Caropop

Len Kasper is starting his sixth season as the Chicago White Sox’s radio play-by-play announcer after 16 years as the Cubs’ TV play-by-play guy, but he’s got another passion: playing bass and writing songs for his band Sonic45. This Chicago all-star five-piece, which features recent Caropop guest Dag Juhlin on guitar, made its debut performance after my 2019 “Talking in Space” conversation with Kasper. Since then, the band, which has had a name change that he explains, has released two albums: Space and Time (2021) and SuperSonic (2024). The sound is muscular and swirling while Kasper’s lyrics are vulnerable and revealing. Kasper is open here as well as he discusses whether he dreamt more of being a baseball announcer, player or musician; how the Cubs’ “Hot Stove Cool Music” charity concerts fueled his music career; whether he considered singing in Sonic45; and whether it was coincidental that he took the White Sox radio job weeks after Theo Epstein left the Cubs. (Photo by Katrina Vlasich)

Any author would dream of the kind of acclaim and attention that Christine Sneed has received, including a front-page Sunday New York Times Book Review rave of her 2013 novel Little Known Facts. The accolades continued for subsequent novels and short-story collections, yet getting her work published has become harder than ever. Sneed launched a Substack called Bookish that offers tips, reflections, interviews, agent lists and more to fellow writers and interested readers. Here she addresses: How much energy does she spend writing vs. trying to get her work out into the world? Does a writer need a so-called platform? Why can't more agents and editors respond to writers in a timely manner? How much of a problem is the shuttering of so many book sections? Sneed and I often swap tales of publishing misadventures, and now you can enjoy her hard-earned wisdom as well. (Photo by Adam Tinkham)

Musicians are said to have a lifetime to create their first album and six months to make the follow-up. That was literally the case with Graham Parker, whose landmark debut album, Howlin’ Wind, came out in April 1976, followed that October by the acclaimed Heat Treatment. Parker, the subject of Jay Nachman’s excellent new book Graham Parker’s Howlin’ Wind, tells his fascinating origin story here. He worked in factories and at a gas station, tried on almost every ‘60s/’70s musical style and wrote, wrote and wrote. How many songs had he written before he came up with one that made the cut for Howlin’ Wind? How did he get connected to his ace backing band, the Rumour, and did he start writing with them in mind? The still-active, feisty Parker presents a vivid portrait of the artist as a young man--and conveys his current feelings about how the system is rigged against musicians trying to make a living. (Photo by Steve Goulding)

Michael Blair had much training in percussion, including a degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, by the time he pulled out the marimba, congas, drums and other instruments for Tom Waits’ landmark 1985 album Rain Dogs. As was the case with recent Caropop guest Mark Ribot, Rain Dogs propelled Blair to more work with Waits (including the album and Steppenwolf Theatre performances of Franks Wild Years) and projects with Elvis Costello and producers T Bone Burnett and Hal Willner. That’s Blair delivering the “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” riff on marimba on Costello’s cover of the song and playing a wild array of percussion instruments on Costello’s Spike. Blair tells how he landed the drumming gig on Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss and the unusual way that album's drums were recorded. He also relates how he wound up on the Replacements’ All Shook Down and why he has lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for many years. (Photo by Cato Lein.)

I saw bassist Victor Krummenacher, one of my favorite music people, perform twice within three weeks last fall: with Camper Van Beethoven to end perhaps their last-ever tour in Washington, D.C.; and with the Third Mind, the improvisatory band also featuring Dave Alvin, in Milwaukee. Both shows were fantastic. Now Krummenacher has a new album, the cinematic Block Out the Sun, and is reflecting on the inevitable artistic collision between one’s personal life and what’s happening in the outside world. He also discusses an upcoming album collaboration between most of the Third Mind and former Fairport Convention singer (and Caropop guest) Iain Matthews; the recently announced Record Store Day release of Camper Van Beethoven’s version of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk; Krummenacher’s vision of a possible Camper future; and that David Lowery song that quotes something hostile that Krummenacher allegedly said to the Camper frontman when the band was first breaking up. (Photo by Jesse Sykes.)