This Friday, Live from the Artists Den features The Fray at the Angel Orensanz Center in New York City. The Denver-based band played 15 songs, a mix of fan favorites like hits “How to Save a Life,” “Over My Head” and “You Found Me,” alongside new material from the forthcoming album “Scars and Stories,” including the current hit single, “Heartbeat.”

Live from the Artists Den featuring The Fray airs Friday, February 10 at 10 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Watch a preview and view the full song list below.

Song list:

“The Wind”
“Over My Head”
“Here We Are”
“You Found Me”
“Never Say Never”
“Turn Me On”
“The Fighter”
“Ungodly Hour”
“How to Save A Life”
“Run for Your Life”
“Syndicate”
“Heartbeat”
“Be Still”

Mark Lieberman (l), Alan Light (r)

Inside Thirteen recently spoke with Live from the Artists Den’s Executive Producer, Mark Lieberman, and Director of Programming, Alan Light to discuss the fourth season of the popular music series. Joining the Artists Den’s lineup this season are artists Adele, The Fray, Death Cab for Cutie, Kid Rock, Iron and Wine, and Amos Lee. Here, Lieberman and Light discuss what planning a season of the show entails, and what makes Live from the Artists Den so unique.

Season four of Live from the Artists Den premieres Friday, February 3 at 10 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Enter to win an Artists Den prize package, including Adele’s hit album, 21, and a Live from the Artists Den season three compilation DVD.

Inside Thirteen: What does planning a season for the show entail, in terms of selecting artists and venues?

Alan Light: There’s not a simple equation — it’s lining up a lot of different moving parts. Certainly where we start from is trying to find the artists who are active during that time who we think are the strongest live performers that are out there. We’re in the fortunate position of not really having to worry about one genre or one style; we can really just look for excellence from whichever musician we really love out there, and that’s where the conversation starts. Simultaneously, a search is going on and venue possibilities being amassed and gathered, and then comes an elaborate jigsaw puzzle of trying to schedule when they’re free, when they can be available, where they’re most interested to play, and what’s the most perfect spot that lines up with that. It can vary – sometimes there is a break in somebody’s schedule in a city and so we try to find the best spot that’s close by. Sometimes, as with Kid Rock playing Graceland, we were in conversation with Kid Rock and the Graceland opportunity presented itself, and his team said, “We’ve gotta do that, that’s the coolest thing ever. So, we will work our schedule around that to get ourselves to Memphis for the show.”

The challenges are, who’s out there working, what’s the right timing, when can we get to them, and then, where is the right place to put them and when is that place free? So, we spin the wheel until they line up.

Mark Lieberman: Really for us the goal is to try to create a once in a lifetime experience for television viewers and for that audience. We spend a lot of time trying to put the right artist and the right place together. When we do, we end up with something really magical that has the ability to be of interest for many, many years.

Season 4 Trailer from Artists Den on Vimeo.

IT: What makes Live from the Artists Den unique, especially to public television?

ML: I think it’s a couple of things. The first is that we’re re-imagining the stage for music, and what’s important to us about finding these locations is we believe that they inspire a rare and very creatively inspired performance that you won’t see that artist provide in a traditional venue setting.  The second is that we are able to honor some of the great historic landmarks of our country and tell a local story. So, in the Tucson Amos Lee episode, there’s a real strong tie between the artist and Tucson, where he made his last album, “Mission Bell.” A band from Arizona called Calexico performed on that album and ended up playing in our episode, and we were able to tell the story of the historic Fox Theatre and the redevelopment effort around culture in Tucson, all in an hour. We think that’s really interesting for public television viewers, who care about the arts and culture and music, that we’re able to do all those things in one. There’s even a taste of architecture and the history of some of these great buildings and iconic landmarks, whether it be the Brooklyn Museum and its rich history with Death Cab for Cutie, or the Angel Orensanz Center, which used to be an old synagogue and has been part of the cultural fabric of downtown New York for the last 30 years. There are so many interesting stories to be told — we believe we do a really nice job of telling them, and they’re contextualized with a wonderful performance of music.

IT: Are there any artists or genres that haven’t yet appeared on the show that you’d like to feature?

AL: Well, I think there are lots of directions to go. With the right hip hop artist, I’d love to feature them if we could find the right way to present that on our stage. We’ve had a couple of country and R&B singers, but I think there are still lots of opportunities to do new things in those communities. I don’t think that we look at it with any kind of limit on what we would do…it’s more a matter of if we think somebody makes sense in that setting, who really can play without hiding behind anything, even we when we get the big, arena-sized stars up there. Obviously, they’re in a room in front of 300 people, no pyrotechnics, no explosions – it’s about who we think can really work that stripped down and up close.

ML: We try to celebrate both the greats in music — the Robert Plants, the Elvis Costellos — and also provide an element of discovery where we’re introducing a public television viewer to an Amos Lee or an Iron and Wine. So that opens us up. We’re always able to have flexibility to just put what we think would be exciting from a television standpoint and from a music standpoint on the stage, being genre agnostic.

IT: What are you most excited about this coming season on Live from the Artists Den?

Grammy nominee Adele kicks off the fourth season of Live from the Artists Den from Santa Monica.

ML: Adele was an artist that we’ve been following for quite a while, from her album “Nineteen” back in 2009. When we had the opportunity to be a part of her week of release in the United States, we really had no idea what the year ahead was going to entail. I think what that episode presents of her and her music is a real innocence, and a real preview of things to come, and obviously honors the greatness of her music. We’re very excited about that episode.

AL: Adele very quickly became the absolute biggest star music has seen in recent years in the months that followed our shoot with her, so it’s an incredible thrill that we got to her just immediately before she really took over the world. And certainly shooting Kid Rock – no one has ever done a shoot inside of Graceland, with a performance inside Elvis’s home, and it took a lot of disparate pieces aligning to enable us to do that. For Kid Rock, he approached it as a highlight of his career and a real landmark appearance for him. So, the fact that we could enable something like that and take a multi-platinum artist and get them access to something that they couldn’t otherwise do, I think that’s always what’s most exciting for us. They have a lot of choices about the things that they could do – the shows that they could play, the stages they could appear on; we have the ability to do something that they can’t do, which is to get them into these really unique spaces and otherwise inaccessible spaces. So when we can do that on that kind of scale, that’s a new level of accomplishment for us.

ML: Overall, I think this season takes us to the most cities that we’ve ever been in a season. The majority of season four is outside of New York – whether it be Santa Monica, Tucson, Memphis, Atlanta – and what we’re seeing as we go into pre-production on these shows is a real excitement from the local arts community about the Artists Den coming to town. People know the show, they like the way we’re honoring their city, their connection to music, their connection to the arts, and they’re very proud of their own Artists Den that we jointly selected. Many times the selection process now comes with the Mayor’s Office and the film office and people locally who help us define what’s special in their city and what would be a great place to showcase music. We think that is a unique piece of this for public television, in that public television is about the local community and the arts community, and we involve public television in these shows, their guests are in the audience, and obviously they get to celebrate when the show comes on to television. We’re told that for most of the season four episodes, they’re actually doing premiere parties in the venues where we did the taping.

IT: What’s your favorite part and the most challenging part of your job?

ML: The favorite part is being able to make very big artists really excited and inspired in a unique way that no one has done for them before, and to translate that into making a local, national and a global audience excited about that artist’s music in a way that no other vehicle may provide. The fact that we’re able to deliver an hour-long performance of that artist really separates the show from what has become a world of clips. We think we can help create new fans. So that is the most important part I think of what we do at the Artists Den – it’s very creative, it’s dynamic – we’re constantly trying to push the envelope of what adventure we can come up with next. It’s no fun to plateau, so we’re just going to keep on hunting for more exciting, more creative venues that inspire even better performances. All of that is also all the challenges we have in front of us. We set the bar high, and the artists that we’re now working with are looking back at past seasons and saying, “I want something even more interesting. I want something even more special than what you’ve done.” The creative challenge that presents makes our jobs very hard, because we can’t just show up with a good idea, it just isn’t going to cut it.

AL: I think the most rewarding and the most challenging are pretty much the same thing – continuing to find ways to spin that wheel and to line up artists and locations and timing, and to get bigger and better artists, better and cooler and more unique spaces, and produce more frequently. Any one of those you could compromise to make it easier, but we’re still at a place where we want to keep making each of them more interesting and more exciting. So, that’s the greatest reward, but also the most difficult task.

For more information and Web extras, visit the Artists Den site for behind-the-scenes photos of each show, check them out on Facebook for “Inside the Den” videos about the venues featured each week, and watch previews of all the episodes on Hulu.

THIRTEEN celebrates Black History Month this February with UMOJA!, celebrating the rich history, heritage and contributions of African Americans. The annual UMOJA! festival begins on Sunday, February 5.

Below are some of the programs featured this year. (View our full Black History Month line-up).

Sunday, February 5 at 11 p.m.:

Independent Lens – Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock

Examines Daisy Bates’ support of nine black students to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.

Tuesday, February 7 at 8 p.m.:

American Experience – Freedom Riders

Explores the story of the 1961 Freedom Rides through America’s Deep South for Civil Rights.

Thursday, February 9 at 10:30 p.m.:

Alexander Clark – Lost in History

A documentary profiling Alexander Clark, who brought about school desegration in  Iowa’s schools more than 85 years before the rest of the nation.

Sunday, February 12 at 11 p.m.:

Independent Lens – The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975

A look at the Black Power Movement in the African- American community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975.

Monday, February 13 at 9 p.m.:

Slavery By Another Name

Reveals the interlocking forces that enabled “neoslavery” to begin and persist from 1865 to 1945.

Tuesday, February 14 at 9 p.m.:

FRONTLINE – The Interrupters

Three former Chicago criminals place themselves in the line of fire to protect their communities.

Thursday, February 16 at 10:30 p.m.:

Images of Tony Gleaton

This documentary showcases cultural photographer Tony Gleaton’s award-winning images of black and American Indian cowboys, the African diaspora in Latin America, and the assimilation of Asians, Africans, and Europeans with indigenous Americans.

Sunday, February 19 at 11 p.m.:

Independent Lens – More Than A Month

A 29-year-old African American filmmaker is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month.

Friday, February 24 at 9 p.m.:

Great Performances – Memphis

The story of a radio DJ in the 1950s whose love of music transcended racial lines and airwaves.

Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m.:

American Masters – Cab Calloway: Sketches

The life and career of Cab Calloway, who was at the top of his game in the jazz and swing era and was rediscovered in the 1980s.

On December 15, PBS and WNET hosted a Downton Abbey: Season Two screening and cast panel at the Times Center in New York City. Cast members Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Dan Stevens, and Joanne Froggatt were all in attendance, along with co-creator Gareth Neame and Masterpiece Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton, who moderated the discussion.

Check out photos from the event:

Season Two of Downton Abbey airs Sundays January 8 – February 19 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN. This season, get caught up with episode recaps on The Downton Dish, and learn more about the series with videos clips and extras.

Watch the full panel discussion here:

Filmmaker Bill Jersey. Photo courtesy of Quest Productions.

Inside Thirteen recently spoke with New Jersey-based filmmaker Bill Jersey, co-director and producer of American Masters’ upcoming documentary, Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter.

The film, which is narrated by James Franco,  explores the lives of the iconic couple, whose innovative work continues to influence the design world to this day. Here, Jersey discusses his inspiration for the film and the Eames’ lasting impact on American culture.

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter premieres Monday, December 19 at 10 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Inside Thirteen: What inspired you to make this film?

Bill Jersey: [Co-director and producer] Jason Cohn. Jason fell in love with Eames’ movies, of all things, and when he bought his new house with his wife in Berkeley, he had Eames furniture. All I knew about Eames was that I was in Minneapolis with my then girlfriend and now wife, and she said, “Oh, my friend has an Eames chair.” I said, you live in Minneapolis, my children live in San Francisco, and I live in New York. What am I going to do with a chair?” I sat in an Eames lounger, and within five seconds, I said, “I’ll take it!” I didn’t think about what it would cost, how I would get it anywhere — I loved it. I’ve sat in it every day in my house and my office for the last 30 years.

Also, Jason did a lot of research, and I realized that the Eames, as Charles was of course fond of reminding people, were not just designers of chairs. Their philosophy, their way of being in the world and their excitement about everything — that excitement was infectious. To me, that’s what the film is about. It’s creating excitement around them, as they created excitement around their world. They inspired all kinds of people. A financial magazine in Norway that had one of the biggest circulations did a review of one of the Eames’ exhibits, and people said, “What in the world is a financial magazine doing with the Eames’ show?” But that was what was so exciting about them, they touched every world, and the film touches every world.

So that’s why I did the film…in the beginning it was, “Why not?” but then at the end, why? Because it’s so rich, so varied, and so much fun. Someone told me, “This is not your typical PBS show.” Well, I think that they were not your typical people, so if we made an atypical show, it’s because we had atypical people to make a film about.

IT: What kind of person did you have to be to work for the Eames?

BJ: Well, first I think you had to be fairly thick-skinned. Charles was not an easy person to work with. A friend of mine, Bill Couturié, a very well known filmmaker — his first job was with Charles. He went out on shoots and was scared to death that Charles would hate everything he shot, but he actually liked one out of nine. And Bill said, “Boy, did I feel good!” But then Charles added, “Well, one in nine is good; if I’d have shot it, nine out of nine would have been good.” He was a very tough task masker, in spite of his charm and dimpled chin. But obviously, as my favorite character in the film Jeannie Oppenwall said, “Well, I was exploited, but I was exploited by a proper master.” And as she said, you’d be really stupid if you didn’t exploit the relationship.

IT: What do you think the Eames’ greatest contribution was to American culture and design?

BJ: For me, it’s personal — they produced something that when you sat in it, you wanted to buy it — that’s a major contribution. Like Charles says in the film, they felt like they were the hosts, and the hosts had to prepare their guests something they would like. I think that attitude, and also the attitude that the designer’s job was not to be clever, or creative, or original — it was not to be an “artist” and certainly not a genius. The job of the designer is to satisfy a problem.

When Charles did the “Mathematica” exhibit for IBM, as creative as it was, it was an attempt to get people to understand what a computer could do and that it wasn’t a dangerous monster that would transform their lives into a number. So, I think it was attitude and a design sense. You still have people talking about Eames era. And there is so much knock-off Eames stuff; you know the difference. It saddens me that when you go into airports today, instead of seeing the Eames stadium seating, which is wonderful and attractive, there are cheap versions. You feel like, why did they do that? Why do farmers take a tomato that tastes delicious and redesign it so it ships and doesn’t taste like anything? But I do think it’s coming back. I think most people like it because it’s comfortable and attractive.  To me, that’s their greatest contribution, saying, “You know, what we should be about as designers is making something that works, and works better and with more beauty than ever before.” I think that’s why Steve Jobs was such a success. That’s why The New York Times connected Eames to Jobs — both of them set out to solve a problem. They weren’t about trying to create something pretty; they were about trying to do something that people needed done. But, once they accomplished that, they wanted to make it attractive.

IT: What did it mean for the Eames’ career and reputation at the time to be selected to put together such high-profile international projects like “Glimpses of the USA,” representing the U.S. to the Soviets in Moscow, and the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair?

BJ: “Glimpses of the USA” made their career soar, as well it should have. Charles’ greatest interest was in ideas. “Glimpses of the USA” was not to show off; I think he just loved doing what he did. When he did the do-nothing machine, for instance, that was just because he liked to play. This was a guy who never grew up — he was never ashamed of what he did.

I think “Glimpses of the USA” was their biggest impact. They were lovers — with one another, with the world, and with their work. And that came through, so that it wasn’t just information well told (which it was). It was a kind of a love affair with America that Charles had that made him a good propagandist, because he really believed that this was a good country for him and for the rest of us. I think the inspiration derived from the enthusiasm and the commitment, as well as from any mechanics of design.  So while the chairs changed their careers as designers, “Glimpses of the USA” changed their public roles as filmmakers and communicators.

IT: Do you think the disparity between Charles and Ray’s positions in the company, at least in their public roles, was a product of the time, or was it because of their personalities?

Charles and Ray Eames. Photo courtesy of Herman Miller.

BJ: It was a product of the times; it was a product of Ray’s acceptance of that role of the times. Not every woman accepted that ‘stand behind the man’ role. Many others stepped out from behind and said, “I’m not going to stay behind that guy because I’m the one that’s doing it.” But at the time, the man was up front and you just accepted it…there was a certain level of comfort in that for her I suspect, but I don’t know. But she wasn’t shy in relation to the world. We never really got that in the film, but a number of people talked about that. She’d go to New York City and she’d walk down the street, and she would see everything — she would see the crack in sidewalk that had a great shape, she would see a little flower that wasn’t normally a flower. Everything attracted her, which of course terrified people when she was driving a car because she would even do that while driving! She’d look to her left and say, “Oh did you see that?” And the others in the car would say, “No we didn’t, and we don’t want you to!”

IT: Are there any misconceptions about the Eames that you hope this film will clear up?

BJ: Yes — the misconception that they were chair designers. Charles was a superstar; he was handsome, charismatic, famous. One of our delights was that moment where we looked at that letter Ray wrote to Charles in France where she revealed that she and some other people worked on and made some changes to the chair’s design. That was the kind of unarguable evidence of her contribution. As we look back, lots of people say, “Oh, Ray did this, Ray did that.” My hope is that people will see them as complex human beings and see the complex relationship that they had.

IT: You’ve produced many documentaries for public television, including for WNET in the past. What has attracted you to PBS as a venue for your films?

BJ: Many reasons. The shows I did for network television in the 1960s were similar to the shows I did with PBS. But 1960 was a very different world in television. There were four stations – three commercial networks, and PBS. Shows I did for network television at the time were part of The DuPont Show of the Week in 1960. The FCC was very aggressive in insisting that the networks provide information instead of just entertainment, so that The DuPont Show of the Week said, “Okay, we’ll do 13 dramas and seven documentaries.” And they couldn’t care less what we did! So it gave us the liberty to do whatever kind of film we wanted. That’s where I got my first Emmy in 1963. So it was a very different world then, and you could get attention doing network television; in a limited way, but a significant way. Whereas now, if you want to take a serious subject and make a sincere work that has nuances in it and doesn’t get cut up in five pieces so that you have to restart every ten minutes, there’s no place but PBS. Ken Burns said it well — he could’ve gone to commercial television, but there’s no reason to!

I did a two-part series for Fox on the Mob, but that’s all they want to do! All they [commercial networks] want to do is the Mob, sex and violence. Who wants to do a show on a guy who designed chairs and made pictures?  Only PBS, and only American Masters. We felt that this was the place we could really address substance rather than just surface. Where you could really engage in the pursuit of light rather than just heat. I don’t know where else you go besides PBS.

In November, WQXR – the nation’s most listened-to classical music radio station – and the venerable comedy club Carolines on Broadway honored the traditional pairing of comedy and classical music with WQXR’s Classical Comedy Contest, presented as part of the New York Comedy Festival. The contest was broadcast on THIRTEEN on December 9.

The competitors were chosen from 79 hopefuls from around the world. They have appeared everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Comedy Central, from the Metropolitan Opera to Late Night with David Letterman and include a harpist/stand-up comic from Brooklyn; a concert pianist/magician from Poland; a New York-based soprano whose partner plays the musical saw; an opera singer with a “rogue accompanist”; a Berlin-based recorder player who performs at variety shows and circuses;  and a Scandinavian pianist who got his start as a funny man during a concert at Victor Borge Hall in New York, whose audience included delighted members of Mr. Borge’s family.

The winner was selected by a world-class line-up of judges from the worlds of comedy and music, including comedian Robert Klein; Peter Schickele of PDQ Bach fame; Soprano Deborah Voigt; and Charles Hamlen of the classical music management company IMG.

The WQXR Classical Comedy Contest finalists were:

Magnus Martensson – pianist/comedian
Jim Wallenberg – stand-up violinist
David Cope – stand-up harpist
Igor Lipinski – pianist and magician
Gabor Vosteen – visual comedian/recorder player
Steve Russell and Kobi Shaw – cranial percussionists
Sarah Worthington and Nathan Carver – singer and musical saw player
Elizabeth Tryon & Mark Janas – opera singer with rogue accompanist

Photo courtesy of Paul Kolnik

Next week, Live From Lincoln Center gets into the holiday spirit with New York City Ballet’s take on the holiday favorite, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.

Set to Tchaikovsky’s score, Balanchine’s Nutcracker features New York City Ballet’s roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet, the New York City Ballet’s official school. In addition to Balanchine’s choreography, the work features scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates.

The live television broadcast will be hosted by School of American Ballet board member Chelsea Clinton, who danced several roles in the ballet with Ballet Arkansas from 1985-1992 and then the Washington Ballet from 1993-1996. In a Lincoln Center first, the program will also bring the holiday classic to service men and women around the world via a Christmas Eve re-broadcast on the American Forces Network.

Live From Lincoln Center’s presentation of The Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet premieres Wednesday, December 14 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Watch a preview:

Bill T. Jones (Photo courtesy of Keith Walker)

In Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, American Masters explores the creative journey of acclaimed choreographer Bill T. Jones. The film follows Jones as he embarks on the most ambitious work of his career and leads the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the creation of Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial commissioned by Ravinia Festival.

Bill T. Jones: A Good Man premieres Friday, November 11 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN. Go behind-the-scenes of the documentary with these video interviews and scenes that didn’t make the film:

Interview with Bill T. Jones: Bill T. Jones discusses his creative process, the origins of the documentary Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, and how President Abraham Lincoln and related subject matter has inspired his work for Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray.

Filmmaker interview: Co-directors Bob Hercules and Gordon Quinn discuss making the documentary.

The Cutting Room Floor: In this mini documentary, originally produced for ITVS, see how the directors chose which scenes and storylines to cut from the final edit of the film and see footage from one of the cuts that was made.

Photo courtesy of Danny Clinch

American Masters celebrates Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary with Pearl Jam Twenty, a portrait of the band featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews, directed by Academy Award-winning director Cameron Crowe. Here, the band discusses their musical beginnings and life before Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam Twenty airs Friday, October 21 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Interview courtesy of American Masters.

Enter to win a Pearl Jam Twenty prize pack!

What was your first instrument? When and where did you start playing?

Jeff Ament: I took piano lessons from first to sixth grade in Big Sandy, Montana, from Mrs. Giebel. I mowed her lawn, raked leaves, and shoveled snow to help with the cost. From fifth grade through my sophomore year in high school, I played snare drum and percussion in the school band and also sang in the choir. I forgot all of this when I heard the Ramones and bought the same bass that Dee Dee played.

Matt Cameron: My first instrument was a secondhand drum set at the age of eleven. I had been banging on everything in the house since the age of three. Luckily, I had very supportive parents who were both big jazz fans.

Stone Gossard: Aside from a trumpet in third grade and some boys choir stuff in fourth (1975-ish), my first real instrument was the mandolin I got in 1980. There was a band called the Probes at my high school that were killing it and making everyone dance. They didn’t have a mandolin, so I thought maybe if I learned some tricks I could get in. It was a lot harder than I thought. I was never asked to join.

Mike McCready: My first guitar was a Matao Les Paul from my parents. It was black and cost a hundred dollars. They said I could get a guitar if I took lessons, which I did, from Mike Wilson. He was a fantastic teacher who taught me scales and Kiss songs and also made it fun, so I wanted to go back. Later I wanted to make it a gold top, so I chiseled—yes, chiseled—the top layer of the guitar off, then I spray painted it gold. Oops. It was never the same. I wish I knew where it was today.

Eddie Vedder: A beat-up ukulele. To keep the strings taut, I had to wrap the headstock in masking tape. My first instrument, in a way, was one of those little green memo pad notebooks when I was really young.  I’d write songs, putting arrows over the notes so I’d know which note was higher than the other. The ukulele thing probably happened when I was ten. My mom would go to garage sales or yard sales, clean up all the toys, and put them under the tree. I’d get a little racetrack, and a key piece of track was missing.  I think it was probably a yard sale, and they just gave the ukulele to us as an act of pity.

What was the inspiration behind why you wanted to play music?

Ament: Initially, it was Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, and Kiss, until I heard the Ramones, Devo, the Clash, and all the hardcore bands in California.  Playing music was an occupation furthest away from what I thought was possible.

Cameron: Self-expression, trying to be like my heroes, girls, in that order.

Gossard: In 1981, at the urging of Steve Turner, I got a bass and then a guitar and we formed Ducky Boys with Jeff Covell and Chris Peppard. Steve told me that garage rock was the way and that you can be crappy and still have cool songs and a band. It was a revelation. He liked the most underground, noisy punk, which I didn’t really get. But he also loved Alice Cooper and even Black Sabbath. I never let go of that advice.

McCready: Well, I have to say, Kiss. I was a Cub Scout, and then Kiss came along. I remember just jumping around with a tennis racket pretending I was Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley. It also felt cool and was really fun to play in a band—probably to meet girls, too. I played my first “concert” at Jenny W.’s birthday party in 1978.

Vedder: I just loved it. I was onto a record player early, early on; one of those plastic kids’ record players that came with a single of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” If we went to visit relatives, I’d take my little plastic record player, go find a room, and sit there with my records. I probably had three. Then I started raiding my uncle’s singles collection and got into adult music fairly quickly. The crossover was “Yellow Submarine.”  I remember borrowing or perhaps stealing that single from him. He’s ten years older, so if I was five, he was fifteen, and he had some pretty cool records. He wore an army jacket. He was just cool. This was probably 1969 or 1970. He’d give me records, but then he’d go off with his buddies, and I’d take a few more. I distinctly remember my mom on the phone saying, “Do you have Hot Rocks?” And I’d go [sheepishly], “Um, yeah,” while I was cranking “Brown Sugar” or “Mother’s Little Helper.”

What are some of the earliest/most influential concerts you attended?

Ament: My first show was Styx on their Equinox tour in 1975. They played Havre, Montana, at the NMC Armory. I didn’t see another concert until I saw Van Halen in Great Falls in 1979. The most influential shows that I saw early on were X, the Clash, and the Who on my first visit to Seattle with some friends in 1982. I moved to Seattle the next year, and seeing Black Flag, the Ramones, Bad Brains, and a slew of hardcore bands at the Metropolis had the biggest influence on my musical life.

Cameron: In the mid to late seventies, I had the honor to see Queen, Kiss, Bowie, Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy, Shelly Manne, Bobby Hutcherson, and Jaco Pastorius. I had my mind blown wide open at a very early age. I do not miss the M80s people used to bring to big rock concerts back then. It sounded like a war was breaking out between bands. I also remember a lot of kids partying way too hard the day of a big concert and ending up passed out in a pool of vomit during the show. I wanted to soak in every detail, so the idea of being too high to enjoy the concert experience made no sense to me. I guess I was an early straight-edger.

Gossard: Randy Hansen’s tribute to Jimi Hendrix in 1979, then UFO at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. My first punk show was Black Flag at Eagles Auditorium in 1982 or ’83.

McCready: The Heats at Mural Amphitheatre; Van Halen on the Van Halen II tour at the Seattle Center Arena; Cheap Trick at Hec Ed Pavilion (waited all day and skipped school); TKO at Lake Hills, the Moore Theatre, or anywhere in the early eighties; Kiss in ’79; Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Girlschool at Hec Ed Pavilion; Motörhead  at the Paramount Theatre; the Girls in 1980 opening for the Ramones; and Silly Killers at Laurelhurst Club House. I watched through the window. Probably all the Warrior and Shadow concerts set in motion what I am today.

Vedder: I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with my uncle in 1977 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. It was the first show of any kind I saw in person, I believe, unless there was one a year before. There was a little theater called La Paloma in Encinitas, California. It was the summer The Last Waltz came out. At this point, I’d had a few guitar lessons. My guitar teacher and I went to see Rick Danko play solo along with Jack Tempchin, who wrote “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Already Gone” for the Eagles. Rick Danko pretty much played acoustic, but he sang “Stage Fright” to a tape.  Then, all the bands I wanted to see weren’t playing all-ages. So I had to get a fake ID to get into punk shows. I remember getting into an X show and it being a really big deal. I got right into the front, and Exene Cervanka handed me a Miller Lite to hold in between songs. I just had this feeling that it wasn’t mine to drink; it was mine to hold while she played. I also saw the Pretenders at Golden Hall in San Diego. There was no barricade, and no monitor between me and Chrissie Hynde. People are pushing and shoving. I got pushed forward and my hand landed on Chrissie Hynde’s left boot. She immediately flicked it off. I thought it was so fucking awesome. I saw Sonic Youth on the Daydream Nation tour. I didn’t know if it was the greatest thing ever or if they were disrespecting us. [Laughs] By the next morning, I knew I had been changed.

What are some of the best memories you have from playing early shows with your first bands?

Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament in Studio Litho, 2010. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Shuss)

Ament: Getting to play through a real PA was always a big thrill. Hüsker Dü giving us a joint and twenty dollars for opening up for them when the promoter screwed us. Mostly just trying to impress your friends. Hell, that’s still how it is.

Cameron: Playing my high school graduation party in 1980 with the band Faultline at Fiesta Island in San Diego. We brought a generator, parked two vans in a V behind us, and started rocking. Our classmates (mostly from the smoking section) were rocking out and loving every moment. Two songs into our set, the cops showed up and asked for our permit. Oops. Not a great start to the summer of 1980. My first Soundgarden show in 1986 at the Ditto Tavern was a baptism by fire. I had joined the group one week prior to the gig and I wanted to impress. The drummer I had replaced, Scott Sundquist, was in the front row critiquing my every move. I remember him saying from the front of the stage, “Kick drum too loud!” “Too fast!” et cetera. Opening for Love and Rockets in 1986 was a big Soundgarden moment for me. We had never played a show in a theater before, just local bars and such, so we were a little nervous. Our opening song, “Entering,” sounded a lot like “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” from their previous band Bauhaus. Both songs have a very similar drum intro, so when I got the cue, I laid into the beat, and I remember the first two rows looking at each other with mild confusion. Once Hiro Yamamoto and Kim Thayil hit the first gnarly guitar notes, there was no more confusion. It was the first big stage the band had played on—the Moore Theatre in Seattle—and after the show, I realized we had a sound that could fill any size venue, and we could hold our own with anyone.

Gossard: It’s fun now, but it used to scare me. I was nervous. But once we started getting drunk, it got better. More lose-your-mind rock ‘n’ roll.

McCready: Wow. Let’s see.  Jenny W.’s birthday party in 1978. Warrior played a few originals. In 1979, Warrior at the Eckstein Junior High talent show. Big controversy over Danny Newcomb playing “The Star Spangled Banner” with his teeth. He did it when told he couldn’t. Right on, Danny! In 1979, a Warrior concert for Symphony Fundathon under the Monorail. I had a completely homemade tie-dye outfit. I’m sure the symphony hated us.  The second Headbangers Ball with Shadow, Metal Church, and TKO. We got booed off the stage. Also, Jeff Ament came over after our singer, Rob Webber, invited him to the show. Guess who was doing a guitar solo, finger tapping his Kramer Pacer as he walked in? I gave Jeff a picture of that last year. Who knew that we would later be rockin’ side by side seven-hundred plus shows later?  December 1986, Shadow’s first show at the Roxy in L.A. It only cost us seven hundred dollars to get on the bill! At least Tim Dijulio, Duff McKagan, Lauren, and about two other people were there at midnight on a Sunday. Shadow played at Fender’s, opening for Andy Taylor of Duran Duran in 1987. I met Rod Stewart there. Our final L.A. show was at Club Lingerie in 1987. I became a lead guitar player in those lean L.A. years—eating Top Ramen and payin’ those dues.

Vedder: My sophomore year of high school, I played with a friend from class who knew so-and-so, who worked at a grocery store, who had a practice space in his garage and a nice amp. But he was really into the Eagles, and the keyboard player was into Styx, and the bass player was into the Cars, and himself. The drummer was in the school band. And then I’m into the Who, piL, and Springsteen. It sounded like shit. Everybody would get their one or two songs to sing. You’d play at parties and pretty much just suck. As bad as the group was, the part of the night that the rest of the guys disliked most was when I got to sing. In the end, which shows how bad it was, they were like, “Uh, I think we’re going to break up the band.” And within a week, another guy with a better guitar and better amp had taken my place.

Photo courtesy of Michael Wilson

Versatile British actor Hugh Laurie showcases his musical talents and his love of blues on Great Performances in Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk, a personal odyssey for Laurie and a journey into the heart of New Orleans and its rich musical tradition.

The show features intimate performances and rehearsals with blues legends Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas, along with fellow Brit, iconic singer Sir Tom Jones. Songs performed include “Swanee River,” “You Don’t Know My Mind,” and “John Henry.”

Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk airs Friday, September 30 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN.

Watch a preview:

Hugh Laurie discusses his love of the blues and New Orleans in a behind-the-scenes interview: