Actor Jack McBrayer (Kenneth on NBC’s 30 Rock) e-mailed me recently, panic-stricken and possibly sweaty. He was convinced that the recent writers’ strike had made people forget who he was. “But Jack,” I said, “the last new episode of 30 Rock aired in January, and the next new episode airs Thursday, April 10, 8:30 Eastern, 7:30 Central. Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”

“The public is fickle, Robert — I have to get my face back out there.”

“But you’re in Mariah Carey’s new video for ‘Touch My Body,’” I reminded him. “I saw it advertised on VH1 at the end of February, and I watched it on YouTube just the other day. Don’t worry. Everything’ll be alright.”

Unfortunately, nothing I said could calm him down. But four hours and a couple hundred e-mails later, Jack and I came up with a solution that would please everyone — a Popdose e-mail interview. Hooray! My work here is done. Well, except for the actual interview.

Jack and I grew up in the same town — Macon, Georgia — but when he was 15, his family moved to Conyers, Georgia, the home of Holly Hunter and a scorching outbreak of syphilis back in the ’90s. After graduating from the University of Evansville in Indiana in 1995, Jack moved to Chicago and studied improv and sketch comedy at the Second City and ImprovOlympic Theater (now known as iO). He was hired for the Second City Touring Company in ‘97, and two years later he was a writer-performer on the Second City e.t.c. stage. In 2002 he moved to New York City and began making regular appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien in various roles.

Jack’s next move was to Los Angeles in 2004, where he played a waiter on two episodes of the late, great sitcom Arrested Development, continued improvising at iO West, and in 2006 costarred in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, followed closely by his breakout role as Kenneth the NBC page on the 2007 Emmy winner for best comedy series, 30 Rock. On April 18 he stars in the latest Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which he plays the newlywed husband of Maria Thayer (Strangers With Candy).

Before Jack and his family moved to Conyers, he and I shared good times and youthful lung capacity in the Macon Boys’ Choir during the 1984-’85 school year. Unfortunately, I don’t think we talked to each other that much, seeing as how he was a sixth grader and I was a third grader. Nevertheless, my first question for the southern scene stealer was …

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He may not be a household name, but Matthew Ryan’s raw, emotional songs have struck a chord with enough fans to support a musical habit that has lasted over a decade and through 11 albums (so far). On the eve of the release of his latest effort, Matthew Ryan vs. the Silver State, he took time out to talk with Popdose about his past, present, and future. Read on!

Judging from the title and the album cover, I was expecting an album of Irish battle songs!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that really isn’t the case.

Well, they kinda are …

They’re pretty low-key for battle songs …

(Laughs)

… and I think someone who listened to your last album, From a Late Night High-Rise, might look at this and assume that it’s sort of a rockin’ response to what was a very personal set of songs. But it isn’t really that either.

Well, it’s hard for me to be objective, but I think it has an emotional presence that’s a little more amplified.

It does feel like a more muscular record, more live, for lack of a better word, but it doesn’t feel like you’re bashing out the stuff you were carrying around for High-Rise.

Right. Well, I think in the last few years my work has gotten a little more confidential, and I think that might be a sign of maturity. You know? I wouldn’t say this record’s more a whisper than a scream, but I guess it is. And the things I’m writing about, I’d rather provoke a conversation than rage from a soapbox.

The songs have a really natural flow to them. I just noticed this morning that the opening track, “Dulce et Decorum Est” (download), is seven minutes long.

(Laughs) That’s good to hear, man. That’s what I’d hope would happen, ’cause if you’ve got a story to tell and you’re telling it well and it has its own cinema about it, time should become a bit more elastic, you know? (more…)

Popularity: 8% [?]

The name “Willie Wisely” has been music to discerning pop fans’ ears for well over a decade now, but he’ll be the first to admit his albums have thus far failed to penetrate the wider marketplace, despite reams of positive reviews and a fervent fanbase. With his latest release, titled simply Wisely, he hopes to change all that — and was willing to chat with Popdose during part of a 14-hour drive between gigs in order to help further his cause. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the magic of Wisely’s songs, prepare to be enlightened…

Where are you right now?

I think I’m near Jacksonville, Florida. When I MapQuest for these gigs, I never pay attention — I only know I need to turn in 400 miles. Daytona Beach! There, that’s where I am. Started the morning off in Richmond, Virginia, so today I’ve been doing a good chunk of driving. I’m playing tonight in Melbourne, Florida, which I think is near Tampa.

Sounds like you’re in the thick of promoting the new album.

Yep, yep, lots of touring. This is something like date number 73 since October.

The new record came out in January, on Oglio. How did you end up with them?

I was working with Andy Dick — I was producing and co-writing an album for him, and it was suggested to me that we approach Oglio, because they have George Lopez and some other big names I don’t know, ’cause I don’t follow comedy, but they’re the go-to label for that sort of stuff. I always knew the president of the label had a pop music heart as well, but really, I was just approaching him on the Andy Dick record; there was a spoken-word album in the can and we were working on the musical project, so I went to them and said “Why don’t you release this?” and they said “Great!”

I was sort of the point man for keeping Andy involved in the promotion of the record, and I got to see what a great label Oglio is — and they got to see that I’m easy to work with. I sent them a rough edit of the video for “Through Any Window” before I sent them the album, actually, and asked them what I should do with it. Mark at Oglio said “Holy shit! What should you do? We should sign you!” We signed up pretty quickly after that. I sent them the rough edit of the album, and it all came together. There were no attorneys involved. (Laughs)

Andy Dick! There are obviously hidden depths to your career that I didn’t know about.

Yeah, I don’t like to emphasize it, ’cause he’s a friend. A great friend. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Eddie Money knows he’s an archetype, and he doesn’t mind it one bit. His 15-year run of AOR hits and arena-rock stardom, from the 1978 double shot of “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise” through MTV hits like “Take Me Home Tonight” and “Peace in Our Time,” was interrupted in 1981 by a drug overdose that nearly took his life. Rehab stints for drug and alcohol problems later put a dent in his always healthy touring schedule, but Money soldiers on as he approaches his 60th birthday next year — staying clean and “trying not to smoke a million cigarettes,” as he rasped during our talk a couple weeks back.

He’s happy to talk about being a rock ‘n’ roll survivor; in fact, he’s happy to talk about anything at all, at approximately 1,500 words a minute. An interview with Money is almost guaranteed to feature at least one burst into song (in our case it was “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” during a discussion of Gerry & the Pacemakers’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame prospects); when he gets tired of talking about his career, he’ll turn the tables and start peppering his interviewer with questions. The extracurricular topics ranged from his hometown Giants’ Super Bowl win (he’s still excited, more than a month later) to Roger Clemens’s stupidity, and on to politics. (”It had better not be that frickin’ Obama,” he said; when I told him I am, indeed, all about Obama and explained why, he conceded, “Yeah, you may be right. My kids like him, too.”)

Money’s most recent album, last year’s set of ’60s soul covers called Wanna Go Back, turned the spotlight on his daughter Jessica; she’ll soon be featured in an MTV reality series about rock-star offspring called Rockin’ the Cradle. Meanwhile, Eddie is writing a stage musical about his own life, and he’s plotting to become the latest rocker to go country. He’s working with Vince Gill and John Ford Coley (among others) on songs for an album called The Other Side of Money that will feature, yes, a Nashville-ified version of “Two Tickets to Paradise” and which he hopes will “open up a whole new market for me.”

So how’s it going, Eddie?
Oh, man, I’m just tryin’ to pull it together this morning. It ain’t as easy as it used to be, comin’ down from a road trip at my age.

You were playing a casino near Portland this weekend.
Yeah, it was great, we had a lot of fans come out. I’m breaking in a new keyboard player. The old one was with me for 10 years, but he decided he didn’t want to do any more of those 4:30 a.m. calls to get on the bus and head out. Can’t say I blame him.

The great thing is that I’m taking my daughter Jesse on the road with me these days. She’s a miracle. We do a couple duets, she sings “Turtle Blues” by Janis [Joplin], it’s a lot of fun. She’s a great singer — I think she’s gonna go far. (more…)

Popularity: 15% [?]

We may scoff at his constantly smiling public persona — not to mention vintage bits of ’80s cheese like the “Mornin’” video — but anyone who tries to deny Al Jarreau’s talent is simply a fool, and we’re not too proud to admit we were, to borrow a phrase used in an earlier Darren Robbins post, “chuffed to the ‘nads” to have a few minutes on the phone with the voice that made Grammy history with wins in the pop, jazz, and R&B categories. You aren’t too cool for Al, kids — quite the opposite. In fact, he was too cool to answer some of our questions directly, but we accept that. Jarreau exists on another, hipper plane, which is why this interview kicks off Al Jarreau Week here at Popdose. Meet us at the roof garden from now ’til Friday!

Mr. Al Jarreau! How are you?

I’m okay! Sorry I’m late. I’m just sort of stumbling, bumbling, tumbling downhill. Where’s a tree stump when you need one? It’s not today, it’s everything up to today, and what I gotta do tomorrow! (Laughs) That’s good stuff, you know. Having things that demand your presence and require you to be on the job!

Like this new Love Songs compilation. How did that come about? You haven’t been affiliated with Warner Bros. for awhile now…

Yeah, well, it should have happened years ago! In fact, seven years ago, this package got put together. My wife did it — she put it together, and said, “You should have a Valentine’s project, Al. You should do a compilation of all the love songs — you’re a love song ballad singer, and people are asking for these songs in concert, so put one together and call it Al’s Valentine Card,” you know? So all I did to complete this was to add a few things from newer projects, and make sure that “Like a Lover” was included. (more…)

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