PODCAST · music
Wong Notes
by Premier Guitar
Hi, my name is Cory Wong. This is my podcast. I'm going to talk to your favorite artists as they discuss their personal tricks of the trade, never-before-heard stories, and the proper response when Sinatra wants to peep your master tapes.
Episodes
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Derek Trucks Returns!
We are absolutely thrilled to welcome back slide guitar legend Derek Trucks for his second appearance on the show. In this episode, we dive deep into the Tedeski Trucks Band's incredible new album, Future Soul, and discuss what it was like shaking things up with versatile producer Mike Elizondo....
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How to Read the Room and Serve the Song with Dann Huff
Today, we’re hanging with an absolute legend, the incredible guitarist and producer, Dann Huff. This cat has played on and produced everything from Taylor Swift to Megadeth—talk about a wide spectrum of skill sets! We’re diving deep into his philosophy on session playing and what it really means…
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Nate Smith: "Jazz is the Biggest Four-Letter Word in the English Language"
Fresh off winning two Grammys and being named artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, drum legend Nate Smith sits down with host and bandmate Cory Wong to chart his career journey on this new episode of Wong Notes. Smith details his rise from playing with jazz giants like Dave Holland and...
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Oteil Burbridge: Intention First. Instrument Last
Cory Wong sits down with the legendary bassist Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band, Dead & Company, Tedeschi Trucks Band) for a deep dive into musical philosophy, Col. Bruce, and more. Burbridge has been driven by a simple, radical lesson he learned from Col. Bruce Hampton: Intention comes…
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Wong Notes Live! with Matteo Mancuso
Back in August, at Cory Wong’s Syncopated Summer Camp in Nashville, Wong hosted a late-night interview and hang session with Italian guitar hero Matteo Mancuso. If you weren’t there, you’re in luck: This week’s episode of Wong Notes features that exclusive rendezvous in its entirety, recorded…
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The Trey Anastasio Takeover Continues!
Phish’s Trey Anastasio is back again on this week’s extra-special episode of Wong Notes. The expansive conversation goes from the mundane to the massive: Trey shares the meaningful gift he bought himself for his 60th birthday, reflects on his most meaningful song, dissects boredom and nostalgia…
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Trey Anastasio on Dumbles, Broadway, and 40-Plus Years of Phish
Imagine being in a band with your best friends for over 40 years, and each night you step on stage you get to play one more show. That’s exactly what guitarist Trey Anastasio and his bandmates in Phish think about right before every sold-out arena or amphitheater show. “We're all hyper aware now,...
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Blake Mills and Pino Palladino
This go around, Cory Wong is joined by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills. Palladino, a Grammy-winning bassist, has collaborated with everyone from Erykah Badu and Keith Richards to John Mayer and the late, great D’Angelo. Mills’ resumé includes work with Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, and Joni Mitchell.…
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The Fearless Flyers: Flight School is in Session!
Welcome back for a special episode of Wong Notes! If you couldn’t make it to Cory’s Syncopated Summer Camp, this one’s for you: It features Wong and his Flyers bandmates—Nate Smith on drums, Joe Dart on bass, and Mark Lettieri on guitar—in a live masterclass recording from this summer, as they…
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James Bay on Failed Solos, Onstage Adrenaline, and How to Hire a Band
On this episode, James Bay joins Cory Wong from backstage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (It takes Wong all of 10 seconds to recognize and name the green room.) Bay is still supporting his fourth full-length record, Changes All the Time, and Wong picked up on a different guitar approach on...
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Goose's Rick Mitarotonda: Can Jambands Write Great Songs? Yes!
Sound the alarms, tell your neighbors, hire a banner plane: Wong Notes is back. Cory Wong’s beloved podcast returns after a healthy break, and this exciting comeback episode features Wong in conversation with Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda. The Connecticut rock band’s guitarist and vocalist talks…
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Brad Paisley on Fish, Phish, and the Origins of the "Lost" Paisley Guitar
Welcome back for a special season finale of Wong Notes! We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from...
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Joe Satriani is Back!
Legendary shredder Joe Satriani was the first ever guest on Wong Notes, so it makes sense that he’s the first returning sit-in with Cory Wong. Satch is busy as ever, juggling enough projects to make a normal guitarist’s head spin. But Satriani’s not a normal guitarist. He teases a new song with...
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Don’t Call Grace Bowers a Blues-Rock Guitarist
Grace Bowers just released her debut record, 2024’s Wine on Venus, with her band the Hodge Podge, but she’s already one the most well-known young guitarists in America. On this episode of Wong Notes, Bowers talks through the ups, downs, and detours of her whirlwind career. Bowers started out...
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“Crank That Sh*t Up!” Greg Koch on Teaching, Mistakes, Modeling, and Modern Blues
You might not know Greg Koch, but we’ll bet your favorite guitarist does. In 2012, Fender called the Wisconsin blues-guitar phenom one of the top 10 best unsung guitarists, and in 2020, Guitar World listed Koch among the 15 best guitar teachers. He’s been inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music...
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The Journey of Jazz Guitarist Mike Stern
Mike Stern has been around the block. The jazz-guitar virtuoso earned his stripes through the ’70s and ’80s in New York’s jazz scene, playing 6-string with drummer Billy Cobham before tapping in with artists like Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius—even at a time when guitar wasn’t necessarily a...
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“Get It Right, Get It Fast”: Jerry Douglas on Bluegrass History, Technicality, and Session Secrets
Bluegrass music is bigger than a genre. It’s become an entire world of ideas and feelings in the popular American imagination. And musician Jerry Douglas has been a key part of its celebration and revival over the past 30 years. “It's an old form of music that came from people in the south…
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Superstar Bassist Blu DeTiger: “Wanna Get Gigs? Be a Good Hang”
At 26, Blu DeTiger is the youngest musician ever to have a signature Fender bass guitar. The Fender Limited Player Plus x Blu DeTiger Jazz Bass, announced in September, pays tribute to the bassist and singer’s far-reaching impact and cultural sway. She’s played with Caroline Polachek, Bleachers,...
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Mark Tremonti: “Play Like Grandma’s in the Room”
There probably aren’t too many artists out there as busy as Mark Tremonti. Aside from his celebrated careers in alt-rock mainstays Creed and Alter Bridge, the guitarist, songwriter, and singer organizes guitar and songwriting clinics while on tour; has a line of signature PRS gear; and cut a...
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Skunk Baxter: Hostage Negotiations in the Studio
“Skunk” Baxter has had an interesting career. The Washington, D.C.-born musician was one of Steely Dan’s founding members in the early 1970s, and played on some of their most iconic numbers, like Can’t Buy a Thrill’s’ “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again,” or Pretzel Logic’s “Rikki Don’t Lose...
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Jason Newsted Wants You to Put Your Damn Phone Away
Jason Newsted spent 15 years holding down the low end in Metallica, playing bass for the band from 1986 through 2001. That era included records like …And Justice For All and Metallica—AKA The Black Album—plus the iconic S&M live album with the San Francisco Symphony. But that was just the…
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Dave Navarro on Trainwrecks, Rabbit Holes, and the “Navarro Smear”
We know what you’re thinking: Dave Navarro is gonna talk about the onstage brawl. But Cory Wong starts this episode of Wong Notes with an important caveat. This show was recorded long before the awful breakdown and confrontation between Navarro and Jane’s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, so…
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Keith Urban: “I’m Not Chasing Tone, I’m Pursuing Inspiration”
Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on...
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Kurt Rosenwinkel Weighs In
This time on Wong Notes, guitar legend Kurt Rosenwinkel joins Cory Wong to go deep on all things jazz. The genre has always been a haven for free-thinkers and adventurers, so it’s little surprise when Rosenwinkel reveals that he’s incorporated a Fractal FM9 into his live rig—though it’s still...
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Al Di Meola: Friday Night at Olive Garden
The legendary shred maestro—best known for his work as a solo artist and as a member of Return to Forever and other high-profile, hot-shot collabs—drops by to chat with Cory about his new epic full-length, Twentyfour. It features “sixteen brand-new compositions and they’re all very involved. I…
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Marcus King and the Medicine of Music
Marcus King has already been through the wringer, but he’s on the come-up. His hotly anticipated third LP, Mood Swings, drops this Friday, April 5, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the earnest, honest 28-year old South Carolinian goes deep on his career with Cory Wong. The two shredders open by...
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Respect, Psychedelics, and the Future of Bluegrass With Billy Strings
The ascendant roots shredder shares intimate details from his musical upbringing and gets philosophical on the past and future of bluegrass. Millennial folk philosopher Billy Strings joins this episode of Wong Notes. The Grammy-winning acoustic picker is an open book—nothing is off limits with...
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Joe Dart Talks Bass Philosophy and the Benefits of High Action
This time on Wong Notes, Cory is joined by his Vulfpeck and Fearless Flyers copilot Joe Dart. Wong doesn’t waste any time, diving in by asking Dart, by now renowned as a modern bass wizard with flawless fundamentals, how he developed he signature “voice” on the bass. As Dart explains, it came…
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The Rich Musical World of Louis Cato
Multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato has had a lot on his plate since taking over as bandleader for Jon Batiste on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in late 2022, but has been enjoying every minute of it. "I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, with exactly the people I'm supposed to be...
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Aaron Sterling’s Pedalboard Approach to the Drums
Session drum ace Aaron Sterling might have fusion roots, but his bread-and-butter work lives at the top of the charts, where’s he’s featured on tracks by artists such as John Mayer, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Lana Del Rey. He tells Cory what brought him to Los Angeles, why he’s “meant to be…
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How Bruce Lee Inspired Margaret Glaspy’s New Record
Cory Wong sits down with indie-rock bandleader Margaret Glaspy for an in-depth dialogue on artistry, celebrity, and the wisdom of Bruce Lee. Glaspy shares how she cut her latest record, Echo The Diamond, live off the floor, with most of the “homework” happening beforehand and studio performances...
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Charlie Hunter: Graduating Busking Boot Camp
"I don't consider myself a jazz musician," says guitarist Charlie Hunter on this episode of Wong Notes—essentially refuting how he's known in the music world. "I am maybe jazz adjacent." Most listeners probably wouldn't agree, but if nothing else, Hunter is experimental. He's known for playing a...
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Bruno Major’s Relatively Lo-Fi Soul
Cory’s cast is off and he’s here to tell you to “go get hip” to Bruno Major! The soulful, jazzy British singer-songwriter shares why he prefers to record in his bedroom than a studio to create his “relatively lo-fi” music. “It’s far more important to be transmitting a privacy than an audio...
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Daniel Donato Gets Cosmic
"When you switch the gear of what you're operating on from the memorized information to the gear of intuitive, faithful response, it's a whole different frequency that's emitted from the hands and from the soul," country shredder Daniel Donato expresses on this episode of Wong Notes. He's talking...
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Wolfgang Van Halen: Sing the Solo
Wolfgang Van Halen joins Cory for the season 7 premiere of Wong Notes! Chatting before the release of Mammoth II, the duo discuss guitar trios, 5150 studios, cloning, touring with Metallica, plus: Who’s that playing wah on the record? What’s WVH’s rig? And much more. On his new record, WVH has…
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Eric Krasno: Funk Chameleon
Soulive, Lettuce, Tedeschi Trucks, and most recently, Stanton Moore and Branford Marsalis—that's a short list of some of the acts Eric Krasno plays and has played with throughout his career. From one funk guitarist to another, Cory sits down with Eric to talk what it means to play the right…
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Jason Isbell's Desert Island Gear
"If you keep your head and your ass in the same place, that'll happen on its own," says Jason Isbell on how he gets the most out of his live performances. On the heels of a new HBO documentary, he and Cory sit down for a deep discussion, talking creating genuine art that can also turn into hits,...
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Nuno Bettencourt is Out for Blood
The Extreme guitarist shares his pedal philosophy—including how a visit from EVH inspired him to use a phaser on the new record—and talks about ripping with Rihanna at the Super Bowl and more. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Nuno...
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Mike Gordon on the Magic of the Jam
The Phish bassist chats about everything from how to EQ a picked electric bass tone to drummers, the importance of a good shirt, his recipe for a good gig, and why he hates jam bands. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Mike Gordon:...
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Theo Katzman: The Songwriter Behind the Guitarist
Cory sits down with his bandmate-brother, multi-instrumentalist Theo Katzman, to discuss the virtues of musical self-acceptance, the infectious charisma of Trey Anastasio, and how Theo has made a career out of being a jack of all trades. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here:...
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Mateus Asato on Thinking Beyond the Guitar
Mateus Asato shares on his experiences playing with pop stars, what it means to be of service to a song, and how taking a break from social media—which was where he built his fan base of 1.2 million—was crucial to his mental health. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here:...
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Paul Gilbert’s Shred School Is in Session
The professor is in. He dives deep into EVH’s moves, talks about why he prefers high action, and goes “full rant mode” into technical tips. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Paul Gilbert: http://paulgilbert.com Hit us up:...
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How Does Nir Felder Get His Tone?
This week’s ep is just a couple of Strat dudes talkin’ gear. The guys get deep on everything from their favorite guitars to pedals and some speaker chat, and the busy New York guitarist and professor talks about improv and the up-and-coming crop of jazz cats. Get 30% off your first year of...
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KT Tunstall and the Mystery of Songwriting
The Scottish singer-songwriter talks about discovering looping, the perfect pedalboard, and gets deep about the mystery of songwriting and coping with hearing loss. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit KT Tunstall:...
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"Captain" Kirk Douglas: From "Wheels on the Bus" to the Tonight Show
Roots guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas talks about his background as a pre-school teacher, the role of the guitar in hip-hop, and gives the definitive take on his Prince story. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Kirk Douglas:...
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Chris Thile’s Exercise in Joy
The Punch Brother and MacArthur Genius talks about why he chose the mandolin and how it relates to Roger Federer. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Chris Thile: http://christhile.com Hit us up: [email protected] Visit Cory:...
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Chris Shiflett is Over the “Shame of the ’80s”
The Foo Fighter talks about his influences from the guitar-hero era, and shares all the details of his gear, from his signature model Fender to why “you gotta have a Phase 90 on your board.” Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Chris...
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What Scares Julian Lage?
The jazz phenom chats about flying with his guitar, how he approaches fluidity on his instrument, overcoming injury, and his take on pedals and tunings. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Visit Julian Lage: http://julianlage.com Hit us up:...
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Derek Trucks: “There’s a Lot of Music Out There”
The slide master talks about amalgamating influences, keeping it fresh, how he approaches tone, and the best amp ever made. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong Fender Cory Wong Stratocaster - https://imp.i114863.net/LPqJyV Jackson Audio…
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Cory Wong On How To Get Your Groove On
The master rhythmist answers questions from fans, sharing wisdom on picking technique, practicing, balancing 24/7/365 work with family, show prep, killing bad habits, rehearsals, and how to be a good hang on the disc golf course. Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here:...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hi, my name is Cory Wong. This is my podcast. I'm going to talk to your favorite artists as they discuss their personal tricks of the trade, never-before-heard stories, and the proper response when Sinatra wants to peep your master tapes.
HOSTED BY
Premier Guitar
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Wong Notes have?
Wong Notes currently has 108 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Wong Notes about?
Hi, my name is Cory Wong. This is my podcast. I'm going to talk to your favorite artists as they discuss their personal tricks of the trade, never-before-heard stories, and the proper response when Sinatra wants to peep your master tapes.
How often does Wong Notes release new episodes?
Wong Notes publishes regularly with 108 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Wong Notes?
You can listen to Wong Notes on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Wong Notes?
Wong Notes is created and hosted by Premier Guitar.
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