Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

Grammy winner and Americana Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Buddy Miller chats about everything from his signature guitar licks, to finding the right ramp for Solomon Burke, to the theme of sadness that runs through his joyful-sounding new solo album - his first in 22 years!
PART ONE:
Paul and Scott reflect on the songwriting, life, and loss of the incomparable Dolly Parton

PART TWO:
Scott's in-depth conversation with one of his favorite artists, Buddy Miller

ABOUT BUDDY MILLER:
Singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and Americana music legend Buddy Miller has worked with Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Solomon Burke, Richard Thompson, Steve Earle, and many others. The four-time nominee earned a GRAMMY for his production work on Patty Griffin’s acclaimed Downtown Church album. He has taken home 14 Americana Music Awards, including multiple Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Instrumentalist of the Year, and Artist of the Year wins. Buddy was honored with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and was previously named Artist of the Decade by No Depression. In addition to serving as Executive Music Producer for ABC-TV’s Nashville series, Buddy has released seven studio albums as a solo artist, a duo album with Jim Lauderdale, and four duo albums with his wife and longtime musical partner Julie Miller. Buddy’s most recent project, his first solo album in 22 years, is the self-titled Buddy Miller.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Multi-Grammy-nominated and international multi-platinum artist Lukas Graham chats about his evolution as a writer, from his breakthrough with "7 Years" up through his latest album, Good Times.

PART ONE

The latest chapter in Paul and Scott's fierce disagreement over perfect rhyme versus slant rhyme in lyrics

PART TWO

Our in-depth conversation with Lukas Graham

ABOUT LUKAS GRAHAM

The multi-Grammy-nominated artist Lukas Graham came to international prominence in 2016 with the song “7 Years,” an anthemic piano ballad that topped the charts in multiple countries and was certified 12-times platinum by the RIAA in the United States. The self-titled album on which it appeared, known to fans as the Blue Album, was also certified Platinum. The Danish artist has built a career spanning five albums, with hits including “Love Someone,” which was certified platinum in 18 countries. His work blends soul, pop, and deeply personal storytelling, exploring themes of family, love, and resilience — from the loss of his father to becoming one himself. Lukas’s latest album, Good Times, finds him reconnecting with the Celtic, acoustic, and folk roots of his Irish father while blending them with his unique pop sensibilities. You can catch Lukas on the road now as he tours with Ed Sheeran.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Americana Music Association Award nominee Maggie Rose joins us to chat about the development of her creative voice and her excellent new album, Half Moon. 

PART ONE

Paul and Scott discuss Brandie Carlile's recent live cover of Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited," which leads to a conversation about cover songs before spiraling out of control into despair about aging. 

PART TWO

Our in-depth conversation with Maggie Rose

ABOUT MAGGIE ROSE

Maggie Rose earned her first GRAMMY nomination, for Best Americana Album for her No One Gets Out Alive LP, in 2025. Later that year, the Americana Music Association nominated her for Emerging Act of the Year. The recognition was hard won. After moving to Nashville in 2009, Rose released her debut album, Cut to Impress, in 2013, which yielded the Top 40 country single “I Ain’t Your Mama.” She went on to release a handful of EPs, albums, and singles that explored a broader sonic landscape, including original songs such as “Body on Fire,” “Change the Whole Thing,” “Saint,” and “Poison in My Well,” a duet with Grace Potter than earned Rose her second GRAMMY nomination in 2026. Maggie’s fifth studio album, which was just released, is called Half Moon.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Country Music Hall of Famer, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, 2-time Country Song of the Year GRAMMY winner, and 5-time BMI Country Songwriter of the Year Paul Overstreet gives us a peek behind the curtain of his legendary career. 

PART ONE:

Scott does his best not to throw a certain individual under the bus with a very funny story involving Paul Overstreet. Plus, the guys pay tribute to the late Joe Melson, past Songcraft guest and primary Roy Orbison collaborator. 

PART TWO:

Our in-depth conversation with Paul Overstreet

ABOUT PAUL OVERSTREET

Paul Overstreet is one of the most successful songwriters in Nashville history and among the three inductees in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s class of 2026. His catalog of classics includes “Same Ole Me,” recorded by George Jones, as well as the Randy Travis hits “Digging Up Bones,” “No Place Like Home,” “Deeper Than the Holler,” “On the Other Hand,” and “Forever and Ever, Amen.” The latter two were both named Song of the Year by NSAI, the CMA, and the ACM. Additionally, “Forever and Ever, Amen” earned a Grammy award for Best Country Song in 1988. Overstreet won another Best Country Song Grammy in 1992 for “Love Can Build a Bridge,” which was a major hit for The Judds. 

Other highlights of the Paul Overstreet songbook include the number one hits “A Long Line of Love,” recorded by Michael Martin Murphy,” “When You Say Nothing at All,” which was a hit for both Keith Whitley and Alison Krauss, and “Some Beach” for Blake Shelton.

In addition to his achievements with other performers, Overstreet became a successful recording artist in his own right. He reached the top of the charts in 1987 with “I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love,” which he recorded with Tanya Tucker and Paul Davis, and had hits with the group S-K-O, a trio he formed with Thom Schuyler and Fred Knobloch. From 1988 through 1991 Paul scored eight consecutive top 10 singles as a solo artist, including “Seein’ My Father in Me” and “Daddy’s Come Around.” 

Paul was named BMI’s Country Songwriter of the year five years in a row from 1987 through 1991, a feat that hasn’t been duplicated since. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003.   

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The legendary Swamp Dogg returns to Songcraft after more than a decade to talk about, well, whatever he wants. And we're here for it! 

PART ONE

Paul and Scott contemplate their second visit with Swamp Dogg

PART TWO

Our in-depth interview with the original D-O-double G!

ABOUT SWAMP DOGG

R&B cult favorite Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams is best known as the co-writer, with Gary U.S. Bonds, of the cross-genre classic, “She’s All I Got,” which became a Top 10 R&B single for Freddie North and a #2 country hit for Johnny Paycheck in 1971. Williams’ career began in 1954 when, at the age of 12, he made his first record, “HTD Blues.” He found success in the 1960s, recording the Top 40 R&B hit “Baby You’re My Everything” under the name Little Jerry Williams, and writing songs for other artists, including Gene Pitney’s Top 20 Pop single, “She’s a Heartbreaker.” He became Atlantic Records’ first African American staff producer in 1968 but left the following year to pursue independent projects in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Macon, Georgia. By the 1970s Swamp was an in-demand producer and songwriter, penning Top 40 R&B hits for Doris Duke, Arthur Conley, and Dee Dee Warwick. 

Around the same time, he reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, releasing a series of eccentric soul albums with lyrics marked by frank sexuality, biting satire, radical politics, and provocative social observations. His debut LP, Total Destruction to Your Mind, was eventually certified Gold, while subsequent releases, including Gag a Maggott, I’m Not Selling Out – I’m Buying In, An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year, and The White Man Made Me Do It garnered considerable accolades among underground music lovers and earned Swamp what one journalist described as “a cultural niche somewhere between Rudy Ray Moore and Frank Zappa.” In recent years, his vast catalog has been sampled by Kid Rock, Talib Kweli, DMX, and others. Having just turned 84, Swamp shows no signs of slowing down. Since we last spoke with him in 2015, he has released five albums, including a bluegrass-inspired project called Blackgrass and his most recent release, Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.