Episode 1: Parker Trevathan (2015 Repost)

This is the China Arts Podcast, conversations documenting China’s creative and cultural industries, above and underground, from people on the ground.

As Beijing old and bluegrass jam group Beijing Pickers, moved into its fourth year, I started this Podcast. I made ten and a half episodes, then stopped to focus on my band, The Hutong Yellow Weasels (later The Mountain High). That was five years ago.

Now we return in 2020, re-releasing the first “season,” and additional episodes with new guests to move the podcast forward. Originally planned as a music podcast, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to hear directly from venue owners, painters, designers, tour managers, commercial video producers, lighting technicians, musicians, voiceover actors and studio owners, and anyone who would sit down for an hour or so and share their thoughts and stories.

Episodes are in English or Chinese, depending on the guest. In this inaugural episode of the China Arts Podcast, I sit down with Parker Trevathan, one the first Beijing Pickers, and chat about his role in the Beijing music scene, gigging in China, and the origins of the Ring Road Ramblers, Randy Abel Stable, Sourpuss and the Beijing Dead.

*Features clips of tunes from our jam with Parker Trevathan and Travis Klingborg