You probably know Ed Helms from his unforgettable turns in The Hangover movies, The Office, and a laundry list of era-defining comedies, but what you might not know is that he shreds bluegrass music, too. (Actually, if you’ve seen The Office, you’ll know about his impressive musicianship.) Helms has played in bluegrass bands since his college days, so he knows a thing or two about writing a great American roots song. And what’s more American than getting too pissed off and ruining nice things?

Helms joins Sean Watkins and Peter Harper for a writing session that centers on a paraphrased version of Abraham Maslow’s law of the instrument: “When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything’s a nail.” The trio use the phrase as a way to look at personal and societal inabilities to approach situations with “the right tool,” like nuance, patience, or grace. Instead, anger—the hammer—seems to be the only tool in our belts. That inevitably means we end up smashing stuff.

Tune in to hear how this John Prine-inspired country tune takes shape—plus, don’t miss the story of Sean’s DMV blowup when he was just 16.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

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This time on Before Your Very Ears, hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper give love a chance. Helping them learn the ways of love is Nick Thune, comedian and musician, who spearheads the songwriting session—but not before sharing some of the best bird-related jokes you’ll ever hear.

The trio settles on a Steve Jobs-ish strategy of starting with the finished product, and working their way backwards. The end goal in this case? A love song, but a different kind of love song. The objective prompts interesting discussions: What’s a typical love song, and therefore what will make for an atypical love song? Romantic ballads are usually filled with rose-colored reflections and sweet sentiment, and this one isn’t too different, but there’s one key thing missing: a love interest.

That doesn’t stop the song’s protagonist, whose hunt for love unspools over a verse that eventually slows to a speak-singing 6/8 sway, and a radio-ready power-pop chorus. If you’ve ever wondered how to write a classic love song, well… look elsewhere. But if you’re keen on figuring out how to write a memorable, distinct one, this is your episode.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

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Ever wondered how songwriters capture scenery and stories so vivid that they seem to jump out of the song and into real life? Cary Brothers can offer some insight. In addition to releasing three full-length solo albums, the Los Angeles-based musician’s songs have been featured in dozens of film and TV productions, including Grey’s Anatomy, ER, Scrubs, One Tree Hill, Smallville, 90210, Garden State, and more.

Brothers moved to Los Angeles to work in film, but eventually turned to focus on writing music. His experiences in Hollywood gave Brothers a keen visual sense in music—and a deep appreciation for how sounds and visuals can augment one another. This time out on Before Your Very Ears, Brothers joins hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper to talk about how to balance the desires of both our eyes and ears while arranging tunes.

The end result is a deliciously striking last-call serenade. It starts with a Pogues-esque keys motif, then blossoms into a Waits-meets-Springsteen, back-of-the-bar heartbreaker. The details get filled in as the writing session goes on—the local watering hole with its broken jukebox and laissez-faire doorman—and before long, the cinematic, lonesome ballad takes shape.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

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Mississippi-born, Los Angeles-based musician and songwriter Garrison Starr has been recording and releasing music since the early ’90s. The veteran rocker is an expert on creative expression—but also on navigating the “ballsack of an industry” that is the professional music world.

That includes the alienating experience of having to engage in a narrative—whether in song or in the press—that isn’t real or true for you, maybe even one that cheapens your personhood. “How many times have I done that to myself?” Starr wonders. These are the things the commercial music industry foists upon its would-be stars.

Along with Before Your Very Ears hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper, Starr hits on the key to writing great songs: Being honest creates more, and better, success. “The vulnerability is where the power is,” says Starr. Fueled by the experience of being outed in college, and then exiled from her evangelical community for being gay, Starr leads the trio on a songwriting expedition to examine the damage of having our stories ripped from us—and the potential of reclamation through song.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

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If you’ve been in any bar past last call, you’ve heard Dan Wilson’s work. “Closing Time” launched his band Semisonic into the international pop-culture stratosphere in 1998, and since then, he’s become an A-list cowriter with some of music’s biggest names—including, perhaps, the biggest: Taylor Swift. The 62-year-old Minnesota native cowrote the Chicks’ Grammy-winning anthem “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Adele’s tear-jerker “Someone Like You,” and Chris Stapleton’s “White Horse,” which took home the 2024 Grammy for best country song. Wilson insists that he rebels against any “role” foisted upon him in the studio—he’s less “writer’s block killer” and more “creative therapist,” digging for truth and emotion.

Wilson’s creative craft has brought us some of this century’s most ubiquitous and popular songs, and on this episode of Before Your Very Ears, he applies it with hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper to write an alt-country tune in G major. The central idea? You’re not your feelings, and sometimes it’s only through the grace of those closest to us that we can pare down an overreaction: “It’s a long-term solution to a short-term problem/When you’re looking for answers, that’s when everybody’s got one,” the main hook calls.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

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Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, the songwriters and musicians behind indie-folk favorites Milk Carton Kids, don’t cut corners when it comes to songwriting. Everything gets held under the microscope; everything is subject to change. There’s no ego in the room, just pure service of the song.

Ryan and Pattengale join hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper to talk influences—what gets through into your songwriting, and what do you block out?—before digging into a downtempo plucker built around a timeless, folk-country melodic convention. Once the basic pieces are in place, though, things get interesting. The gang calls this “Burt Bacharach-ing it up;” lashing the essential elements tightly to the deck. Word choices are analyzed and tweaked, melodies are shifted ever so slightly, and chord progressions are optimized, note by note.

The quartet settles on a simple, memorable lyrical composition (“An Orbison, one-nugget snapshot”), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t space for some Adam Sandler vocal influence to counterbalance the Nebraska-era Springsteen solemnity.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

Join our Patreon: http://patreon.com/beforeyourveryears

On the second episode of Before Your Very Ears, west coast folk musician and songwriting powerhouse Madison Cunningham engages in some anger management.

Along with hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper, Cunningham, whose 2022 record Revealer won the Grammy for Best Folk Album, digs into the nature of artistry and truth-telling: What are the social and professional costs of telling it like it is, or simply sticking to your artistic guns instead of appealing to the masses? Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot got them dropped from their label—then it went on to become their most celebrated record. Who’s to say?

Invoking her upbringing in the church and subsequent alienation from it, in part thanks to the ostracizing that came from questioning the rules, Cunningham leads the group on a writing session rooted in expressing anger and frustrating. “I write because I’m trying to hit something instead of someone,” Cunningham quips. What takes form is a folk-rock “rage song” about transmitters and receivers, about the incessant flow of information and the resonance, dissonance, and white noise that we’re all hooked up to. It’s also an expert lesson in subtlety and the expression of complex ideas: “Talk about the summer, passing the time/Your guess about Jesus is as good as mine,” Cunningham conjures on the verse.

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

Join our Patreon: http://patreon.com/beforeyourveryears

While plenty of songwriters are happy to give a post-mortem review of how they write a song, the actual process happens behind closed doors. What goes through their heads while they decide on a specific word choice? Who hasn’t wished to be a fly on the wall while professional musicians hack together the pieces that make our favorite songs?

That’s the experience of Before Your Very Ears, a new podcast hosted by guitarists Sean Watkins and Peter Harper. On each episode, Watkins and Harper are joined by a different guest musician, and together, the three of them have one goal before the mics stop rolling: They have to write an original song. Before Your Very Ears is a fun, insightful exploration of the mysterious, ever-elusive “Songwriting Process,” and a real-time demonstration of the twists and turns that result in the music we love.

This debut episode features Vulfpeck founder and guitarist Theo Katzman. The trio starts with a gentle acoustic idea, envisioned as a sleepy-time lullaby. But as each player introduces their perspective on the concept, it soon turns into a profound, heart-felt meditation on death and grief, and what it means to lose someone.Step right up, and witness the creative brain in motion Before Your Very Ears!

This episode is sponsored by Berklee Online: https://online.berklee.edu/

Join our Patreon: http://patreon.com/beforeyourveryears