How does a kid from Colorado who started on classical clarinet with a Denver Symphony player become a jazz guitarist whose repertoire moves from Aaron Copland to doom metal to a Madonna song? This episode follows Bill Frisell from a university theory class taught by Johnny Smith that became private lessons because every other student quit, through Berklee studies with Jim Hall, to a Pat Metheny recommendation that landed him on Paul Motian's 1982 ECM album Psalm and made him the label's in-house guitarist.

The conversation traces his move into the abrasive New York downtown scene with John Zorn's Naked City, his trio with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano, and the 1988 relocation to Seattle that produced Have a Little Faith, an album placing Copland's Billy the Kid beside Bob Dylan, John Hiatt, and Live to Tell. It also covers the bluegrass immers ...