Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

Renaissance Reborn: Annie Haslam & Jim McCarty on Stories, Songs & New Shows

·45 min·3 clips

Renaissance says the band’s sound began when John Hawken suddenly played Beethoven during a jam.

The farewell did not stay final. Bill frames the conversation around Renaissance coming back after 2024 seemed like a natural stopping point for the band. The November shows are pitched as something a little different. They are built around stories as much as songs, with memory baked into the format. Annie's voice is the first thing Bill grabs onto. He hears classical, folk, and rock all meeting there, and that fan-level excitement gives the interview its warmth. The history arrives in side doors, which suits it. Annie talks about being sent to Sybil Knight, an opera singer, and finding the five-octave range that helped shape her path. That part lands because it is not just career trivia. It sounds like the moment a voice found the room it needed. Then the album talk starts to wander in the best way. Bill names a favorite Renaissance record, gets into the pronunciation problem, and follows it toward John Camp's spoken opening. The fan memory is affectionate and a little nerdy, in a good sense. You get the feel of people learning this music through fragments, misheard titles, reaction videos, and the slow click of finally knowing what a song is. Blackmore's Night comes in too, with Bill wondering how many listeners found Renaissance through their version without knowing the original path. The internet gets a fair shake. It opens doors, but the conversation also calls out bootlegging and the money it takes away from the people who made the albums. Annie's staying power sits under all of it. Near the end, the conversation turns to her art, the redone website, Cornwall, and the creative life around the records. Sue's interest lets that part breathe. By the close, this feels less like a standard band-history interview and more like a warm listen with craft, fandom, memory, and gratitude in the room.

As heard by us

A warm Renaissance conversation that blends memory, music, new concerts, and the internet's wider reach.

It traces a warm return to a band’s long arc, moving through memory, music, and the surprise of concerts that followed what once felt like a final farewell.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want Renaissance stories with a live, human pulse.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews