |  34 mins 7 secs

    In this episode, we talk with the pianist and author Stephen Hough, about how the lockdown is affecting him, how he has "the backside of a rhinoceros," and we discuss how classical concerts could change in the future.

  • Episode #173 - Pianist Angela Hewitt

    March 31st, 2020  |  35 mins 21 secs

    In the first of a number of out-of-band episodes that we're planning to release in the coming weeks, we talk with pianist Angela Hewitt, best known for her extraordinary recordings of all of Bach's keyboard works.

  • Episode #172 - Social Isolation and Music

    March 25th, 2020  |  30 mins 37 secs

    These are difficult times for many people, who are now required to stay at home. Music can help us get through this. In this "two guys not in a pub" episode, Doug and Kirk reflect on social isolation and music.

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    Episode #171 - Vintage Audio Gear

    March 11th, 2020  |  27 mins 41 secs

    While there are lots of reasons to opt for minimal audio equipment, for some people there is an enduring allure for vintage stereo amps and receivers from the hi-fi heydays of the 1970s. The time when audio gear had knobs and dials and VU meters, like the fins and grilles on 1950s cars. We discuss our lust for those baroque audio devices of yore.

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    Episode #170 - Miles Davis's Landmark Album Kind of Blue

    February 26th, 2020  |  35 mins 43 secs

    Ashley Kahn wrote the book on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the jazz album everyone owns if they one at least one jazz album. We talk with Ashley about the recording of Kind of Blue, and about its legacy. (Apologies for the audio issues.)

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    Episode #169 - The Environmental Impact of Vinyl Records, CDs, and Data

    February 12th, 2020  |  40 mins 58 secs

    We talk with Kyle Devine, author of a new book about the environmental impact of music recordings, which raises a number of issues that we had never previously considered.

  • Episode #168 - L'Affaire Sonos and Obsolescence in Audio Equipment

    January 29th, 2020  |  36 mins 46 secs

    Andy Doe joins us again to discuss the perils of having software-controlled audio equipment. After the Affaire Sonos, when the company announced that a lot of its older products would become "obsolete," perhaps it's time to think more carefully about how long hardware we buy will last, when it depends on software.

  • Episode #167 - Tuning the Perfect Music Listening Room

    January 15th, 2020  |  35 mins 2 secs

    Chris Connaker of Audiophile Style renovated the attic of his house and turned it into the ultimate listening room. He then tuned it using amazing speakers, acoustic treatment, and DSP (digital signal processing). He explains how he went about this, and how the room itself is perhaps the most important element in an audio system.

  • Episode #166 - Our Year in Music

    January 2nd, 2020  |  34 mins 53 secs

    For the first episode of the new decade - the last one recorded in the previous decade - Doug and Kirk look back on their year in music.

  • Episode #165 - Christmas Is in the Air

    December 18th, 2019  |  34 mins 33 secs

    As Christmas approaches, we have decided to re-run our Christmas episode of two years ago. Because it was so good. And because it took a long time to collate the show notes.

  • Episode #164 - Sid Smith on the Life and Times of King Crimson

    December 4th, 2019  |  39 mins 20 secs

    Sid Smith is the official biographer of King Crimson. He recently updated his book, In The Court Of King Crimson - An Observation Over 50 Years, that tells the tale of this seminal band. We talk with Sid about everything Crimson.