• Eric Fortaleza's Pitch Meeting is the Most Dangerous Music in Nashville
    Feb 20 2025

    Let’s just begin by saying there is nothing in Nashville like Pitch Meeting, Eric Fortaleza’s weekly musical highwire act. Billed as “Nashville’s Best Writer’s Open Mic” the weekly show, which resumes this Tuesday February 25th features a powerhouse band of Nashville heavies (often of 10 or more players) whose job it is to back the any songwriter who’s name is drawn from dozens of hopeful singer-songwriters.

    The catch - no one has heard the song, not the audience, and more importantly, not the band.

    “No chord charts, no pre-song run through,” says Pitch Meeting founder Eric Fortaleza. “We just go for it.”

    I’ve been to a few Pitch Meetings, and I count them among the most exciting musical experiences I’ve ever seen. Not only does the song somehow congeal around the band, but an arrangement seems to spring out of the ground like witched water — horn parts, a guitar solo, a bridge breakdown. I feel like you don’t believe me. It’s totally crazy.

    It all happens because of Eric Fortaleza, who has something of a gambler’s taste for musical thrills and guts to spare. To me, he represents a new crop of Nashville musician, something different from the guys you see down on broadway, hoping to move their way up the ranks of touring musicians to become what is the gold standard of the Nashville Cat — the A-List studio musician. That’s a laudable goal, to be sure, but in its application there’s a sense of reticence, a holding something in reserve, because “you never know who’s gonna be in the room.” People trying to get discovered may fire their flashiest tricks, but tricks are different from taking chances.

    Eric is ALL about taking chances.

    He came to Nashville from Sydney, Australia a couple months before the Pandemic. But he was born in the Phillipines. We talk alot about how being the child of immigrants had something to do with his inveterate hustle.

    We talk about alot of stuff in this episode. His unlikely but somehow inevitable move to Nashville after ten years on the Australian scene. Why he founded Pitch Meeting, what he likes about it, what’s next. At some point in the conversation, the studio door opened to the afternoon glare and in stepped Eric’s bandmate Owen Fader, who looks like and sings like a baby faced angel. They played a song together, which shifted the direction of the podcast moving forward. What do you think I mean?

    The Morse Code with Korby Lenker is a reader-supported publication. Support my music, writing and the Morse Code Podcast by becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    People like Eric are why I am doing this. He’s one of the more inspiring people I’ve met — like past guests Barry Dean and Steve Poltz — I’ve had on the podcast. Music isn’t some strategy for success or fame. It’s about lifting people up and inspiring them to want more from life. At least, that’s what it is for me, and it’s how I felt when the session was over and the Eric and Owen and gone off to do something else.

    Go see Pitch Meeting. Subscribe to us on Spotify. Become a paid subscriber if stuff like this means something to you. We’re doing it because life is short and we’ve a solemn obligation to live as big as we can! Alright get back out there and make something awesome.



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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Randa Takes Over. A Morse Code Podcast Valentine's Special | MCP #217
    Feb 13 2025

    What happens when the interviewer becomes the guest? This episode of The Morse Code Podcast is a special one—Randa Newman, Korby's wife and creative partner, takes over the host seat to interview Korby in an intimate, revealing conversation about creativity, perseverance, and what it means to balance art with real life.



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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • "I Had to Renew My Contract With Myself." Abby Jane | MCP #216
    Feb 6 2025

    Abby Jane is a singer and songwriter based in Nashville. Her debut EP “I Don’t Want to Pretend” has been the talk of the town, at least in the circles I trade in, since it dropped in October 2024. Everybody loves her fresh take on the craft of confessional songwriting, and the remarkable instrument through which she delivers those songs.

    Abby Jane and I are sharing a show next Saturday Feb 15 at the Five Spot in East Nashville. Grab your tickets.



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    58 mins
  • Bob Dylan is the Original Troll. Carl Anderson | MCP #215
    Jan 30 2025
    Carl Anderson is a singer-songwriter from Virginia. His song swirls around like that plastic bag in the scene from American Beauty. A surprising unassuming clandestine charm that catches you unawares and then settles at your feet until the wind kicks up again. I have been a fan of his ever since we played a show together at the Bluebird in Nashville maybe like seven years ago. The way he sings is like no one else. You have to hear it for yourself (in this episode, you will).I’m so excited he’s part of this show we’re doing in a few weeks, at the Five Spot in East Nashville. Saturday February 15th. Carl is sharing some music, as is next week’s guest, Abby Jane. Then I’ll play a set with my new band, and then we’re going to screen a world-premiere of the music video for my new song Meet Me at the End of the World, directed by MCP alum Mila Vilaplana. Throughout, Ryan Rado, who was on the pod a few weeks ago, is doing some live immersive painting. It’s gonna be a great night and I’m very excited. If you live in Nashville here is a link for tickets.I’ve started making a new effort here on the podcast, which is to insert chapters into the YouTube video. For you it makes it easier to see the contours and compartments of the conversation (see below). For me it requires I listen back through the entire talk, which makes me reflect on what we discussed and whether it was worth it. So I know what I’m saying when I say this was a truly insightful and dare I say FUN conversation with a person for whom art’s calling occupies a central position. Carl is serious about songmaking and unserious about its purpose. That is to say he holds the sacred cows lightly in his hand and only pets them when they ask. I am reminded that so much of the value in any conversation lay in its style, and not just its substance.We play a song together, his original, Separate Ways. Listen to the way he sings.Carl talks about what got him started on the creative path, his love for dancing, the pleasure of watching bad acting, Bob Dylan as the original troll, his in-and-out habit of fitness and its relationship to creativity, the strange and healthy beauty of having a job outside the industry.I share a little as well. What happened when I moved to Nashville twenty years ago. Why I burst into tears last week on my couch watching Fred Again’s Tiny Desk Concert. How being yourself gives everyone else permission to be themselves too.Carl Anderson is a real one of one. I hope this conversation makes you want to finish the song you’re working on. The Morse Code with Korby Lenker is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my music, writing and the Morse Code Podcast, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.00:00:00 Introduction/ In praise of Rock Club Owners00:04:27 In praise of Carl00:06:00 Carl reflects on his approach to songwriting00:07:27 Korby asks a weird question00:08:22 A story about roommates and song analysis00:09:27 How Carl got started songwriting00:11:19 When you realize that music is something you can do too00:12:01 Carl likes dancing00:13:14 Songwriting is a serious pursuit00:14:37 If you have musical talent you need to explore that00:16:13 Beethoven can't write a song like John Prine00:18:10 The new Bob Dylan movie and influence00:21:27 "Last time I talked to you you were pretty sober"00:24:21 Carl's take on health, fitness, and creativity00:29:54 Why did you move to Nashville Carl?00:35:23 Carl and Korby perform Separate Ways00:39:32 The stigma of employment when you're young00:43:02 Korby talks about his wake up call when he moved to Nashville 20 years ago00:46:04 Korby describes why he's doing this podcast00:46:36 Trying to not look too closely at what motivates you00:49:05 Do you want your kids to be artists?00:51:32 Fallow periods in the Life of an Artist00:52:40 The wonderful Dick Cavett show00:55:06 Watching cringe acting fascinates Carl00:55:46 Bob Dylan was the original troll00:58:10 "I'm not learning anything valuable here"00:58:40 Korby talks about the collaborative nature of film01:00:38 How Fred Again has inspired Korby in his novel01:04:52 "I used to want to be famous, I still do" but connection now too01:06:54 Korby and Carl reflect on meeting at the Bluebird01:07:50 A new season of collaboration starting with Feb 15 show!01:09:32 I am a very earnest person01:11:33 We had to stop because Carl must drive to Virginia Get full access to The Morse Code with Korby Lenker at korby.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • MAIR Gets Personal: The Private Life of a Virtuosic She-Wizard | MCP #214
    Jan 23 2025

    MAIR is a musical force of nature. Whether she’s playing mandolin, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, nylon string banjo, her sit-up-and-pay-attention virtuosity has made her an in-demand collaborator the industry over.

    She’s been touring since she was thirteen, which makes her an industry veteran even though she’s barely in her mid-twenties. If you’re into bluegrass, you might have caught her — playing as Mary Meyer — with her brothers in the Meyer Band, or on her Lick of the Day series, maybe you saw her on stage with Sister Sadie, or at Stagecoach or SXSW, or with Anna Graves opening for Stevie Nicks or Maren Morris.

    Her new project MAIR, showcases her effortless singing, soft touch and flair for a tone poem kind of songwriting not unlike Elliot Smith. See it for yourself — or hear it rather — when she plays her original song “You in the Morning” live.

    But first before we go deep on relationships, including her recent divorce and the rebirth that came out of that (I share a good bit on that topic as well), her upbringing as a homeschooled kid in Missouri, what’s going on inside her mind when she’s improvising, and the bold vision she has for her own ideal career in music.

    I’ve been following Mair since probably 2022. I’ve dug the way she makes music and how she balances her dual identities — as a player for whom any band or song benefits — with an absolute need to expressive herself her own way. This is a magic person. Enjoy the episode!



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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Viral Sensation Tyler Merritt Talks Race, Humor, and his Inspiring New Book. MCP #213
    Jan 16 2025
    Quick note before the show - after taking almost 4 years off to produce the Morse Code TV Pilot, I’m about to release some new music. So so excited about this. The first single is called Meet Me at the End of the World. Its about reaching for love at all costs. I texted our guest Tyler Merritt the track after our interview last week and, to quote the man: “The whole song is super melodic. Great lyrical imagery. Super solid song bro”. So, early reviews are promising! The single launch party and Korby full band show (!) is Saturday Feb 15 at the Five Spot in East Nashville at 6pm. My friends Abby Jane and Carl Anderson are joining me on the bill, and podcast alum Ryan Rado will be live painting. We’ll also be premiering the ridiculously ambitious music video we made for this new song of mine, directed by another MC podcast alum Mila Vilaplana. Ballroom dancing, a couple dozen costumed extras, a three-story tall LED lightwall made to look like a sunset in heaven, and a huge Viet Nam War protest set piece are some of the elements. We’re filming next week and I’ll be sharing behind the scenes clips and pics on my IG if you want to follow along. We’re announcing the show Tuesday but here is the early ticket link for my substackies. We are gonna sell out — don’t sleep on this :)And now back to our featured presentation~ Happy Publication Week to Tyler Merritt!!Tyler Merritt is an actor, musician, comedian, and activist behind The Tyler Merritt Project. Best known for his viral video “Before You Call the Cops” (seen now by more than 100 million people) and his bestselling debut I Take My Coffee Black, Jan 14th, 2025 just saw the publication of his second book, This Changes Everything: A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things We Don’t Talk About. No less a pop culture icon than Jimmy Kimmel wrote the foreword for Coffee, but his new book (which as of two days ago is available everywhere) features a who’s who of admirers, reviewers and blurbers, including Trisha Yearwood, Joy Reid, Kristin Chenoweth, Heather Locklear, and about twenty more famous folks…Tyler is also a seasoned actor whose credits include Netflix's Outer Banks, the Disney series Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and A24’s upcoming feature film The Inspection. So, I don’t know how many threats that is, but it’s a lot.Awhile back, I read I Take My Coffee Black, pretty much in one sitting. I loved it. Full of humor — both self-deprecating and barbed — pathos, and hilarious anecdotes, like the time he busted out an improvised rap to avoid being forced into a gang — there are no shortage of surprising revelations, praise in equal parts for rap icons and musical theater, and warm-hearted descriptions of big personalities (his force-of-nature mom comes to mind). The man’s personal voice is so buoyant it basically floats on the page.Accordingly, this conversation was as wild a ride as the writing. Things got off to a rocky start (!) when Tyler reminded me he was still mad I didn’t book him for a role in Morse Code. But we hugged it out and jumped into a fast, substantive discussion, based in part on a few shared perspectives. For one, we are both children of the West. He’s from Nevada and I’m from Idaho. Having living here in the south for almost twenty years, I still retain much of the present-leaning-forward spirit of the west, and in reading Coffee, I felt Tyler had a similar perspective. The western half of America doesn’t care where you’re from. In that way it can be shallow and fatuous, but the south’s preoccupation with its past can be a real head-scratcher to someone not from here. There was so much in this conversation — about Counting Crows, the Nashville music scene, George Floyd, Tyler’s mom, the segregation that still exists in Nashville, how in some ways its more pronounced than in other southern cities.If you’re still reading this it’s probably because you know what a lovable, and loveably complicated person is Tyler Merritt. I hope you love this conversation and I hope it makes you buy his new book.PS I’m including a special exchange not included in the public pod as an exclusive for my Patreons. Up now.Last Week Redux. 10 minutes with Adam RossListen to Author and Editor in Chief of the Sewanee Review Adam Ross talk about the experience of writing a novel, and the sympathetic characters of Playworld, in an excerpt from the conversation we shared last week.Adam’s second novel Playworld is a mere week old, and continues its reign of praise and adulation on the literary circuit. Seems like everyone loves it, (including me). As the Morse Code Podcast YouTube Channel nears 500 subscribers, we’re going to include a 10 min highlight from each episode, going forward. We’re working hard to build a community around creators and their important, life-giving, world-saving work.You can thank us, encourage us, join us, by subscribing to to the MCP channel....
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Adam Ross and PLAYWORLD - the Novel Everyone is Talking About
    Jan 9 2025

    Published just two days ago, Adam Ross’ second novel, Playworldsome dozen-plus years in the making — is one of the best books I’ve read in the last five years. I’m not alone! Sources no less venerable than The New York Times, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, are all lining up to sing its praises. “Dazzling and endearing,” writes Vogue. The Washington Post croons: “The book is quote so good, it will give readers hope for the year ahead.” Everyone is in love with this novel.

    Here’s how it opens:

    “In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.”

    Set in New York, Ross’s bildungsroman (a pointy-headed word for “coming of age story”) follows a year in the unusual life of Griffin Hurt — a child actor, prep school 8th grader, aspiring wrestler and potential love interest of one Naomi Shah.

    What sets it apart from similarly ambitious romps, like Cloud Cuckoo Land, or A Gentleman in Moscow? The sentences are better dancers, for one. And the world building is so delightfully specific. Picture a line of fourteen-year-old boys, silently lining up for a wrestling meet’s official weigh-in, some “hairy as fathers.” A minor character’s teeth are said to be “fantastic, separate unto him, like furniture in his mouth.”

    The Morse Code is a reader-supported publication. To support my writing, original music and this podcast, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thank you.

    But great language and an evocative setting — it’s not enough that a book entertain, or even wow. What sets Playworld apart is this: the pages are suffused with love, the great and complicated and imperfect love between people who themselves are, in spite of their shortcomings, vanities, or outright crimes, worthy of it.

    In this freewheeling conversation Adam and I discuss his approach to writing the novel, which I frame in the architect vs gardener approach. We talk about parenting in the 1980s versus now, and how Adam was careful not to allow Playworld to become the nostalgic celebration of yesteryear it might have otherwise been. We discussed one of the the themes: the tension many of us feel between filial loyalty and personal desire. And finally I asked him to read an excerpt from the book’s middle, one that gets at the complicated relationship between two of the story’s principle characters — Griffin and his dad — and also what makes Griffin’s particular feelings of deficit so painfully relatable.

    Somewhere in there, I, fumbling around for a question that might get under some of the dazzling technique, the funny flawed characters, the dramatic surprises, finally asked him what personal quest — if any — he was on in writing Playworld.

    I wanted to write something beautiful,” he said.

    I hope you enjoy this one — the book, and this conversation — as much as I did.

    ~korby



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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Ryan Rado: Being Willing to Fail and Somehow Not Failing | Morse Code Podcast #211
    Jan 2 2025
    Happy New Beginning! One quick important creative announcement: I have new music coming! Meet Me at the End of the World was written by me, live on a series I do called the East Nashville Songwriting Workshop, where I write a song live on the internet, start to finish. Usually it’s a co-write, but this particular time the scheduled guest didn’t show up so I was left by myself. Not ideal but the show must go on so I thrashed around in front of God and everybody and after 3 hours I’d made a song. The bigger surprise was that the song rang true and I really loved it and have wanted to share it ever since. It’s a love song filled with wild emotion and exploding asteroids and an oblique reference to Melville (Moby Dick) and Steinbeck (The Pearl), shot through with bottomless thirst I equate with the feeling of being in love. The track was produced by Morse Code Podcast alum Anthony DaCosta and we’re shooting a very ambitious music video for it directed by another podcast alum, Mila Vilaplana. Powerhouse Randa Newman is producing it while somehow nursing Baby Zuzu to the delightfully chunky condition we find her in today (Zuzu not Randa).Meet Me at the End of the World drops February 14 and I’m playing a full-band release show Feb 15 at the 5 Spot in East Nashville. More info in the coming weeks. It’s been a while since I put some new music out. Cue feelings of excitement, and nervousness. Which is an appropriate segue to introduce this very special guest:Ryan Rado is a painter, musician, ontological coach, and host of the Make it Perfect Podcast.Don’t worry about it. I also had to look up what an ontological coach was. And to be honest, I didn’t do that until after taping our conversation, because I was moved by this conversation and wanted to know more about Ryan and his life and work. The way he was in the room, how he shared so freely, not only his creative philosophy but his battle — that might not be the right word — maybe relationship is better — with Tourette’s syndrome, made me want to dig into what he’s doing and why. Just how damn vulnerable he was and yet, firm. Is that the word? Enigmatic things are hard to put words to.I met Ryan at a screening of the Morse Code Pilot this summer. It was brief, but let me see if I can convey a little of the piquant nature of that exchange: see, I opened the evening by playing a few songs in the theater, just, totally acoustic no mics or PA. Which is my favorite way to perform or witness live music (there just aren’t many situations where it can work).I played a couple of of my songs — one of them, Northern Lights, got an audible sigh from somewhere on the left side of the room, a couple rows back. Hearing that gratified me like a baby on the boob. All I ever wanted to do was make somebody sigh okay?Not only did I take the compliment, but I noted that a grown ass man was publicly responding — audibly — to another grown ass man sharing his heart. Unusual. Also indicative of an integrated being.The Morse Code is a reader-supported publication and podcast. To receive new posts and support my songs, stories, podcast epiosdes and video essays, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I filed that nanosecond feeling away, and retrieved it the moment I opened an email from Ryan asking if I’d be interested in swapping guest tapings. I checked out his art and CV and it was clear this guy was exactly the kind of person I’m looking for in a guest — a person whose commitment to self-expression extends well beyond the act itself. As I read some interviews Ryan had given and learned more about how he came to paint, it was obvious to me that the lines between active expression and active living are, in Ryan’s court, blurred.What I’m trying to say is that this is one of the most interesting and moving conversations I’ve had on the podcast to date. Ryan’s transparency — with his past trauma, present joys, and his infectious desire to be fully himself — in what I might call a gladiatorial humility — was both challenging and moving. We looked at works of his art together, while he described not only what he was trying to achieve in them, but how they made him feel while looking at them in that moment. He talked about the Tourettes, even in realtime describing how hard was trying to resist the desire to lick the microphone while we talked. He got emotional talking about his young son’s ability to punch right to the center of his art with the tossed-off remark flung with the precision of a 4th century Ketana.If you think I’m trying to get you to listen to this episode, you’re right. Ryan is a special person. The goal of the Morse Code Podcast is to infected you with inspiration and bravery by presenting people who are inspiring and brave. It’s a simple goal and I hope it’s working.Listen to the episode and then look up Ontological Coach. That’s the order I did it in.Happy New Year. Big changes coming for all of ...
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    59 mins