Show date: May. 12, 2025
For this special episode, we talked about a collaboration Neel did with Mike Rudquist, a singer-songwriter he met at the At Home Songwriting group for a songwriting challenge.
Mike Rudquist is a songwriter from Red Wing, MN who writes songs in Americana, pop/rock, and country. He has a solo album called “Albuquerque in the Morning” and was a finalist in Dat Dog Jingle Contest and Great River Folk Festival Songwriting Contest, and semi-finalist in the Waggin Train Jingle Contest. Mike was also featured on NBT Records “Ride the Train” compilation with his song “Last Train to Lockerby.”
Download the lyrics and chords for Neel’s version of the song and for Mike’s version.
We talked about:
- Our songwriting challenge for 2025 to write a song in an odd time signature. Check out the webpage with added resources!
- How Mike and Neel collaborated over Google Docs, email, and Zoom calls
- The value of an object writing exercise
- How Neel got lucky meeting a new friend in his condo who also plays bass, and contributed the bass guitar track for the song. Thanks Kushal!
- How it’s important to not get caught up with songwriting decisions, and try to stay open during a collaboration
- How they struggled a bit with verse 2, but it came together by combining both their ideas
- How Mike took some inspiration from the Eddie Vedder song Rise
- How to tell when the songwriting is done (hint: deadlines can help)
- An advantage of remote collaboration in that you can step away and take a breath before sharing your idea
Show date:
May Meetup: In-person!
We’re pleased to announce that our next in-person meetup in Toronto will take place on Sunday, May 18 at the Imperial Pub near Yonge and Dundas.
As the registration for the meetup continues to evolve, we are asking that you please sign up for free on Eventbrite and RSVP for the meetup there (now known as the Song Talk Feedback Loop).
Future of Feedback Loops
Our time with Meetup.com will soon come to an end. Starting in July 2025, all Song Talk events will be available through Eventbrite, for both in-person and Zoom events.
This also means that notifications you’re used to getting from Meetup will end. In order to continue getting notifications, we are asking everyone to please sign-up for our newsletter at Song Talk Radio.
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The newsletter contains the latest Song Talk Radio episodes and our meeting events. And no spam, we promise.
Once again, starting in July, messages will only be delivered via our newsletter. Be sure to sign up soon to stay in the loop!
Please send us a message at meetup@songtalk.ca if you have any questions or concerns.
Your hosts,
Neel & Phil
Show date: May. 03, 2025
Mark Ippolito is a proud member of Seattle’s vibrant community of singer-songwriters and regularly performs his original songs in venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. His debut full length album “New Moon” is steeped in equal measures of folk, roots, jazz and rock and reflects Mark’s abiding interest and celebration of the interconnectedness, both physical and spiritual. Human beings have far more in common than we may claim as our differences. The stories Mark shares in his songs inspire listeners to see this fundamental truth.
Mark shared his song Where Will I Sleep Tonight. Download the lyrics to follow along.
We talked about:
- Our songwriting challenge for 2025 to write a song in an odd time signature
- How the Bushwick Book Club hold songwriting challenges to write songs based on books
- The importance of finding the right tempo for your song, especially if it’s very slow (or very fast)
- How song ideas can come to Mark while playing guitar, reading, driving, or running
- Recording all your little ideas, as you never know what may be developed as a full song
- Using word lists and rhyming dictionaries effectively
Show date: Apr. 20, 2025
Few names carry the weight of Danny Marks in the Canadian blues and roots scene. From his early days as a founding member of Edward Bear, opening for the likes of Led Zeppelin and Humble Pie, to his decades as a torchbearer of the blues with BLUZ FM and beyond, Marks has remained a perennial force—a man whose time comes, again and again. Now, with the release of his latest single “I’m Ready,” Marks steps forward with a classic soul ballad—one that simmers with slow-burning intensity and speaks to the restless waiting, the longing, and ultimately, the readiness to seize the moment.
Danny shared his song I’m Ready. Download the lyrics to follow along.
We talked about:
- Our songwriting challenge for 2025 to write a song in an odd time signature
- Revisiting a song 46 years after its inception, and still tweaking it to make it better
- Including a sitar in your songs (like our guest Greg Wyard did)
- How to write a song with an ambiguous structure
- Writing a song with very few lyrics
- Is it blues or gospel, or does it even matter?
Show date: Apr. 14, 2025
Our songwriting challenge for 2025 is to write a song in an odd time signature. Award-winning composer and educator Frank Horvat joined us with his pick of odd-time-signature songs. Thanks Frank!
We talked about:
- Our re-discovered Patreon Page – thanks for your support!
- Juno Awards 2025:
- Congratulations to our previous guests Julian Taylor and Aphrose on their nominations
- 2025 was the first-ever award for Songwriter of the Year (Non-Performer), won by Lowell
- How to Register Your Songs, with Allister Bradley
- What do we mean by odd time signatures?
- How you can divide odd time signatures into smaller chunks (a hybrid time signature)
- How a repetative groove in an odd time signature can ground your song
- Lining up your chord changes and melodies with the downbeats to clearly denote the time signature(s)
The songs:
| Song | Artist | Time Sig |
| Pink Floyd | Money | 7/4 |
| Bjork | Moon | 17/8 |
| Everything in Its Right Place | Radiohead | 10/4 |
| Solsbury Hill | Peter Gabriel | 7/4 |
| Turn It On Again | Genesis | 13/4 |
| 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social Scene | 7/4 |
| Golden Brown | The Stranglers | 13/8 |
Check out our dedicated webpage for the 2025 songwriting challenge, with additional podcast episodes and other resources!
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