Music FridayLive!

Locos Por Juana is a Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated bilingual band formed in Miami, FL, in 2000 that blows away audiences with what the Miami Herald calls “eareld calls the beloved master of “the Latin-Reggae-Hip-Hop mashup” .  The band rocks stages with electrifying dynamism, collaborations with stars of Latin music and hip hop and reggae, high energy dance numbers,  and a unique music style. The current line-up consists of vocalist Itagüí Correa, guitarist Mark Kondrat, and drummer Javier Delgado, who form the core of the group, along with trombonist Lasim Richards and percussionist Carlos Palmet. The band released its first two albums,  Locos Por Juana in 2003  and Música pal Pueblo in 2005, on the indie label Musical Productions (MP) Records. In 2003 they were nominated for a Premio Lo Nuestro and in 2005 for a Latin Grammy.  In 2007, Locos por Juana signed with Universal Música and released La Verdad, nominated for a Grammy. In 2010, Locos por Juana returned with a new EP, Evolución, nominated for The Shock Awards in the Best Alternative Album category in Bogatá. Their next album "Somos de La Calle" will be released in the fall and the single "Se Fue La Luz" is available now on Billboard.com. Music Friday Live is moving to Mexico in July and will  disassemble the studio for moving next week. This Friday is our last week on the air before we move to Mexico. We will begin broadcasting again in August, interviewing Mexican bands and American bands touring in Mexico.

Sarah Burton’s career started in 2006 with a broken heart, a broken down vehicle, and a haphazard tour across Canada in a van named Lucky -- an artist driven by adventure, spontaneity, and a desire to connect with people from all walks of life. Three Minivans, and several greyhound trips later, Sarah has played 200+ shows a year, released 4 albums and played festivals across North America. Rooted in folk, and skirting pop, rock and country – Sarah’s music is a collage of her own adventures and the people she meets along the way. Her songs have made their way to the big screen, earned college radio charting in US and Canada and commercial radio play in Canada and Europe. Now, after the bad breakup, two robberies, a few trips to the ER, and moving to the West Texas desert she has produced her fifth studio album, Give Me What I Want and it is a knockout.

RAMEKEGA is a California-based alternative band formed in 2007, comprised of three women with 3 full-length albums and two West Coast tours under their belt.  The Pozon Sisters  Kelli  (rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Gabrielle  (drums, percussion, vocals),  were joined by younger sister Kaira Pozon (bass, vocals) in 2011. They are getting radio airplay locally in California and internationally in the UK and Australia and  have  played in some of LA’s top music venues like the Roxy and the Ebell Theater, along with in festivals and fairs throughout  California.  They appeared on Time Warner Cable programs “Yourself Presents”,  A18 TV, and AXS Live - along with the Hansons, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Art Alexakis of Everclear. Their musical style  is a smorgasbord that includes pop, rock, indie, jazz, ballads, and retro, and blues, and whatever else ‘just sounds right for the song”. 

 Taína Asili is a New York-based Puerto Rican singer, filmmaker and activist combining powerful vocals and social justice lyrics in a fusion of Afro-Latin, reggae and rock. For over 20 years she has brought the music of love and resistance to venues across the globe – from the Women’s March on Washington to the nationwide Rock Against the TPP Tour. After the 2016 election, a bigger audience has caught up to the artist the Huffington Post named one of “12 Freedom Fighting Bands to Get you Through the Trump Years.  Asili’s first album War Cry, 2010, and her latest album Fruit of Hope, 2014, show the growth and power of a talented, dedicated artist and activist. Asili  also works in other media: her music videos “No Es Mi Presidente” ,  “And We Walk”,  and the stirring  “Freedom” received national acclaim and media attention. Recently, she has launched a podcast with her new show The Rhythm of Rebellion, featuring interviews with social justice artists from around the world. Truly a talent that our times demand. (photos by Mike Morgan, Shannon Straney, Sun Angel)

"The Blue" by Southern California singer/songwriter Alice Wallace from her new album, Into the Blue, released on Rebelle Road Records, has been named one fo the 10 Best Country and Americana Songs to Hear Now - along with songs by Blake Sheldon.  That is pretty good national company for a woman who is is pure California country music. Her fourth album, Into the Blueharks back to the 70’s artists like Joni Mitchelle and Jackson Brown who did not have all the answers but knew how to sing the questions.  Folky, romantic, soulful, and always melodic, Alice is eclectic Americana, organic, probing but understanding and often topical. Winner of an LA MUSIC CRITIC Award, Alice has performed at LA’s legendary country venue the Palomino Club,  as well as many others in her average 200-gigs year. The album marks her debut on the brand-new Rebelle Road label, an imprint founded by a trio of women dedicated to strengthening the California Country music community and expanding visibility for female artists in the Americana/roots genre. The song, is pure gold, as Rolling Stone reminds us. And, theirrepressible Trevor Douglas will drop in to let us know about new shows and new music.

Alicia Blue is singer-songwriter who uses a folk tradition to tell modern stories. And she knows her stories - she's done just about everything to tell them, from cleaning houses, to waiting tables, to sleeping on couches, and taking care of an aging soul singer. Her hard work and perseverance has taken her to the heart of LA’s folk-singer-songwriter scene, . telling tales of not so pretty realities and some  heart-breaking truths, s.  Along the way she explores culture, race and identity in her music. Her  debut single, “Incognito”  tells  a cryptic tale of Alicia’s experience as a “passing” Latina.   She sings at clubs and events  throughout Los Angeles including appearing at the Hotel Café and NAMM.

Jerrica Alyssa is a Canadian Pop/R&B Artist.  Born and raised in Vancouver and now lives in Nashville, TN.  A conservatory trained pianist at ARCT,  the Royal Conservatory of Music, she is an accomplished singer/songwriter, and a professional Polynesian dancer.  She is now writing, recording and performing as a solo artist, creating a voluptuous mix of pop, funk, and R&B, with industry veteran Joseph Magee (Pitch Perfect, Miley Cyrus, Metallica, Whitney Houston. In her spare time she records voice sessions in film and TV. Jerrica has toured in China, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, UK, Ireland, Hawaii, Polynesia throughout Canada and the USA.   She has appeared on the Voice, Canadian Idol and Variety’s Got Talent. Her new single, “Ride,” is out now.

SJae (aka Sammy Jay), the UK’s first female music producer, has been called  “the best in the business” in the US by many of her peers, including some of the world’s biggest music stars and producers.  The Mercury-nominated artist is an advocate and prominent representative for women in music technology – producing, making beats, mixing, mastering. She works to increase the opportunities for women to produce and work on the technical side of the music industry while she herself is a smash success at doing so.  Her debut 4-song EP, FIRST,  is due out March 22 and includes collaborations with acclaimed songwriters, producers, and artists Raphael Saadiq ,Sam Sparro, and Dria Thronton, and Hilaire. We are proud to interview her on International Woman's Day    

Tourist Company, the Vancouver-based musical duo of Taylor Swindells and Brenon Parry, met in 2009, and found it easy to work together to create unique indie music.  But they did not decide to make it official  and form Tourist Company in 2013 and went on to release their debut record Apollo, to critical acclaim and toured it relentlessly across Canada and the world, playing shows in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. Both also took a break from touring together and their own music to lend their talents to touring with other groups before finally coming back to their primary project, retreating to the  studio to experiment and create in what became a 2 year writing process and their new single, “Conflicted Restricted.”

For over 50 years, John Mayall has served as a pioneer of blues music, rightly earning him the title, "The Godfather of British Blues". After decades of touring and recording, in 2013 John signed with producer Eric Corne's label, Forty Below Records, and has since been experiencing an artistic and career renaissance, including a Blues Hall of Fame induction in 2015.  This Friday Forty Below Records will release Nobody Told Me, Mayall’s  new studio album. Born in the UK in 1933, Mayall first became attracted to jazz and blues through  his father's 78s  record collection, listening to guitarists like Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee, Josh White and Leadbelly. However once he heard the sounds of boogie woogie piano giants Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, he was hooked.  As a young teen, he began learning the guitar and  later, the harmonica, inspired by Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter. The rest is history: mentoring future stars like Paul McCartney, Mick Fleetwood,  and Eric Clapton, moving to Los Angeles, more live and studio albums, and world touring his band The Bluesbreakers. Never stopping, he recently recorded albums in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and began playing live as a trio. His 2017  European tour resulted in the critically acclaimed live recording Three for the Road that showcased his skills on organ, piano and harmonica. In 2018, he recruited Texas blues guitarist Carolyn Wonderland -- the first female guitarist in his permanent lineup- for recording and touring in 2019.   Mayall also has a  new studio album in the works which features a full blown lineup with guest contributions from an impressive list of extraordinary, well-known guitarists.   

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Ozomatli was founded in 1995 when the core members worked together on organizing a farmworkers union in Los Angeles.  They didn’t win recognition for the union, but the band that came out of that effort, named for the Aztec astrological symbol for the monkey, has been recognized worldwide for its joyous, high energy, activist, multi-genre music. The band's first album, Ozomatli, was released in 1998 on Almo Sounds with the band's trademark mix of bilingual lyrics and Mexican music styles like norteño, along with Jamaican ska and reggae, a heavy dose of American hip-hop and funk, merengue and cumbia, often mixed together in the same song.   That album charted and led to tours with Santana and Maná. And they have not stopped. They just released a new single, “Libertad”, their 2107 album Nonstop Mexico to Jamaica  has gone global, and their 2019 tour dates are already booked into March for performances from Colorado to Cuba.

 Rebelle Road, a music platform/label/promotion and production organization founded by industry executive Karen Rappaport McHugh, along with artists KP Hawthorn and Adrienne Isom, to expand support and touring opportunities for women in country music by assembling knowledge and resources and putting together events and other opportunities with women as the main attraction. Rebelle Road organized a gathering as part of 2018’s South By Southwest festivities in Austin, released its first album last month -  a country stunner by Alice Wallace - and is heading to SXSW2019 to further its agenda of blazing new trails for Americana and Country music, especially California country music. Salvador Santana writes music that is both fun on the surface and deep in meaning.  He throws himself into projects that bring a positive spin to the world, and make a lot of people not only better off, but happy.  No wonder that at a young age he has accumulated more praise and accolades than most people ever do in their lives. He comes by his music honesty – his family has long been a creative force in music, especially his father, the Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana.  Salvador’s instrument is not the guitar, it is the keyboard and the lyric, which he wields with deft skill and unbridled joy.  He is working on new projects and has new songs out and we are so happy to have them and to welcome an old friend v- and new father – Salvador Santana is tunes

International artist Nominjin started her music career at the age of 12 in her native Mongolia, going on to become Mongolia’s first and only pop teen idol. A solo artist who sings in 15 languages, Nominjin has performed and toured in more than 15 countries across the world in front of audiences of up to 70,000 people. She has been featured on John Lennon's tribute album Peace, Love & Truth,  and her hit single “Take Me To Your Heart”  was  included in the EMI album “Love: Best of Ten Years” alongside artists such as Christina Aguilera, Toni Braxton, Norah Jones, and Ricky Martin. She is bringing her soulful R&B to the US with her new EP, Free Soul,  recorded at Radonai Records in Los Angeles, California. Indie synth pop soloist SISSTER, born in Chula Vista CA outside of San Diego, is a composer, songwriter, producer and singer. From an early age SISSTER showed musical and artistic talent, and as a teen,  she  picked up the guitar and focused on singing and composing original songs. She has performed in acoustic pop, rock bands, blues and rockabilly and synth pop concerts. She has shared stages with artists such as Enjambre, Siddharta, Julieta Venegas, La Santa Cecilia, Flor Amargo, among others in both the US and Mexico. Her debut EP features songs produced by herself, John Avila (bassist Oingo Boingo) and Anton Soder. Her debut album is set for release February 6 in Los Angeles.

Southern California singer/songwriter Alice Wallace’s new album, Into the Blue, to be released this week on Rebelle Road Records, is pure California country. Her fourth album, it harks back to the 70’s artists like Joni and Jackson Brown who did not have all the answers but knew how to sing the questions.  Folky, romantic, soulful, and always melodic, Alice is eclectic Americana, organic, probing but understanding and often topical. Winner of an LA MUSIC CRITIC Award, Alice has performed at LA’s legendary country venue the Palomino Club,  as well as many others in her average 200-gigs year. The album marks her debut on the brand-new Rebelle Road label, an imprint founded by a trio of women dedicated to strengthening the California Country music community and expanding visibility for female artists in the Americana/roots genre. Screamin’ Rachael – Rachael Cain --  named the “Queen of House Music” by Billboard Magazine,  was the first house artist to sign a major label deal. She launched the Hip House sound when she recorded Fun with Bad Boys with Afrika Bambaataa and has collaborated with  artists including Bambaataa, Marshall Jefferson, Colonel Abrams, Grandmaster Melle Mel.  An early signer to and now President of Trax Records, Rachael returns to her strong Chicago alternative roots with Don’t Make Me Lonely  while working on the production with Van Christie of Die Warzau.  She released a new single I Am House,  and celebrated the release of the soundtrack to new film series, The Vamp Bikers Trilogy, which Cain coordinated and appears on and which includes the original “Boom Boom” from TRAX, source of friction with Kayne West for his sampling.   

Lisa Bouchelle  is a renaissance woman -- one of those rare artists whose songs can make you cry, laugh and  put them on repeat.  Her music sounds loose and casual, but it’s actually very precise  -  the product of playing and singing from a very early age. And she is unstoppableaveraging over 200 shows a year. She's dueted with Jon Bon Jovi and sung backup for Bruce Springsteen, and toured with and/or opened for Blues Traveler, Meat Loaf, Ingrid Michaelson, Bryan Adams, The Wailers, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many more. She has appeared on theTV show "Gossip Girl," and placed songs in TV  and movies in the US and Japan, plus she hosts her own  TV show Rock Star Kitchen. Her latest EP, Lipstick Tomboy,has passed two million streams on Spotify, and the first single, a video  of the duet with John Popper,  "Only The Tequila Talkin',"  currently has over 100,000 views on YouTube.  Matíasis a young, bi-lingual  LA- based multi instrumentalist, producer, composer, performer, and educator with  stunning guitar chops and unique approach to Latino fusion music and classical Brazilian guitar. She identifies as a transfemme Latinx angel and is currently producing EDFemme tracks and composing boleros, bossas, and other traditional Latin music on her guitar. Her live shows range from bossa novas to percussion-laced guitar solos, to stories with a touch of humor.

One of the strongest women I know and one who is renowned throughout the indie music community as "Aoede The Muse," is the award-winning pop-folk singer, songwriter, artist, playwright, and author, Lisa Sniderman. She has recently released her memoir of creating music, plays, performances in face of a debilitating disease and it is a must read for anybody in the music or creative communities. She joins us to talk about A Light in the Darkness this week.  In it she discusses the Gift in the Curse. The curse is her disease, a debilitataing condition that she lives with every day;  the Gift is that because of her experience,  she can feel compelled to share, connect with and inspire others and offer a path towards healing and hope despite hardship and struggles. As long as I have known her, she has been a source of joy, creativity, and strength - no wonder she has won so many music awards! Maybe next is a book award?.  Trevor Douglas is a singer, songwriter and musician from Fort Worth, Texas.  A finalist on American Idol and Dallas winner of Hard Rock Rising 2017, he has opened for the Jonas Brothers, sang at  The Dallas International Film Festival,  and played The State Fair of Texas.  Texas even awarded him "The Most Entertaining Singer" in The Texas Top Ten competition, solidifying him as a musician to watch in the region. Trevor was also invited to give a TED Talk for TEDxSMU titled “Creativity: What Makes Us Different”.  As a songwriter, he gravitates towards a subtle pop style, sensitive lyrics, sweeping melodies, and hooky choruses, using his guitar as both an acoustic and percussive instrument, creating live backing tracks and vocal harmonies with his loop pedal.  

David Messier is a  multi-talented artist and music industry powerhouse based in Austin, Texas. A Trustee of the Recording Academy, Messier is an accomplished producer, entrepreneur, singer and songwriter hailed as “ a hurricane force of music.”   He has served as President of the Texas Chapter of the Recording Academy and as a Governor of the Academy. Messier was the front man of the Boston-based band Papermoon, and after moving his studio and himself to Austin and working both in music and in philanthropy, received the “Austin Under 40 Award” in the category of Arts and Entertainment. He recently released his new album, the self- reflective Time Bomb, which took only 22 days to write and record at his recording studio in East Austin, Same Sky Productions.  Always alert to music and the workings of his lyrical mind, the album’s guitar heavy title  track is based on a Wurlitzer lick from one of Messier’s many phone recordings. The Living Roomers , a new punk band comprised of Tru, Lucky and Rico,  started in the living room of the band’s home in LA in late 2017 and just self-released their first single, “Screw You” along with a video for the track. Influenced by the Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Ramones, Velvet Underground, X, The White Stripes, Joy Division and Courtney Barnett among many others. The trio calls their title song, “Screw You” a call to action. It pushes back against those who try to put people, women in particular, in boxes, something totally foreign to the fresh sound and deep energy of this trio making a name for itself in LA.

Growing up in a musical family, Devin Kennedy knew there was only one path for him in life. As a kid, he taught himself to play drums, bass, guitar, and piano and wrote songs, but he began writing and releasing music seriously when he was accepted to Berklee College of Music. Devin released critically praised Love Language EP to much acclaim and an indie album. He has also toured across North America with former Big Time Rush member James Maslow, appearing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball.   With chart-topping singles, prime TV placements, and international festival appearances, María del Pilar continues to carry the torch in the U.S. Latino bilingual movement. Equal parts pop-lover and punk-rocker, María del Pilar mixes her DIY riot grrrl roots and bilingual lyrics to create melodic, sweet, and pop anthems. As the lead singer of Los Abandoned, she planted the seeds for what blossomed into the current new wave of U.S. Latin Alternative sounds.  An immigrant Latina, María del Pilar has been collaborating live on the road with Chicano Batman, Las Cafeteras and Francisca Valenzuela. This past summer, María del Pilar also shared the stage with former labelmates Tegan & Sara, and Tune-Yards invited her to sing backup vocals for their TV performance on Conan.

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Amanda Abizaid is best known as the captivating vocalist on the theme song "A Place In Time" from Paramount's The 4400, the featured song "Dreams in Ashes" from Lifetime Television's Odd Girl Out, as well as other lead vocal appearances in songs appearing in Smallville, Ed, One Tree Hill, Felicity, and Charmed, and many others. A prodigious live performer, she appears regularly in clubs and concerts around the world. Winner of numerous awards, she is  Amanda also inspires and encourages her fans to respect and value all cultures through their shared love of music to create a more peaceful world society and support women in music. Her most recent album, Walking Two’s has already won awards and her Bollywood Remix single will be released shortly West Texas-born Sydney Wright grew up learning and loving music, crafting songs and amping up her skills as a performer as a teen playing country and rock. She developed her stunning performing skills with an impressive knack for looping tracks during live performances  with a huge voice that often gets her compared to Florence and the Machine and Sara Bareilles.  Post-college, in 2015, after recording at the famous Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Wright moved  to Austin and took up sound engineering in town. But she also started performing,  making her way through venues as a formidable, usually solo, performer.  A hit-and-run accident put her in the hospital for 10 weeks, but with the help of  Health Alliance for Austin Musicians she has fully recovered and is back playing and recording, launching an indigogo site, creating stunning videos and, of course,  sound engineering.     

New York-based Niva the Soul Diva is a singer, songwriter and performer known for blending R&B, rock, hip-hop, dance and soul and crowd-pleasing performances. A Houston, TX, native, Niva grew up in the rough part of Houston and moved to New York  for a career in the entertainment industry. In early 2008 she responded to an ad for a singer from the New Black Music production company and the rest is history.  Niva released her first full-length album, Rollercoaster Love, in 2010, with her debut single “I Will Make It” and released her sophomore album, Unrivaled in 2013. Currently she has several songs from her latest EP " Life, Love & Music  on the 2018 Grammy Award ballot for a Grammy nomination while she is also in the studio working on her full album.  Mad Hawkes is a rock trio +1 from the South Bay region of LA, led by high-energy rock singer/songwriter Maddi Hawkes who is totally unafraid to say what she thinks in raw lyrics and dance-until-you-drown-in-sweat beats. While interning at Parts + Labor Records in Venice Beach, Maddie so immersed herself in songwriting that label owner/producer Jimmy Messer saw a rising talent so he encouraged her to tap into her truth and write with passionate, emotional honesty. She did and the rest is history – a history of songs that carom from angst to heartache, from dismal lyrics to upbeat melodies. And always, she is flaunting her flaws regardless of any judgement in a sound that she calls “Babe Rock” She released her first single, "Fantasy" Janauary of this year and the second single “Face Pnch” is out now.

Multi-instrumentalist and soothing soul singer Sam Ravenna  released  his self-titled debut EP in 2017  after years as a sideman for bands including  Eric Lindell, Cas Haley, Tubby love, and Peter Joseph Burtt & The Kingtide.  A Berklee College of Music graduate the Lake Tahoe based Ravenna is a seasoned touring musician and has produced and collaborated on albums for many national acts.  His prior projects include the funk powerhouse band “Rapplesauce” and the reggae-dub project “Samily Man”. He is releasing his 14-track album Fragile featuring guests artists Rob O’Block. Scott Flynn of Odesza, Pretty Lights and John Brown’s Body, Max Ribner and Tim Snider (Nahko and Medicine for the people) contributed strings and horns and Mark Sexton (Sextones).  The album will be premiered  this Friday at La’s renowned Hotel Café. Many performers live for applause. Michelle Lewis just wants to make you cry.  She tours globally from her current home in Los Angeles, from Belgium to Wyoming. This Fall she’ll tour her new full-length album, All That’s Left, through Europe and the US. She has been a regular at The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, and at Club Passim in Boston. Her first full-length album release, This Time Around, arrived in 2004. She has been a longtime collaborator with producer Anthony J. Resta (Elton John, Duran Duran, Shawn Mullins), spanning their work on her EPs Broken (2009) and Paris (2011), her second full-length album, The Parts Of Us That Still Remain (2014), and her forthcoming album All That’s Left (2018).

Whitney Tai is a singer-songwriter daredevil who creates dream pop on the edge between pop and indie, rooted in emotional honesty and personal integrity.  She is simultaneously totally authentic and other worldly. Tai lost her mother to cancer when she was 10 years old, surfacing her own health issues including severe anxiety, depression and weight loss. But  she channeled her feelings into songs and poems and performing no matter the darkness inside of her. Singles led to albums like her debut Metamorphosis, then the EP Forever, followed by a series of single releases, ‘Truth Be Told” ,”How Was I Supposed To Know” and breathtaking videos and then “Shockwave”.  She is now appearing in venues across LA. Nurit Siegel Smith has been appointed as the new Executive Director Music Forward Foundation of the House of Blues , an organization that contributes over a million dollars year to music programming and education. Smith assumes leadership as the foundation’s Music Forward program embarks on its 25th year as one of the nation’s leading nonprofits creating opportunities for youth in the music industry. She comes to Music Forward after serving as Deputy Director at Grand Performances. She has extensive experience in arts and entertainment social sectors and has held positions within the Blue Man Group and Highways Performance Space and spent over a decade at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. She will join us to lay out her vision for the future of the Music Forward Program, so vital to music in America. Award-wining singer/songwsriter/musical director / producerand voice actor AOEDE  drops by to talk about her forthcoming memoir.

“The hardest thing you can possibly do is walk away from someone that you viscerally love and feel is a part of you.”  Singer-songwriter, Joy Autumn, explores this declaration in depth in her latest music video for her single, Go and expands the search for meaning in her album Midnight, exploring the underbelly of the music industry. A singer-songwriter originally from the small town of Olympia, WA., the glitter of Hollywood quickly faded for her as she discovered a dark culture of late night and early morning partying with trust-fund babies, the offspring of celebrities, and industry execs, with drinking, drugs and predatory behavior. There were days when she couldn’t get out of bed and that’s when she re-discovered her love of utilizing songwriting as a form of therapy, She co-produced Midnight, a moody and cinematic pop record, with the support of producer, Bill Lefler (Ingrid Michaelson) to shine the light on the underground.  The Vagabond Tales is a multi-instrumental music project that is centered around the songwriting of Eva Mikhailovna, lead singer and song writer.  Eva was born to a musical family in Russia and  began writing songs and lyrics as a child. She learned how to play the piano before she could read or write, but it was always just for her own pleasure and that of her family’s.  After  moving to California, an invitation to play some of her music at a local college led her to put together a band and live perform  her unique brand of western/old folk,/ragtime  melting pot music.  Recording soon followed,  and she  released  Letters From the Moon in 2013, and the EP La Douleur Exquise in 2016.  Eva and the Vagabond Tales  is now touring in California. (Eva photos by Fernanda Frias)  

Laura Saggers is a British singer/songwriter based in Los Angele,. For some time she has been arranging, recording and performing covers each week and has just released her debut original album Chasing Dreams. Classically trained on piano since the age of 4, Laura picked up the guitar while backpacking through Latin America as a teen, and later acquired and mastered the keytar.  She was was endorsed by Roland for the keytar in 2013 and was rated as their top 25 keytarists worldwide alongside Lady Gaga and Keisha's keytarists. Laura's original singles have won the  Summer Fling Best Song award for 2015 in the Unsigned Only International Music Competition, er and her song 10'000 Bitcoins was featured in the LA Times and Wall Street Journal. 

lauara saggers

Atlanta-based songwriter Anita Aysola infuses jazz and blues with classic rock and traditional Indian influences. Using lyrical wit, virtuosic piano runs, and a sultry-sweet voice , she seamlessly bridges worlds.  Her debut album More Than Maybe showcases her broad range of influences from Norah Jones to Tom Waits. Her focus goes beyond jazz into traditional Indian music, most apparent in "Long Way Home", a ballad channeling influences like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Ravi Shankar.   Gina Chavez is a bilingual Latin-folk singer/songwriter who blends the sounds of the Americas with  cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and folk combined with sharp social commentary. She is the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner , a eight-time Austin Music Award winner,she also won Musician of the Year, Album of the Year(Up.Rooted), Song of the Year , Best Latin Band , and the Esme Barrera Award for Music Activism and Education. She brings us her new personal EP, Lightbeam.  Karen Dezelle is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, California whose acoustic indie folk songs played at SXSW and famed venues across the United States and UK, including the House of Blues, The Hotel Cafe, Hotel Utah, and The Bitter End. After the success of her 2013 and 2014 albums, Lost and Found and  Bloom, Unfold, Wither, Dezelle’s 2016 EP, Room For Two, pushed boundaries that are extremely personal and heartfelt even for her.   She will be talking about an upcoming event she is singing at, Create a Smile.

This Friday we premier Ch’usay  the newest album by Novalima, the explosive Afro- Peruvian band that travels the world bridging cultures, genres and generations in their music. Started by four friends from Lima with a shared passion for traditional Afro-Peruvian music and global DJ culture, Novalima has garnered worldwide critical acclaim from mainstream media like NPR, UK Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Billboard, and underground media like  Remezcla, Sounds & Colors, and Nat Geo for their  legendary performances at festivals, their string of hit albums and  their Latin Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album.  Last year Novalima went back into the studio to explore new sounds from Peru and produced  Ch’usay  which will be released this Friday, celebrating Novalima’s 15th Anniversary. Chicago –born Matt LeGrand has explored the wide variety of musical inspirations that the windy city had to offer,  learning guitar, drums, and even dabbling with songwriting. He also experimented with different bands and duos in college that finally inspired him to find a sound all his own. Legendary artists manager Bryant Reid  discovered LeGrand in 2015 and is confident he’s found another potentially explosive new artist, saying , "In all of my years in the recorded music business, I must say that Matt LeGrand is one of the hardest working young artists that I've encountered. “  With an ever growing fan-base who call themselves The Legrand Girls.  He released the highly successful “All Good” song and video  in 2017, released  “12:00 AM”  this year, and debuted live in NYC this summer. Plus, The duo Mitre drops by at the beginning of the showwith the new song, "El Callejón Del Beso" .

In 2016 Ali Stone was named by Billboard as one of the  6 artists to watch – the only woman on the list. Billboard was right. One of the youngest film composers for film in the world she went on to produce  the full soundtrack of the thriller  Demental, her remix for the official soundtrack of the Disney film Monsters University was chosen from more than 2,000 participants and she has become the  Colombian spokesperson of the international campaign Women Working for Women. The talented Colombian producer, singer / songwriter & DJ, just released her new single " Follow Me " after Latin and Central American  tours where she DJ’d and played for amphitheater crowds.  Now in LA, she is writing, producing and engineering songs for artists such as Alan Walker  and Prince Royce ...and taking time to sit down with Music Friday Live. This is a special extended interview so there is only one guest.  

Taylor Grey began her musical career at 12 years old writing her own lyrics, while she took opera training and taught herself the piano and guitar.  Musical theater, classic rock, jazz and 90’s hip-hop  all contributed to her sophisticated and cross-generational refined pop alternative music.  She debuted in 2016, with “Mind of Mine I & II”, a two-part EP that caught the eyes and ears of Pop Artist, Jacob Whitesides  and put her on his summer “Lovesick” Tour as his opening performer. Her fan base exploded when she joined The Summer Set’s sold out “Made For You” Tour as a special guest in the fall of 2016. She released her  first full album, SPACE CASE in the spring of 2017. (photgos by Nikko Lamere)

Internationally known Electro-Dance Pop artist, Kim Cameron has been building a name for herself since 2008 when she released her first album Contradictions. Her tracks have been featured on Billboard’s Dance Club,  the Starfleet Dance Chart, and the DJ Times Dance Chart among others. Her album No Regrets generated a n indie record of 5 charting singles and her music videos have garnered over 2 million views and won awards from film festivals from LA to Switzerland as well as the Global Music Awards. She has toured the world, performed for the NFL, and won Best Emerging Female Artist of the Year at the 2017 Indie Music Channel Awards. And she writes children’s books! She recently released her Greatest Hits album featuring 11 of her highest charting singles which demonstrate her passion in “telling stories through music.” Nashville blues artist Tammie Shannon has come full circle through being a young touring artist, wife, mom, business owner and now back to a full-time recording and performing musician. After teaming up with Grammy-nominated producer Kent Wells, Shannon shares the good, the bad and the ugly of a tumultuous life through her new blues album, All of Me. Growing up in northeast Arkansas just outside of Memphis with a family singing and playing classical, blues, Christian, country and R&B, Tammie started singing in her church and later joined a local band that toured as the opener for R&B/soul legend, Percy Sledge. But several years of setbacks, including a vocal cord injury sidelined her from music until  her duaghter inspired her to rebuild her voice and sing again. All of Me is heavily influenced by Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt and Etta James, and in it, Tammie tells her story of survival and empowerment.  

Sean Ardoin is a fourth-generation Creole accordion whiz with a serious pedigree in Louisiana’s Creole tradition but with musical ideas of his own. He jumps out of out of the traditional box and create new music, influence by the likes of Earth Wind and Fire and Kiss to Fishbone and Bob Marley, which he listened to as a kid, along with the old-school music. He is a guardian of the Creole culture, but a new genre innovator too. Ardoin calls the new genre, Kreole Rock and Soul, a roots-based sound that embraces and incorporates contemporary pop and classic rock. He lays it down on Kreole Rock and Soul to be released September 14, an album he has filled with tasty accordion licks, catchy songs, and a brash, upbeat attitude that inspires as it persuades you to get up and dance. British music producer and singer Mark Kingswood has performed thousands of times around the world for over the decade. His original songscover everthing  from love, to family, to the  challenges just living. His personal musical style is inspired by the great crooners of the last century, but he reinvents this timeless musical genre for today's ears and performs it with a confident stage presence born of years of experience while retaining his fiery youthful energy. With a vocal range that extends over several octaves, a distinctive voice and the deep, rich sound of a live orchestra plus his British charm, he brings a fun, young and modern twist to big band and jazz music. 

Rob Bonfiglio is a guitarist, songwriter, producer, and musical director who first gained national prominence in the mid ‘90s as a founding member of RCA recording act Wanderlust. He scored a radio hit on the Billboard charts with "I Walked" and landed prime opening gigs for The Who, Collective Soul and others. Since relocating to Los Angeles in 2001, Rob has become a critically acclaimed solo artist with 4 solo albums to date, and his fifth, Trouble Again, has just been released. Rob also tours with and the musical director for multi-platinum selling pop group Wilson Phillips and produced their most recent album, Dedicated.  Rob also plays with other L.A. based artists and his songs are heard in television, commercials, and films, including Disney’s 2008 release, Bridge to Terabithia. El Feeling is a Los Angeles-based band founded in 2016 that mixes Latino folk rhythms with alternative style influenced by rock and pop, using folk instruments such as accordion, guitar, tambora and flute de millo, and electronic elements. Members of El Feeling  -- Carolina Cobo, Carlos Hernan-Ch, Sergio Aldana, Diego Torres-Cantu, and Marco Echeverría -- come from Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico, blending their home nation sounds, cultures and rhythms into a fusion of musical ideas that resonates with any audience.  El Feeling are Rock & Roll flavored with Latin spice and  a style that can go beyond the Latin audience. Although their lyrics are in Spanish in in the future may also be in English .Their latest song, #Parrapa,  is cumbia rock with a little rumba, and designed to make people get up and dance. (photos by Mariangela and Juan Nader)  

Sterling Infinity combines electronic soul and synth rock Sterling began in gospel music where his songwriting abilities and extraordinary vocal range won the attention of gospel critics and the adulation of audiences. Soon he was singing not only at church venues, but also at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Avery Fisher, and the Jacob Javits Center. Back then he was as well known for his voice as he was for his flamboyant stage persona.   He incorporates his deep sexual convictions and naked passion into his music, with dance beats that keep clubs moving until the wee hours.  Sterling Infinity recently dropped his second music video #XWeveLanded - Soul Raptured to accompany his Ep, Sterling Infinity - The Infinite One Has Landed. The electric-pop band Karmic is comprised of vocalists Laura Baruch and Kylee Katch,  and features producers Samuel Murphy and Peter Kastner of Bad Owl Records. Known for bending sounds and toeing the genre line. their music blends electro-dance beats and hooky pop melodies, infused with a fearless point-of-view.   Their wildly energetic music, like their brand new single, "Warriors," a quintessential female forward pop track that is both inspiring and determined, and like all their music, demands positive change. Their unique sound has taken them across the U.S. and Europe, including a recent stint in Germany and frequent performances at SoFar Sounds LA and Resident DTLA.

Atlanta-based Alexandra Jackson is a classically trained pianist, whose heart and talent has turned to bossa nova, jazz and the Latin beats. She comes by her talent and her heart honestly: her grand aunt was Mattiwilda Dobbs, the African American coloratura soprano who was one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera and as the daughter of Atlanta’s first Black major, her household was filled with the music of Miles Davis, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Michael Jackson, as well as that of Johnny Hartman, Luciano Pavarotti, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.  Alexandra studied Jazz at the University of Miami, where she was exposed to Brazilian Jazz and performed  with Latin bands and Brazilian ensembles and later in Jazz festivals in the U.S. and in Europe. Her debut project: Alexandra Jackson: Legacy & Alchemy channels  her musical loves and experiences: Brazilian Music, American Jazz & Soul, NeoSoul, and London Soul Jazz for contemporary audiences worldwide. Jenny and the Mexicats was formed 10 years ago in Madrid Spain by an English woman, two Mexicans and a Spaniard, fusing nationalities and personalities. Jenny, a professional trumpeter, linked with Icho, who played double bass, Pantera a guitarist, who loves punk bands and had played  with Icho for many years in Mexico. Pantera then introduced the band to Spanish cajon player David from the world of flamenco. The first album, the bilingual Gold Medal-winning  Jenny And The Mexicats was released in 2011, they moved to Mexico City in 2012, and in 2014 they released their second album, OME.  From then on Jenny and the Mexicats  became known on three continents for  a musical combination that mixes rhythms of jazz, rockabilly, folk, flamenco, reggae, "veracruzano", country and cumbia.    

Alezzandra uses her music, her body, her visual talent, and her mind to deliver messages that are sophisticated, yet simple and powerful. Born and raised in Sweden with a Serbian background and now living in LA, Alezzandra is an international recording artist and a producer who  creates a  female empowerment narrative through razor sharp lyrics, hypnotic rhythms, poetry,  and provocative eroticism.   And she delivers it all with a voice that knows few equals.   Alezzandra’s music unfurls her deepest secrets and darkest fantasies, peeling painful, sensual layers away in her full video EP, The Black Rose. ? Her songs B ad Woman is a masterpiece of provocative melody and lyrics.  She is truly a Bad Girl in Heaven and A Good Girl in Hell.  Which is why she won the LA Music Critic Award for early 2018 for Best Ep, Female. Raised and rooted in Corpus Christi, Texas, producer, DJ, and nu-cumbia pioneer El Dusty translates the Southern Texas border experience into new barrio anthems. His self-taught approach, drawing from a crate digging and a turntablist tradition links Latin classics with the new generation of bass-heavy soundsystem and hip-hop cultures. Critical acclaim has hailed El Dusty as Rolling Stone’s 10 New Artists You Need to Know and a  Grammy nomination came last year.  He is in demand at venues across the country for live gigs and collaborative projects with new wave Latin artists like Ana Ba´rbara, Toy Selectah, Erick Rinco´n of 3BallMTY, MLKMN, DJ Buddha, and more.  Without a doubt, El Dusty is one of the artists who will shape the future of music.

Giulia Millanta, is a Italian-born, Austin- based Singer-songwriter who has released multiple solo albums,  toured nationally throughout the USA and internationally throughout Europe and has both a new album and video out as of last week. An accomplished guitarist, Giulia also plays ukulele and sings in four languages. In 2010  she earned the  “New Sounds Of Acoustic Music” award in Europe and an endorsement by guitar makers Eko. She debuted  “Giulia and the Dizzyness”  in 2010, released “Dropping Down”  in 2011,  and “Dust and Desire”  in 2012. She broke new ground with “The Funambulist” and  “Moonbeam Parade”.  Last week she  released  Conversations with a Ghost after returning from her latest European tour. Victoria Ginty and her Tampa-based Ladyhawke band fuse swampy Blues, R&B, Soul, and Americana in original compositions and covers. Victoria has had  #1 records on worldwide charts, was nominated for "Singer Songwriter of the Year" and "Video of the Year",and is up for a LA Music Critics Award this year. Victoria and the band recently recorded their 1st CD, "Live at the Firehouse" and were featured on WPHX "The Phoenix" 101.9 FM radio in Florida. Their latest studio project, the 11-track  "Unfinished Business " was released in May of this year  to rave reviews.   ?

Johnny “Chops” Richardson lives in Austin, TX with his wife and their two Basset hounds, Reggie and Emmylou. He has been writing and performing music since his uncle gave him a battered acoustic guitar at age 16. Since 2002, Johnny has logged thousands of miles and 8 albums playing bass for The Randy Rogers Band.  Several of his tunes have made their way onto the bands albums, and his song “Last Last Chance” garnered a Texas music chart #1. In 2013  he released his first album as a solo artist, Sticks & Stones.  Next came  the eponymous "Johnny Chops & The Razors" and a second single and video, "Taking A Chance On Me".   On tour now, he plays with both bands. Halo Circus is a bilingual alternative electronic rock duo based in Los Angeles, California, composed of vocalist Allison Iraheta and bassist Matthew Hager.  Formed in 2012 by Iraheta, a finalist on American Idol, the band began as a rock quartet belting out power songs carried by Iraheta’s huge voice. This year the band evolved into a futuristic electronic rock duo with English and Spanish lyrics laced with heavy social commentary and a way out there sound tht audiences are eating up around the country.  The duo’s recent album, Robots and Wranglers has been met with rave reviews and predictions of being an Album of the Year, following three nominations for LA Music Critic Awards.  They have just wrapped up a sold-out 30 city tour and are back home in Los Angeles.

Dr. Julia del Palacio is one of those remarkable people who can excel in three fields simultaneously, in her case history,  music,  and  arts administration.  She is an historian, a vocalist, a dancer, and an administrator on the staff of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Brooklyn's Queens College.  She sings and dances as part of the NYC-based jarocho band Radio Jarocho with Zenen Zeferino and is bringing us their latest album, Rios Norte Y Sur.  Music unites all of her  endeavors, especially the  jarocho music from Veracruz and the zapeadado dance that she performs.  She is the perfect guide  to take us through the magic of jarocho music as it has taken root and evolved in the Estádos Unítos  and the music of Rios Norte y Sur album. The Marías are the psychedelic-soul lovechild of LA native Josh Conway and Puerto Rican-bred, Atlanta-raised María Zardoya. Formed in Los Angeles in 2016, they deliver a smooth fusion of jazz percussion, hypnotic guitar riffs, smoke-velvet vocals and nostalgic horn solos in a sensual funk/ lounge environment they magically create on stage and in the studio.  With María on lead vocals and Josh on drums, the couple is joined by three of their closest friends and fellow musical commune members: Jesse Perlman on guitar;  Carter Lee on bass and Edward Jame on keys. Together they create seamless dance melodies that combine synthetic and analog tones, weaving in an old-school, vintage aesthetic with a progressive touch that mesmerizes crowds and flows in layered yet minimalist recordings. Rob Morrow is an actor, director, tv star and a great guitar player.  He joins us with his  new single, "The New Face" and talk aboaut his appearance on the upcoming City of Hope telecast with his band the RMB.  

Patricia Vonne is a multi-talented musician, actress, award winning filmmaker who has been  named SXSW best female vocalist twice.   She is releasing her seventh album Top of the Mountain May 25, 2018 on her label Bandolera Records, hot on the heels of her recent win at the Madrid International Film Festival for “Best Animation award” the music video for “Huerta de San Vicente,” from her Spanish album Viva Bandolera .  Her new release features special guest musicians Johnny Reno, Grammy award winner Max Baca, David Grissom, Grammy award winner Joe Reyes and many more.  A ninth-generation Tejana she embodies every indigenous musical style in Texas , and is an excellent singer songwriter as well as singer and multi-instrumentalist and band leader. Twenty-six year old Andy Sydow know how to put sepia into a song.  He creates memories that you may have had, but you certainly feel.  A fixture on the l Colorado music scene since his days at the University of Colorado in Denver, he has opened for Tab Benoit and Delbert McClinton at the Gothic Theater, Anders Osborne at the Caribou Room and Dick Dale at the Bluebird Theater. He's also performed at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Music Festival and been nominated for several awards for his piano playing and songwriting by the Colorado Blues Society.  His fourth album, Reasons For Departure due out this month is  filled with richly detailed songwriting and melodies in the style of Jackson Browne, Jason Isbell, Dan Fogelberg and Jackie Greene…and his own sepia tones.     

Moira Smiley is a singer/composer who creates and performs new work for voices. A musical polyglot, and vocal shape-shifter, her voice – and composing – are heard on feature films, BBC & PBS television programs, NPR, and on more than 60 albums. When she’s not leading her own group, Moira Smiley & VOCO,  she tours with with groups like indie artist tUnE-yArDs, Solas, The Lomax Project and Billy Child’s “Laura Nyro Re-Imagined”.  Born in Vermont,  raised in Indiana and now living in Los Angeles, her musical foundation is harmony and traditional folk songs, but she has spread her talent, including serving as Musical Director for Shakespeare Santa Cruz , performing at the London Proms Festival, being featured on BBC3’s The Choir, and ABC Australia’s Books & Arts programs where her spare, vocally driven warped traditional songs, original polyphony and body percussion get rave reviews and audience love and keep her in high demand as a choral clinician, composer and arranger. Costa Rican hip-hop artist NAKURY has been a model, a beauty queen, a dancer and a graffiti artist.  Now a rapper, hip hop poet and performer and – most important – an activist using music and art to stop violence against women and end a machismo culture that is toxic to women, men and families. Her music, including her new album Via, is captivating with smooth rap, emotional choruses Her videos burst with energy and dance, and her message of confidence and empowerment inspires women, not only in her native Costa Rica, but worldwide.  She has experience the abuses she singa about - she talkis to women and girls personally and to men through the love of their families.  NAKURY  is truly an artist larger than her art and she is making waves on tours, online and on recordings.  

Los Angeles born singer-songwriter Eva B. Ross grew up writing songs and singing in her family’s garage band. She studied singing and songwriting at Interlochen Arts and the Stanford Jazz Vocal Residency. Later at UCLA, she formed her band, Eva B. Ross Foundation and independently set out on a European tour in the summer of 2014. In 2015, she released her first independent single "Nick's House" and in 2017, she won UCLA's Spring Sing with her original composition, "Chicago". Past recipients of the award include Sara Bareilles and Maroon 5. She has twice been featured as a vocalist on WDCB 90.9 FM’s “Chicago Jazz Live” and she is currently working on her debut EP, which will be co-produced by Grammy-winning producer Justin Niebank and Emmy-winning producer, Steve Rashid. The NaveBlues is a band on a mission.  It is trying to bridge the gaps among three musical genres -  the blues, rock, indie music  to make the music speak your language, whoever you are.  One of their core elements is the harmonica, which is essential to the mood of the  lyrics and the ambiance of the space you are in when listening to the music.  The band was formed in Norway but it integrates international influences into their music while keeping the common underlying messaging of Blues while surfacing more complexity with their storytelling.  The band’s  stories range across ghosts , love with misunderstandings, duty and inspiration, and frustration and adventure.  NaveBlues does more than just sing a song. It wants you to understand the story and the emotion buried inside.

Kara Grainger is an Australian-born, US-based blues woman who has played around the world.  She started her music career in a suburb of Sydney Australia when, at 16, as an accomplished blues guitarist and singer,  she and her brother Mitch Grainger formed the band "Papa Lips". They toured Australia and produced two studio albums heavily influenced by the sounds of Stax records and funky blues and soul from New Orleans. In 2008 she signed to Australian label and came to the US to record her debut solo album, "Grand and Green River “which stayed in the top 30 of the Americana Charts for 38 straight weeks. The rest is history – tours of Europe, Asia, the US, appearances on “Austin City Limits”, opening for Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal and Jonny Lang. Her fourth album, Living with Your Ghost,  will be released this Friday and we will preview it. Mad. Insane. Crazy. Brilliant. Weird.  There are a lot of ways to describe Kurt Stifle and his various musician incarnations. Co-founder/writer for 80s punkers The Nip Drivers, he appeared in the notorious underground film “Desperate Teenage Lovedolls,” recorded  Destroy Whitey and Oh Blessed Freak Show. Three decades, multiple musical incarnations and billions of creatively firing neurons later, he is the leader of Kurt Stifle and the Swing Shift and has just released another album, The Pilgrim’s Guide to The River of Salvation, a 16-track rock opera that’s the latest twist of zany but laser focused inspiration from the composer, producer and guitarist’s freewheeling ever-evolving collective Labor Camp. The album is all about the journey, so we will hear songs from the  past 60 years of pop, from Dylan to Cheap Trick  and Black Flag. We will have Kurt. We will have the album. And we will have fun this Friday.

NYC pop artist, actress and dancer Kendra Black has recently released her album The Edge produced by LA’s Trend Def Studios and co-written with Nick Nittoli and Lachi.  The single from the album, ‘Rude’ features Snoop Dogg . Kendra, who trained in conservatories in France and Milan, Italy,  has performed in France, Monte-Carlo, Italy, Egypt, U.S. and the Caribbean.  She is currently scheduled to appear on the Richmond International Music and Film Fest in Virginia and at the BMI All Stars Showcase in Queens, New York City.   Never one to stand still, she has appeared in numerous roles in New York Film Academy productions, and on Nickelodeon TV Channel, plus she designed and launched her own line of sportswear. At eighteen Ally Venable became the East Texas Female Guitarist of the year, and then came back and won again in 2015.  Venable starting singing at an early age in church and then picked up the guitar, found her passion and became s a protégé of six-string blues guitar legend Lance Lopez.  Now the lead singer and guitarist for her own band she  has ignited excitement throughout the Modern Blues Scene.  Venable’s songwriting, guitar playing and onstage performance blow away both live audiences and her record fans.  She has assembled the Ally Venable Band  of top notch multiple instrumentalists including bassist Bobby Wallace and classically trained musician and drummer, Elijah Owings, known as the backbone of their Modern Rockin’ Blues sound.  Together, this trio has won the 2015 , 2016 and 2017  East Texas Music Awards Blues Band of the Year and has just released the new CD, Puppet Show.    

NYC native Cuesta Loeb comes from a family of musicians -- the world-renown jazz guitarist Chuck Loeb and Spanish singer-songwriter/actress Carmen Cuesta. Growing up between the US and Spain, she studied classical flute and bassoon and played in orchestras, she was  never able to find her voice in classical music. In 2015, she moved to Los Angeles and began experimenting in her own songwriting and production inspired by Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins, Fiona Apple, and (early) Sheryl Crow, She found her home, combining her love of dark, haunting melodies with dreamy, ethereal instrumentation and vocals with everything from acoustic ukuleles to Shoegaze-heavy guitars. She linked up with guitar player/producer, Blake Straus and they are recording the band’s debut record, to be released this summer. Together with her sister Lizzy, she performing the live Cuesta Loeb shows. Cusi Coyllur is the name of an Inca princess. It is also the stage name taken by the indefatigable Shannen Roberts,  experimental pianist, singer and mental health advocate.  With a huge vocal range, superb piano chops and the willingness and ability to go beyond the borders of pop/jazz music , Coyllur creates music that has been featured in Huff Post, Ms. Magazine and Madame Gandhi’s “The Future is Female” Spotify playlist.  Her latest single and music video, “amivulnerable?”,  is a dance interpretation of domestic abuse and comes with a free zine in collaboration with her blog The Strange is Beautiful. She is also a healing yoga instructor, publisher of The Strange is Beautiful Alternative Self-Help Guide and has hosted live Instagram talk about her arthritis, IBS and mind obstacles and the struggles of other artists.    

Kara Grainger is an Australian-born, US-based blues woman who has played around the world.  She started her music career in a suburb of Sydney Australia when, at 16, as an accomplished blues guitarist and singer,  she and her brother Mitch Grainger formed the band "Papa Lips". They toured Australia and produced two studio albums heavily influenced by the sounds of Stax records and funky blues and soul from New Orleans. In 2008 she signed to Australian label and came to the US to record her debut solo album, "Grand and Green River “which stayed in the top 30 of the Americana Charts for 38 weeks. The rest is history – tours of Europe, Asia, the US, TV appearances , opening for stars. Her new single, Living with Your Ghost,  will be released this Friday and we will preview it. Mad. Insane. Crazy. Brilliant. Weird.  There are a lot of ways to describe Kurt Stifle and the Swing Shift and Kurt’s various musician incarnations (aka Kurt Shellenberger). Co-founder/writer for 80s punkers The Nip Drivers, he did crazy stuff like appear in the  Dave Markey film “Desperate Teenage Lovedolls,” recording albums like Destroy Whitey and released popular covers of “Fox on the Run” . Three decades and multiple musical incarnations later, he is the leader of Kurt Stifle and the Swing Shift and has just released, The Pilgrim’s Guide to The River of Salvation, a 16-track rock opera that’s the latest twist of zany but laser focused inspiration from the composer, producer and guitarist’s freewheeling ever-evolving collective Labor Camp. The album is all about the journey, so we will hear songs from the  past 60 years of pop, from Dylan to Cheap Trick  and Black Flag. We have Kurt. We have the album. And we will have fun this Friday.  

Kirsten Collins began working with Grammy producers and writers in the beginning of her teen years. Her potential for stardom was evident early on as she was singing on key when she was less than 2 years old. She sang her first solo at age 5 and wrote her first song at 6. At the age of 9 was fronting adult bands at professional events. She then went on to win Calgary Junior Idol when she was 10. She was later named Miss Teen Calgary - World in 2012 and also competed in the Miss Teen Canada - World pageant. As an actress, she had a major role in the 2009 film Rust, which featured her original song "Could You Imagine." She is featured on the MC Mario single "Anti-Gravity" and has received several offers from music labels, movie producers and has been featured in international publications but has decided to remain independent. David Poe has toured the world with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Jayhawks, Chris Whitley, Glenn Tilbrook and Tori Amos. His songs have been recorded by producers including T-Bone Burnett, Larry Klein, Buddy Miller and Dave Sitek, and performed by Curtis Stigers, Oh Land, Ana Moura, C.C. White, Thomas Dybdahl and the cast of Nashville. His solo recordings include his most recent release God & The Girl, a self-titled debut produced by T-Bone Burnett, The Late Album on Sony/Epic records, Love Is Red on Universal Music/The Lab,  two live recordings and much, much more. Not bad for a sound engineer from the Midwest transplanted to Los Angeles by way of New York City.

Native Angelino, H’Atina, Released her debut EP in 2002, and the single from the album, “Change” was an immediate hit. But her love of music and singing started years earlie at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she studied  performance, chorus, musical theatre, songwriting, and vocal jazz...and learned to develop herflexible voice to carry  rhythm & blues, pop, funk, neo-soul, jazz, and musical theatre. In 2016  her single "Easy to Love You" was #1 for 16 weeks on radiomusic.com charts. She followed up with the  Like A Butterfly EP and immediately caught the attention of smooth jazz and soul DJs in the U.S. and U.K. She has performed on BET Live! and in venues and festivals nationwide. She is a 2006 Southern California Music Awards Nominee for Best R&B, and was voted MVP for her role in the jazz musical, Smokey Joe's Cafe in 2008.   Jail Guitar Doors is a California non-profit organization that provides musical instruments and opportunities to help rehabilitate prisoners. In 1977, punk rock pioneers, The Clash, recorded “Jail Guitar Doors,” a song detailing the imprisonment of their hero and fellow musician, the MC5’s Wayne Kramer. In 2009, musicians/activists Wayne Kramer and Billy Bragg joined forces to create Jail Guitar Doors USA, which works  with social service groups to help people in prison reconnect with the outside world through music. ?Joining us will be Wayne Kramer and Ken Hartman,  a convicted felon who earned to college degrees while in prison for 35 years is the author of  Mother California. A memoir that chronicles his story from conviction to redemption. Hartman is the first Jail Guitar Doors disciple to be hired by the organization.

Gina Chavez is a bilingual Latin-folk singer/songwriter who blends the sounds of the Americas with tension and grace. Her music blends cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and folk combined with dynamic vocals and sharp social commentary. She is the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner for her song “Siete-D,” a rock-cumbia-rap mix that explores the delights and dangers of El Salvador from a window on the 7-D, the bus route she rode as a volunteer there in 2010. An eight-time Austin Music Award winner, Chavez and her band swept the 2015 awards, winning Musician of the Year, Album of the Year(Up.Rooted), Song of the Year (“Siete-D”), Best Latin Band, and the Esme Barrera Award for Music Activism and Education, while placing in six other categories. A new Gina Chavez single from her upcoming intensely personal EP, Lightbeam. "Heaven Knows" is a love letter set to lyrics dedicated to her wife, Jodi Granado. Chavez has received national recognition from NPR’s “All Songs Considered” and “Alt.Latino” for her debut SXSW performance (2012) as one of the new Latin artists to watch, and the Austin American-Statesman calls her “a true Austin music treasure — angelic vocals and a devilish treat on guitar.” Southern Living Magazine named her one of 11 “southern iconic women who have left a beautiful footprint across the South,” for her volunteer work in El Salvador. This will be her second appearance on Music Friday Live - her first interview was so much fun, we decided to ask her back.    

LA-based, super funky pop artist Dree Mon, who has been described as "the sardonic love child of David Bowie and Wonder Woman from the valley,"  was thrust into singing and songwriting when a car accident cut short her dancing career. The rest is history. Her 2017 debut "Rebel Soul." will be in the upcoming Netflix film  “High Strung: Free Dance”. She followed that with a brace of songs s featured on TV shows (“Parenthood” and “White Collar”), movies (“No Service”, “Wingman Inc!”, and “Love of War”), and web series (“Liv Out Loud”. Along with media credits have come  awards like the Indie Music Channel Best Adult Contemporary Song, RAWard Producer Choice Award, a nomination from the LA Indie Critic Awards for (Best Music Video, and a Temecula Valley Music Award for Best Out of Town Talent - Pop. And she does all this while performing and recording a new single - “No Chill”, and an EP. Texas-based Jackie Venson blows the roof off every venue she plays in, whether it is in the USA or on a world Tour.  Trained in classical piano, Venson has multi-instrumental chops plus a voice that can drip with emotion or belt with blues.  Venson picked up the guitar shortly after graduating from the famed Berklee College of Musi, made the giant leap from classical music to raw and gritty blues and never looked back.  Enthralled with music since the age of 8, this young singer/songwriter/musician has a vibrant musical soul and  precise technical control of her instruments. She blends and bends Blues, Rock, R&B, and Soul with her introspective lyrics into music that led to a Jackie Venson Day in Austin. She is on a coast to coast tour,  promoting her new Transcends EP.  

Danielle Hollobaugh is talented, courageous, exciting, surprising and determined. She commands a stage with sophisticated R&B and pop music that has earned her Best Songwriter Awards in Florida, top prize in the national Talent Quest karaoke competition, and the Southeastern Idol competition in Florida, where she is from.  Now in Los Angeles, she is backing top bands as a session singer, and writing and recording her own songs and shooting astonishing videos.  She has released an EP, several singles and sang at the NBA Allstars’ afterparty.  Blind since birth, nothing stops her. She is now finishing her debut full-length album and its fire-laced music video  whilke performing live in Los Angeles and vocal backing major bands. Bolivian singer/songwriter Jose Mrochek formed his first rock band at 15  after his brother gave him the score of  Pink Floyd’s The Wall to learn. The rest is history. Years later he formed Avionica and signed with Radioactive Music.  He released the album California in 2013, produced by Sebastian Keyes, winner of 14 Grammys. His next album, the 2016 release Electricidad, was produced by Grammy Award winner Andrés Saavedra.  Recorded in Hollywood’s Ocean Way Studios, it featured an all-star band with drummer Pete Thomas of the Elvis Costello band, Dave Leviats, guitarist for Atlanis Morissette, Shakira bassist John Falcone and keyboardist Roger Manning Jr. of Jellyfish.  Latin Grammy-nominated artists VEGA and Ellston Torres collaborated on the lyrics.  He has garnered two Maya Awards and worked with American-Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, fashion designer, and entrepreneur, Francisca Vallenzuela, founder of the Ruido Fest. An unstoppable force in Latin America, Mrochek recently released his live album Entre Lineas and a new single, “I will stop talking about you”.