About this episode
🔥🪕 The Fretliners are back in the dungeon, and more importantly, their brand new album When the Kettle Sings drops TODAY. 📆🫖
This episode is all about the record.
We dig into the two-year process behind it, how the band wanted to capture something more raw and alive, and what happened when T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian helped bring that vision into focus. 🎙️🔥
Instead of building the album piece by piece, The Fretliners leaned into what they already do best:
🎻 Playing together in a room
🎙️ Gathering around a single mic
🚫 No click tracks
🎧 No headphones
📼 Real tape
🔥 Real performances
They walked into the studio for three days and came out with **15 songs recorded**, letting the imperfections, movement, and chemistry of the band become part of the record instead of trying to polish all of it away.
We go track by track through some of the stories behind _When the Kettle Sings_, including:
🐢 “Snapping Turtle” and the actual snapping turtle that inspired it
❤️ “Stitch Up My Heart” and the deeply personal story behind the song
👻 The unexplained sound captured at the end of that recording
🎙️ Molly Tuttle joining them on “Josefina”
🎻 Stuart Duncan coming in and absolutely doing Stuart Duncan things
🌧️ The Grateful Dead connections hidden inside “Bells of Rafael”
🤠 Riders in the Sky appearing on “The Stone”
🔥 Why “Storms” went from a last-minute addition to the opening track
And we talk about how this album represents where The Fretliners are right now after everything that has changed, evolved, and grown since their first record.
There’s a lot of history on this thing. A lot of emotion. A lot of incredible players.
But underneath all of it, When the Kettle Sings still sounds like four dudes standing around a microphone playing the hell out of some songs.
And that might be the coolest part.
🎧 When the Kettle Sings is OUT TODAY.
Go listen to the record.
Go buy the vinyl.
Go support the band.
Then come hang out with us in the dungeon and hear how the whole damn thing came together. 🪕🔥🎙️
👉 thefretliners.com
This episode is all about the record.
We dig into the two-year process behind it, how the band wanted to capture something more raw and alive, and what happened when T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian helped bring that vision into focus. 🎙️🔥
Instead of building the album piece by piece, The Fretliners leaned into what they already do best:
🎻 Playing together in a room
🎙️ Gathering around a single mic
🚫 No click tracks
🎧 No headphones
📼 Real tape
🔥 Real performances
They walked into the studio for three days and came out with **15 songs recorded**, letting the imperfections, movement, and chemistry of the band become part of the record instead of trying to polish all of it away.
We go track by track through some of the stories behind _When the Kettle Sings_, including:
🐢 “Snapping Turtle” and the actual snapping turtle that inspired it
❤️ “Stitch Up My Heart” and the deeply personal story behind the song
👻 The unexplained sound captured at the end of that recording
🎙️ Molly Tuttle joining them on “Josefina”
🎻 Stuart Duncan coming in and absolutely doing Stuart Duncan things
🌧️ The Grateful Dead connections hidden inside “Bells of Rafael”
🤠 Riders in the Sky appearing on “The Stone”
🔥 Why “Storms” went from a last-minute addition to the opening track
And we talk about how this album represents where The Fretliners are right now after everything that has changed, evolved, and grown since their first record.
There’s a lot of history on this thing. A lot of emotion. A lot of incredible players.
But underneath all of it, When the Kettle Sings still sounds like four dudes standing around a microphone playing the hell out of some songs.
And that might be the coolest part.
🎧 When the Kettle Sings is OUT TODAY.
Go listen to the record.
Go buy the vinyl.
Go support the band.
Then come hang out with us in the dungeon and hear how the whole damn thing came together. 🪕🔥🎙️
👉 thefretliners.com
