Sound Travels
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Blues. Heavy Metal. Polka. K-Pop. Reggae. Country. Flamenco. Jazz. Hip Hop. Salsa. Gospel. Bluegrass. Lyle Lovett will do for the great music traditions what Anthony Bourdain did for food — use it as a springboard to tell a larger story about people, place, and culture.
In simplest terms, think of Sound Travels as your favorite cooking show, like Ugly Delicious or The Chef Show. However, instead of recipes, Lyle will uncover weathered sheet music; instead of ingredients, he’ll seek out a genre’s defining instruments; restaurants will be replaced by clubs, dancehalls, and recording studios; and Lyle will work with fellow musicians of all stripes instead of chefs.
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Each episode begins at the epicenter. Milan for opera, London for punk, Nashville for country. Lyle will unearth the essence of a musical genre by tracing its origin and evolution across time and place. He’ll learn how gospel migrated from the rural south to the storefront churches of Chicago and how techno went from the underground clubs of inner-city Detroit to the buzzy dance floors of Ibiza.
He’ll discover why heavy metal could only have been born in the industrial north of England during the unrest of the 1960s and how it morphed into the wildly popular subgenres of black and Viking metal that’s blasting out of Sweden, or why the rapid economic explosion of South Korea gave birth to K-Pop in Seoul and eventually stormed across the Pacific to influence the star-making machinery of major LA hitmakers.
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In each locale, Lyle will scour small churches, backwoods juke joints, and small clubs to meet and jam with some of the world’s best musicians, whether superstars like Jennifer Hudson (gospel) or local legends like the Spoon Lady (bluegrass).
Along the way, Lyle will explore the “tools of the trade,” the instruments that define each genre. He’ll travel to the Hammond Organ Company outside of Chicago to learn about the famous keyboard that fuels gospel choirs from coast to coast. He’ll see how artisans at the Columbus Washboard Company in Logan, OH, assemble the once ubiquitous cleaning tool that’s now a staple of jug band and Zydeco combos from Kentucky to the Mississippi Delta. And he’ll visit the UK headquarters of Marshall to learn about Jim “the Father of Loud” Marshall’s ear-splitting invention you’ll find stacked behind any self-respecting guitar shredder.
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During informal jam sessions in a studio or an empty concert hall, Lyle and the musicians he meets along the way will peel back the layers of the quintessential songs of each genre — a little more horn here, a three-part harmony there — enabling the audience to witness what makes each sound unique. Imagine a scene that merges Song Exploder’s technical and creative analysis with The Beatles: Get Back’s unfettered access to the raw process of songcraft.
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More than just songs and sounds, musical genres are steeped in traditions and rituals — fashion, dance, language — that evolved with and are intricately tied to the music. Lyle will explore these cultural phenomena as he learns about the origins of the traje de gitana outfits of flamenco and the history of Lucchese boots and Stetson hats as they went from the ranch to the Opry. He’ll get a crash course (literally) in mosh pit etiquette, learn how to tango, and pick up the latest jazz lingo.
He’ll also spend time with the most important aspect of every musical culture — the fans. Lyle will hang out with superfans in Seoul while grocery shopping for milk emblazoned with the faces of their favorite K-Pop stars, embark on a heavy metal cruise with a thousand other head-banging fanatics, and bliss out with Rastas at the annual Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay.
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With all of the ingredients now in hand — the history, musicians, instruments, songs, vocabulary, clothing, and other rituals — Lyle and the guests he met on his journey will close out the episode with a live performance. He’ll strum a vihuela with a mariachi band in Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi, watch a rap battle at a Brooklyn block party, and meet up with Trombone Shorty for a late-night jazz jam session in a club off Frenchman Street in New Orleans. The electricity of the crowd, the interplay between the musicians, and the transcendence of the music all come together.
Part concert film, part travelogue, part history lesson, and part song exploder, each 40-minute episode of Sound Travels will give viewers unprecedented access to recording studios, celebrity musicians, concert venues, and the unsung heroes of music.
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Lyle dons his Sunday best and heads south to Birmingham for services at Hopewell Baptist Church. Swaying along with fellow congregants, he loses himself in the spirit as full-throated vocals mingle with the sermonizing of Reverend Dr. Timothy J. Woods Sr. — it’s Gospel at its most exuberant.
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In this episode, Lyle is joined by Grammy Award-winning artist Kirk Franklin. They travel the dirt roads of Georgia to visit the single-room, antebellum churches that gave birth to the spiritual. They then trace the evolution of gospel music as it migrated north to the storefront churches of Chicago and merged with the secular blues, jazz, and swing scenes.
At the Hammond Organ company, he’ll tour the factory and jam with legendary “Queen of the B3 Hammond Organ,” Twinkie Clark, who explains how the instrument revolutionized gospel music by enabling a single musician to play both rhythm and melody.
As services approach, the choir begins to warm up. Celebrity guest Jennifer Hudson coaches Lyle in the vocal call-and-response that anchors gospel’s harmony and choir director Ricky Dillard will help him learn the foot stomps and hand claps that provide the rhythm’s foundations.
The pews are packed with lively congregants as Lyle’s journey culminates in a soul-stirring Sunday Service where he joins a 40-person choir in the mournful “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and a jubilant “Down By The Riverside.” Of course, no service would be complete without coffee, cake, and a few musical pointers in the church rec room to end the day.
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Welcome to Sweden, home of Ikea, meatballs, and black metal? Yep! As he crams into a sweaty underground club and braves an onslaught of distorted guitar and primal screams, Lyle realizes that the Swedes take their metal seriously. In fact, Sweden has the most black metal bands per capita in the world.
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Like any aspiring black metal musician, Lyle makes the required pilgrimage deep into the Scandinavian mountains to the converted barn-cum-studio of Tomas Skogsberg. Guitars in hand and amps maxed, the guru of Swedish metal will help Lyle master the distortion pedal, power chords, speed riffs, and earth-shattering squeals that make the black metal sound.
He travels with Angela Gossow, the first lady of black metal, to her childhood basement in the industrial north to master the vocal grunts, screams, and screeches that pass for melody. On a black metal cruise in the Baltic with a thousand rabid metalheads, he gets a crash course on mosh pit etiquette, learns how to headbang, and is outfitted by hardcore fans in leather, studs, and face paint.
He’ll spend a pre-concert day with some grizzled roadies, sharing vodka shots and building out the Marshall stacks that will blast the riffage to the black metal masses. It all culminates at Scandinavia Death Fest 2023, where primal screams and “Buzzsaw” guitar wash over 30,000 head-banging Swedes as Lyle and the band power through hits such as War Eternal, Torn Apart, and Bleed For Me.
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You’re gonna need a truck and directions from a local if you want to get to Layla’s Bluegrass Shack. Because Layla’s, like the best bluegrass joints, isn’t on any map. It doesn’t have a sound system or bar, just a cooler of beer and the honor system. What Layla’s does have is a weathered stage that’s almost as old as the musicians on it and some of the best mountain ballads and toe-tapping bluegrass you’ll ever hear.
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In this episode, Lyle travels the sharp ridges and deep hollers of Appalachia to trace the Scotch-Irish fiddle music that, over generations, became bluegrass. He’ll meet Abby, the Spoon Lady, learn how to “buck dance,” and visit the coal mines of Eastern Kentucky with bluegrass legend Rickey Skaggs to get a taste of the hardscrabble life that provides the narrative to so many songs.
He dives into the unique sound of bluegrass with 106-year-old fiddle maker and musician Violet Hensley. They’ll jam on the resonator guitar and the fiddle and experiment with the homemade percussion instruments that her impoverished mining ancestors turned to out of necessity: spoons, thimbles against a washboard, and washtub bass.
The episode’s climax is an extended front porch jam session with the Tenos family—the “First Family of Bluegrass.” With special guests Scott and Seth Avett, Lyle will “pass a break” with the extended family. Grandma Teno will yodel her way through Muleskinner Blues, Lyle, and the Avetts will reinvent Nine Pound Hammer, and 14-year-old Sam Tenos will close it out with Rocky Top as Lyle shows off his newfound dance skills with Grandpa Trippy.
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It’s 2 am and the narrow streets of La Placita, San Juan, are bouncing. Six hours ago, this plaza was filled with fruit and vegetable carts, but now it’s an impromptu party. A large brass section leads the charge, a slew of bongo players keep the beat, and we find Lyle amidst a sea of dancers, hips swaying and fingers snapping. This is salsa, Puerto Rico style.
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Lyle will travel north to Spanish Harlem and meet with New York native Marc Anthony to grasp the genre’s evolution. They’ll uncover the abandoned dance palaces, where a century ago, Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants fused African rhythms with the city’s vibrant big-band jazz sound. He’ll share a shaved ice with Bronx native Linda Caballero as they listen to clave and xylophone players on the corner of 111th Street and 3rd Avenue. It was here in the ‘70s that salsa was popularized before making a return trip to the Island of Enchantment.
Back in the hills of Puerto Rico, he’ll join a Sunday drum circle, picking up the basics of the congas and bongos. He visits La Marqueta, where old-timers will teach him to dance la salsa the way they did when they were young. He’ll spend an evening with a traveling Bomba band as they improvise their way up and down the streets of Old San Juan.
The episode wraps in the Beaux Arts ballroom of the Fairmount Hotel. A tuxedoed Lyle will join the house band for a sizzling set. Salsa dance legends Ernesto Bulnes and Denisse Cambria tear it up to La Vida Es Un Carnival and Lyle will lead the brass section for Ran Kan Kan. The episode will wrap with Lyle and the band kicking back to enjoy a breakfast of café con Leche and pan de agua as the sun rises over the Atlantic.
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The House that Ruth built sits empty and dark and the subway platforms are desolate, but a large crowd is just getting going in the basement rec center at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. On stage is DJ Kool Herc, the OG who started it all, spinning records and throwing down beats for adoring fans. In this episode, Lyle explores hip-hop in the place where it all started: the Bronx.
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DJ Kool Herc takes Lyle to his old neighborhood haunts. As the Bronx was burning in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Herc hosted Friday night parties in rec centers. In an effort to keep the crowd dancing, he used two turntables to create loops, or “breaks” — playing the funkiest sections and the best drum beats, switching between them until there was no choice “but to get on the dance floor and stay there,” as Herc puts it. Instead of passively spinning records, he manipulated them to create new music and hip-hop was born.
Lyle heads downtown to Rock and Soul DJ Equipment, where he learns the old-school, two-turntable techniques of scratching, needle dropping, and looping. Battle rapper, Remy Ma, will test Lyle’s wit at an all-female rap battle in a Queens warehouse. Then Lyle hangs on a stoop with break dance legend Sonny Choi, who’s preparing to compete at the 2024 Olympics.
The episode will wrap up with that distinctly NYC strain
of celebration: an old-school summer block party. With their speakers illicitly plugged into a street lamp, DJ Herc and Remy Ma lead the crowd as they enjoy burgers and cool down in the open hydrant.
There may even be a few remixes of Lyle’s own tunes and the classic cardboard dance floor for those who feel the beat.
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Much like Britain in the swinging sixties, the Korean music invasion has altered the musical landscape. This episode starts with Lyle standing among a throng of die-hard K-Poppers outside an arena in Seoul. It feels like 1963 all over again as screaming, banner-holding teens clamor for a glimpse of the Black Pink, the latest musical heartthrobs. In this episode, Lyle will explore the ecosystem that manufactures a seemingly endless supply of stars and hits.
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He begins by diving beneath the glitz and gloss to discover the cultural relevance of K-Pop. He tours the US military bases where GIs introduced Koreans to pop music and learns how the explosion of the Korean economy in the early 1990s prompted Koreans to take foreign influences (in this case, American pop) and give them a Korean spin. American ex-pat Tiffany Young, from the group Girls Generation, will introduce Lyle to the all consuming “idol” sub-culture that is part and parcel of the genre. She takes him shopping for action figures, body pillows, and hand creams bearing her likeness. They end the night singing her hits at a karaoke bar.
Lyle won’t be performing this episode. Instead, he’ll work with record exec Lee Soo-Man and his up-and-coming band Weki Meki to prep for a TV competition show: Peak Time. Lyle will join them in an intense boot camp where they hone their singing, choreography, and wardrobe. Lyle will also visit with renowned K-Pop producer Steven Amber to learn the vocal complexities and layers made possible by the sheer size of each band. As Amber says, “you can do a lot more with 10 voices than one.”
Everything comes together on stage at a live recording of the aforementioned Peak Time, where Lyle will be one of the celebrity judges. As the singers cycle through the competition, we are treated to a delicious twist: all the songs performed are Lyle Lovett originals, putting the K-Pop formula to the test.
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Country
Nashville
Opera
Milan
Reggae
Jamaica
Tuareg “Tishoumaren”
Desert Blues
Algeria/Mali
Blues
Chicago/Memphis
Jazz and Zydeco
New Orleans
Rumba and Son
Cuba
Tejano
San Antonio
Mariachi
Mexico City
Indipop
(Bollywood)
Bombay
Polka
Rural Pennsylvania/Wisconsin
Punk
London
West Coast Rap
Los Angeles
Flamenco
Sevilla
Bubble Gum Pop
Sweden
Techno
Berlin
Samba and Bossa Nova
Rio
EDM
Ibiza
Celtic
Dublin
R&B and Techno
Detroit
Heavy Metal
Birmingham, UK
Trap
Atlanta
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The iconoclastic Texas singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett has long shattered conventional beliefs about country, bluegrass, folk, and other genres. An heir to such eccentric literary troubadours as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, Lovett laid the groundwork for the alternative country and Americana movements with his eponymous 1986 debut and its 1987 successor, Pontiac. For over 30 years, he’s maintained an outsized presence not only in the Americana and country scenes but across numerous genres (pop, gospel, folk, jazz) thanks to regular performances with his Large Band.
As one of music’s most inquisitive minds and unique personalities, Lyle Lovett’s appeal goes beyond his own musical proficiency, live performances, and built-in fan base. He has performed with artists such as Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Atlanta Seventh Day Church Chorus, Kacey Musgraves, and Common.
Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. His most recent album is 12th of June, released in 2022. He is no stranger to the camera, having been in several movies and TV shows, notably four for director Robert Altman. His television acting forays include guest roles on Mad About You and Castle, a recurring role on The Bridge, and multiple appearances as himself.
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Marco is an award-winning producer, director, writer, and editor. His feature film credits include The Wedding Bros, which made its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival and the PBS documentary, The Reconstruction of Asa Carter. Marco won the American Advertising Award for Branded Entertainment for a series of short films he directed for the renowned bootmaker, Lucchese. He also won a Webby Award for his virtual reality film about the refugee crisis in the Middle East. His docu-short, Lone Star Candidate, was released by the New York Times as the centerpiece of their election day coverage in 2014.As a partner at MWM Partners, his client list includes Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Pernod-Riccard. His shorts have won numerous awards and his short film, Hyper, was chosen for the Centerpiece of the New York Film Festival and honored as the Best Short at the prestigious Aspen Shortsfest. He is currently in post-production on his most recent feature documentary, Lucha, which tells the story of four female wrestlers at Taft High School in the South Bronx.
A magna cum laude graduate of Brandeis University, Douglas spent several years as a producer at ABC News Productions in New York, where he worked on documentaries for the Discovery Channel, A&E, and the History Channel. As a founder and managing partner at MWM, Douglas oversees the development and production of nonfiction film projects and branded video content as well as web development projects. He’s led large integrated projects for Drunk Elephant, Columbia University, Rice University, Lucchese Bootmaker, and Hines, among many others. Recent films include The Reconstruction of Asa Carter, a documentary feature that aired nationally on PBS, and Lone Star Candidate, a documentary short commissioned byThe New York Times.
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