The SESSIONS Guest Host Guide

You Shape the Night

Your curiosity is the program. A practical guide to curating your set, leading the conversation, and bringing your people — no musical experience required.

If you take one thing from this page: your only real job is to be genuinely curious. Everything else follows from that.

The Role
What a SESSIONS guest host actually does

You curate

You choose a handful of songs from Brody's catalog and put them in an order that means something to you. That set list is the spine of the evening.

You lead the conversation

Between songs, you draw out the stories behind them or your observations, and open things up to the room. You decide what is worth lingering on.

You bring your people

Your friends, followers, and community help fill the room. A SESSIONS night is as much your gathering as it is a concert.

You get a platform

This is a stage for your curiosity and leadership. Feature your own work — your project, your business, your cause, whatever you want more people to know about.

It is not a pulpit. It is a conversation. The best hosts explore and learn as much about themselves as they do about the songs or the artist.

Step One
How to choose your songs

There is no wrong way in. Listen to the whole catalog if you want to, but you don't have to. Here are some prompts to help you decide:

  1. Your favorites

    The songs you are drawn to, or simply enjoy. This is the most honest place to start, and it shows the room how personal music really is. What lands for you might land differently tomorrow, or in another room. That is the point.

  2. The ones that push against you

    The songs you find hardest, strangest, or least comfortable. That friction makes for a better conversation than easy agreement ever will.

  3. Your own rubric

    Any lens you want. Songs about a topic or implication. Songs with a particular feeling. Or a weird chord progression. Songs that don't make sense. Unrecorded songs. Songs that rhyme with your own work. Whatever the thread, say it out loud and tell the audience why you chose what you chose. The disclosure is part of the show.

Two prompts that never miss

  • Which songs (or lyrics) feel most connected to your own work or life right now?
  • Which songs (or lyrics) are you most curious about, the ones you have the most questions about?

Each song has a page with full lyrics, notes/interpretations, and links to a studio recording or a demo — and the songbook has a search box to find songs by title, lyric, or theme. Open the songbook →

Step Two
Leading the conversation

Get comfortable with silence

Let the pauses breathe. A pause is not a problem to solve, it is the room thinking. Resist the urge to fill it. The best answers arrive after the quiet.

Stay as curious as you can

Curiosity is the whole job. Follow the thread that interests you, not the one you think you are supposed to follow. If you are genuinely interested, the room will be too.

Elevate, don't perform

The night works when your questions make the songs, and the people answering them, look better. You are not there to be impressive. You are there to make the room feel something true.

Keep it a dialogue

Intuit the room. Ask the room for a response or question if that feels fitting. Or don't. Your call. There are different ways that everyone can feel connected to what's coming from stage.

What to Expect From Brody
How Brody shows up

The night and stage are shared, so Brody holds to two rules on stage. Knowing them helps you lead with confidence.

He won't answer a question with a question

When you ask, expect Brody to give you a real answer. He will tend to want to ask you a question about your question (as is his habit), and you have to be prepared to put it right back on him.

He'll turn the light back to you

At moments, Brody will point the conversation back at you, at your work, your read, your perspective. His job is to draw you out almost as much as you draw out the artist and audience.

Those two pull against each other on purpose: he gives you a straight answer, then turns the question back on you. Living in that tension is where the real conversation happens.

The Relationships
What we give you, what you bring

We supply

  • The full song catalog, with lyrics, notes, and demo recordings to choose from
  • Custom invitation materials and social and text-friendly graphics (that include your face, too) to invite your people
  • A professionally produced night of music, handled end to end so you can focus on the conversation
  • A prep call to settle any nerves and make sure Brody is ready to play your songs — we won't overprepare, since spontaneity is the point

You bring

  • Your set list, and the reasons behind it
  • A high-res headshot for the promo graphics
  • Your bio (250+ words) that we'll edit down for the event
  • Your people, invited early to help fill the room
  • Courage and curiosity in the conversation

This is your night, too

A SESSIONS night gives your people a chance to see a different side of you — curating, thinking out loud, holding a room. It's a rare, celebratory evening with your name on it and a great song behind every idea. Ask the people you'd love in the seats for that.

The Runway
Your prep timeline
Excited? Read This
Common questions from hosts
Do I have to listen to the whole catalog?
No. Pick a few songs you connect with and go from there. The songbook is there if you want to browse, not a homework assignment — and its search box finds songs by title, lyric, or theme, so you can start from a word or an idea instead of listening end to end.
Do I need to be musical?
Not in the slightest. Your instrument is curiosity. Brody handles the music.
How many songs should I pick?
Four or five, with room for conversation between them. If there's a cover you love, that can be one of them. We settle the final list together on the prep call. Plan for a 60-minute night: each song runs about 4–5 minutes, plus a minute or so of Brody's warm-up or introduction, on top of whatever you say between them. The aim is a night that feels balanced between music and conversation.
What do we cover in the prep call?
Focus and flow. What would make the night good for you, what we hope the audience walks away with, where you want to take things, and how we sequence it — down to whether we open with you introducing a song or with Brody just playing the first number. We have a template to work from, or modify.
Can I promote my own work?
Yes. Featuring what you do is part of the joy, whether that's a project, a business, a cause, or the clients you're looking for. Tell us what you want to highlight and we will build room for it.
What if the conversation stalls?
Silence is welcome, and Brody is also there and will not leave you hanging. You are never carrying the room alone.
Beyond the Residency
It doesn't have to stop at Meander

The monthly residency lives at Meander, but SESSIONS travels. If hosting one night lights something up, we can build another at your own venue, church, conference room, or living room — produced start to finish.

And you don't have to be on the Meander lineup to bring SESSIONS to your people. If you've got a room and an audience, start a conversation.

Ready?

Start with the songs. Open the songbook, find the ones you cannot stop thinking about, and we will build the night from there.

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