Podcasts about Swanee

We surprise Jonesy with Swanee! Believe by Swanee arrives Friday, August 1, via Songland Records. Pre-order your copy now via johnswan.net.au.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textGeorge Feltenstein from the Warner Archive joins host Tim Millard to discuss the remarkable restoration and reconstruction of the 1945 film "Rhapsody in Blue," now available on Blu-ray in its complete 161-minute version for the first time in 80 years.• Warner Bros.' restoration team combined original camera negative footage with a composite fine-grain master to reconstruct the complete film as director Irving Rapper intended• The rediscovered 5-minute Porgy and Bess sequence featuring Anne Brown's full performance of "Summertime" replaces the truncated 1:45 version shown in theaters• The Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra deserves special recognition for their outstanding musical performances and arrangements by Ray Heindorf• Many actual Gershwin associates appear in the film, including Paul Whiteman's orchestra, Oscar Levant, and Al Jolson performing "Swanee"• The film successfully portrays Gershwin's dedication to creating uniquely American music that incorporated jazz and diverse cultural influences• This frame-by-frame restoration delivers unprecedented audio and visual quality, surpassing even the original theatrical presentation• Robert Alda delivers a charismatic performance as George Gershwin, supported by excellent performances from Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, and Charles CoburnPurchase Link: RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1945) [EXTENDED PRE-RELEASE VERSION] Blu-ray The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance. Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. tim@theextras.tv

In there more than 70 years together, the Swanee Quintet released a host of great gospel songs, including this one - “The Lord's on My Side.”

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.Legendary Australian rocker John Swan opens up about his highly anticipated Adelaide homecoming show at the Governor Hindmarsh on May 30th, where he'll reunite with The Screaming Jets frontman Dave Gleeson and guitar virtuoso Kevin Borich for a night of pure rock magic.The chemistry between Swan and Gleeson is palpable as Swan reveals, "Working with Dave is probably one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done in my life." This natural rapport promises to create an electric atmosphere when these two powerhouse vocalists share the stage. Adding Kevin Borich to the mix guarantees a performance that will resonate with any fan of authentic Australian rock.The conversation takes a nostalgic turn as Swan shares the remarkable story behind "There's a Road," a song he co-wrote with Borich approximately 45 years ago in Bondi Beach. Recently rediscovered and recorded for Borich's new double album Duets, the track symbolizes the enduring nature of their musical brotherhood. Swan's excitement is evident when discussing his own forthcoming duets album featuring collaborations with Diesel, Mossy, Colin Hay, Jack Jones, and other Australian music icons—a project he considers might become his legacy.Beyond reminiscing, Swan reveals his addition to the prestigious Empire Touring roster alongside Richard Clapton and Eurogliders, demonstrating his continued relevance in Australia's vibrant rock scene. His passion extends to nurturing the next generation of musicians, sharing stories about mentoring young talents like Stefan Hauk and advocating for better support systems for emerging South Australian artists. Don't miss this rare chance to witness three pillars of Australian rock music come together for what John promises will be an unforgettable night culminating in an all-star finale that will "bring the house down." Grab your tickets now and be part of this historic musical reunion!What has Swanee been up to lately?  Let's find out!!Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Quentin Letts has predicted that the EU will not exist in 20 years time. Speaking to Chopper's Political Podcast he said: "Twenty years time the EU, I think will have disappeared. Gone down the plughole. Down the Swanee. Adios. I think the whole thing's gonna go because I just don't see that the French and German access can continue. And without that, there's going to be no money."Sit back, pour yourself a drink and join GB News' Political Editor Christopher Hope at his regular table in a Westminster pub where he will discuss the latest insider political intrigue and gossip with everyone from popstars to politicians. New episodes released every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Busy Kids Love Music! In today's episode, we kick off a brand-new series all about one of America's most beloved composers, George Gershwin. From his humble beginnings in Brooklyn to his rise as a composer who seamlessly blended jazz and classical styles, Gershwin's life and music continue to captivate audiences of all ages.

Dans cet épisode, le Dr Rougemont Bucking, psychiatre et psychothérapeute spécialisé dans les troubles post-traumatiques et les addictions, nous éclaire sur le psychotraumatisme.Il explore les réponses au trauma, telles que le freeze, le fawn, le fight, ou le flight, et explique comment ces mécanismes peuvent perdurer à l'âge adulte, influençant nos comportements et nos relations. Il analyse également le rôle de la société dans la genèse et la perpétuation des traumatismes.Lien vers le podcast "Du côté de chez Swanee" dont je parle dans l'épisode : https://open.spotify.com/show/2l7cU49Du7JG8un3Fp2B90?si=aa31404e5e1149c4 Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Lifebuoy_Show_-_First_Song_-_Swanee_-_Lifebuoy_Show_-_Guest_-_Jackie_Cooper

Hear comedian Jim Gossett on Rob Carson's National Talk Show 12-3 on WMLB 1690 AM in ATL

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.A live debut of a hidden Santana cover creates an electrifying moment on stage. Join us as we sit down with the charismatic Dave Gleeson, youngest member of the Fabulous Caprettos, former frontman of the Angels and lead singer of The Screaming Jets. Dave shares the thrill of performing with Swanee and opens up about his solo journey, revealing the deeply personal stories behind his debut album, Wanted Man. Get an intimate glimpse into the heart-wrenching inspiration for his emotional track "Rusty Train Tracks," a song so poignant that performing it live brings him to tears.In this nostalgic chapter, we pay homage to the timeless legends who continue to shape the music world. Reflect on the indelible impact of artists like Bon Scott, Russell Morris, Glenn Shorrock, and Daryl Braithwaite, celebrating their enduring influence and passion for music well into their seventies. Laugh along with us as we chat about Daryl's extended rendition of "Horses", shine a spotlight on Ray Thistlethwaite's international acclaim and versatility, and reflect on the talents of fellow Capretto members. Join us for a heartfelt tribute to these iconic artists and their lasting legacies.What has Gleeso been up to lately?  Let's find out!!Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.We recently filmed an episode of RiderTV for Channel 44 with two Aussie rock larrikins, I mean, rock Gods.  This podcast is your chance to be a fly on the wall during that shoot!!What happens when two icons of Australian rock, Dave Gleeson 'Gleeso' and John 'Swanee' Swan, decide to team up for a performance? Listen as they recount tales of their past collaborations, including unforgettable AC/DC and Led Zeppelin tributes, and share the serendipitous journey that led them to perform as a duo for the first time. Get the inside scoop on their rehearsal room antics and the special chemistry that makes their partnership truly unique.In this rare and candid conversation, you'll hear about Swanee's mysterious new album and an exclusive preview of their upcoming collaborative track. Dave also gives us a peek into what's ahead for The Screaming Jets following the success of last year's album "Professional Misconduct." Packed with anecdotes, music insights, and a sneak peek into their upcoming gig, this episode is a must-listen for fans of Aussie rock. Don't miss your chance to hear from these legends as they gear up to rock the stage together!What have Gleeso & Swanee been up to lately?  Let's find out!!Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

How do you turn an island into a festival?  This month's episode is recorded partly on the island and partly at the magical location that is Biddulph Old Hall in the Staffordshire Moorlands, which played host and provided a magnificent backdrop to the inaugural Festival of Brilliant, staged by the mighty Outside Arts organisation. Moorlands lad Steven Lenton came along with vital local patisserie expertise and charmed the audience with his Swanee whistle playing and tip-top question answering. The Ukelele Uff Trio were even persuaded to come ashore for the first time in years to play along live. If you weren't able to come along in person, here's the next best thing (though you really did miss out on some excellent chips). 

Un saludo queridos amigos y mecenas. Os entrego hoy la tercera parte de tres del pensamiento de Max Weber. Desarrollamos los puntos 7,8 y 9 y además leemos un fragmento de uno de sus libros. 📗ÍNDICE COMPLETO 1. VIDA Y OBRA. 2. LA TEORÍA DE LOS VALORES APLICADA A LA HISTORIA. 3. LA FORMULACIÓN DEL "TIPO IDEAL" COMO APRIORI HISTÓRICO. escucha aquí la Parte I >> https://go.ivoox.com/rf/131317903 4. LA IMPORTANCIA DE LAS DISTINTAS CAUSAS HISTÓRICAS. 5. LA NEUTRALIDAD IDEOLÓGICA DEL HISTORIADOR Y EL PROFESOR. 6. LA ÉTICA PROTESTANTE Y EL ESPÍRITU DEL CAPITALISMO. escucha aquí la parte II https://go.ivoox.com/rf/131596838 Audio de hoy: 7. WEBER Y MARX. 8. EL DESENCANTAMIENTO DEL MUNDO. 9. LA FE COMO "SACRIFICIO DEL ENTENDIMIENTO". Aquí puedes escuchar la introducción al Neokantismo del XIX >>> https://go.ivoox.com/rf/128446079 Aquí puedes escuchar una introducción al historicismo alemán del XIX >>> https://go.ivoox.com/rf/129410137 🎼Música de la época: 📀 Tema de inicio: Suite para piano de Francis Poulenc, completada en marzo de 1920, unos meses antes del fallecimiento de Weber. 📀 Tema final: Swanee cantado por Al Jolson, un tema muy popular en 1920. 🎨Imagen: Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (Abril de 1864-Múnich, 14 de junio de 1920) fue un sociólogo, economista, jurista, historiador y politólogo alemán, considerado uno de los fundadores del estudio moderno de la sociología 👍Pulsen un Me Gusta y colaboren a partir de 2,99 €/mes si se lo pueden permitir para asegurar la permanencia del programa ¡Muchas gracias a todos!

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.What happens when two of Australia's rock and roll legends gig together?  John Swan and Dave Gleeson prepare to hit the stage at The Gov. Discover the extraordinary journey of John, who defied the odds by funding his album while on a pension, and listen as he shares raw, unfiltered stories about his musical path, enduring passion, and the invaluable lessons learned from family and fellow musicians. You won't want to miss the sneak peek into Swanee's upcoming album and tales of resilience that will leave you inspired.Shifting gears, we dive into the heartwarming mission to empower young, underprivileged artists in South Australia. Learn about the innovative initiatives providing these children with the resources they need to chase their musical dreams. This episode serves as a beacon of hope and camaraderie. And yes, we even touch on the lighter side of music, including why every band needs a tambourine player!What is Swanee up to lately?  Let's find out!!PS. Large sections of the interview were omitted at the request of John due to the confidential nature of his new album, but do stay tuned!Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues    ​​​​​Burton Lane, Broadway and Hollywood composer and sometime lyricist, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, April 1992 in New York. Burton Lane, who died at the age of 84 in 1997, was best known for composing the scores for the hit Broadway shows Finian's Rainbow (with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (with Alan J. Lerner). As a teenager, he was considered a protégé of George Gershwin, and was close to the Gershwin family until he moved to Los Angeles to compose songs for a variety of different musicals, including the Fred Astaire film, Royal Wedding . His other Broadway show, Carmelina, was produced in 1979. In 1992, after creating a radio documentary about Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wolinsky embarked on another documentary on the life and music of George Gershwin, which started with a Morning Concert program featuring Ira Gershwin's nephew Michael Strunsky and Gershwin expert Deena Rosenberg. That was followed followed with interviews with Michael's father English Strunsky, with Ira Gershwin's archivist, later a noted cabaret performer, Michael Feinstein, and New York Grande Dame Kitty Carlisle, who dated George Gershwin in the 1930s. This interview as the fifth of seven interviews, after which for personal reasons, the project was abandoned. Special thanks to Ernie Harburg, son of Burton Lane's lyricist E.Y. Yip Harburg, and to Gershwin historian Deena Rosenberg Harburg for their assistance in setting up this, and the other interviews in the Gershwin Project. George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people's songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn't until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983. The Gershwin Project Interview I: English Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's brother-in-law and George's wingman in the 1920s. Interview II: Musicologist Deena Rosenberg and Michael Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's nephew. Interview III: Kitty Carlisle. Interview IV: Michael Feinstein.   Review of “The Far Country” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre through April 14, 2024.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  Event calendar and links to previous events. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Steven Adly Guirgis, May 4, 7 pm, Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. American Conservatory Theatre  Kristina Wong Sweatshop Overlord, March 30 – May 5, 2024, Strand Theater. A Strange Loop, April 18 – May 12, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  Blue Door by Tanya Barfield, April 19 – May 19. Streaming:  March 14-19. Awesome Theatre Company. Awesome High: A Sketch Comedy Play, directed by Nikki Menez,  April 12-27, Eclectic Box, 446 Valencia, SF. Berkeley Rep The Far Country by Lloyd Suh, March 8 – April 14, Peets Theatre. Galileo, World Premiere Musical, book by Danny Strong, with Raul Esparza, May 5 – June 10, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. Cymbeline, adapted and directed by Stuart Bousel, May 10 – 26, Live Oak Theatre. Boxcar Theatre. See website for upcoming shows. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Haispray, April 16-21, Orpheum. See website for special events at the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate. Broadway San Jose:  Mean Girls, March 19-24. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). Terrapin Roadshow, June 1-2; As You Like it, September 12 – 29. Center Rep: The Great Leap by Lauren Yee. March 16 – April 7. Cabaret, May 26 – June 23, Lesher Center for the Arts. Central Works  Boss McGreedy, written and directed by Gary Graves, extended to April 7. Accused by Patricia Milton, July 13 – August 11. Cinnabar Theatre. Shipwrecked! April 12 – 28. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Contra Costa Civic Theatre In Repertory: Hamlet and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead, September 7 – 22. Curran Theater: See website for upcoming one-night only live events, including the Unscripted series with various celebrities. Custom Made Theatre. In hibernation. Cutting Ball Theatre. The Soul Never Dwells in a Dry Place by Rotimi Agbabiaka, March 22 – 24. 42nd Street Moon. Forever Plaid, April 18 – May 5, 2024. Golden Thread  VOD: What Do Women Say? March 12 – 29. Returning to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani, April 12 – May 4, Potrero Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: once,  March 21 – April 7. Something Rotten, April 25 – May 12. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. (NO MORE) adjustments: A Black Queer Woman Evolves in Real Time, written and performed by Champagne Hughes, May 1-5, 2024. Fort Mason. Magic Theatre. Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad by Ashley Smiley, February 28 – March 24 (extended three performances). Marin Theatre Company Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein, May 9 – June 2, 2024. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC)  Unpacking in P'Town by Jewelle Gomez, March 1 – 31. The Tutor by Torange Yeghiazarian, April 5 – May 12. Oakland Theater Project.  Cost of Living by Martyna Majek, March 1-30, 2024. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Pear Theater. In Repertory: The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh; Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. April 19 – May 20. Presidio Theatre. See website for schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Everybody's Talking About Jamie, June 1 – 23, 2024. See website for Spotlight Cabaret Series at Feinstein's at the Nikko. San Francisco Playhouse. The 39 Steps, March 7 – April 20.. SFBATCO See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin, March 29 – April 13. San Jose Stage Company: Hangmen by Martin McDonagh. Regional premiere. April 3 – 28. Shotgun Players.  A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. March 15 – April 14. Website also lists one night only events at the Ashby Stage. South Bay Musical Theatre: Mary Poppins, the Broadway Musical, May 18 – June 8. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: Shady Manor, a musical play by Prescott Cole. June 14-16. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Rhino  Pride of Lions, by Roger Q. Mason, March 28 – April 21. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Queen by Madhuri Shekar, March 8 -31, Lucie Stern Theatre. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 21, 2024: Burton Lane (1912-1997) appeared first on KPFA.

​​​​​Burton Lane, Broadway and Hollywood composer and sometime lyricist, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, April 1992 in New York. Burton Lane, who died at the age of 84 in 1997, was best known for composing the scores for the hit Broadway shows Finian's Rainbow (with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (with Alan J. Lerner). As a teenager, he was considered a protégé of George Gershwin, and was close to the Gershwin family until he moved to Los Angeles to compose songs for a variety of different musicals, including the Fred Astaire film, Royal Wedding . His other Broadway show, Carmelina, was produced in 1979. In 1992, after creating a radio documentary about Leonard Bernstein,Richard Wolinsky embarked on another documentary on the life and music of George Gershwin, which started with a Morning Concert program featuring Ira Gershwin's nephew Michael Strunsky and Gershwin expert Deena Rosenberg. That was followed followed with interviews with Michael's father English Strunsky, with Ira Gershwin's archivist, later a noted cabaret performer, Michael Feinstein, and New York Grande Dame Kitty Carlisle, who dated George Gershwin in the 1930s. This interview as the fifth of seven interviews, after which for personal reasons, the project was abandoned. Burton Lane's dreams of a new Broadway show never reached fruition, and he died at the age of 84 five years after the interview. However, three songs he wrote for the film version of On A Clear Day that were cut for the original Broadway production found their way into a revival in 2011, which had a very short run but which is performed in regional theaters from time to time. Special thanks to Ernie Harburg, son of Burton Lane's lyricist E.Y. Yip Harburg, and to Gershwin historian Deena Rosenberg Harburg for their assistance in setting up this, and the other interviews in the Gershwin Project. George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people's songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn't until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983. The Gershwin Project Interview I: English Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's brother-in-law and George's wingman in the 1920s. Interview II: Musicologist Deena Rosenberg and Michael Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's nephew. Interview III: Kitty Carlisle. Interview IV: Michael Feinstein. The post The Gershwin Project V: Burton Lane, 1992 appeared first on KPFA.

It's Groundhog Day! Back in Episode 45 Connor introduced us to George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, and described it as his "going mad montage" where he tried to catch a pesky gopher. So we decided today should be Gopher Day instead! We're celebrating by revisiting George and Ira Gershwin and some of the iconic music that made their careers the stuff of legends. From the banks of the Swanee to Porgy & Bess and every concerto, suite, and show tune in between, these brothers were international pioneers of America's musical pantheon. We cover their lives end to end (and then some) with 13 of their greatest works, learn about their secondary careers, experience gastric dysfunction, and discuss the differences between groundhogs and gophers. Time to reap what we've sown... It's a new kind of holiday special you'll go-pher time and time again!Experience the Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythms with our playlist of songs for the episode! Find it here:Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/198JuLihZAwc1APEbaomCb?si=d9528a5d479540bbYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImgqGv0TXCs&list=PLYumnChiw_I8KxxAVa_6x_O85uevdejG4Keep Spinning at www.SpinItPod.com!Thanks for listening!0:00 Intro 6:02 Awards & Accolades 8:09 About The Gershwins 12:53 Fact Or Spin 14:10 Groundhog Or Gopher? 17:59 George & Ira Are Not Their Real Names 19:33 They're Also Painters 22:35 George Credits His Success To An Illness 26:50 He Had A Custom Composing Desk Built 31:13 Swanee 35:31 Blue Monday 39:33 Rhapsody In Blue 43:43 Concerto In F 47:56 Strike Up The Band 51:59 'S Wonderful 54:07 An American In Paris 57:43 Cuban Overture 1:00:32 Who Cares 1:05:48 Summertime1:10:53 I Loves You, Porgy 1:13:34 Let's Call The Whole Thing Off 1:17:37 Love Is Here To Stay 1:21:07 Final Spin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

- Hear comedian Jim Gossett on Rob Carson's National Talk Show 12-3 on WMLB 1690 AM in ATL -

00:00-Intro 01:15-Our trip to the Mega Replay video game store in Peoria,IL 17:10-Going through video game reseller Swanee's inventory 26:00-Mitch's holiday game pickups 42:20-The Halo 2 map pack disc and memories of playing local multiplayer 46:10-TwoTone's holiday game pickups 01:00:25-Mitch picked up an Xbox 360 console!

Host: Allan NewsomeRunning time: 0:43:51 It's the Halloween time and it is a tradition here on Two Chairs No Waiting to tell a spooky story or two around the campfire. This year we have a special guest storyteller. James Dodson has been coming to Mayberry events for a few years now as “Andy” and I […]

This recent Radius release offers an expansive framework of the principles of publishing including the layered roles and responsibilities inherent within the creation of a photobook. NOT a how-to guidebook, this beautiful object elegantly packages decades of research and provides contemporary resources to illustrate the endless possibilities of the photobbook. Swanson and Himes share the mission to create impactful photography books by encouraging all artists to: slow down idea formation, linger in the making mode, and do thy research.In this conversation, Swanee and Darius discuss, among other things:The biggest challenge - conceiving the ideaFostering a dynamic engagement with one's ideasSeeing the end in the beginningPlay, patience & persistenceConcept guiding contextStepping outside the medium of photoogrpahy to clarify and deepen your ideaCritical thinking Not rushing the monographThe book as art formPhotogrpahs as raw materialImpact of digital publishingPivotal role of self publishingUniversity PressesBalancing creative & business perspectivesThe evolving life of marketing a book

On this episode of the Hive Cast, The Rev. Dr. Hillary Raining, addresses a question by Stephanie from Swanee about "finding your voice." Want to watch this episode on video? Consider becoming a Patreon member! Have another question you want to see addressed on the pod? Email us at thehiveapiary.com. --- Support the Hive by becoming a Patreon member. Subscribe to the Hive's email newsletter for more great content. Join the Hive's Facebook Group. Follow the Hive on Instagram:  @thehiveapiary Get in touch: thehiveapiary@gmail.com  Visit our website: thehiveapiary.com

Legendary guitarist and singer Kevin Borich has a brilliant new record called Duets, featuring Kevin performing with friends like Leo Sayer, Joe Walsh, Ella Hooper, Joe Camilleri, Ian Moss and Swanee, to name a few. Kevin talks about making the album plus the good old days including writing the La De Das classic Gonna See My baby Tonight.  But wait, there's more: Les Hall and Steve Mulry chat about the new TMG album It is What it is ... Rock On and the single La La plus the plans for the 50th anniversary of the forming of the Ted Mulry Gang.   Thanks to Murcotts Driving Excellence. One phone call could make such a difference to your life. Call them on 1300 555 576 to become a better driver or give a gift certificate to someone you care about. Visit murcotts.edu.au todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a Artist spotlight with one of the most underrated is upcoming artist coming out of South Florida big shout out to Stars International & shout out to Ronson the boy really got the Sauce just don't take my word for it. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/slicc-hndrx/support

This week we sit down with cycling travel industry veteran, Brad Sauber to discuss the new Alaskan Gravel Expedition trip from Raid Cycling. This point to point trip brings gravel cyclists to some of the most remote terrain in the United States for an incredibly memorable ride. Episode Sponsor: Hammerhead Karoo 2 (use promo code: TheGravelRide for free HRM) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show. We welcome Brad. Sobber from raid cycling to the broadcast. Brad is a veteran of the cycling industry. Having worked for a number of cycling travel businesses over the last few decades. Raid cycling focuses on putting together the most memorable trips to the most memorable destinations. You can imagine. When we get into this Alaskan gravel expedition that we're talking about on today's episode, I encourage you to augment your listening by visiting the raid cycling.cc website. To see some of the pictures as most of us can imagine, Alaska is a vast, vast wilderness. At a scale. That's really hard to describe. In an audio podcast. So I encourage you to, to take a look at the pictures, listen to the description of this particular trip, because it's absolutely amazing. Nice. Dais point to point in the Alaskan wilderness. Culminating with a prop plane trip back to your original starting point, the trip sounds absolutely spectacular. And I think you'll see from Brad's description, his whole emo in this cycling travel world has been to create once in a lifetime bucket list trips for his clients. I'm super excited to introduce you to red cycling in this broadcast today. I'm super excited to introduce you to Brad and raid cycling today. Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor hammerhead and the hammerhead crew to bicycle computer. As I've become accustomed to hammerhead just recently sent another update to my career, to computer. They do this, I think every two weeks so they can keep you. In the latest and greatest technology that their minds over there can come up with. I noted in this week's edition, they're adding e-bike battery monitoring to one of the screens that optional screen for you. I've got an E gravel bike, supposedly on the way for testing. So I'm excited to integrate that directly into my hammer, head, head unit. So I will know when the battery is about to die. As you guys probably know hammerhead crew too, is the most advanced GPS cycling computer available today. It's got industry leading mapping navigation and routing capabilities. That set it apart from other GPS options, it's got free global maps and points of interest included like cafes and campsites. So you can explore with confidence with on the go flexibility. I recall in my recent trip to Jarana Spain, that before I left, I downloaded the maps of Spain and I was able to use the computer. Just as if it was in my local terrain here in California. I recently ran into a cycling neighbor of mine who was telling me about a new route that he had developed. That was a mixed terrain route through some local trails that I hadn't. Really explored that much. So I went over to Strava, found the route on his profile, downloaded it and saved it. I'm going to put that directly onto my career too, so I can go out there and ride with confidence. You know, if you're like me, anytime you actually have to navigate, when think about the navigation, it really slows down the overall route. So having those cues preloaded into my career too, is going to make that ride a lot more enjoyable. Right now our listeners can get a free heart rate monitor with purchase of a hammerhead crew to just visit hammerhead.io right now and use the promo code, the gravel ride. At checkout today, this is an exclusive offer for our listeners. So don't forget the promo code, the gravel ride. You'll get that free heart rate monitor with purchase of your career. To go to hammerhead IO today, add both items to your cart and use that promo code. Without business behind us. Let's jump right into that conversation with Brad, from raid cycling. [00:04:26] Craig Dalton: Brad, welcome to the show. [00:04:27] Brad Sauber: Hey, thanks Craig. It's great. Uh, great to be here. Looking forward to the [00:04:30] Craig Dalton: chat. Yeah, good to see you again. I appreciate you reaching out and uh, I love what I'm seeing on this Alaska gravel trip. So, we'll, we'll get into that in a minute, but we always start out with learning a little bit about your background as a writer. Where'd you grow up and how'd you find the bike? [00:04:48] Brad Sauber: Oh, I've lost you there. It cut out. Um, [00:04:52] Craig Dalton: yeah, no worries. Let me, can you, can you hear me now? Yeah. That was [00:04:56] Brad Sauber: weird. Wonder why I did that? [00:04:58] Craig Dalton: Yeah, no worries. I'll just, uh, I'll just start off again and I can, it's easy to, it's easy to cut. Things like that. Hang on one second. Cool. All right, shall we? Yeah. Okay. [00:05:10] Brad Sauber: Brad, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Greg. This is, uh, exciting to be here. I'm looking forward to, uh, the conversation. [00:05:16] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's good to see you. It's probably been a couple years since we first connected in, in Mill Valley or shared somewhat [00:05:23] Brad Sauber: hometowns for you backyard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good day. We went out for a ride. I remember that. [00:05:27] Craig Dalton: Yeah. So I'm, I'm, uh, really excited to get into the Alaska gravel Expedit. Seeing it, reading the overview just looks spectacular. But before we go there, yeah, let's just get a little bit about your background. Brad. Where did you grow up and how did you discover the bike originally? [00:05:44] Brad Sauber: Yeah, so I'm from the northwest, uh, Seattle is where I would call home. Um, lived my first 30, 35 years, um, in the Seattle metro area. Um, started out in high school as a, uh, as a baseball and basketball player. I, I preferred, uh, being on the bike, so I picked up the road bike a little bit and then, uh, kind of that early, early nineties, late eighties, uh, when mountain biking was blowing up. Uh, I took to that quickly growing up as a kid, I was on BMX bikes all the time in the neighborhood and enjoyed a little bit of that, of, of racing, but then really got into the mountain biking quite hardcore. So, Early nineties, um, a lot of big adventures on the, on the mountain bikes. And, uh, a lot of the 24 hour races, a hundred mile endurance events and things like that really led to a love of cycling. Um, and then, yeah, once I went off into college, um, fell in love with, uh, more road riding, more crit racing. Most of that was just to kind of stay fit for you can do bigger mountain bike races and such. And then that led me into 1992, decided to take off to New Zealand, um, with a buddy of mine. We got a six month visa and we took our mountain bikes and pan years and, uh, went and did six months of riding on the gravel roads and craziness and dirt roads in, uh, in New Zealand and hiking all over that amazing country. And, and as a result of that, I thought, man, I've gotta figure out how to do this for a living. I just fell in love with being on the bike guiding. doing all sorts of wonderful adventures and came back and applied for a, uh, uh, a degree program at a small state college in Washington called Central Washington University. They had an outdoor rec program, um, and then also a travel and tourism, uh, degree program. So I jumped into both of those and they were, they basically allowed me to create my entire curriculum around cycling and cycling. So even my senior thesis at college for my bachelor's degree was, um, about international cycling and international cycling tour operations. And then that just led from there one amazing adventure after the next, um, at a cross-country trip that I guided, um, boy, it was a 2006 or so across the United States, uh, that was 60 days of a small. . And then that just led to, uh, starting another mountain bike travel company. We ran that for a couple years and sold it. And yeah, that just kind of led into more expeditionary type stuff through Asia. Um, spent, um, quite a few years working, uh, in India, Nepal, Tibet and the Himalaya for a number of years, back and forth. Uh, doing mountain bike trips, cycling tours through India and um, some more high altitude trekking and things like. You know, I'm going back quite a few years, but you know, we're, I've been in this business for about 30, 35 years at this point, but that then finally led to me starting another, um, a travel company called Brad. So destinations, which I ran for a couple years until 2001. When nine 11 happened and it kind of shut that whole destination and that whole region for me down, I was focused on India and Nepal and those kind of areas, but unfortunately with uh, nine 11, I had to, uh, shift and kind of reinvent myself. And that's when I found a small bike touring company at the time called Bicycle Adventures. They were founded in 1984. Just the year after, um, Tom Hale started Back Roads and, uh, they were hiring tour guides. So I went through their hiring weekend and was hired. You know, in 1999, uh, 2000 and started guiding for them. Um, and that led to my goodness, uh, about six or seven years of full-time guiding about 150 to 200 days a year on the road. Um, working with anywhere from 250 to 300 clients each season on, uh, multi-day, uh, bike tours and multi-sport tours all over the western us, Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand. And then finally in 2003, 2004, they asked me to come on and run the operations for the business. And that was a booming time, 2004, 2005. If you remember back then, that's when Lance was, uh, doing quite well. Cycling was huge. And um, our business then went up to about 170 departures with over 2000 clients. So we had a lot of trips, a lot of equipment, and I was running the whole operation back in for the owner at the time. Uh, who was, his name was Bob Clark. And I did that all the way up until about 2011, um, you know, building that business up. Uh, then they decided to, uh, sell the, the business. Um, and I kind of moved down. I did move down to California with my wife at the time. who, and I had met actually on a bicycle Adventures tour back in 2004 and she was based in the Bay Area. So I moved down there and, um, met, uh, Joah Cara, who was an ex-pro, uh, living in Mill Valley. And he and I started riding quite a bit, getting to know one another. And one night, um, on a napkin at Beer Works in town, I said, listen, we should start a bike tour company. And his experience was, uh, training in Kiati in. and, um, he said, look, I'm gonna take some buddies over there. Why don't you to come and we'll have a look at this experience. And so we spent six days with a few people, uh, riding the roads that he used to train on, and we came back. We both basically quit our jobs. He quit LinkedIn and I had just had resigned from my role at Bicycle Ventures and we started in gamba. So that would've been, oh, probably 2011 was when we basically started that business and it was self-funded. We had a third partner, but Joel and I, Joel and I were the ones that basically got that thing up and running. And that was an amazing experience. You know, it was basically a, um, you know, a fantasy camper cyclist. We had all these amazing pros that were around us on all these cool trips in, in Italy. And then I was branching out into, uh, in France as well, doing some things around the Tour de France, and then also bringing some of the tours back, the United States. And, um, he had a great time. Um, but it was hard to self-finance a business. It was hard bit of a, you know, hard road as a, as a partnership as well. And at that time in, um, you know, after founding in Gamba, I'd had, uh, reconnected with, uh, Simon Matram over at Rafa, and he and I first met back in like 2004, uh, 2005. He'd just launched the Rafa brand and I did a small private ride with him in California when he came over to look at one of their first, uh, retail spaces. Studio Velo actually actually was the bike shop that was one of their first companies that carried their brand. And we went to dinner that night in Mill Valley. He en slated Olson and I and a few others. And I remember looking at him and saying, Hey, listen, I think you're primed to do some sort of a, uh, lifestyle travel vertical, if you ever want to do that within the Roth of space. You know, keep me in mind. So that was literally 2004, 2005. And then crazy enough when um, you know, Joel and I founded in Gama there 2011, 2012, um, that's when Simon reached out and said, Hey listen, we're ready. We've got a bunch of capital we're taking on Team Sky as well that same year in 2012, and we want to break into more of a lifestyle concept. And he asked if I was interested in. Leaving my wife in Mill Valley and moving to London and starting a travel vertical for Rafa. And that's really where everything really came together for me in many ways. It was an, an amazing experience, um, to have that kind of a mentor working side by side of Simon and it really refined. I guess for me, all those years of working in the, uh, multi-sport travel space, it, we just wanted to create really inspirational, hard and unique cycling trips around the world, and that's what we did. Our first season at Rafa, we launched five trips and they sold out overnight. Which was quite a surprise to me. Usually it's a bit of a hustle to get people to travel with you, but overnight, uh, we launched the website and in the morning we, uh, woke up and they, the sales had literally shut down the site. So we had to think about, geez, how can we do this? So off we were running on that very first year with five trips sold out, and in our five seasons of running tours, we worked our way up to over a hundred departures. So it was quite a bit of growth. All in-house, running the whole show out of our London office and building it in just all inside with our own team, all our own resource. We didn't outsource anything and we didn't work with any other contractors or vendors. Uh, we did everything in-house, so I helped build an an assemble, an extraordinary team of people. uh, in-house all the way from, uh, accountants to, you know, assistants and, uh, office staff, all to all the staff and guides out in the field. And then we started branching out, uh, all over Europe, the us, uh, Asia Pac, running trips in Japan. Um, and then it just kind of kept going from there. So it was a busy, uh, few years for me. Uh, and then I finally moved back, um, about 2000, uh, 2000. late two thousands I guess. Um, and finally Simon ended up, uh, selling the, the business. And so that just kinda led to me, uh, thinking about what else I wanted to do. And we had all these incredible people that came out of the Rafa travel space and they said, look, can we keep this going? And I said, sure, let's do it. So we started raid cycling at that point. [00:14:39] Craig Dalton: Got it. There's a, there's a ton to unpack there, Brad. [00:14:42] Brad Sauber: Yeah, there's a lot [00:14:43] Craig Dalton: there. . Yeah. Yeah. No, I think, I mean, it's, I appreciate you sharing that story because I think it's super interesting, at least to me, to sort of look at the travel industry from. What it's like to be a guide to what it's like to operating the business and to what it's like to operate a business at scale. Yeah, and as you've described, you've played all those roles, so just maybe to, I mean, to set the stage a little bit, guiding is something that a bunch of athletes do, typically, a young person's vocation, you get. Handhold and take care of the guides. Ideally share your local knowledge and your love of the sport. But typically people are staying in that role for, you know, I would guess like two to five years. Right? Does that sound [00:15:29] Brad Sauber: right? Yeah, that's right. I mean, that's how I started out in my early twenties guiding, uh, but I always knew that I wanted to do something more. My background really is more operational, uh, and logistics. That's what I kind of enjoy more. I of course, like being out in the field, I. Training staff. I like working alongside of them, but I also like to get them to that point where, , you know, they're just super confident. They have a lot of autonomy, they have a lot of freedom, and then they can run with it and run their own experience. And then I kind of, in the background, of course, working on other new departures, creating new trips. That's, that's kind of my sweet spot. Um, yeah, so I kind of left the full-time guiding, uh, thing, you know, probably by the time I was 30, 32. Um, I was in the background running, you know, a very large operation for many years. And then, back with Rafa Travel. I trained an amazing group of people, worked with incredible staff. They pretty much ran all those trips. And I would kind of be in the background and I'd float around a fair bit. Um, but [00:16:21] Craig Dalton: yeah. Yeah. And when you talk about the logistics, just so the, the listener is crystal clear on this? Yeah. You, you're typically get, you're going to have some local infrastructure, whether or not you're providing bikes, you're gonna have vans, you're gonna, you know, have to arrange hotels. There's a ton of work that goes into creating these experiences. and it has to be done pretty far in advance in order to lock down the accommodations, et cetera. Can you just go into some of like the logistics of what it was like at a bigger organization? What was that? What was the footprint of the, the logistics side of the organization? What did that look like? [00:17:00] Brad Sauber: Well, if you go back to bicycle adventures, I mean, that was, um, one of the largest players in the bike travel space. You know, 170 departures. We had a. 12,000 square foot facility, 700 bicycles, 18 custom vans, uh, 20 custom trailers, and all the equipment that goes along with each one of those, um, kind of operations. It's a moving bicycle shop. It's got full racks for all, every, you know, we carry 20 bikes on these R vehicles. You carry 15 people, A lot of equipment, a lot of investment into that overhead. So that was just a constant, you know, maintenance cycle on all of these vehicles and equipment. You're always moving bikes in and out of that operation and it's, it's pretty intense. The, the unique experience for me was when I went to Rafa and, um, you know, Simon said, Hey, we need to get some vehicles, let's get some Jaguars and, and Land Rovers. And I thought, wow, I didn't know we had the budget to do that. And he's like, well, what do we need a budget for? Let's just bring them in for a meeting and ask them for free vehicles. And I have to say, I don't think that happens with many of the other companies out there. I, I don't think, um, any of the other big players have ever been able to, uh, just call on any car manufacturer, especially one, um, , you know, like a Jaguar and ask for a whole fleet of private vehicles. And that's what we did. It was, it was quite unique because of the name and the brand recognition that Rafa had from around the world. You know, in walks the team from, uh, you know, Jaguar and they said, yeah, what do you guys need? And in exchange, really, they just wanted to have access for our client base a little bit. We would brand, you know, It was kind of a brand partnership deal. Um, but that first two years, what happened was because we were the main sponsor, clothing sponsor for Team Sky, Jaguar was supplying them all their vehicles. Well, they had to provide new vehicles to the team, team Sky every season. So then they would just take those custom vehicles from Team Sky and give 'em directly to us. So we got them a year after they were used by the team. So we had all these amazing, uh, Jaguar sport breaks, which were actually custom made vehicles from the ground up. They didn't even have VIN numbers. They were so unique. Um, these were vehicles that were made specifically for the Swanee team, uh, that worked at Team Sky and they had all these regulations on the width of the backend and how bad the, how tall the hatchback would come up. And so these were incredible, unbelievable, top of the line Jaguars. And so then they just gave us the whole fleet of these vehicles and we'd rebrand them, uh, under Rafa Travel. And then a few of the, uh, the most expensive high-end, um, you know, range Rovers as well. We had on board to pick people up and, and. Ferry people around on these experiences. But it was pretty amazing to have the Team Sky vehicles. You know, we always had a lot of issues. We had all these low profile racing tires I'd often pull into, in the middle of the tour, uh, I'd meet the team mechanics for Team Sky. I'd call 'em, I'd say, Hey, listen guys, I've, I've got these low profile wheels. They don't work very well on our trips. And they'd like, Hey, bring 'em in. We think the coolest things and we'll just swap 'em out. So there were a few times we'd show up and, you know, stage four of the tour niece and with three, four vehicles in the middle of. And I'd rock up and we would just swap the, the wheels and tires right off of their vehicles and put 'em on ours, It was pretty amazing to have that sort of relationship, uh, with Team Sky back in that day. So that was quite unique. But, you know, we had vehicles moving around all over the place. Um, I remember one time we had a vehicle breakdown in Corsica, uh, but the local Jaguar dealership wouldn't talk, it, wouldn't touch it because it was a, it didn't even have a VIN number on it, so they didn't even know what the heck this vehicle was. So they actually had to send a truck all the way from London, um, down through France Drive, take the ferry all the way over to Corsica to actually pick the vehicle up as it sat there for about a week and a half on the side of the road. And it was broken down. So there was a lot of logistics moving vehicles around, um, and having. You know, delivered into France. We had a big service course in, um, in Italy, and then also one in, in East as well. So bikes and gear moving around. It was, it was quite unique with, uh, Rafa Travel. Yeah, [00:20:46] Craig Dalton: it sounds like it. So, as you've described this kind of personal journey in the bicycle travel industry, you've, yeah. You've started out as a guide. You've, you've gone into a big enterprise with bicycle adventures. Then you had an opportunity to work with Rafa, which sounds like, would it be considered sort of a, a mid-sized. Travel. Provider at that point? [00:21:07] Brad Sauber: Well, you know, five season in into it, we became one of the, one of the larger bike travel companies out there that mainly just focused on bicycling tours. I mean, a hundred departures is a pretty good size, uh, operation. You know, that was literally in about the sixth season that we ran. Um, , we hit those kind of numbers. It's nothing compared to like the back roads, which are up a thousand departures a year. But they're very multi-sport and they do other things besides, uh, just cycling. Um, but I would say that Rafa Travel at the peak was probably one of the top one or two, uh, companies out there as far as size and in destination, um, you know, expertise. And we were kind of all over it. We were practically on every. From Africa, south America, um, AsiaPac us and so we were running quite a large operation. Um, At [00:21:51] Craig Dalton: that point. Got it. My line of questioning is really around, as you as the Rafa travel experience had to wind down for reasons totally unrelated to its success or presence in the market. Obviously when you moved over and decided to start raid cycling, you had seen big, small, you'd grown companies from small to big, et cetera. Sure. What was your, what was your vision for. , [00:22:18] Brad Sauber: well really raid came out of, uh, the, the combination of all those years, uh, guiding out in the field, working in a lot of the multi-sport things. I, I enjoyed those experiences. I, I think, um, working with people and, and facilitating really fun, uh, experiences for folks was really rewarding for me. But as soon as I got to work with, uh, Simon directly and, um, kind of had his mentorship and his support in taking, um, Rafa travel to exactly that, that. That point that I really wanted it to be at, which was, you know, really stretching the elastic for people, putting them in a little bit out of their comfort zone on the bike, um, but also wrapping a lot of care and attention around it so that people can accomplish something really unique and. You can do that anywhere in the world on a bike. There are beautiful places to ride everywhere. But I wanted to specifically keep it focused on destinations that had a history, uh, of cycling and cycling. Racing. So in the early days of Rafa Travel, I had a very narrow window of destinations that I really wanted to look at creating departures, but they always had to connect back to the sport of. Was really the, the endeavor. Yeah. Um, you know, we wouldn't go to Costa Rica for example. I mean, we, there were places that yes, we could go and ride, but there, if they didn't have a big, you know, history of the, of the connection to the sport of, of racing, we wouldn't do it. So Simon really allowed me to craft those experiences and those destinations, you know, being Japan being a really unique experience. I mean, that was two years of work for me to put together that, that point A to point B experience. And that's, that's really what I, I found my niche at, uh, Rafa really allowed me to, I guess, just distill down all those experiences, get very specific about what it is, of the experience that I was looking for and the challenges that I wanted to put in front of people, and we were able to refine it and. When we shut down Rafa, of course, a lot of people were disappointed, A lot of staff, but also a lot of our clients that have been traveling on this for all those years. I walked away with a lot of people emailing me saying, Hey, let's try to keep the spirit of this moving forward. And really that's where RAID came out of it. And. You know, the third year of, um, Rafa Travel, we actually broke our number of departures down to two different types of verticals. We had, we had a ronay, which is point A to point B. We had retreats, we had these climbing, uh, retreats as well. And then we also designed a, uh, a tour called a Raid, which is a French term for point A to point B cycling experience. And so I took. Kind of from the, the Rafa travel side of things is I like the spirit behind what the word ray, what, what the word Ray means. And that's how we founded that. And most of the team from Rafa Travel came over with me. My, all of my Japan staff that have been with us since 2000, well boy, 2014, 2015, they're still with me to this day. They've ran every departure that we've ever done, both as Rafa Travel and as as Raid. And we've developed new trips over there, uh, just for the RAID brand as. And then a lot of the US team, the Ben Lie's, um, a lot of the, kind of the guys that have been with Rafa for many years are still with me to this day. Um, you know, yeah, they're all, they're all there, they're all available. We, uh, run trips all the time. So that was really the, the impetus to starting raid was just after, uh, we shut down Rafa Travel. [00:25:30] Craig Dalton: Nice. Let's talk about when you started to see gravel become something interesting for you and how, obviously with Rafa you were known for creating unique, challenging experiences, which undoubtedly touched a little bit of dirt here and there, but when did you start thinking about gravel as its own unique opportunity to kind of create these adventures you like to. [00:25:54] Brad Sauber: You know, it's interesting. Um, I was hesitant in the beginning. Um, I harken back to my days of trying to develop a mountain bike travel company and we did that with a company called Bike Trucks International. Not many people had probably ever heard about it, but you know, we really struggled for a few years. The old saying that, uh, the old saying that goes, that has always stuck with me is the more specialized you r in your activity, the more independent you. , and if you apply that to cycling, mountain biking is a very specialized activity, and typically the people that love mountain biking, love the outdoors, love to be in remote locations and like to do it alone. right? Yeah. When we go out on these big adventures, we want the challenge, but we also like that solitude and so to create, um, mountain bike tours, there's only been a few companies in the world that have ever done it and done it well. You know, Western Spirit's probably the best name out there, and they've been doing it for 30 plus years. It's really hard to take that type of activity, which is more technical and create it for the mass. . Yeah. So, yeah, so when, when we really started seeing gravel come around and I started seeing all these huge events happening, um, you know, I think early on when I started doing some of the Grasshopper events, the early grasshoppers there in, uh, NorCal, which I know you're familiar with, you know, a lot of those were showing up and we were, you know, port road bikes through small creeks. We were hitting single track trail. You know, and finishing on, uh, Willow Creek on Little Dirt Trails and I thought, wow, this is really interesting. More road cyclists are kind of coming for these events. And that's when I started to kind of see an uptick in it. And I thought, why don't I include little bits of this in some of these Rafa travel experiences? But you also have to know that Rafa's travel, Rafa Rafa's history with gravel riding goes back quite a few days back in the old continental days, what were called the gentleman's races back in the day, the first, you know, one day. A hundred to 200 mile races that they used to put on. They always used to throw in a little, little touch gravel, little bit of technicality. And so when we finally did the whole Rafa travel thing, that's when I said, look, we should probably look at adding and peppering in these experiences with some of the, uh, the dirt roads that we used to ride in the continental events and things like that. And, you know, it worked pretty. Um, but y you know, I still experienced a lot of Hess hesitancy from people. Even though people were strong writers, they could ride 150 mile days. Yeah. You put five miles of gravel on them and they were like, wow, that's intense. I don't wanna do that again. . And then, you know, then we built a, um, uh, a Utah trip which had some, you know, 15, 20 mile sectors of gravel and they would come out of that going, wow, that's enough. I don't want any more. And then that just kind of led me to going into, into, uh, with raid cycling, let's, let's actually try to do some gravel specific things. So three or four years ago we launched our LA and Catalina Island Gravel Experience, which literally was a hundred percent gravel. And we had a great response and wonderful group of people that, uh, have done those trips. And that's when I kind of started seeing that as a result of the big events, the steamboat events and things where these thousands of people would show up. , it became somewhat the norm then for people to actually ride, uh, these styles of bikes on the roads [00:28:57] Craig Dalton: and trail. Yeah. It's certainly not without its challenges. I imagine just, you know, with, with road climbs, like everybody's gonna make it up the road, you know, they might be slower or faster that there's so many elements of gravel riding. You not just have to get up the hill, but you have to be confident going down the hill. Yeah. People's technical abilities, it always shocks me. You know, I can bring someone who's 10 times the athlete I am out on, on the road, bring 'em on the trail. All of a sudden I'm dusting them. They can't stay with me. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, I gotta imagine it's like it, it would've taken time for gravel travelers or cycling travelers to really understand what's ahead of them. To your point, experience things like S P T Gravel, do these big events and start to understand, like I've got, now I've got the skills to sign up for the LA to Catalina trip, for example. [00:29:48] Brad Sauber: Yeah, I mean, I've had a few trips where, you know, we've put, uh, people that are extremely strong cyclists. These are people that we're, uh, doing a hundred, 150 mile days with, you know, 10 to 15,000 feet of climbing and, and then we throw in five miles of gravel and they, they fall apart. We've certainly seen that on a number of experiences, but I think now with the level of bikes and the gearing that's out there, that's really made a big difference. Size of tires you can run. Um, I think it's just a fantastic sport and I'm noticing more and more people want to do it. Hence, you know, we've moved into the, uh, kind of Alaska experience and, um, yeah, we're really looking forward to these strips. [00:30:23] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I think that's a great segue to this Alaskan gravel expedition, such an ambitious itinerary. I'd love for you to first start off by just like give a, give the short overview of what this trip's [00:30:36] Brad Sauber: all about. Well in Covid, uh, one of my ride leaders, ride captains, um, Sean Martin, who's a native Alaskan from Anchorage, um, you know, our business basically shut down. And so we just kind of turned inward and started looking at maps and started thinking about where these destinations that we wanna ride. And he kept saying, Alaska, Alaska, this is where we need to go. You know, we need to look towards the, uh, this Great Northwest destination. And I thought, okay. I've only known a few businesses. There are companies that have ever ran trips there. They kind of focused on certain destinations within Alaska and did small, kind of four to six day trips. And I specialize in point A to point, kind of point B destinations. So I wanted to look at the distances. I wanted to look at all these gravel roads that, uh, existed there and see how we can kind of connect them and make them a more well-rounded experience. And because my clientele is, is global, they're from all over the world. I needed to be, I needed it to be more of a challenge than say four to six days of riding. So when I started penciling, this whole concept together with the help of Sean and peering out over all these maps and learning about some of these dirt roads, it all came together in a nine to 10 day package. And that's a really good fit for people to invest the time and energy to fly here from London or. Copenhagen and wherever a lot of these people are coming from Australia, New Zealand, it's gotta be enough for them to invest that time of energy and then money to get there. So it came, it came together quite easily once we kind of opened up our mind and looked at the grand distances between a hotel to hotel and, and, and in Alaska there, you know, there's one section, there's 165 miles of gravel road and there's only one. And so it just kind of landed in my lap that, wow, this place actually exists and I could book it and, um, we could break that 135 mile day or whatever it is, up into 2 65 or 70 mile days on gravel, which makes it quite approachable. And it just kind of fell in my lap. And then the further west or the further east, we kept looking, um, to the Wrangles St. Elias National Park, which I'm ashamed to say I didn't even realize was the largest national park in the United. Um, I thought, wow, this is amazing. And then learning about the McCarthy, uh, road, which is 65 mile gravel, one one way road out to a dead end to this extraordinary, uh, vast wilderness. It's possibly one of the most remote road roads in, in North America, um, to this little hamlet of McCarthy, uh, which then sits right next door to Kennecott, which was an old gold mining destination in the early 19 hundreds. Um, and it just started falling together for us. And, um, we added in, of course, the Denali Road inside the park. and I was just blown away, uh, by what this experience could do. Why these hotels [00:33:16] Craig Dalton: even exist [00:33:17] Brad Sauber: up there. , well, they're actually hunting lodges. Um, okay. You know, outside of Denali and, um, kind of that, that region that's just north of, uh, Anchorage, of course, that's a lot of bus tours and, and train goes up in Denali. People come to go to Denali. But once you go east on the Denali Highway, which is this, you know, dirt road, it's 135 miles of dirt. There's only one hotel out there. And. , you know, I called them up and it's a hunting lodge where they literally hunt for bear and caribou and moose. And it's a small family that run this place. They keep it open most of the year. And uh, I asked about two different dates in July and August and they said, yeah, they're available. So I had to book out the entire property. They're gonna be [00:33:57] Craig Dalton: scratching their heads when a bunch of like reclad cyclist [00:34:01] Brad Sauber: show. Exactly. I know, exactly. And I have a, I've had a great story. I actually met someone recently who had stayed there and he says, oh, it's an amazing experience. He said, one morning I woke up and I went out into the dirt parking lot and there was a guy Skinnying a bear. You know, in the parking lot, and it's a pretty wild experience, but I'm really looking forward to the wonderful people that own it. It's a family operation. You know, when we arrive, we're gonna have a big family dinner in their little, it's like their home. And they have a beautiful tavern inside this, uh, old, um, hunting lodge. And, uh, we'll have a great dinner. And the rooms are simple. The staff are actually sleeping in bunk beds, um, outside in an unheated, uh, no power. Little, little shack, uh, but the clients are inside the main lodge and they all, they'll have some nice clean, uh, ri for them as well. And then the other property, uh, that we go to on the next day got, Kona Lodge was built in 1914. It's actually the oldest Roadhouse in Alaska. Again, it's a family, uh, run operation. Um, Husband and wife run it with their small daughter, their young daughter. And this place has a lot of history. You know, back in the early 19 hundreds it was a gold mining, uh, rush there. And so it was just amazing adventurous and people that came to that region looking for gold, copper. And so we'll spend the night there and, uh, have a great glass of whiskey and a killer dinner that night. A big, um, beautiful festival of, uh, dinners that evening. I think the family's really looking forward to having this group there. And then the last two nights out in Kennecott is inside the national park at this old mine that the, you know, the national Park has, um, remodeled and made into this really, really cool um, I'd say semi luxury property, but have a great restaurant on site as well. And so we have to book two nights there cuz it's two night minimum. Um, but yeah, I was just kind of blown away by the whole itinerary and it's just come together so well. I mean, the distances are quite long between hotel to hotel and that's kind of what, how I advertise my trips cuz they're point A to point b, hotel to hotel. So yeah, we might have a distance of 130 miles from hotel to the next hotel. It doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna ride every inch of that. Um, but I think most days people are gonna be riding anywhere from 80 to a hundred miles each day. It's kind of what most people come to do. Um, and of course with all the, the sunlight. You know, we have plenty of daylight hours to, uh, tackle as much distance as they really want to. Yeah. Yeah. [00:36:12] Craig Dalton: That's great. That must be a luxury to have though. So much daylight hours. . Yeah. [00:36:16] Brad Sauber: I'm a, I'm nervous. I've never had that before. . [00:36:18] Craig Dalton: Yeah. I don't know how you guys are gonna sleep, but question. So you arrive in Anchorage, Alaska, and Yeah. Are you riding directly from Anchorage to start, or is there a [00:36:30] Brad Sauber: transfer? Yeah, so day one actually on arrival, um, we're going to take people, Sean's gonna take people on a little local loop of some single track and some kind of back country riding around Anchorage. It should be really cool. And then that evening we'll have a great dinner in town, but then the next morning we have about a a 45 minute transfer. We had just north, uh, where we come up to a little teeny town and we start from there. And our first, uh, major climb is up over Hatcher Pass, which is about a 12 mile climb, and most of that's on dirt with anywhere from 10 to 14%. Great pitching up here and there. And then we'll have, uh, on the backside of Hatcher Pass, it's an all downhill, uh, about I think 12 to 13 miles or so of gravel. Off of Hatcher Pass. If you looked up Hatcher Pass Road, you'll see these magnificent views of just this high alpine setting above the tree line, incredibly lush and green. This windy strip of, uh, one lane dirt road that just passes through this region is really spectacular. Um, that's day one. And then they'll cycle all the way into tna, which is kind of the, um, the kickoff, um, place for, you know, the climbers that go up into Denali. So we'll spend the evening in Ta Kitna, and then the following day, Is an all road day. Um, it'll be between, you know, 85 and 130 mile day for them as they make their way all the way up the highway, which is called a Parks Highway, which goes all the way up into Denali. And, um, then we'll spend two nights up there, uh, readying ourselves for our big day inside the park on the, uh, Denali Park Highway, which currently, um, in its current state. A year or so, year and a half ago, there was a big slide at mile marker 42 on the Denali Park Highway, and it wa it washed out this whole insection of road and it won't be, um, repaired for another two years. And so it's actually a good thing for us because I think it's going to limit the amount of park vehicles that are on the road. but that'll be literally an 84 mile out and back road, um, road ride that day inside the park. And about 55 miles of that will be on dirt road and hopefully with just limited vehicles. And it's an interesting logistic thing for me to consider because I can't take a, my personal support vehicle inside the park. And so people are gonna be, um, set up with all the gear and equipment and be prepared for an 85 mile day on their own. And there's really no water and there's no food out. And a lot of bears . So they're going to be, uh, ready with their bear spray and they're gonna ride inside the park kind of as much as they want or as little as they want. Um, there is an option where the park runs these, um, little shuttle buses and they each have two bicycle racks on each shuttle bus. And so I'm going to purchase bike passes for everyone. So anyone at any time can jump on these buses and, and move either further out or. Turn around and come back if the conditions get too crazy or if people just have had enough. But I think most of these riders are gonna ride all the way out to mile 42 and then all the way back, so it'll be over 80 plus miles with over 10,000 feet of climbing. It's a pretty big outing. [00:39:24] Craig Dalton: What type of equipment are you recommending that riders bring with them? Yeah, [00:39:28] Brad Sauber: it's just your standard gravel bikes. You know, disc brake is preferable. Um, the, the dirt roads in Alaska are hard pack and super fast and super smooth under the most ideal conditions. So you kind of have to be prepared for everything from warm days to, you know, possible, you know, high wind. Heavy rain as well. Just never know what you're gonna experience and weather changes there from, you know, minute to minute. So as far as gearing, uh, I'm mostly telling people to ride a double on their gravel bike if they can. Uh, there will be some just with a, with a single as well, and probably 700 by 42 at the smallest. I'd probably encourage people to probably go 45 to 48 on the tire size, uh, for the gravel bikes. and I'm not providing any of the gravel bikes. People tend to bring their own on these tours. You know, when you're riding a hundred plus mile days, 10,000 feet. I do recommend people have their own bike that they've trained on. I mean, just the slightest difference in a saddle position, you know, could give someone a pretty serious knee problem on day three of an experience like this and it just, they don't have the ability to ride the rest of the tour. So, yeah, rather than me just providing, you know, bikes, I think people really should bring their own and, and everyone is. So that makes [00:40:36] Craig Dalton: sense. Is there any technicality in terms of like the descending off some of those passes? Or is it pretty much, you know, as you described, these roads are pretty, pretty predictable gravel and you can, you can open it up without too much concern. [00:40:51] Brad Sauber: Yeah, I think, but as we all know, you know, driving on and or riding on gravel roads, you get those little marbles that, uh, that, that sit on the sides and down the center of these roots. So you do have to be careful of course, on that. And any of these roads are gonna be, Especially Hatcher Pass on day one. I mean, people will be excited and ready to really kind of throw down the hammer, I'm sure as often they do on day one. But we really have to keep them, you know, in control and safe and kind of really work with them on that descent. I mean, 10 plus miles on a gravel road is, is never easy no matter what the conditions are. Um, but you throw in a little bit of rain or something and then it could be turned a little bit slippery road as well. As far as the park road goes, um, it's always in great condition. They maintain that road quite a bit. The Denali Highway, which is the one that we ride for two days, the next day, that's gonna be a little different. That is above, um, the tree line, the entire distance. A lot of tundra, a lot of open wind, a lot of open, um, kind of just exposed scenery. A lot of potholes, I'm sure. Um, they do. It's not, not many vehicles drive that road. There'll be a few buses out there moving people around, but it's a very remote stretch of, uh, dirt road that we'll see very little traffic. And then the McCarthy Road is one that most Alaskan, um, rental car companies don't even allow rental cars to drive it. Um, I'm, I'm expecting, um, you know, lots of gravel, uh, a lot of potholes. Um, you know, all the people that have talked to me about driving that road say, you really can't drive more than about 20, 25 miles an hour. And that's 65 miles of gravel, just one way. So that journey will probably take me three to four hours just to drive up in there supporting people. Um, but yeah, I think in under ideal conditions, these roads are really amazing to ride and really fun. But if we do throw in some, uh, some rain and or some hail, uh, they could be a little, um, a little more difficult. Little sticky, little slippery, a little more of an adventure. [00:42:39] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. We, we've sort of glanced over this a little bit, but I wanna make sure to drive the point home how remote. Does it feel when you're riding these [00:42:49] Brad Sauber: roads? Oh man, this literally every kind of animal that you could possibly think of from caribou to elk and bear are just gonna be everywhere from what I've been told. You know, when you ride out there on these long expanses of, uh, these dirt roads with very little, uh, vehicle, um, impact. I think you're gonna see everything from the smallest little weasel to rabbits to some really big intense animals. Uh, I've spent a lot of time on the phone with, um, Denali National Park Rangers talking about that experience of riding. Um, and, you know, from the local people that have looked over this itinerary, uh, from Outfitters that looked at it, I mean, people have randomly reached out to me and said, man, this is really ambitious and super exciting to have you guys come up here and, and attempt this sort of thing. and I'm really, really looking forward to it. And just the expanse of these, these gravel roads, the distances and the remoteness, it's really something. I mean, it's so remote that on the last day, on day nine of the trip, I have to charter two private sesnas to fly everybody out in a two and a half hour flight to get them back to Anchorage. So, and, you know, moving vehicles and, uh, 10 bicycles out of there is a seven hour drive just for me to get back to Anchorage while everyone will be riding in comfort in their own private planes. So two planes will be, um, chartered just to get people out of, uh, out of St. Elias National Park. It's a pretty remote area. As we're [00:44:09] Craig Dalton: riding on these each day, what is the scenery like? I mean, are we, are we sort of far enough off of Denali that we get a perspective of the size and scale of that? Amazing mountain for sure. You [00:44:23] Brad Sauber: will be, um, you'll feel very small in this landscape. I mean, it's, it's every mountain range you could possibly think of up there from the wrangles to the, the Alaskan range. We're riding along huge rivers like the Copper River. So yeah, you're gonna be just witnessing these incredible rivers, incredible mountain ranges. And of course, Dali's gonna be looming over us for the first three and a half to four days where in every direction that you ride and look, it's gonna be right there staring. And I mean, when we ride the Denali Highway going into the park, the Denali Park Road, I mean, you're looking at this massive mountain straight ahead the whole time. I mean, it's just right there. So that's your, your, your North Star. You might say, you know, for Alaska. Yeah. Combine that with just the remoteness and all the wildlife. Uh, this is really, truly gonna be a unique experience for people. And, um, people will feel very small. I think it'll be as close as you can get to a religious experience on a. Yeah. [00:45:11] Craig Dalton: It's so hard to describe in an audio podcast, , the visuals that I, you know, I've just, the, the basic visuals I've seen on your website, so I'll certainly direct people over there to kind of have a, a little visual guide to what we've been talking about this whole time. [00:45:25] Brad Sauber: Yeah, for sure. No, I appreciate that. That'd be great. [00:45:27] Craig Dalton: That's amazing. I, I appreciate the audacity of planning these trips. I can't wait to hear how the, the first two go off this year. I know, and we don't have a lot of time for this, but I know you do run a couple other gravel experiences throughout the year. Do you want to talk about those real quick? [00:45:42] Brad Sauber: Well, you know, I've ran them over years, over the years. Uh, we've specialized in some pretty remarkable gravel events in Utah along with the national parks. Um, that's a place I've been running tours for nearly 25 or 30 years. I do have a private trip coming up in April in New Mexico, which is one of my favorite destinations. And after I finished that nine day trip, I'm actually staying on board for another week and creating a point A to point B, uh, New Mexico gravel experience. and um, that is really interesting. Special. Yeah. That's gonna be connecting Albuquerque all the way through, um, out to, uh, Taos and then all the way to Santa Fe and then all the way back into Albuquerque. Super cool. Mostly dirt roads. It's funny, [00:46:20] Craig Dalton: you know, you hear about it, um, from a mountain bike perspective, a lot of people rave about New Mexico, but it hasn't really kind of tipped into the gravel market yet, to my knowledge. So that's, that's really interesting to hear you explore. [00:46:33] Brad Sauber: I'm really excited for that place. I've been running tours there for 30 plus years. I absolutely love. New Mexico as a destination. To me, it's one of the most unique states culturally, um, from a food perspective, the hotels, uh, the history, uh, it just blows people's minds and especially when people call me from Europe and ask me where they should go. I first say New Mexico. I think it's really a, a diverse place and it's also a place with a lot of value. You know, it's still not, it's not that expensive for people. So we can run some pretty affordable experiences there for people and make it very access. . Um, and the gravel riding is going to be, uh, phenomenal. It, it's gonna be a really special event. I mean, eight days of gravel riding, connecting, you know, Taos, New Mexico, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, all these remote places. Abaki, we are gonna come on this. We come into the backside of Abaki on a dirt road. Um, that I, from what I can tell and what I'm looking at, is just gonna be one of the finest rides that you could have in your life. Yeah. I [00:47:30] Craig Dalton: love it. Well, Brad, thank you for coming on and talking about what you're doing at Raid Cycling. I, I do love your passion and perspective to make everything you put and make available to cyclists incredibly memorable and that certainly shows in like the thoughtfulness of your comments and the trip design. So thanks for sharing all that with [00:47:49] Brad Sauber: us. Well, thank you for the time. I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed chatting with you, Craig. Look forward getting back on the bike [00:47:55] Craig Dalton: with. Yeah, exactly. You'll get back to Mill Valley one of these days, , for sure. Cheers. Thanks, [00:48:00] Brad Sauber: Brad. All right. Thank you, Greg. Cheers. [00:48:04] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Big, thanks to Brad and raid cycling for joining us and telling us about that spectacular Alaskan gravel expedition. Big, thanks to hammerhead and the hammer, head crew to computer for supporting the show. I remember, use the promo code, the gravel ride for that free heart rate monitor with your purchase of the crew to computer. If you're interested in connecting with me, please join the ridership. That's www.theridership.com. If you're able to support the show, ratings and reviews are hugely appreciated or you're welcome to visit. Buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride. Until next time. Here's to finding some dirt under your wheels.    

Darren Prince, International Best Selling author of his memoir Aiming High, is a prominent sports and celebrity agent and global advocate for addiction/mental health recovery. Through his agency, Prince Marketing Group, he represents icons Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jerry West, Dominique Wilkins, Chevy Chase, Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards, Carmen Electra, and many others as well as having worked with the late Smokin' Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and Evel Knievel. As a leading authority in this space, Prince's insights have been featured in WSJ, NYT, USA Today, CNN, Fox and Friends, Chris Cuomo, Tucker Carlson, “On Purpose” podcast with Jay Shetty, Extra TV, Dr. OZ and many other top media outlets. Darren has experienced what life is like in the celebrity world but also seen the dark reality of addiction through his own personal struggle with opiates. With over 14 years of sobriety, it's now Darren's mission to help others avoid and break free from addiction and mental health struggles. He had a God awakening on July 2, 2008, and believes in a spiritual higher power and that anyone can turn their bottom into a new beginning. Connect with Darren here: https://officialdarrenprince.com/ Summary Introduction to today's episode. 0:42 How did you end up with addictions? 1:36 The turning point in his life. 6:39 It's better now than it was then. 12:24 Where's the drugs when the drugs wear off? 16:32 The miracle of calling out to god. 21:03 The power of choice. 25:09 Finding your purpose in life. 29:05 The importance of taking care of your health. 35:44 Getting a call from the White House. 39:01 Darren's message 45:22 Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited in this thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the question you never even knew to ask. But you the answers to questions about you this world the people in it most importantly, how do I proceed now moving forward? We don't even have all the answers but we sure do love living in the Question Time for another decade of spiritual dub with your host Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:42 One Hey there Spiritual Dope I'm on here today with Darren prince. He is an international best selling author of his best of his memoir. Aiming High is a prominent sports and celebrity agent and global advocate for Addiction and Mental Health Recovery. There was agency Prints marketing group who represents icons Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jerry, West, Dominique Wilkins, Chevy Chase, all these guys are greats. Right? And, you know, I didn't meet him getting autographs or anything like that. Darren, I met recently at an event with Brandon Novak and Novak house. And I think that's somebody that you're fairly close with, through addiction and recovery. So I said, You know what, I don't want to miss this opportunity to chat with somebody and share your story about all that you're doing. It's so great out there in the space. So Darren, Thanks for Thanks for coming on today. Darren Prince 1:36 Thanks for having me. Brandon Handley 1:38 Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, let's let's just kind of dive right into it. You know, you You're, you're well known you've done. You've worked with all these greats. But you've started like, with an addiction at a pretty young age, right? You started with an addiction at a pretty young age, and it caused a lot of havoc in your life. And now you've kind of translated that and transmute it into something good let's start at the beginning man like how did you end up with with some addictions Darren Prince 2:09 I you know, I grew up you would have thought just a normal childhood which I'd say for the most part i i had great loving mother and father and sister but I was always verbally to use for things so called Special Ed and small classrooms and back then, which probably more add whatever I was interested in, I gravitated to them most of the stuff I didn't. And I think just that did a number of my psyche and my self confidence, my self esteem. So at 14 When I was in sleepaway camp, and I had terrible stomach pains one night, the nurse gave me the scream liquid and having no idea what it was for the pain I took it and walking back to the bunk within a minute I felt like Superman like all those feelings of inadequacies and low self worth and self esteem. I knew I felt just as good as everybody else just as popular just as smart and went to bed then I think nothing of it. But I did all the activities that camp that next day, and I remember just lying in the bunk bed next night obsessing on that feeling and I wanted more of and I did that for a couple of weeks until mom and dad came up with visitation day and found that I was taking liquid Demerol. Yeah, I don't know what is Demerol and emeralds in OBS general problem most likely something that gives you a hospital like more but heavier opiate and back then the opiate epidemic wasn't anywhere near but you know, it was today. And you know, I had a way about me to assist innocent kid that was just in a lot of pain. And you know, she was probably just trying to come a relief every night or I was getting his bed stomach cramps and just, you know, played it to the hill just like I did when I had my wisdom teeth removed a few months later and my mom gave me these white pills that were called extra sent by cannons and that same feeling came back and you know, when I saw the bottle had two pills left I put on the crocodile tears fry it and said I've got to go back to the dentist have a bad infection. I know it's something's wrong and you know, panicked as a loving mother took me back and gave her another dozen bills, whatever it was. Brandon Handley 4:15 Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to us and it's such a young age. Right. And those are like those are some that was your thing, right? Like kind of like Demerol and opiates and Darren Prince 4:27 cocaine, ecstasy, you name it. Sure. And I he became an age and opiates were the ones that taught me up and it took me straight to the bottom. Brandon Handley 4:37 Sure, sure. Let's let's walk our way into the agents. Phase two. Right. So here you are. Age 14, you're kind of you're already like, you know, a script chaser. Right. But you've also got some cool things going on. You may mention that you're you were in like these quote unquote special ed classes. You know, you need a little bit extra attention to get through teaching you how to chip on your shoulder. But that actually led you on to something kind of cool. Right? Talk a little bit about that. Darren Prince 5:06 Yeah. So I started a mail order baseball card company long before the internet boom, and became nationally recognized, doing trade shows all over the country. First person, I think in the state of New Jersey, I have a cell phone, it was called Bell Atlantic, it was in a big leather carrying case with a battery pack, the phone cost me about $3,500. That's how tough we were to get about $3 a minute to use the phone. And the dumb idiot that wasn't going to go anywhere in between class was going into his locker room dealing with stockbrokers and a bunch of guys from ESPN. Were buying from me some of the big commentators that were big collectors and I would just broker deals of it. I had an incredible network database of dealers around the country, I was advertising because trade shows I would go to the best convention to get the best location. So I was spending 1000s a week on advertising myself, I became a very well known figure in the baseball card hobby and the boom of the 80s. So for any collectors that are listening now, it actually started in the 80s, which is why there's an industry there is today and by Tom, I'm 16 years old man, I'm probably making a quarter of $1,300,000 Ask us globally mean anything to me, you know, I came home from school. And it was about, you know, the hustle of laying out my ads for the next week and filling orders and hiring. You know, some of the so called friends that were were calling me, idiot and dumb. They were now calling me boss at 16 and 17 years old. And you know, and then from there, eventually I sold that company in 19. I dropped out of college, my freshman year of Bridgeport and went full steam ahead into the memorabilia business. So it's booking autograph signings from Muhammad Ali magic chevy chase to Frazier. Pamela Anderson. And by the time I was 24, built, built that business had some legal issues. And it was kind of at this turning point in my life where first time I ever had some financial difficulties and magics dip on my side and said, Hey, I know about making mistakes he had he was coming up with his HIV announcement, the anniversary of that was November 7 on Monday. And what do you want to do now? And because of my dad giving me the inspiration of explaining that to you know, like, not what you know, we work with the most iconic people in the world. You know, go speak to magic, you supported you and first client for my agency. Brandon Handley 7:33 That's pretty that's pretty awesome. I love that. Well, give me a moment here. Like how did we translate from, you know, in first of all, like, I'll just in my mind, I'm thinking like, mail order catalog. I thought you were just I thought you were just going in and setting up setting up the tables doing the shows you were. Darren Prince 7:51 Yeah, but we had a big Yeah, I have people taking orders. We're going on clothing and buy the stuff on the weekend, sell it during the week and knew exactly what I needed to find on a weekend to follow orders, mark it up and make a profit and get it out next week. Brandon Handley 8:05 That's awesome. And you were making what you're making? This is a what is the 80s? Is that right? Like mid 86. So I mean, I'm just gonna I told my son right now he's 10. And he's already feels like he's done with school. And I told him like, you know, when he makes his first million, feel free to drop out, right? Like, you know, go ahead. So, so you go from you go from this card business bit, and it's working out really well for you, you sell it how do you make the translation over into, you know, signatures like what? Darren Prince 8:34 What happened, and it's funny because one of my agents here Matilda was telling her the story older I think the sexiness and the coolness of being around like some of the biggest stars that were doing these autograph signings at conventions, it drew me to it. And, you know, again, that insecurity brokenness, like no cards are cool and making money but the cards, and I kind of just more or less went into the autograph signing thing, because I was like, wow, I've an opportunity to book my first autograph signing with Muhammad Ali, the most recognized human being on Earth. And, you know, for somebody with low self esteem and you know, was always high and to be around that environment. It was just unbelievable. And then I just think my appetite grew. From there it was same sort of thing. Well, autograph signings are kind of cool and hanging out with them but I won't be this autograph fucker for shinies I want to do big things. I want to do endorsements commercials, you know, when that's how that evolved. Brandon Handley 9:28 You wanted to level up and this whole time you know, you're you're you're popping pills, right? You're you're doing whatever. Darren Prince 9:35 You're on the autograph signing era, which the company was called prints of cards. That was the same name as the the big card company. You always partying whatever it was you name it, I did it. But when I became an agent, I learned real fast with magic when a morality clauses when the lawyers put together an agreement I was like, Alright, I gotta play this straight. Sciatica had anxiety and hey, like any good drug out If you junkie, I played it to the hell, you know how easy it was to get any script that I needed when I'd get them on the phone with Joe Frazier or bring him a Magic Johnson signed jersey or go like this guy's got it all together and a lot of pain, go get an MRI, go get an x ray, let's see how we can fix you. Let's do medication management. And for the first five, six years, man of my ancient life, you know, it worked really did. I became a rock star with networking. But I also say like this, like what was once living to us turned out to using to live. Yeah, and I just don't know when it turned. And I do remember that night I lost my superpower. So I remember when the oxycottons didn't work at an example, Joe Frazier in Dallas, Texas, and probably for a good six or seven years. I was trying to chase that high after that. Yeah. Brandon Handley 10:52 And you talk a little bit about this insecurity and brokenness, right. Like where do you feel like that stemmed from a little bit that was encouraging. Darren Prince 11:00 Like, I can't blame my mom and dad for it. And my mom and I came from a family with a lot of love. You know, my dad had tough love bugs. That was my biggest supporter. My mom gave me way too much. I think some people could understand that because that cause anxiety, it'll leave the house and I'll be around them all the time. And you know, those two were on there's too much and she was she overwhelming. With love were a kind of, you know, like I said, causing excess amount of anxiety with the over coddling knowing that I was special ed and need special attention. And I think it just can be very uncomfortable and how to deal with life. If I was in, you know, attached to her at home with her and my dad, and we get homesick a lot if I'd sleep over at friend's houses or birthday parties or weekend getaways. I remember it just a horrible feeling in my stomach just not being comfortable being away from mom and dad. And you know, you take all that into the real world with the verbal teasing and you don't speak up about those words a dumb an idiot I think using the word that begins with our from mentally challenged, I heard all these things. And when you absorb that, and those developmental years, guess what, you start believing it especially now put it out. And I didn't have the courage to speak up. Brandon Handley 12:14 Yeah, and the 80s You know, I grew up in a suit. Like they weren't kind. They were not. They like yeah, now I think so it's, you know, gratefully for my children a lot. It's better, right as different than than what it was then. But there was there was very few teachers really stopping that from happening to right. Oh, hell, it could be the teachers. Darren Prince 12:37 Back then, like I had a teacher. I won't mention her name, which she's not even alive anymore. US history. 60 kids in the class. I remember like yesterday, and you know, it's a level of psychological trauma, nothing that you know, it's something I've been healed from but you remember it. And she bought the first 90% of the class their test. And I'm in the bath with for six kids. My friend John Angelo gave squirrel joy. I'll never forget my crew, Carmen. And we called ourselves the our only group. People can figure out what word I mean. joking around about it. But again, I'm actually taking this in Stoke, right? Handed everybody else their tests. She's shouts in front of the entire class, I'll get to you guys in the back row with your test in a minute. Let me just take care of everybody else first. And even the tone was speaking to us in a way that we're less than we're not as smart or not as good. And you remember that? Yeah. Here we are. 40 something hours later, and I'll never forget it. Brandon Handley 13:43 For sure. So when you're when you're, you know, drugging when your pill pop and when you're drinking. You're trying to forget that piece of who you are. Darren Prince 13:54 I'm trying to forget that piece of who you are. But I'm also there's a great revelation on Jay Shetty. He's a dear friend of mine. I was at his place on Sunday that I made it to the top. But I'm looking backwards at all the people that said I wasn't going to make it. Usually when you get to the top or somebody to fake top there's a lot of smoke and mirrors still it I didn't feel worthy of being at the top of the industry around the biggest stars in the world. And so my thing was always look backwards. Look at me look at the dumb ugly one to one no doubt that I'm Swanee one that wasn't going to make it look, I mean, I look at it, you know, and it was that way when I was 16. I remember when I would just go to bed at night laughing because my dad was like, you're making more money than most of your friends fathers that are that are lawyers that have real crown like the bed like, you know, celebrating this and Brandon Handley 14:53 what kid wouldn't right at that age for sure. That makes sense. Darren Prince 14:57 And that was all that deep rooted. insecurity that that verbal teasing and just that feeling of less than and, you know, my mom thought it was funny sometimes when she would hear me on the phone like buy and sell this person backwards and forwards and she thought it was hilarious, but it came from a deep place of insecurity and resentment. And I was like, How funny is that this guy is going to go to college mom for the next four years paying off loans for the next 10 years when he gets out, and already have more millions put away and she'd be like, I'm so proud. It wasn't like a corrective thing. I was just, you know, so I think all of that though, when I looked back, it was just such a deep level of brokenness and inadequacy that I just always had approved. And then now here I am at the top of the industry with magic and you know, Ali and Frazier and you know, Pam, Pamela Anderson and Chevy Chase and smokin Joe Frazier. So it's a recipe for disaster, man, you know, and the luck started coming. And I started developing and working out and the girls start comping left and right. I'm just frickin doing whatever the heck I gotta frickin do to uphold this image that my entire class is like, holy shit. Darren prince made it bigger than every single one of us is this world famous agent that's on the sideline of the Superbowl and, you know, backstage passes and walk in the red carpet at the MTV VMAs and all these big award shows, and I just ate it all up. I thought that's what what my calling was meant to be. And, you know, I need I needed a lot of driving force. I needed the expensive sports cars to be driving an Acura NSX, souped up at 21 years old that cost me $200,000 First person to buy a house and you know, the jewelry and the diamond Rolex is and now I look now and this is me. I could go on buy a new Rolex tomorrow. It's not what makes me happy. Brandon Handley 17:00 Sure. For sure. Sure. Well, let's get there. Right, like so where where's the drugs wear off? Right? You realize you'd lost your superpowers on one night, right? You go to pop the oxys and they're not doing what you need them to be doing? What happens then you panic. I mean, what where's it all got panicked. Darren Prince 17:21 I went down to this corporate event in the conference room this ballroom and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. And the next day the same thing happened and I'm in Florida by myself two days later, and I found a different way to ingest it. That gave me a little bit of a buds I started snorting my oxys my Percocet and my bike and it's, you know, I kind of mostly live that way. For another four or five years had an overdose and Las Vegas came back after that overdose finally in New Jersey, and called an addiction psychiatrist told me I was an opiate addict put me on Suboxone, but never go to a therapist and lie to him like I did because he didn't hit a nail. I was taking Xanax and Valium and mood stabilizers and antidepressants and anxiety. Every anxiety pill that I can get my hands on and snorting Ambien the frog went to bed at night and still drinking a couple of days a week and Mike Mike died awakening came on July 1 As you heard that I yeah, my Uncle Steve made the rest in peace in his own girlfriend Andrea. I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired at the jumping off point. My ego was too big. I'm too important to go to rehab I can't lock myself up for 30 days and she just came into my condo at the time I never met her and it was a godsend. She's like, I've never met you but are you okay? And I told her I told her everything I never had such an honest conversation but the human in my life and I just felt drawn to her. And she looked at me and said devalue an advocate below so manage by see that she could be related to you are powerless and said yes. And she because all this started looking at all the photos on the walls with all the celebrities and awards and different things that I've gotten because none of this means anything because you don't mean anything to yourself. Do you realize that the disease of addiction does not discriminate it doesn't matter for from Park Avenue or park bench or if you've gone to Yale or jail and that broke my soul. And here I am the so called Big Time super agent broke down and cried and she goes it's okay on each because I just celebrated five years sober last week. pulls out a five year coin at her pocket. And she goes Do you want to get sober he wanted to anything that takes us at anything she because you have to put this before everything in your life and occur what it is if you lose the business, you don't want to lose your life but you can do this and I can show you the SOP period so right and was beautiful life. And yeah, she put me on a 36 hour detox plan and that next night was seven o'clock on a Sunday night July 2 I came back from the gym I was living at the Caroline building. I was married man and I came back from the gym. It's my third workout at the gym clinic do everything I can to get the dopamine going and the endorphins and came up I called them I said I can't frickin do this. I'm going to call the doctor I gotta get whatever we got to get my ankle struck Yellin on the other end and said, It's the goddamn disease talking of time, kick the crap out of it. You've been doing this since you were 14 years old. He was in recovery as well. He was back in recovery. He struggled for years until he passed and I said I can't frickin do this because you have to get yourself to a damn meeting, put your hands up and tell these people who are sick and suffering you need help and I hung up the phone ran in the bathroom, I shut the door I'm going from medicine cab and looking for Klonopin or some other non narcotic anxiety meds, take the craving away and out came to Vikings. I don't want to pull bottles, which was just shocking because Simona and on my axe, we spent hours going through other medicine cabinets two days before mine 36 hours before when Andrea said you got to get them all out of the house. You know, I'm weaning them off Suboxone. And I thought it was the gap that that is exactly what I need a man that bloods that God moment in that split second just when I needed. And the miracle happened because I thought on my knees for the first time in my life. I never called up to God like this before. And I've never done it since I pray every single night to him now. And I said God, take the money, take the notoriety of the business, I don't care, I need a single day of freedom to feel like little Darren when I was a young kid again, I'll do whatever it takes. If you take me out of hell. I will spend one day at a time the rest of my life using my platform take another jet with the exact words that I said. And it was like a lightning bolt. Because their shoulder was literally felt like somebody had a blowtorch on it. And I heard in this year as a voice. Say I'd got you and you're ready. And I stood up. And this hand opens and I flushed the opiates left in the living room on to computer there's no Uber back then. And I searched 12 step meetings near me and I found a church. So little ways away in the upper 80s Because it was late at night on Sunday had had an 8pm meeting and jumped right in a taxi cab and I looked up on this gorgeous summer, July 2 2008. I said to myself, Oh my God, for the first time of my life, I wanted to stay sober. More than 100 Get Hired What the heck just happened and I walked into a church basement 150 to 200 addicts, alcoholics that were at once to a hopeless state of mind and later send anybody new coming back sick and suffering or struggling and Sam went right up. And I know, he lifted it. And I came playing in front of a roomful of strangers. And it just came out. I said, I'm sick, I'm suffering. I'm suicide. Amazing life. And I didn't know why I'm doing this myself. But I need you guys help. And, you know, in that moment, I had to get to desperation. And I was crying out to get the power of choice back in my life and these people but it doesn't spiritual brothers and sisters, right after I said that, which was so key, came over to me and started kind of talking to me intimately in a soft tone voice not to disrupt the meeting. And they said, You're in the right place. We've been where you've been. Keep coming. You know, if you aren't what we have, do what we do. Take the car out of yours, put it in her mouth. We will love you before you ever learn how to love yourself. And then the one that was just magical, they said, keep coming to AAA. And don't worry about if you get it, because if you keep showing up. It's gonna get you nice. And that was that I felt in that room during that hour man. A connection that I never felt in my life. Ever Brandon, it was just I've heard things like I do that. Oh my God, that's my oh my god. And it was like, it was like just to add a body experience where no therapist, no drug. I literally felt it was almost like the dark side of me clearing out of my body. Yeah, immersed and obsessed with me and nothing can be for my in person meetings. I did the 99 date. I eventually got my sponsor Steve Delaval who just celebrated 35 years. You know, and once I hit that, probably six month mark because, you know, you're doing pretty good. He goes, I just got to tell you. You want to keep this gift, right? I said yeah, he goes over doing stuff. We're gonna wrap up the steps probably by the end of the first year. I'm not rushing, you throw it because your drug addiction wants to rush, your substitute, Rush. But once we get there, you want to keep this gift that I'm giving you. You better be prepared to give it away. I'd others. And once I started doing that, after that one year more hope and recovery began to heal on the Cleon. Brandon Handley 25:09 I love this and like, I think that, you know, if I looked at this through, you know, part parts of this to just general spirituality, you that part where you, you flushed down the pills, right? You opened yourself up to receive, you know, the higher power, right? You let it come and through and through you, you surrendered, like, you're like I can't do like, I'm not doing this life anymore. And you recognize this like power of choice, I love that you bring up the power of choice, you realize that? Maybe you that had been taken away from you for a moment, were because of your addiction. Right? So being able to say like, I want that back in my life. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your what? You know, for somebody that's not familiar with step work. Tell me Tell tell the group a little bit about it. Because I think that one part of it, and I'm not a stepper there. And so I just happen to be familiar with the space. And I've gone through the steps without doing the steps, right. So it's really cool to see, like, oh, wow, what I did is in alignment with this thing. So tell the audience a little bit about it. If they're not familiar, Darren Prince 26:30 you have the 12 steps. I actually emailed my girlfriend, Nicolette them a couple of weeks ago. She's young and like anyone at any age, really, but especially young is working on our own clearing and healing and stuff. And my whole point to her was everybody can use these every single day. Yeah, alcohol is only mentioned in the first step for a reason to reason over 212 Step organizations around the globe with an adapted from a built up even talked about created on June 10, in 1935. You know, it's about meeting a powerless, that life has become unmanageable, whatever error that might be. It's about kind of coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore you to sanity. It's about taking your own personal inventory. It's about making amends to the people that you've harmed along the way. But also in a way that you don't farm them or others, it's about continuously taking your personal inventory. And when you're wrong, promptly admitted, no matter what area of recovery, you might be in or healing. You have to be vigilant every single day. And then, you know, it's about maintaining that constant contact and whatever that area of recovery or healing that you've attained and achieved giving it somebody else. Yeah. That is the magic. That's what has given me the self esteem. Yeah, that adult due respect I love them to death their dear family friends at this point, magical Ric Flair. Charlie Sheen, Chevy Chase criminal electorate, that young, beautiful people, they never gave it to me. I got it from my spiritual brothers and sisters. And I get it every time I give this away to somebody because I have a God given gift. And I've kept my word. Anybody that works with me sees it. There's not a single day that goes by I still might not get to in person meetings as much as I used to. I'm doing that more I'm still doing zoom meetings, but there's not a single day that I'm not doing something connect with somebody in recovery. You know, I'm on the board of Banyan treatment centers I do whatever I can to scholarship people there. I've gotten people to oaks recover. I've gotten people to know facts house using funds that I've raised from my aiming high foundation, but the greatest thing in the world because I'm not just giving them an opportunity to get a new life I'm helping every single human in their life. The benefit of this person getting their life back. And it's the greatest feeling in the world. I could lose all the money tomorrow and lose the business tomorrow. We don't live in this beautiful place in Brentwood, but I found me found me and the heartbreaking part about all that I've ever lost like I said, it's everybody that's so near and dear to me that I do what I can to take care of and make their lives better financially. I might not have that but Darren Prince could have be all good. I mean, you're gonna speak and at the same Darren friends that was paying found his purpose. Right Brandon Handley 29:33 now. I love that and kind of what you're talking about. There's your, your scene like that image where, you know, one one match strikes and lights and other right. That's what you're doing is helping others to light themselves up and see kind of the truth of who they are the power, the connection that they've got. Darren Prince 29:53 But that when that just one gets finished. I've had so many that have been just mine Long when I see the lights come on in somebody's eyes. Yeah. Brandon Handley 30:08 I mean, that's, that's me. That's when you realize kind of what your purpose is right? Darren Prince 30:11 Obviously with my dear friend Jen Cohen last night just a huge podcast habits and hustle one of the top 10 Business podcasts in the world. There's Mark Cuban, I just know, helped her out. She got him and she said Gary Vee and Eric Thomas and she did a podcast that was out in the Middle East. These guys reached out to Scott Bo Hopkins, for me and her oddly, we had no idea I went to first she went the second I had the entire crew, including the whole, in tears multiple times to the interview, because he had something similar not to drugs in the alcohol, but he understood the brokenness, he understood the looking back, Spencer, the host, and she goes, You have no idea when I got there. I was like, why am I here? While they're talking about is Darren's don't like he had every single one of us in tears. Like, he took us to a different level of accountability and recognizing either flaws or what we've been through, because I think that's what God wants, wants me to do. You know, I'm not afraid to tell people at all mistakes I've made and continue to make, and my character flaws and my character defects because it's a free feeling. Yeah, liberation for 99% of this world. I think it's smoke and mirrors, and everybody's got something out there trying to cover up. You know, me my background Brandon Handley 31:33 right here. I'm trying to cover up my background right now. Darren Prince 31:39 I'm like, Man, I don't know if you put on a little bit of weight to try to buy, just to just to be able to have that for the first time of my life and this type of being made and said, I stomach. I'm not perfect, better quality mistakes lashed out. And this mouth can get me in trouble or texting or emailing. But I'm way better than I've ever been. I tell people try to say what you mean mean what you say don't say we try to scam people, instead of you being understood. I think in the heat of an argument for anybody listening, and you're about to open up your big fat mouth. Don't engage. And it's better to feel alright. And right. If you're 100%, right. The strength is keeping your mouth shut. Don't send that text don't send that email. Because in five or 10 minutes, whatever you're about to explode about forgotten like that. And that's how you build your spiritual relevancy built discipline that to yell at change of character defects to staying in alignment to manifest to your higher self. And I've gotten so good at that again, not perfect. Yeah. But filthy her will hurt me with my mom a handful of times. It's not easy. Sure. My girlfriend, I'll tell you but I am so much better than I've ever been. I'm aware of it. I'm vigilant. I have to weigh out. Take a deep breath. Which is why I'm looking forward to working with you. Be fun battered i Yeah, it could be Brett. Is this worth it was also in recovery. We say we're not doormats. Occasionally. My sponsor stabbed a laptop, my it things have to come out a certain way. Get out. But y'all know if you're right and wrong when you're in recovery. If you have that emotional hangover, there has been times I've had to put people in their place. I'll hang up the phone, go on with my day, not even think twice about it. Sure. Oh, my gosh, I know that it was something that had to be done. So people can understand the way I expect things to be done. Brandon Handley 33:43 For sure. Right. Yeah. I mean, I like that. Not being a doormat part, I think, um, could you help, maybe see, to be of service but not a servant. Right? Because I think a lot of us, especially when we find that we want to be of service, right and go out there. We contend to let ourselves be taken advantage of but again, become more of a servant than off service. Explain a little bit of that, that difference there. Darren Prince 34:11 I think there's a huge difference when I say you got to become selfish, to be selfless. And the truth is, again, we're all trying to better ourselves. We're trying to feel better about ourselves, not externally, internally. So if you allow yourself to not be of service, but be assertive, and you're still not in a place to live in your higher self, you're you're a yes person and you're being told what to do. You're not living the life that you want to live, you're not standing your ground and you know, living the purpose for life, and you have to speak up. You know, sometimes people say, Oh, I'm not motivated by fear. Now that fear is a great motivator. And if you're in a place where uncomfortable, speak up, because the more you express yourself, that's where the growth comes in. But if you allow help people to keep shitting on you and mistreating you, if it's your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, sister, co worker, what's not gonna do, you're gonna frickin go home and just feel like crap, that's gonna just blow out your self esteem. You know, if the situation's not right, or Hodgson, I'll sit down and talk about it, go to therapy, do whatever you got to do, don't turn a blind eye to it. If you're in a relationship, same thing, if there's a co worker, that that you're not getting along with that, that's just bringing out that bad energy every time you see them, to pull them aside and say something, you know, it's Life's too short. People don't realize at any age, that history teacher that I had, it can happen in your 30s, in your 40s, or 50s. And it's a lot harder to get rid of when you get older. You know, our lives get so busy and so crazy that if you if you take it in, and you don't do something about it, at our age is man, health issues, mental health issues, physical, emotional, spiritual, not worth it. Brandon Handley 36:05 You're all torn up, we're all torn up. This time you say you listen, so you wrote a book called aiming high, you put you put a lot of this information in there. And you've also taken that book and the AMI high notion and you've created a foundation out of that, you want to share a little bit about that, you know, again, kind of going from, you know, this, this center into St. You're, and you know, for those of you that don't know to step 12, is what we taught what you brought up right, Darren Prince 36:34 giving it a spiritual awakening as a result of the six steps. Yeah, we've tried to carry this message to other alcoholics and people that are sick and suffering to practice and all their principles all their affairs. Brandon Handley 36:45 Sure. And so you're doing this now, in part through your aiming high foundation, you will share a little bit about what that group does Darren Prince 36:55 for the foundation combat when I wrote my book in October of 2018, aiming high, which Anna David was my publisher, Chris McGinnis, my brilliant writer, I gotta give her all the glory, even though she gives it to me. She's the one that wrote the masterpiece, within a week and a half became an international bestseller in England, Canada, Australia, and the US. And, you know, we got like the Amazon award and all these great accolades that came from it. But number it was ego driven. I mean, I just knew this was God. You know, given my purpose, and my dad passed you earlier, I told him my in the hospital, I was blessed that he added me back for eight and a half years sober. And I said, if I'm going to touch the world, I'm like this experience of what I had to deal with the past 32 days. And of course, it was 32 days, the last step after we went into the hospital, and our algorithm was Magic Johnson shirts, a number from the Lakers, and so urban like one by Israel, and I thought that was beautiful. And I just looked at him and I was like, you know, I never felt so comfortable during the most uncomfortable time in my life. Like, above up there with Joe and Muhammad, grandma, grandpa, Uncle Joe uncle, and I see you're gonna look down as the daddy, I'm going to touch the world. Not only with this experience, but with this gift, because I need people to understand that you can get food the roughest times in life and not have to drink not after drug not after. And it just took my spirituality to a whole nother level, for sure. And to be able to hold his hand say goodbye. And just He's crazy. I call them GMCs my friend Bruce are that passed away was so near and dear to me, my spiritual brother, couple of years ago used to call them GMCs got managed coincidences. But then two weeks, I got a call that I was going to be honored at New Jersey's largest drug and alcohol rehab center. I invested a ton of money and time into being a professional speaker. I knew this was just going to be a big moment. Not just for me, but to really carry the message to the general public and try to help people and then I went so fantastic. literally the next day to rehab got a call because the extreme that on Facebook from Dr. Oz's executive producer that they want on Dr. Oz The next day was Charles Schwab area when city went on Dr. Oz talked about recovery with Darryl and do an incredible job themselves. And literally right after Dr. Oz I got a call from Roanoke. Perhaps it was Donald Trump's executive assistant forever I think she's still got them Donald Trump is a dear friend from Celebrity Apprentice from having Dennis Rodman on their brand new Roderick a bunch of clients. I did a bunch of work with them. I got to see a different side zone because it was a sweetheart loyal always do an ad to the rehab center gal is that and they want to me at the White House. Wow. Frickin things for him to sign this $8 billion opiate epidemic Bill, you know, to start talking to teens around the country and I'd say you know, this is unbelievable. And then my dad always wants me to write a book Brandon and I just I didn't Feel comfortable writing about the HMI. I always take a lot of my stories out there between me and my my loved ones that I foster my clients myself and I met Anna David on Instagram one day, a few months after that. And I guess she saw something about, you know, a hashtag recovery and the White House and opiate epidemic. And somehow we linked up and I saw her that December of 2017, which was probably about eight or nine months after my dad passed and talking or just checking in with you, because your story is unbelievable, because you know, I'm in recovery. I was like, I had no idea. Because I've been in recovery, I read a couple of best selling books, I think it's time you write one. Because I have the angle. I know you said your dad always wants to do right when she goes take people on a fly on the wall journey of what it's like to be the agents most iconic stars of all time, like you went deep into health care side. And we looked at each other with tears. I said, That's it. That's powerful. That's hot. And so anyway, when the book came out, and I did so many speaking engagements, and I noticed that there was opportunities, very limited. And that short window of people that actually had such a deep connection with there was high school kids Did someone come over to me put their hands up during the q&a, where I knew I had an opportunity right then and there to help. There was adult audience, Gallows corporations, where people were just, they had that moment of clarity. And I'm like, I need to start a foundation. And because if I can grab somebody, and their lights come on in that moment, and they can afford it, and I could say, I could help you, right? Go home, pack your bag of a car company get you, it's gonna take you treatment center tonight, to check your work to get the life you deserve. And that's how even high Foundation came about. Brandon Handley 41:52 That's awesome. That's awesome. So I mean, you you you've gone from, you know, this kind of this broken, scared person, even though you had massive success came crumbling all down. And now you know, you've rebuilt yourself. And I always always look at spirituality is you recognize the truth of who you are personally, right? Like, I mean, you see the core of who you are. And you're looking now to help others to find that in themselves through AAA and through your foundation through the work. Darren Prince 42:23 And my friend Jen and I were laughing last night, I would say I didn't, I didn't get sober writing, you hide and make money. I didn't do it to build my brand, which I think just by default, you know, business is better than ever. I am a consultant with Ben and I help people, you know, get a, you know, get in there when I can't afford it. i I'm part of a it's an incredible group now bridge therapeutics that has this revolutionary 100 time better suboxone that hits the system, and 10 seconds when suboxone when I was on, it took 15 minutes. And I'm a voice for them. And I know it's gonna, you know, get people off methadone. And like, all these blessings that I've been a part of, because, you know, I've had that I've had the foundation in my business. But, you know, like Jay Shetty, and I was talking about now I had no idea that a byproduct was just the agency life. God knew all along the values ready. You know, Hong Kong, and he says an expression, he came into testimony for the back of my book that was so powerful and said, you know, July 2 2008, brother us God for the blessing. And he said, you've come to me correct. Now it's time to make your blessing to others. Brandon Handley 43:43 Yeah. Love it, man. And it's like, just like you said, you know, I was looking at, you know, the universe provides before you need the things right. So the universe kind of Gates gave you this agency and this platform so that like, when you got to this space, now you're able to leverage that to do what it is that you're doing right now. Exactly. That's awesome. There. Now what's next for you, man? What do you you know, where are you headed? What's going on? Darren Prince 44:12 I'm low on the travel for the next three weeks. Thanks, God me, my girl, her mom and my mom. Both of our moms are flying out for Thanksgiving just laying low. We have so much great business stuff going on. But you know, for me the stuff that really gets me excited is recovery. Get back out there and speak and again and you know, write my next book, which should be next year, raising whatever money I came from our foundation like I said bridge therapeutics, you know, I just can't wait to get this thing out to all the treatment centers and people that are suffering and you know, Banyan would probably have another you know, gala coming up for Banyan next year fundraiser. I just that's the stuff that really gets me excited. I mean, I got my dog on a personal override and I still up on my life. It's football season. Hopefully my Los Angeles chargers can turn Turn it around their records, okay, but they stink, they're all banged up and injured. So I do what I can to get my own personal enjoyment of time to check out and you know, with my girl and her dog and, you know, work out five days a week, still taking care of myself and nice. That's it. But I think, you know, it all comes into alignment when I put this first and when I help people. Brandon Handley 45:22 Yeah, I love that too, you know, that this is first for you. And I think that that's very profound. And hopefully that's something that some others take away as well. Man, I appreciate you coming in here. Like I said, we kind of bumped into each other Novak's house. And I you know, wanted to have you on Bill to share this story with some other people. I appreciate you being on World Darren Prince 45:44 Cup on Saturday. What's that? We're gonna wake up on Saturday. Brandon Handley 45:49 That's right. 100% Yeah, man, I'm looking forward to it. I you know, I think it'd be even. That's exciting. That's exciting for me that you're interested and the work that that I've been doing over there has been just kind of so makes me feel good, right? Kind of like the way it's what you're talking about. You can go there and get some people to see and connect with themselves and put some type of gap in between this anxiety that are feeling right and let go everything around them and just being able to do that for a moment, especially as they're making this transition from off the street. Some of these guys. I mean, these Darren Prince 46:29 are fresh. Exactly. Brandon Handley 46:31 Give them that for a moment. Man. This last one was super powerful, very excited. But again, man looking forward to us this coming week and we can and this has been a lot of fun. Darren so thank you. Thanks for where's that some people to find out more about you? How can they contribute? How where can people go to Darren Prince 46:48 follow me on Instagram at agent underscore DEP. The Foundation website is aiming high foundation dot work. Got my own personal site Official Darren prince.com. And for people that are intrigued by the agent life and whatnot, the business side is print marketing group.com Awesome. Thanks, Dan. All right. You got it. Excellent. I Intro Guy 47:15 really hope you enjoyed this episode of the spiritual dough podcast. Stay connected with us directly through spiritual dove.co. You can also join the discussion on Facebook, spiritual dough, and Instagram and spiritual underscore Joe. If you would like to speak with us, send us an email Brandon at spiritual dove.co And as always, thank you for cultivating your mindset and creating a better reality. This includes the most thought provoking part of your day. Don't forget to like and subscribe to stay fully up to date. Until next time, be kind to yourself and trust your intuition. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Sunshine Coast Report

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.Today we chat with one of Australia's best female vocalists,  a member of Australia's rock royal family, lead singer of the Soul Mates, Mahalia Barnes.Mahalia was caught in traffic at our scheduled meet time, so pulled over to chat from her car, such is her dedication, so please forgive the occasional little zoom blip.From member of The Tin Lids to having her own tin lids with band member and husband, Ben, Mahalia is really one of the great voices to come out of our country.We talk about family, about music and about the future.  The Barnes Family is Australia's rock 'n' roll royal family and with their next generations of music talent, their heritage is in good hands.Eldest daughter of Cold Chisel's Jimmy and wife Jane, niece of both John  'Swanee' Swan and Mark 'Diesel' Lizotte, sister of David Campbell, Mahalia Barnes well and deserves to take on the royal crown.If you'd like to read the review I wrote for the Toorak Times  of the “Jimmy Barnes & Ian Moss Rock The Maldives Trip” log onto the website “ThatRadioChick.com.au” and click on the “Toorak Times” link, there's some great photos and videos there. Also, if you click on the Podcast link you can listen back to the chats with Diesel and Swanee.Includes Songs:The Tin Lids - Octopus's Garden (Beatles Cover)Mahalia Barnes - Proud MaryJimmy Barnes - Lover LoverMahalia Barnes & The Soul Mates - Little LightMahalia Barnes & The Soul Mates (featuring Joe Bonamassa) - If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked UpMahalia Barnes & The Soul Mates - I'm On FireWhat has Mahalia Barnes and her Soul Mates been up to lately … let's find out! Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Excerpt of the 27 Oct 1946 Barry Gray Show with Guest Star Al Jolson. Al Jolson appeared on the late night talk show just after the opening of The Jolson Story, and for almost 90 minutes told stories of his life, joked, and sang. This podcast contains three of the songs from that evening, Ma Blushin' Rosie, April Showers, and Swanee, and there is much more in the whole program. The complete broadcast, along with other Jolson radio shows, is available at the Official Al Jolson Website at www.jolson.org.

This special Encore episode of Broadway Nation celebrates the birthdays this week of two of Broadways greatest composers -- George Gershwin & Vincent Youmans. Both were born 124 years ago in 1898 and they came into the world just one day apart – Gershwin on September 26, and Youmans on September 27. And even though they were both born in NYC, they came from different worlds.  Gershwin's parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and George grew up on the Lower East Side where his father worked in a shoe factory and George dropped put of school at 15 to go to work. Youmans, however, was born into the lap of luxury – his father was a wealthy hat manufacturer, and Vincent grew up in Larchmont, NY, attended the exclusive Trinity School, and eventually Yale University. But despite their differences, over the next 30 years their lives would often be intertwined. Both fell in love with music and show business, both began their careers as Tin Pan Alley song pluggers, and both served as rehearsal pianists on Broadway musicals that were composed by Victor Herbert.  Gershwin made his Broadway debut as a composer in 1918 and had his first hit song the following year with “Swanee”, which had lyrics by Irving Caesar. Their song became an absolute sensation when Al Jolson incorporated it into his hit show Sinbad. Youmans had to wait until 1921 to make his Broadway debut with the musical Two Little Girls In Blue. Interestingly, the lyrics for that show were written by George's older brother, Ira Gershwin. Both Gershwin and Youmans achieved international fame and fortune on Broadway during the 1920s, creating hit shows and hit songs that still define the era. George archived his greatest successes when he finally teamed up with his brother, Ira. And Youmans biggest hits were created in collaboration with George's early partner, Irving Caesar. All of this took place during the first decade of what I call the “Silver Age of Broadway” – which is the focus of this episode. Strangely, both composers would die young, way before their time -- Gershwin of a brain tumor in 1937, and Youmans of Tuberculosis a decade later. This episode is dedicated to them and to all the amazing men and women who epitomized the Jazz Age on Broadway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Feinstein, American songbook performer, discussing his work as archivist for Ira Gershwin with host Richard Wolinsky, Michael Feinstein is an American singer, songwriter and classicist of the American songbook. At the age of 20, he was hired to help Ira Gershwin archive his collection of recordings and preserving unpublished Gershwin sheet music. He continued that task for the next seven years. By the 1980s he was a well known cabaret performer, and soon had several CDs under his belt. He has been nominated five times for Grammy Awards. Has been the subject of a PBS documentary series, and hosts a radio show on NPR, among other projects, along with two nightclubs, one of which, Feinstein's at the Nikko, is in San Francisco. His latest album is titled “Gershwin Country.” Created to air as commentary for a 1991 KPFA Morning Concert focused on a new recording of the 1927 production of “Strike Up The Band,” excerpts of this interview were also intended to be used for a radio documentary on the life of George Gershwin. This was one of seven interviews recorded for the program before it was abandoned. Three interviews have already been posted as Radio Wolinsky podcasts. The three remaining interviews, with Gershwin scholar Deena Rosenberg, author and musicologist Robert Kimball and the late Broadway composer Burton Lane, will eventually be posted. This interview has not been heard since its initial broadcast on KPFA. George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people's songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn't until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983. The Gershwin Project Interview I: English Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's brother-in-law and George's wingman in the 1920s. Interview II: Musicologist Deena Rosenberg and Michael Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's nephew. Interview III: Kitty Carlisle. The post The Gershwin Project IV: Michael Feinstein, 1991 appeared first on KPFA.

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.Today we share a recent zoom room chat with Australian rock singer John Archibold Dixon Swan.Born  in Glasgow, Scotland in 1952. John Swan migrated to Australia with his family in 1961.He is the older brother of singer-songwriter Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel fame, and an uncle of stage performer David Campbell and singer Mahalia Barnes.With a successful solo career both before and since, in 1987, Swanee replaced Angry Anderson as lead singer of The Party Boys, and Johns tenure with the band proved to be the group's most successful period.In 2015, Swan was announced as South Australia's Senior Australian of the Year and in 2017 was appointed an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in recognition for his work with various charitable organizations.Includes Songs:Jimmy Barnes & John Swan   -   What Will They SaySwanee   -   Lady, What's Your NameBilly Field   -   You Weren't In Love With MeThe Party Boys   -   High VoltageWhat's Swanee up to at the moment?   Let's find out .....

Pour ce deuxième épisode je suis partie dans la Nièvre rencontrer Swanee Ravonison, une de rares femmes présente et bien visible dans le paysage des artisans du cycle. L'ayant entraperçu au concours de machines, lisant ses chroniques dans le magazine 200 et ses posts engagés sur les réseaux, j'étais impatiente de la découvrir.  Après m'avoir cueillit à la gare de Nevers, direction 33 place Chaméane : L'atelier est rempli de bicyclettes souvent montées en mono vitesse ; les peintures de Stéphane tapissent les murs et les créations sauvages de Swanee complète le décors néo punk. La boutique a été transformée en salon de grimpe musical où le fauteuil vintage encastré sous le mur d'escalade rentre en collision avec la basse et le xylophone de leur fils Kim. À l'arrière, la cours est jonchée de cadavre à deux roues. On n'ose pas ouvrir les autres portes de peur que la collection s'agrandisse.  La petite couronne de Basquiat gravé sur les cadres, les vélos traités à l'hématite donne le ton de la philosophie de Swanee : BRUT ! Références : OTM Bikes Cyfac Yann Thomas – Salamandre Chapman Cycles The Vandal metal Works WZRD Dear Susan Les tambours du Bronx Santa Cruz Douze Cycles Musique : Générique d’intro : Andriy Mashtalir – Changes Générique de fin : Le Collectif À Bernard featuring Driss ! https://lesiteinternetabernard.com/

Episode 149 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Respect", and the journey of Aretha Franklin from teenage gospel singer to the Queen of Soul. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on "I'm Just a Mops" by the Mops. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Also, people may be interested in a Facebook discussion group for the podcast, run by a friend of mine (I'm not on FB myself) which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/293630102611672/ Errata I say "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby to a Dixie Melody" instead of "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Also I say Spooner Oldham co-wrote "Do Right Woman". I meant Chips Moman. Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. I also relied heavily on I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You by Matt Dobkin. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Rick Hall's The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame contains his side of the story. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. And the I Never Loved a Man album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start this episode,  I have to say that there are some things people may want to be aware of before listening to this. This episode has to deal, at least in passing, with subjects including child sexual abuse, intimate partner abuse, racism, and misogyny. I will of course try to deal with those subjects as tactfully as possible, but those of you who may be upset by those topics may want to check the episode transcript before or instead of listening. Those of you who leave comments or send me messages saying "why can't you just talk about the music instead of all this woke virtue-signalling?" may also want to skip this episode. You can go ahead and skip all the future ones as well, I won't mind. And one more thing to say before I get into the meat of the episode -- this episode puts me in a more difficult position than most other episodes of the podcast have. When I've talked about awful things that have happened in the course of this podcast previously, I have either been talking about perpetrators -- people like Phil Spector or Jerry Lee Lewis who did truly reprehensible things -- or about victims who have talked very publicly about the abuse they've suffered, people like Ronnie Spector or Tina Turner, who said very clearly "this is what happened to me and I want it on the public record". In the case of Aretha Franklin, she has been portrayed as a victim *by others*, and there are things that have been said about her life and her relationships which suggest that she suffered in some very terrible ways. But she herself apparently never saw herself as a victim, and didn't want some aspects of her private life talking about. At the start of David Ritz's biography of her, which is one of my main sources here, he recounts a conversation he had with her: "When I mentioned the possibility of my writing an independent biography, she said, “As long as I can approve it before it's published.” “Then it wouldn't be independent,” I said. “Why should it be independent?” “So I can tell the story from my point of view.” “But it's not your story, it's mine.” “You're an important historical figure, Aretha. Others will inevitably come along to tell your story. That's the blessing and burden of being a public figure.” “More burden than blessing,” she said." Now, Aretha Franklin is sadly dead, but I think that she still deserves the basic respect of being allowed privacy. So I will talk here about public matters, things she acknowledged in her own autobiography, and things that she and the people around her did in public situations like recording studios and concert venues. But there are aspects to the story of Aretha Franklin as that story is commonly told, which may well be true, but are of mostly prurient interest, don't add much to the story of how the music came to be made, and which she herself didn't want people talking about. So there will be things people might expect me to talk about in this episode, incidents where people in her life, usually men, treated her badly, that I'm going to leave out. That information is out there if people want to look for it, but I don't see myself as under any obligation to share it. That's not me making excuses for people who did inexcusable things, that's me showing some respect to one of the towering artistic figures of the latter half of the twentieth century. Because, of course, respect is what this is all about: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Respect"] One name that's come up a few times in this podcast, but who we haven't really talked about that much, is Bobby "Blue" Bland. We mentioned him as the single biggest influence on the style of Van Morrison, but Bland was an important figure in the Memphis music scene of the early fifties, which we talked about in several early episodes. He was one of the Beale Streeters, the loose aggregation of musicians that also included B.B. King and Johnny Ace, he worked with Ike Turner, and was one of the key links between blues and soul in the fifties and early sixties, with records like "Turn on Your Love Light": [Excerpt: Bobby "Blue" Bland, "Turn on Your Love Light"] But while Bland was influenced by many musicians we've talked about, his biggest influence wasn't a singer at all. It was a preacher he saw give a sermon in the early 1940s. As he said decades later: "Wasn't his words that got me—I couldn't tell you what he talked on that day, couldn't tell you what any of it meant, but it was the way he talked. He talked like he was singing. He talked music. The thing that really got me, though, was this squall-like sound he made to emphasize a certain word. He'd catch the word in his mouth, let it roll around and squeeze it with his tongue. When it popped on out, it exploded, and the ladies started waving and shouting. I liked all that. I started popping and shouting too. That next week I asked Mama when we were going back to Memphis to church. “‘Since when you so keen on church?' Mama asked. “‘I like that preacher,' I said. “‘Reverend Franklin?' she asked. “‘Well, if he's the one who sings when he preaches, that's the one I like.'" Bland was impressed by C.L. Franklin, and so were other Memphis musicians. Long after Franklin had moved to Detroit, they remembered him, and Bland and B.B. King would go to Franklin's church to see him preach whenever they were in the city. And Bland studied Franklin's records. He said later "I liked whatever was on the radio, especially those first things Nat Cole did with his trio. Naturally I liked the blues singers like Roy Brown, the jump singers like Louis Jordan, and the ballad singers like Billy Eckstine, but, brother, the man who really shaped me was Reverend Franklin." Bland would study Franklin's records, and would take the style that Franklin used in recorded sermons like "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest": [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest"] And you can definitely hear that preaching style on records like Bland's "I Pity the Fool": [Excerpt: Bobby "Blue" Bland, "I Pity the Fool"] But of course, that wasn't the only influence the Reverend C.L. Franklin had on the course of soul music. C.L. Franklin had grown up poor, on a Mississippi farm, and had not even finished grade school because he was needed to work behind the mule, ploughing the farm for his stepfather. But he had a fierce intelligence and became an autodidact, travelling regularly to the nearest library, thirty miles away, on a horse-drawn wagon, and reading everything he could get his hands on. At the age of sixteen he received what he believed to be a message from God, and decided to become an itinerant preacher. He would travel between many small country churches and build up audiences there -- and he would also study everyone else preaching there, analysing their sermons, seeing if he could anticipate their line of argument and get ahead of them, figuring out the structure. But unlike many people in the conservative Black Baptist churches of the time, he never saw the spiritual and secular worlds as incompatible. He saw blues music and Black church sermons as both being part of the same thing -- a Black culture and folklore that was worthy of respect in both its spiritual and secular aspects. He soon built up a small circuit of local churches where he would preach occasionally, but wasn't the main pastor at any of them. He got married aged twenty, though that marriage didn't last, and he seems to have been ambitious for a greater respectability. When that marriage failed, in June 1936, he married Barbara Siggers, a very intelligent, cultured, young single mother who had attended Booker T Washington High School, the best Black school in Memphis, and he adopted her son Vaughn. While he was mostly still doing churches in Mississippi, he took on one in Memphis as well, in an extremely poor area, but it gave him a foot in the door to the biggest Black city in the US. Barbara would later be called "one of the really great gospel singers" by no less than Mahalia Jackson. We don't have any recordings of Barbara singing, but Mahalia Jackson certainly knew what she was talking about when it came to great gospel singers: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"] Rev. Franklin was hugely personally ambitious, and he also wanted to get out of rural Mississippi, where the Klan were very active at this time, especially after his daughter Erma was born in 1938. They moved to Memphis in 1939, where he got a full-time position at New Salem Baptist Church, where for the first time he was able to earn a steady living from just one church and not have to tour round multiple churches. He soon became so popular that if you wanted to get a seat for the service at noon, you had to turn up for the 8AM Sunday School or you'd be forced to stand. He also enrolled for college courses at LeMoyne College. He didn't get a degree, but spent three years as a part-time student studying theology, literature, and sociology, and soon developed a liberal theology that was very different from the conservative fundamentalism he'd grown up in, though still very much part of the Baptist church. Where he'd grown up with a literalism that said the Bible was literally true, he started to accept things like evolution, and to see much of the Bible as metaphor. Now, we talked in the last episode about how impossible it is to get an accurate picture of the lives of religious leaders, because their life stories are told by those who admire them, and that's very much the case for C.L. Franklin. Franklin was a man who had many, many, admirable qualities -- he was fiercely intelligent, well-read, a superb public speaker, a man who was by all accounts genuinely compassionate towards those in need, and he became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement and inspired tens of thousands, maybe even millions, of people, directly and indirectly, to change the world for the better. He also raised several children who loved and admired him and were protective of his memory. And as such, there is an inevitable bias in the sources on Franklin's life. And so there's a tendency to soften the very worst things he did, some of which were very, very bad. For example in Nick Salvatore's biography of him, he talks about Franklin, in 1940, fathering a daughter with someone who is described as "a teenager" and "quite young". No details of her age other than that are given, and a few paragraphs later the age of a girl who was then sixteen *is* given, talking about having known the girl in question, and so the impression is given that the girl he impregnated was also probably in her late teens. Which would still be bad, but a man in his early twenties fathering a child with a girl in her late teens is something that can perhaps be forgiven as being a different time. But while the girl in question may have been a teenager when she gave birth, she was *twelve years old* when she became pregnant, by C.L. Franklin, the pastor of her church, who was in a position of power over her in multiple ways. Twelve years old. And this is not the only awful thing that Franklin did -- he was also known to regularly beat up women he was having affairs with, in public. I mention this now because everything else I say about him in this episode is filtered through sources who saw these things as forgivable character flaws in an otherwise admirable human being, and I can't correct for those biases because I don't know the truth. So it's going to sound like he was a truly great man. But bear those facts in mind. Barbara stayed with Franklin for the present, after discovering what he had done, but their marriage was a difficult one, and they split up and reconciled a handful of times. They had three more children together -- Cecil, Aretha, and Carolyn -- and remained together as Franklin moved on first to a church in Buffalo, New York, and then to New Bethel Church, in Detroit, on Hastings Street, a street which was the centre of Black nightlife in the city, as immortalised in John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun": [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen"] Before moving to Detroit, Franklin had already started to get more political, as his congregation in Buffalo had largely been union members, and being free from the worst excesses of segregation allowed him to talk more openly about civil rights, but that only accelerated when he moved to Detroit, which had been torn apart just a couple of years earlier by police violence against Black protestors. Franklin had started building a reputation when in Memphis using radio broadcasts, and by the time he moved to Detroit he was able to command a very high salary, and not only that, his family were given a mansion by the church, in a rich part of town far away from most of his congregation. Smokey Robinson, who was Cecil Franklin's best friend and a frequent visitor to the mansion through most of his childhood, described it later, saying "Once inside, I'm awestruck -- oil paintings, velvet tapestries, silk curtains, mahogany cabinets filled with ornate objects of silver and gold. Man, I've never seen nothing like that before!" He made a lot of money, but he also increased church attendance so much that he earned that money. He had already been broadcasting on the radio, but when he started his Sunday night broadcasts in Detroit, he came up with a trick of having his sermons run long, so the show would end before the climax. People listening decided that they would have to start turning up in person to hear the end of the sermons, and soon he became so popular that the church would be so full that crowds would have to form on the street outside to listen. Other churches rescheduled their services so they wouldn't clash with Franklin's, and most of the other Black Baptist ministers in the city would go along to watch him preach. In 1948 though, a couple of years after moving to Detroit, Barbara finally left her husband. She took Vaughn with her and moved back to Buffalo, leaving the four biological children she'd had with C.L. with their father.  But it's important to note that she didn't leave her children -- they would visit her on a regular basis, and stay with her over school holidays. Aretha later said "Despite the fact that it has been written innumerable times, it is an absolute lie that my mother abandoned us. In no way, shape, form, or fashion did our mother desert us." Barbara's place in the home was filled by many women -- C.L. Franklin's mother moved up from Mississippi to help him take care of the children, the ladies from the church would often help out, and even stars like Mahalia Jackson would turn up and cook meals for the children. There were also the women with whom Franklin carried on affairs, including Anna Gordy, Ruth Brown, and Dinah Washington, the most important female jazz and blues singer of the fifties, who had major R&B hits with records like her version of "Cold Cold Heart": [Excerpt: Dinah Washington, "Cold Cold Heart"] Although my own favourite record of hers is "Big Long Slidin' Thing", which she made with arranger Quincy Jones: [Excerpt: Dinah Washington, "Big Long Slidin' Thing"] It's about a trombone. Get your minds out of the gutter. Washington was one of the biggest vocal influences on young Aretha, but the single biggest influence was Clara Ward, another of C.L. Franklin's many girlfriends. Ward was the longest-lasting of these, and there seems to have been a lot of hope on both her part and Aretha's that she and Rev. Franklin would marry, though Franklin always made it very clear that monogamy wouldn't suit him. Ward was one of the three major female gospel singers of the middle part of the century, and possibly even more technically impressive as a vocalist than the other two, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson. Where Jackson was an austere performer, who refused to perform in secular contexts at all for most of her life, and took herself and her music very seriously, and Tharpe was a raunchier, funnier, more down-to-earth performer who was happy to play for blues audiences and even to play secular music on occasion, Ward was a *glamorous* performer, who wore sequined dresses and piled her hair high on her head. Ward had become a singer in 1931 when her mother had what she later talked about as a religious epiphany, and decided she wasn't going to be a labourer any more, she was going to devote her life to gospel music. Ward's mother had formed a vocal group with her two daughters, and Clara quickly became the star and her mother's meal ticket -- and her mother was very possessive of that ticket, to the extent that Ward, who was a bisexual woman who mostly preferred men, had more relationships with women, because her mother wouldn't let her be alone with the men she was attracted to. But Ward did manage to keep a relationship going with C.L. Franklin, and Aretha Franklin talked about the moment she decided to become a singer, when she saw Ward singing "Peace in the Valley" at a funeral: [Excerpt: Clara Ward, "Peace in the Valley"] As well as looking towards Ward as a vocal influence, Aretha was also influenced by her as a person -- she became a mother figure to Aretha, who would talk later about watching Ward eat, and noting her taking little delicate bites, and getting an idea of what it meant to be ladylike from her. After Ward's death in 1973, a notebook was found in which she had written her opinions of other singers. For Aretha she wrote “My baby Aretha, she doesn't know how good she is. Doubts self. Some day—to the moon. I love that girl.” Ward's influence became especially important to Aretha and her siblings after their mother died of a heart attack a few years after leaving her husband, when Aretha was ten, and Aretha, already a very introverted child, became even more so. Everyone who knew Aretha said that her later diva-ish reputation came out of a deep sense of insecurity and introversion -- that she was a desperately private, closed-off, person who would rarely express her emotions at all, and who would look away from you rather than make eye contact. The only time she let herself express emotions was when she performed music. And music was hugely important in the Franklin household. Most preachers in the Black church at that time were a bit dismissive of gospel music, because they thought the music took away from their prestige -- they saw it as a necessary evil, and resented it taking up space when their congregations could have been listening to them. But Rev. Franklin was himself a rather good singer, and even made a few gospel records himself in 1950, recording for Joe Von Battle, who owned a record shop on Hastings Street and also put out records by blues singers: [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "I Am Climbing Higher Mountains" ] The church's musical director was James Cleveland, one of the most important gospel artists of the fifties and sixties, who sang with groups like the Caravans: [Excerpt: The Caravans, "What Kind of Man is This?" ] Cleveland, who had started out in the choir run by Thomas Dorsey, the writer of “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and “Peace in the Valley”, moved in with the Franklin family for a while, and he gave the girls tips on playing the piano -- much later he would play piano on Aretha's album Amazing Grace, and she said of him “He showed me some real nice chords, and I liked his deep, deep sound”. Other than Clara Ward, he was probably the single biggest musical influence on Aretha. And all the touring gospel musicians would make appearances at New Bethel Church, not least of them Sam Cooke, who first appeared there with the Highway QCs and would continue to do so after joining the Soul Stirrers: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, "Touch the Hem of his Garment"] Young Aretha and her older sister Erma both had massive crushes on Cooke, and there were rumours that he had an affair with one or both of them when they were in their teens, though both denied it. Aretha later said "When I first saw him, all I could do was sigh... Sam was love on first hearing, love at first sight." But it wasn't just gospel music that filled the house. One of the major ways that C.L. Franklin's liberalism showed was in his love of secular music, especially jazz and blues, which he regarded as just as important in Black cultural life as gospel music. We already talked about Dinah Washington being a regular visitor to the house, but every major Black entertainer would visit the Franklin residence when they were in Detroit. Both Aretha and Cecil Franklin vividly remembered visits from Art Tatum, who would sit at the piano and play for the family and their guests: [Excerpt: Art Tatum, "Tiger Rag"] Tatum was such a spectacular pianist that there's now a musicological term, the tatum, named after him, for the smallest possible discernible rhythmic interval between two notes. Young Aretha was thrilled by his technique, and by that of Oscar Peterson, who also regularly came to the Franklin home, sometimes along with Ella Fitzgerald. Nat "King" Cole was another regular visitor. The Franklin children all absorbed the music these people -- the most important musicians of the time -- were playing in their home, and young Aretha in particular became an astonishing singer and also an accomplished pianist. Smokey Robinson later said: “The other thing that knocked us out about Aretha was her piano playing. There was a grand piano in the Franklin living room, and we all liked to mess around. We'd pick out little melodies with one finger. But when Aretha sat down, even as a seven-year-old, she started playing chords—big chords. Later I'd recognize them as complex church chords, the kind used to accompany the preacher and the solo singer. At the time, though, all I could do was view Aretha as a wonder child. Mind you, this was Detroit, where musical talent ran strong and free. Everyone was singing and harmonizing; everyone was playing piano and guitar. Aretha came out of this world, but she also came out of another far-off magical world none of us really understood. She came from a distant musical planet where children are born with their gifts fully formed.” C.L. Franklin became more involved in the music business still when Joe Von Battle started releasing records of his sermons, which had become steadily more politically aware: [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "Dry Bones in the Valley"] Franklin was not a Marxist -- he was a liberal, but like many liberals was willing to stand with Marxists where they had shared interests, even when it was dangerous. For example in 1954, at the height of McCarthyism, he had James and Grace Lee Boggs, two Marxist revolutionaries, come to the pulpit and talk about their support for the anti-colonial revolution in Kenya, and they sold four hundred copies of their pamphlet after their talk, because he saw that the struggle of Black Africans to get out from white colonial rule was the same struggle as that of Black Americans. And Franklin's powerful sermons started getting broadcast on the radio in areas further out from Detroit, as Chess Records picked up the distribution for them and people started playing the records on other stations. People like future Congressman John Lewis and the Reverend Jesse Jackson would later talk about listening to C.L. Franklin's records on the radio and being inspired -- a whole generation of Black Civil Rights leaders took their cues from him, and as the 1950s and 60s went on he became closer and closer to Martin Luther King in particular. But C.L. Franklin was always as much an ambitious showman as an activist, and he started putting together gospel tours, consisting mostly of music but with himself giving a sermon as the headline act. And he became very, very wealthy from these tours. On one trip in the south, his car broke down, and he couldn't find a mechanic willing to work on it. A group of white men started mocking him with racist terms, trying to provoke him, as he was dressed well and driving a nice car (albeit one that had broken down). Rather than arguing with them, he walked to a car dealership, and bought a new car with the cash that he had on him. By 1956 he was getting around $4000 per appearance, roughly equivalent to $43,000 today, and he was making a *lot* of appearances. He also sold half a million records that year. Various gospel singers, including the Clara Ward Singers, would perform on the tours he organised, and one of those performers was Franklin's middle daughter Aretha. Aretha had become pregnant when she was twelve, and after giving birth to the child she dropped out of school, but her grandmother did most of the child-rearing for her, while she accompanied her father on tour. Aretha's first recordings, made when she was just fourteen, show what an astonishing talent she already was at that young age. She would grow as an artist, of course, as she aged and gained experience, but those early gospel records already show an astounding maturity and ability. It's jaw-dropping to listen to these records of a fourteen-year-old, and immediately recognise them as a fully-formed Aretha Franklin. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood"] Smokey Robinson's assessment that she was born with her gifts fully formed doesn't seem like an exaggeration when you hear that. For the latter half of the fifties, Aretha toured with her father, performing on the gospel circuit and becoming known there. But the Franklin sisters were starting to get ideas about moving into secular music. This was largely because their family friend Sam Cooke had done just that, with "You Send Me": [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "You Send Me"] Aretha and Erma still worshipped Cooke, and Aretha would later talk about getting dressed up just to watch Cooke appear on the TV. Their brother Cecil later said "I remember the night Sam came to sing at the Flame Show Bar in Detroit. Erma and Ree said they weren't going because they were so heartbroken that Sam had recently married. I didn't believe them. And I knew I was right when they started getting dressed about noon for the nine o'clock show. Because they were underage, they put on a ton of makeup to look older. It didn't matter 'cause Berry Gordy's sisters, Anna and Gwen, worked the photo concession down there, taking pictures of the party people. Anna was tight with Daddy and was sure to let my sisters in. She did, and they came home with stars in their eyes.” Moving from gospel to secular music still had a stigma against it in the gospel world, but Rev. Franklin had never seen secular music as sinful, and he encouraged his daughters in their ambitions. Erma was the first to go secular, forming a girl group, the Cleo-Patrettes, at the suggestion of the Four Tops, who were family friends, and recording a single for Joe Von Battle's J-V-B label, "No Other Love": [Excerpt: The Cleo-Patrettes, "No Other Love"] But the group didn't go any further, as Rev. Franklin insisted that his eldest daughter had to finish school and go to university before she could become a professional singer. Erma missed other opportunities for different reasons, though -- Berry Gordy, at this time still a jobbing songwriter, offered her a song he'd written with his sister and Roquel Davis, but Erma thought of herself as a jazz singer and didn't want to do R&B, and so "All I Could Do Was Cry" was given to Etta James instead, who had a top forty pop hit with it: [Excerpt: Etta James, "All I Could Do Was Cry"] While Erma's move into secular music was slowed by her father wanting her to have an education, there was no such pressure on Aretha, as she had already dropped out. But Aretha had a different problem -- she was very insecure, and said that church audiences "weren't critics, but worshippers", but she was worried that nightclub audiences in particular were just the kind of people who would just be looking for flaws, rather than wanting to support the performer as church audiences did. But eventually she got up the nerve to make the move. There was the possibility of her getting signed to Motown -- her brother was still best friends with Smokey Robinson, while the Gordy family were close to her father -- but Rev. Franklin had his eye on bigger things. He wanted her to be signed to Columbia, which in 1960 was the most prestigious of all the major labels. As Aretha's brother Cecil later said "He wanted Ree on Columbia, the label that recorded Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Percy Faith, and Doris Day. Daddy said that Columbia was the biggest and best record company in the world. Leonard Bernstein recorded for Columbia." They went out to New York to see Phil Moore, a legendary vocal coach and arranger who had helped make Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge into stars, but Moore actually refused to take her on as a client, saying "She does not require my services. Her style has already been developed. Her style is in place. It is a unique style that, in my professional opinion, requires no alteration. It simply requires the right material. Her stage presentation is not of immediate concern. All that will come later. The immediate concern is the material that will suit her best. And the reason that concern will not be easily addressed is because I can't imagine any material that will not suit her." That last would become a problem for the next few years, but the immediate issue was to get someone at Columbia to listen to her, and Moore could help with that -- he was friends with John Hammond. Hammond is a name that's come up several times in the podcast already -- we mentioned him in the very earliest episodes, and also in episode ninety-eight, where we looked at his signing of Bob Dylan. But Hammond was a legend in the music business. He had produced sessions for Bessie Smith, had discovered Count Basie and Billie Holiday, had convinced Benny Goodman to hire Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton, had signed Pete Seeger and the Weavers to Columbia, had organised the Spirituals to Swing concerts which we talked about in the first few episodes of this podcast, and was about to put out the first album of Robert Johnson's recordings. Of all the executives at Columbia, he was the one who had the greatest eye for talent, and the greatest understanding of Black musical culture. Moore suggested that the Franklins get Major Holley to produce a demo recording that he could get Hammond to listen to. Major Holley was a family friend, and a jazz bassist who had played with Oscar Peterson and Coleman Hawkins among others, and he put together a set of songs for Aretha that would emphasise the jazz side of her abilities, pitching her as a Dinah Washington style bluesy jazz singer. The highlight of the demo was a version of "Today I Sing the Blues", a song that had originally been recorded by Helen Humes, the singer who we last heard of recording “Be Baba Leba” with Bill Doggett: [Excerpt: Helen Humes, "Today I Sing the Blues"] That original version had been produced by Hammond, but the song had also recently been covered by Aretha's idol, Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "Today I Sing the Blues"] Hammond was hugely impressed by the demo, and signed Aretha straight away, and got to work producing her first album. But he and Rev. Franklin had different ideas about what Aretha should do. Hammond wanted to make a fairly raw-sounding bluesy jazz album, the kind of recording he had produced with Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday, but Rev. Franklin wanted his daughter to make music that would cross over to the white pop market -- he was aiming for the same kind of audience that Nat "King" Cole or Harry Belafonte had, and he wanted her recording standards like "Over the Rainbow". This showed a lack of understanding on Rev. Franklin's part of how such crossovers actually worked at this point. As Etta James later said, "If you wanna have Black hits, you gotta understand the Black streets, you gotta work those streets and work those DJs to get airplay on Black stations... Or looking at it another way, in those days you had to get the Black audience to love the hell outta you and then hope the love would cross over to the white side. Columbia didn't know nothing 'bout crossing over.” But Hammond knew they had to make a record quickly, because Sam Cooke had been working on RCA Records, trying to get them to sign Aretha, and Rev. Franklin wanted an album out so they could start booking club dates for her, and was saying that if they didn't get one done quickly he'd take up that offer, and so they came up with a compromise set of songs which satisfied nobody, but did produce two R&B top ten hits, "Won't Be Long" and Aretha's version of "Today I Sing the Blues": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Today I Sing the Blues"] This is not to say that Aretha herself saw this as a compromise -- she later said "I have never compromised my material. Even then, I knew a good song from a bad one. And if Hammond, one of the legends of the business, didn't know how to produce a record, who does? No, the fault was with promotion." And this is something important to bear in mind as we talk about her Columbia records. Many, *many* people have presented those records as Aretha being told what to do by producers who didn't understand her art and were making her record songs that didn't fit her style. That's not what's happening with the Columbia records. Everyone actually involved said that Aretha was very involved in the choices made -- and there are some genuinely great tracks on those albums. The problem is that they're *unfocused*. Aretha was only eighteen when she signed to the label, and she loved all sorts of music -- blues, jazz, soul, standards, gospel, middle-of-the-road pop music -- and wanted to sing all those kinds of music. And she *could* sing all those kinds of music, and sing them well. But it meant the records weren't coherent. You didn't know what you were getting, and there was no artistic personality that dominated them, it was just what Aretha felt like recording. Around this time, Aretha started to think that maybe her father didn't know what he was talking about when it came to popular music success, even though she idolised him in most areas, and she turned to another figure, who would soon become both her husband and manager. Ted White. Her sister Erma, who was at that time touring with Lloyd Price, had introduced them, but in fact Aretha had first seen White years earlier, in her own house -- he had been Dinah Washington's boyfriend in the fifties, and her first sight of him had been carrying a drunk Washington out of the house after a party. In interviews with David Ritz, who wrote biographies of many major soul stars including both Aretha Franklin and Etta James, James had a lot to say about White, saying “Ted White was famous even before he got with Aretha. My boyfriend at the time, Harvey Fuqua, used to talk about him. Ted was supposed to be the slickest pimp in Detroit. When I learned that Aretha married him, I wasn't surprised. A lot of the big-time singers who we idolized as girls—like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan—had pimps for boyfriends and managers. That was standard operating procedure. My own mother had made a living turning tricks. When we were getting started, that way of life was part of the music business. It was in our genes. Part of the lure of pimps was that they got us paid." She compared White to Ike Turner, saying "Ike made Tina, no doubt about it. He developed her talent. He showed her what it meant to be a performer. He got her famous. Of course, Ted White was not a performer, but he was savvy about the world. When Harvey Fuqua introduced me to him—this was the fifties, before he was with Aretha—I saw him as a super-hip extra-smooth cat. I liked him. He knew music. He knew songwriters who were writing hit songs. He had manners. Later, when I ran into him and Aretha—this was the sixties—I saw that she wasn't as shy as she used to be." White was a pimp, but he was also someone with music business experience -- he owned an unsuccessful publishing company, and also ran a chain of jukeboxes. He was also thirty, while Aretha was only eighteen. But White didn't like the people in Aretha's life at the time -- he didn't get on well with her father, and he also clashed with John Hammond. And Aretha was also annoyed at Hammond, because her sister Erma had signed to Epic, a Columbia subsidiary, and was releasing her own singles: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Hello Again"] Aretha was certain that Hammond had signed Erma, even though Hammond had nothing to do with Epic Records, and Erma had actually been recommended by Lloyd Price. And Aretha, while for much of her career she would support her sister, was also terrified that her sister might have a big hit before her and leave Aretha in her shadow. Hammond was still the credited producer on Aretha's second album, The Electrifying Aretha Franklin, but his lack of say in the sessions can be shown in the choice of lead-off single. "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody" was originally recorded by Al Jolson in 1918: [Excerpt: Al Jolson, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody"] Rev. Franklin pushed for the song, as he was a fan of Jolson -- Jolson, oddly, had a large Black fanbase, despite his having been a blackface performer, because he had *also* been a strong advocate of Black musicians like Cab Calloway, and the level of racism in the media of the twenties through forties was so astonishingly high that even a blackface performer could seem comparatively OK. Aretha's performance was good, but it was hardly the kind of thing that audiences were clamouring for in 1961: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody"] That single came out the month after _Down Beat_ magazine gave Aretha the "new-star female vocalist award", and it oddly made the pop top forty, her first record to do so, and the B-side made the R&B top ten, but for the next few years both chart success and critical acclaim eluded her. None of her next nine singles would make higher than number eighty-six on the Hot One Hundred, and none would make the R&B charts at all. After that transitional second album, she was paired with producer Bob Mersey, who was precisely the kind of white pop producer that one would expect for someone who hoped for crossover success. Mersey was the producer for many of Columbia's biggest stars at the time -- people like Barbra Streisand, Andy Williams, Julie Andrews, Patti Page, and Mel Tormé -- and it was that kind of audience that Aretha wanted to go for at this point. To give an example of the kind of thing that Mersey was doing, just the month before he started work on his first collaboration with Aretha, _The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin_, his production of Andy Williams singing "Moon River" was released: [Excerpt: Andy Williams, "Moon River"] This was the kind of audience Aretha was going for when it came to record sales – the person she compared herself to most frequently at this point was Barbra Streisand – though in live performances she was playing with a small jazz group in jazz venues, and going for the same kind of jazz-soul crossover audience as Dinah Washington or Ray Charles. The strategy seems to have been to get something like the success of her idol Sam Cooke, who could play to soul audiences but also play the Copacabana, but the problem was that Cooke had built an audience before doing that -- she hadn't. But even though she hadn't built up an audience, musicians were starting to pay attention. Ted White, who was still in touch with Dinah Washington, later said “Women are very catty. They'll see a girl who's dressed very well and they'll say, Yeah, but look at those shoes, or look at that hairdo. Aretha was the only singer I've ever known that Dinah had no negative comments about. She just stood with her mouth open when she heard Aretha sing.” The great jazz vocalist Carmen McRea went to see Aretha at the Village Vanguard in New York around this time, having heard the comparisons to Dinah Washington, and met her afterwards. She later said "Given how emotionally she sang, I expected her to have a supercharged emotional personality like Dinah. Instead, she was the shyest thing I've ever met. Would hardly look me in the eye. Didn't say more than two words. I mean, this bitch gave bashful a new meaning. Anyway, I didn't give her any advice because she didn't ask for any, but I knew goddamn well that, no matter how good she was—and she was absolutely wonderful—she'd have to make up her mind whether she wanted to be Della Reese, Dinah Washington, or Sarah Vaughan. I also had a feeling she wouldn't have minded being Leslie Uggams or Diahann Carroll. I remember thinking that if she didn't figure out who she was—and quick—she was gonna get lost in the weeds of the music biz." So musicians were listening to Aretha, even if everyone else wasn't. The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin, for example, was full of old standards like "Try a Little Tenderness": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Try a Little Tenderness"] That performance inspired Otis Redding to cut his own version of that song a few years later: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness"] And it might also have inspired Aretha's friend and idol Sam Cooke to include the song in his own lounge sets. The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin also included Aretha's first original composition, but in general it wasn't a very well-received album. In 1963, the first cracks started to develop in Aretha's relationship with Ted White. According to her siblings, part of the strain was because Aretha's increasing commitment to the civil rights movement was costing her professional opportunities. Her brother Cecil later said "Ted White had complete sway over her when it came to what engagements to accept and what songs to sing. But if Daddy called and said, ‘Ree, I want you to sing for Dr. King,' she'd drop everything and do just that. I don't think Ted had objections to her support of Dr. King's cause, and he realized it would raise her visibility. But I do remember the time that there was a conflict between a big club gig and doing a benefit for Dr. King. Ted said, ‘Take the club gig. We need the money.' But Ree said, ‘Dr. King needs me more.' She defied her husband. Maybe that was the start of their marital trouble. Their thing was always troubled because it was based on each of them using the other. Whatever the case, my sister proved to be a strong soldier in the civil rights fight. That made me proud of her and it kept her relationship with Daddy from collapsing entirely." In part her increasing activism was because of her father's own increase in activity. The benefit that Cecil is talking about there is probably one in Chicago organised by Mahalia Jackson, where Aretha headlined on a bill that also included Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and the comedian Dick Gregory. That was less than a month before her father organised the Detroit Walk to Freedom, a trial run for the more famous March on Washington a few weeks later. The Detroit Walk to Freedom was run by the Detroit Council for Human Rights, which was formed by Rev. Franklin and Rev. Albert Cleage, a much more radical Black nationalist who often differed with Franklin's more moderate integrationist stance. They both worked together to organise the Walk to Freedom, but Franklin's stance predominated, as several white liberal politicians, like the Mayor of Detroit, Jerome Cavanagh, were included in the largely-Black March. It drew crowds of 125,000 people, and Dr. King called it "one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America", and it was the largest civil rights demonstration in American history up to that point. King's speech in Detroit was recorded and released on Motown Records: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech”] He later returned to the same ideas in his more famous speech in Washington. During that civil rights spring and summer of 1963, Aretha also recorded what many think of as the best of her Columbia albums, a collection of jazz standards  called Laughing on the Outside, which included songs like "Solitude", "Ol' Man River" and "I Wanna Be Around": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Wanna Be Around"] The opening track, "Skylark", was Etta James' favourite ever Aretha Franklin performance, and is regarded by many as the definitive take on the song: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Skylark"] Etta James later talked about discussing the track with the great jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of Aretha's early influences, who had recorded her own version of the song: "Sarah said, ‘Have you heard of this Aretha Franklin girl?' I said, ‘You heard her do “Skylark,” didn't you?' Sarah said, ‘Yes, I did, and I'm never singing that song again.” But while the album got noticed by other musicians, it didn't get much attention from the wider public. Mersey decided that a change in direction was needed, and they needed to get in someone with more of a jazz background to work with Aretha. He brought in pianist and arranger Bobby Scott, who had previously worked with people like Lester Young, and Scott said of their first meeting “My first memory of Aretha is that she wouldn't look at me when I spoke. She withdrew from the encounter in a way that intrigued me. At first I thought she was just shy—and she was—but I also felt her reading me...For all her deference to my experience and her reluctance to speak up, when she did look me in the eye, she did so with a quiet intensity before saying, ‘I like all your ideas, Mr. Scott, but please remember I do want hits.'” They started recording together, but the sides they cut wouldn't be released for a few years. Instead, Aretha and Mersey went in yet another direction. Dinah Washington died suddenly in December 1963, and given that Aretha was already being compared to Washington by almost everyone, and that Washington had been a huge influence on her, as well as having been close to both her father and her husband/manager, it made sense to go into the studio and quickly cut a tribute album, with Aretha singing Washington's hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Cold Cold Heart"] Unfortunately, while Washington had been wildly popular, and one of the most important figures in jazz and R&B in the forties and fifties, her style was out of date. The tribute album, titled Unforgettable, came out in February 1964, the same month that Beatlemania hit the US. Dinah Washington was the past, and trying to position Aretha as "the new Dinah Washington" would doom her to obscurity. John Hammond later said "I remember thinking that if Aretha never does another album she will be remembered for this one. No, the problem was timing. Dinah had died, and, outside the black community, interest in her had waned dramatically. Popular music was in a radical and revolutionary moment, and that moment had nothing to do with Dinah Washington, great as she was and will always be.” At this point, Columbia brought in Clyde Otis, an independent producer and songwriter who had worked with artists like Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and indeed had written one of the songs on Unforgettable, but had also worked with people like Brook Benton, who had a much more R&B audience. For example, he'd written "Baby, You Got What It Takes" for Benton and Washington to do as a duet: [Excerpt: Brook Benton and Dinah Washington, "Baby, You Got What it Takes"] In 1962, when he was working at Mercury Records before going independent, Otis had produced thirty-three of the fifty-one singles the label put out that year that had charted. Columbia had decided that they were going to position Aretha firmly in the R&B market, and assigned Otis to do just that. At first, though, Otis had no more luck with getting Aretha to sing R&B than anyone else had. He later said "Aretha, though, couldn't be deterred from her determination to beat Barbra Streisand at Barbra's own game. I kept saying, ‘Ree, you can outsing Streisand any day of the week. That's not the point. The point is to find a hit.' But that summer she just wanted straight-up ballads. She insisted that she do ‘People,' Streisand's smash. Aretha sang the hell out of it, but no one's gonna beat Barbra at her own game." But after several months of this, eventually Aretha and White came round to the idea of making an R&B record. Otis produced an album of contemporary R&B, with covers of music from the more sophisticated end of the soul market, songs like "My Guy", "Every Little Bit Hurts", and "Walk on By", along with a few new originals brought in by Otis. The title track, "Runnin' Out of Fools", became her biggest hit in three years, making number fifty-seven on the pop charts and number thirty on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Runnin' Out of Fools"] After that album, they recorded another album with Otis producing, a live-in-the-studio jazz album, but again nobody involved could agree on a style for her. By this time it was obvious that she was unhappy with Columbia and would be leaving the label soon, and they wanted to get as much material in the can as they could, so they could continue releasing material after she left. But her working relationship with Otis was deteriorating -- Otis and Ted White did not get on, Aretha and White were having their own problems, and Aretha had started just not showing up for some sessions, with nobody knowing where she was. Columbia passed her on to yet another producer, this time Bob Johnston, who had just had a hit with Patti Page, "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte": [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"] Johnston was just about to hit an incredible hot streak as a producer. At the same time as his sessions with Aretha, he was also producing Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, and just after the sessions finished he'd go on to produce Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence album. In the next few years he would produce a run of classic Dylan albums like Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and New Morning, Simon & Garfunkel's follow up Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, Leonard Cohen's first three albums, and Johnny Cash's comeback with the Live at Folsom Prison album and its follow up At San Quentin. He also produced records for Marty Robbins, Flatt & Scruggs, the Byrds, and Burl Ives during that time period. But you may notice that while that's as great a run of records as any producer was putting out at the time, it has little to do with the kind of music that Aretha Franklin was making then, or would become famous with. Johnston produced a string-heavy session in which Aretha once again tried to sing old standards by people like Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern. She then just didn't turn up for some more sessions, until one final session in August, when she recorded songs like "Swanee" and "You Made Me Love You". For more than a year, she didn't go into a studio. She also missed many gigs and disappeared from her family's life for periods of time. Columbia kept putting out records of things she'd already recorded, but none of them had any success at all. Many of the records she'd made for Columbia had been genuinely great -- there's a popular perception that she was being held back by a record company that forced her to sing material she didn't like, but in fact she *loved* old standards, and jazz tunes, and contemporary pop at least as much as any other kind of music. Truly great musicians tend to have extremely eclectic tastes, and Aretha Franklin was a truly great musician if anyone was. Her Columbia albums are as good as any albums in those genres put out in that time period, and she remained proud of them for the rest of her life. But that very eclecticism had meant that she hadn't established a strong identity as a performer -- everyone who heard her records knew she was a great singer, but nobody knew what "an Aretha Franklin record" really meant -- and she hadn't had a single real hit, which was the thing she wanted more than anything. All that changed when in the early hours of the morning, Jerry Wexler was at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals recording a Wilson Pickett track -- from the timeline, it was probably the session for "Mustang Sally", which coincidentally was published by Ted White's publishing company, as Sir Mack Rice, the writer, was a neighbour of White and Franklin, and to which Aretha had made an uncredited songwriting contribution: [Excerpt: Wilson Pickett, "Mustang Sally"] Whatever the session, it wasn't going well. Percy Sledge, another Atlantic artist who recorded at Muscle Shoals, had turned up and had started winding Pickett up, telling him he sounded just like James Brown. Pickett *hated* Brown -- it seems like almost every male soul singer of the sixties hated James Brown -- and went to physically attack Sledge. Wexler got between the two men to protect his investments in them -- both were the kind of men who could easily cause some serious damage to anyone they hit -- and Pickett threw him to one side and charged at Sledge. At that moment the phone went, and Wexler yelled at the two of them to calm down so he could talk on the phone. The call was telling him that Aretha Franklin was interested in recording for Atlantic. Rev. Louise Bishop, later a Democratic politician in Pennsylvania, was at this time a broadcaster, presenting a radio gospel programme, and she knew Aretha. She'd been to see her perform, and had been astonished by Aretha's performance of a recent Otis Redding single, "Respect": [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Respect"] Redding will, by the way, be getting his own episode in a few months' time, which is why I've not covered the making of that record here. Bishop thought that Aretha did the song even better than Redding -- something Bishop hadn't thought possible. When she got talking to Aretha after the show, she discovered that her contract with Columbia was up, and Aretha didn't really know what she was going to do -- maybe she'd start her own label or something. She hadn't been into the studio in more than a year, but she did have some songs she'd been working on. Bishop was good friends with Jerry Wexler, and she knew that he was a big fan of Aretha's, and had been saying for a while that when her contract was up he'd like to sign her. Bishop offered to make the connection, and then went back home and phoned Wexler's wife, waking her up -- it was one in the morning by this point, but Bishop was accustomed to phoning Wexler late at night when it was something important. Wexler's wife then phoned him in Muscle Shoals, and he phoned Bishop back and made the arrangements to meet up. Initially, Wexler wasn't thinking about producing Aretha himself -- this was still the period when he and the Ertegun brothers were thinking of selling Atlantic and getting out of the music business, and so while he signed her to the label he was originally going to hand her over to Jim Stewart at Stax to record, as he had with Sam and Dave. But in a baffling turn of events, Jim Stewart didn't actually want to record her, and so Wexler determined that he had better do it himself. And he didn't want to do it with slick New York musicians -- he wanted to bring out the gospel sound in her voice, and he thought the best way to do that was with musicians from what Charles Hughes refers to as "the country-soul triangle" of Nashville, Memphis, and Muscle Shoals. So he booked a week's worth of sessions at FAME studios, and got in FAME's regular rhythm section, plus a couple of musicians from American Recordings in Memphis -- Chips Moman and Spooner Oldham. Oldham's friend and songwriting partner Dan Penn came along as well -- he wasn't officially part of the session, but he was a fan of Aretha's and wasn't going to miss this. Penn had been the first person that Rick Hall, the owner of FAME, had called when Wexler had booked the studio, because Hall hadn't actually heard of Aretha Franklin up to that point, but didn't want to let Wexler know that. Penn had assured him that Aretha was one of the all-time great talents, and that she just needed the right production to become massive. As Hall put it in his autobiography, "Dan tended in those days to hate anything he didn't write, so I figured if he felt that strongly about her, then she was probably going to be a big star." Charlie Chalmers, a horn player who regularly played with these musicians, was tasked with putting together a horn section. The first song they recorded that day was one that the musicians weren't that impressed with at first. "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)" was written by a songwriter named Ronnie Shannon, who had driven from Georgia to Detroit hoping to sell his songs to Motown. He'd popped into a barber's shop where Ted White was having his hair cut to ask for directions to Motown, and White had signed him to his own publishing company and got him to write songs for Aretha. On hearing the demo, the musicians thought that the song was mediocre and a bit shapeless: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) (demo)"] But everyone there was agreed that Aretha herself was spectacular. She didn't speak much to the musicians, just went to the piano and sat down and started playing, and Jerry Wexler later compared her playing to Thelonius Monk (who was indeed one of the jazz musicians who had influenced her). While Spooner Oldham had been booked to play piano, it was quickly decided to switch him to electric piano and organ, leaving the acoustic piano for Aretha to play, and she would play piano on all the sessions Wexler produced for her in future. Although while Wexler is the credited producer (and on this initial session Rick Hall at FAME is a credited co-producer), everyone involved, including Wexler, said that the musicians were taking their cues from Aretha rather than anyone else. She would outline the arrangements at the piano, and everyone else would fit in with what she was doing, coming up with head arrangements directed by her. But Wexler played a vital role in mediating between her and the musicians and engineering staff, all of whom he knew and she didn't. As Rick Hall said "After her brief introduction by Wexler, she said very little to me or anyone else in the studio other than Jerry or her husband for the rest of the day. I don't think Aretha and I ever made eye contact after our introduction, simply because we were both so totally focused on our music and consumed by what we were doing." The musicians started working on "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)", and at first found it difficult to get the groove, but then Oldham came up with an electric piano lick which everyone involved thought of as the key that unlocked the song for them: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)"] After that, they took a break. Most of them were pleased with the track, though Rick Hall wasn't especially happy. But then Rick Hall wasn't especially happy about anything at that point. He'd always used mono for his recordings until then, but had been basically forced to install at least a two-track system by Tom Dowd, Atlantic's chief engineer, and was resentful of this imposition. During the break, Dan Penn went off to finish a song he and Spooner Oldham had been writing, which he hoped Aretha would record at the session: [Excerpt: Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"] They had the basic structure of the song down, but hadn't quite finished the middle eight, and both Jerry Wexler and Aretha Franklin chipped in uncredited lyrical contributions -- Aretha's line was "as long as we're together baby, you'd better show some respect to me". Penn, Oldham, Chips Moman, Roger Hawkins, and Tommy Cogbill started cutting a backing track for the song, with Penn singing lead initially with the idea that Aretha would overdub her vocal. But while they were doing this, things had been going wrong with the other participants. All the FAME and American rhythm section players were white, as were Wexler, Hall, and Dowd, and Wexler had been very aware of this, and of the fact that they were recording in Alabama, where Aretha and her husband might not feel totally safe, so he'd specifically requested that the horn section at least contain some Black musicians. But Charlie Chalmers hadn't been able to get any of the Black musicians he would normally call when putting together a horn section, and had ended up with an all-white horn section as well, including one player, a trumpet player called Ken Laxton, who had a reputation as a good player but had never worked with any of the other musicians there -- he was an outsider in a group of people who regularly worked together and had a pre-existing relationship. As the two outsiders, Laxton and Ted White had, at first, bonded, and indeed had started drinking vodka together, passing a bottle between themselves, in a way that Rick Hall would normally not allow in a session -- at the time, the county the studio was in was still a dry county. But as Wexler said, “A redneck patronizing a Black man is a dangerous camaraderie,” and White and Laxton soon had a major falling out. Everyone involved tells a different story about what it was that caused them to start rowing, though it seems to have been to do with Laxton not showing the proper respect for Aretha, or even actually sexually assaulting her -- Dan Penn later said “I always heard he patted her on the butt or somethin', and what would have been wrong with that anyway?”, which says an awful lot about the attitudes of these white Southern men who thought of themselves as very progressive, and were -- for white Southern men in early 1967. Either way, White got very, very annoyed, and insisted that Laxton get fired from the session, which he was, but that still didn't satisfy White, and he stormed off to the motel, drunk and angry. The rest of them finished cutting a basic track for "Do Right Woman", but nobody was very happy with it. Oldham said later “She liked the song but hadn't had time to practice it or settle into it I remember there was Roger playing the drums and Cogbill playing the bass. And I'm on these little simplistic chords on organ, just holding chords so the song would be understood. And that was sort of where it was left. Dan had to sing the vocal, because she didn't know the song, in the wrong key for him. That's what they left with—Dan singing the wrong-key vocal and this little simplistic organ and a bass and a drum. We had a whole week to do everything—we had plenty of time—so there was no hurry to do anything in particular.” Penn was less optimistic, saying "But as I rem

S2 E76 20 Questions in 2 Minutes from Episodes 43 to 52. Happy EASTER and welcome to a repurposed episode of the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series. I realise that many of my listeners will have a lot on over the Easter long weekend, hopefully that includes supporting and or playing live music! As I only have 5 interviews left for The Engine Room series I have decided to release another episode from the 20 Questions in 2 Minutes segment from my previous interviews. But, as it is a long weekend, I have compiled 10 instead of the 5 that I normally do. Season 2 Episodes 43 to 52 guests are; Jim Bailey, Matt Jonsson, Craig Lauritsen, Alex Flood, Jerry Tee, Gary Burrows, Kyle Sambell, Swanee (John Swan) with bonus audio that you would have heard if you listened to the very end of his interview, Mick Giuffreda, and Eddie Pollard. Music: "Band It About" theme song, written and recorded for the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series by Catherine Lambert and Michael Bryant. Thank you to all of my guests, listener's, those who have taken the time to rate and review this independent podcast series, and to those who have kindly used the PayPal link to donate towards the many hours that it takes me to be able to release a weekly episode, I truly appreciate you all! If you would like to review, rate, and or support this podcast please use the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series Linktree: https://linktr.ee/banditaboutpodcastseries Did you know that Spotify has recently added a rating feature? You can rate by either tapping on the rating directly or the three-dot menu below the podcast cover art in the Spotify app (iOS and Android), simply tap to rate the show as long as you have listened to at least 30 seconds of an episode. Please remember to Follow this podcast series on your preferred podcast listening platform. *This may be of interest to the musicians who listen to this podcast series: BeatStars is a digital music marketplace where musicians can buy and sell beats, sound kits, album covers, and music more. BeatStars connects artists, labels, and music industry execs virtually, allowing for your music to be heard and bought by creators around the world. Songs like Lil Nas X's “Old Town Road,” CJ's “Whoopty,” and Soulja Boy's “She Make It Clap” were all created using beats found on BeatStars. Code “BANDITABOUT” at checkout gets listeners a free one month (30 day) trial of BeatStars. You can open your own professional digital music store at beatstars.com/sell-beats A new episode of the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series will be available next week. Thanks for listening! Di Spillane BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series Host/Creator/Editor. Band It About, Proudly Supporting Live Music. #musicinterviews #musicpodcasts #musiccommentary #southaustralia #independentpodcastseries #australianpodcasts #drummers #realpeople #realstories #jimbailey #mattjonsson #craiglauritsen #alexflood #kylesambell #jerrytee #garyburrows #swanee #johnswan #mickgiuffreda #mgdrums #eddiepollard #banditabout #banditaboutpodcastseries #adelaidedrummers #20questions #podcast #podcasts #quiz #twentyquestionswithdrummers #easterlongweekend --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane/message

Saylor Dollar, an acoustic duo based in Tallahassee Florida, is our musical guest for today. We had a fabulous chat, and we went from talking about Tallahassee to getting a package delivered of a brand new 59 Magnatone Amp from the UPS man as we  talked about gear – now that's what we call great timing! It's all right here on the dHarmic evolution podcast. So strap up your seatbelts and let's take a ride to Tallahassee, Florida to hang out with Dale and Lisa of the acoustic duo, Saylor Dollar! Before we get into the show, I just want to remind you that my coaching program is open for you folks out there in need of coaching in these categories: Relationship coaching, Spiritual coaching, Life coaching, and of course, Podcast coaching. So for all my dHarmic Evolution fans and supporters who are looking for life-changing results in any of these areas, please email me at james@dharmicevolution.com I'll set up a 30-minute NO COST, NO OBLIGATION Zoom call for you and I to vet this out and see if we are a good fit together,  because this is one-on-one coaching. It's not group coaching. Therefore, I can only handle a limited number of people and I hope it's you! Again, there will be limited spaces available as this is “one-on-one”, so reach out ASAP to reserve a spot! Back to the acoustic duo, Saylor Dollar's band members consist of Dale Dollar (guitarist), and Lisa Saylor Dollar (vocals and violin). They perform an eclectic mix of original music featuring guitar riffs with a 70's southern rock feel, Irish folk-style song structure, and lyrics inspired by Appalachian story-telling and love. Lisa Saylor Dollar has a degree in music education from Florida State University. She has completed additional studies in Eisenstadt, Vienna, and Salzburg, Austria. Lisa is a music teacher in the public schools. She began performing in church as a child, and has performed with many professional orchestras and as a free-lance violinist. She has performed with local bands including Crossroad Bluegrass, and Sweet & Greasy. Dale Dollar studied guitar at Florida State University. He has taught private guitar lessons and has written and performed with many bands including Shapeshifter Project, Carrion Curse, and Sweet & Greasy. Get to know more about Saylor Dollar and listen to their eclectic music featured here on the show. Hear about Tallahassee, and sinkholes that you can swim on. We talked about alternate tuning, including DADGAD and a whole bunch of others. How Lisa went from symphony to bluegrass, you have got to hear her play the Orange Blossom Special! Log Cabin, Chris Godwin, Indian Head factory, hiking, great parks, Swanee fest, Buffalo and Phoenix, Ace Frehley and classical guitar. How did we fit that in such a short time? You're about to find out as we take a ride today with Lisa and Dale of Saylor Dollar here on the dHarmic evolution podcast! More about Saylor Dollar Support Saylor Dollar and their music through different platforms. You can go check out their website, social media pages and music platforms and follow them through these. All the links are provided below!  Quotes: 04:54 “We both love music. It's basically the first love of our lives and never going to stop. That's basically what we do all the time. ” - Dale 26:20 “I love that music though. I love the freedom of being able to just make it up as I go and play what I feel. And those guys encouraged me to sing, lead. That's the band I was in when Dale and I met and then now I just love being able to write with Dale, have our own stuff and not have to sing anybody else's stuff.” -Lisa 41:01 “I'm always practicing. I do my TrueFire, I do some of their courses. I'm always trying to learn something new. I love it.” - Dale 51:49 “My advice to anybody who wants to do music is to just play and enjoy it. Because even if nobody likes what you're doing, but you like what you're doing, I think you should just play and enjoy the music. Because as we talked earlier, there's so much ego in this business. And as long as you love what you're doing, you believe in what you're doing, I say just play, it doesn't matter if anybody likes it as long as you like it. And if you inspire just one person to play, I mean, it makes it all worth it. So that's me.” - Dale 52:26 “Don't doubt yourself, second guess yourself. Everybody has their own thing. God gave us all different talents and different gifts. So use yours. Don't compare that to anybody else there.” - Lisa Timestamps: 01:59 Introducing Saylor Dollar 03:15 Saylor Dollar talks about Tallahassee, Florida 04:00 Where do Saylor Dollar spend most of their time when going out and doing their performances? 05:25 How do Saylor Dollar put their material together and have their songs come together? 08:57How did Saylor Dollar start collaborating - when and where did they meet? 11:20 Listen to “Colored Water Sunshine” by Saylor Dollar 14:57 Saylor Dollar talks about the story behind “Colored Water Sunshine” 17:04 Sinkholes that you can swim in that are in  Tallahassee, Florida 18:06 Saylor Dollar on their special favorites on alternate tuning and DADGAD tuning. 22:22 Gears and instruments that Saylor Dollar uses when they get out and play. 24:14 Lisa's powerful vocals and who she listened to before she started singing. 25:42 Lisa on joining a bluegrass band. 27:52 What are Saylor Dollar's process for getting ready for when they're going to do a record. 30:36 How does Saylor Dollar put their music together and what great do they use? 32:44 Saylor Dollar about doing a full band and a duo.  33:54 Listen to “Goodbye” by Saylor Dollar 37:58 What is the metaphor behind “Goodbye” and who had the personal experience with this song.  41:12 What does Lisa and Dale like to do for fun outside music and work?  42:44 Where are the best venues for their eclectic music? 46:10 At what age did Dale start playing and who did he listen to growing up? 48:57 When did Dale transition from heavy metal to something different? 50:18 Lisa as a teacher of strings. 51:18 Saylor Dollar's goodbye message to the audience and words of wisdom to the upcoming artists. 53:35 Listen to “Ride On” by James Kevin O'Connor   Spotify Playlist: Did you miss the alumni of the dHarmic Evolution Podcast? Check out our 4 dHarmic Rising Stars playlists and see their music there. Don't forget to share them with your family and friends as well and let the world support these amazing indie artists! Check the links here: dHarmic Rising Stars: Aquila https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4loDaYF0OuWRjZeMXvEjK4   dHarmic Rising Stars: Orion https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5CnL9tl0xbU4oDh6jtJBZx   dHarmic Rising Stars: Lyra https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ov0OqNMJmPhHrxZjsXthS   dHarmic Rising Stars: Scorpius https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5oQ4Sc4LAJSexsDgDcixt8   dHarmic Evolution links: Want to stay up-to date with our new release of episodes? Here's a pro tip, head over to dharmicevolution.com so the show will just come to your phone every Friday at 4:44 AM EST!  Don't forget to let me know what you think as well by leaving us some comments. Also, send this off to a friend and let them join the growing community of dHarmic Evolution. Hey, do you know someone who is suffering from anxiety and depression? Please help them out by having the book “7 Steps to Mental Freedom.” It will be a great read for them. You can easily find it as well on the main page of the website or you can just send them to https://tinyurl.com/25a994tw  Keep yourself updated with what's going on with dHarmic evolution, check out our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dharmicevolution and, if you are an artist, an author, or a keynote speaker, who is trying to find a safe place to post your content to, you can check out our own Facebook community page and let the world support you! Check out the link here: dHarmic Evolution Community.  Special Links and Mentions: Tony Robbins Tom Brady The Allman Brothers Band Joni Mitchell AC/DC Metallica Ace Frehley Kiss Frank Bello Jimi Hendrix Randy Rhoads Judas Priest Iron Maiden Slayer Connect with Saylor Dollar Website: https://saylordollar.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaylorDollar/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/saylordollar Twitter: https://twitter.com/saylordollar YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SaylorDollar Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2g3frfjox2Id76kF6NkLnd Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/1487435760 ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/saylordollar    

Ho Ho Ho into a star-studded line up to end the year. Brian is full of Christmas cheek and cheer as he and Kev catch up with Wilbur Wilde, Eve von Bibra, John Paul Young, Angry Anderson, Swanee and Mark Lane from Murcotts Driving Excellence. Our feature guest is Vince Melouney, the former member of the Bee Gees during their incredibly successful early days of hits like New York Mining Disaster, To Love Somebody and Words. He talks about those days and his new band Tall Poppy Syndrome.  All thanks to Murcotts Driving Excellence making you a safer driver 1300 555 576 or visit their website murcotts.edu.au   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La soprannominarono quand'era giovanissima Pel di carota per le lentiggini e il colore rosso della sua capigliatura. E da allora quel nomignolo le è rimasto impresso. Rita nasce a Torino il 23 agosto 1945. Vive i suoi primi in via Malta 43, nel Borgo San Paolo. Si iscrive alla prima liceo dell'istituto statale Santorre di Santarosa ma, nell'inverno 1959-60, la famiglia si trasferisce in un altro quartiere, presso le case operaie della Fiat di via Chiala 19, alle “Basse” di Mirafiori Sud. Nello stesso periodo, appoggiata e incoraggiata dal padre Giovanni, debutta al Teatro Alfieri di Torino in uno spettacolo per ragazzini dal titolo Telefoniade, e realizzato dall'allora nazionale società telefonica Stipel. È quella la prima volta che Rita si esibisce davanti ad un pubblico vero e non composto da parenti e familiari, e lo fa in due uscite: nel primo tempo, truccata da ragazza di colore e con addosso un frac di raso nero nella interpretazione di Swanee, brano reso famoso dal grande cantante statunitense Al Jolson; poi, nel secondo tempo, nei panni di una inglesina in visita alla Città Eterna cantando il brano di Renato Rascel, Arrivederci Roma. Tra la fine del 1959 e l'inizio del 1961 si fa notare esibendosi prima in feste studentesche, poi in alcuni locali torinesi, come “l'Apollo Danze”, “La Serenella”, “La Perla”, l'”Hollywood Dance” o il “Principe”, guadagnandosi il soprannome di Paul Anka in gonnella.

Adelaide Metalcore Drummer Dylan Di Palo joins me in The Engine Room this week to discuss his musical journey. Dylan initially wanted to learn guitar, but as his older brother Tyler had already begun to have guitar lessons, he decided to choose another instrument to enable the brothers to jam together. Dylan initially started out on a practice pad when he was 7, and once he had established that he definitely wanted to continue with the drums, his parents then purchased his first set if drums for him when he was 8. Dylan had private lessons initially with 'Whiskey Harbour' drummer Trevor Draper 'Trapper' which eventually led to Dylan's first band 'Sweet Anarchy' opening for some of Adelaide's premium metal bands such as Matterhorn, Whiskey Harbour, Machine Head and on a number of occasions supported their mentor, the great Aussie legend "Swanee". Sweet Anarchy formed when Dylan was 10, after Dylan and his brother met and became friends with Kristy, while they were all participating in 'Weekend Warriors', which is a music program that enables musicians to rediscover music, or discover it for the first time playing with others, whilst being coached and mentored by Australian musical legends. Sweet Anarchy formed after they had participated in the program, the trio were fortunate to receive ongoing mentoring from John Swan 'Swanee'. Dylan joined the band 'Sasha' after meeting his band mates in year 10 on a school trip to Generations In Jazz, whilst whilst attending Marryatville High School. Dylan is also the drummer for SIGNV/S which formed during the midst of the global pandemic (and year 12), and has also joined 'Days Of Deceit' earlier this year. Dylan is currently teaching drums at the 'Australian Rock & Metal Institute' (ARMI), studying for his Bachelor of Music Degree at University, and working part-time as a "tradie" Shop Fitter. Music: "Band It About" theme song was written and recorded by Catherine Lambert and Michael Bryant for the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series. "Shapeshifter" is track 7 off of the SIGNV/S EP "Disgrace", which was independently released on 29/10/2021. Links: https://www.facebook.com/SASHAthebandd/ https://www.facebook.com/signalsbandau/ https://signvls.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/4k3UjHS6kl6Y4oBJ9vmTn1 https://www.armiofficial.com/ https://www.facebook.com/DaysOfDeceitOfficial https://www.weekendwarriors.org.au/pages/south-australia All of the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series links including the PayPal link to support this independent podcast can be located here: https://linktr.ee/banditaboutpodcastseries Please support this independent music interview podcast by Following and or leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. Thanks for listening! Band It About - Proudly Supporting Live Music. Host/Creator/Editor Di Spillane. #musicinterviews #musicpodcasts #banditabout #banditaboutpodcastseries #realpeople #realstories #drummers #adelaidesouthaustralia #podcast #podcasts #independentpodcasts #australianpodcasts #australianmusicindustry #metalcore #dylandipalo #dispillane --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane/message

In der letzten Woche war Stephan Wuthe bei uns zu Gast und wir hatten ein sehr unterhaltsames Gespräch und stellten gen Ende fest, dass wir noch nicht fertig sind. Und somit haben wir spontan beschlossen, ihn noch einmal für diese zweite Folge einzuladen. Und damit geht es weiter mit vielen historischen Abrissen, Ausflügen in die Entwicklung der Schellackplatte und Stephans Leidenschaft für den Tanz. Auch für diese zweite Folge mit ihm wünschen wir Gute Unterhaltung! Teil 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/00M2N9appKYeud5gEd3O5K *** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andendecks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andendecks Werdet Patreon https://www.patreon.com/andendecks Andere Unterstützerbeiträge: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/DJThomasHaak *** Stephan Wuthes peinlichste Platte: Kitty Sisters feat Max Greger "Tanzen Is Schön" (Heliodor, 1956) Stephan Wuthes 5 Platten für die Insel: Franz Teddy Kleindin "Klarinettenzauber" (Telefunken, 1941) Edgar Hayes & His Orchestra "Laughing At Life" (Decca/Brunswick, 1937) Lionel Hampton & Orchestra "Flying Home" (Electrola, 1940) Various Artists "Classic Swing Album Vol. 2"" (Brunswick, 1936) Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan "A Symposium Of Swing" (Victor, 1938) Links: Bully Buhlan "Kaloriensong": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r4TQYpOjG4 Pathé: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathé Electrola: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrola Schellackplatte: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schellackplatte Kino Babylon, Berlin: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino_Babylon Verrundung (Schellackplatte): https://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?788 DJ Swingin' Swanee: http://www.swinginswanee.de Jimmy Noone's Apex Club Orchestra "4 Or 5 Times": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc7XBBFA-KY Cab Calloway "6 Or 7 Times": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWVsbLDZlFU Lindy Hop: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Hop Queer Jitterbugs, San Francisco: https://www.facebook.com/Queer-Jitterbugs-182169946107/ Andrej Hermlin: http://swingdanceorchestra.de Edgar Hayes "Laughing At Life": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdRX0HLF90k Grüner Salon, Volksbühne, Berlin: https://www.gruener-salon.de G.W. Pabst "Die Freudlose Gasse": https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_freudlose_Gasse Café M (Mitropa): https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/das-cafe-m-wird-40-jahre-alt-frueher-stamm-bar-von-nick-cave-heute-legende/24976038.html Boheme Sauvage: https://www.boheme-sauvage.com Frozen Hibiscus: https://frozen-hibiscus.de Charming Styles: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/berlin-aber-oho-charming-styles/7911446.html Glencheck, Berlin: http://www.glencheck-berlin.de Retronia, Berlin: https://www.retronia.de Spitze, Berlin: http://www.spitze-berlin.de Hutladen, Schönhauser Allee, Berlin: http://www.kleemann-huete.berlin Hertie: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertie_Waren-_und_Kaufhaus Knickerbocker: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knickerbocker Alberti, Berlin: https://grammophon-platten.de/page.php?197 Deutsche Grammophon: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Grammophon Aste Schallplattenfabrik, Bremen: https://de.scribd.com/doc/216450115/1915-August-Stukenbrok-Katalog-Fahrraeder-Und-Zubehoer Machnow Fahrräder & Schallplatten: https://www.velopedia.online/Document/Show/52 Brunswick: https://www.velopedia.online/Document/Show/52 Menzenhauer, Berlin: https://oldtimeradio.de/firma-306.php Carl Lindström Gesellschaft / Odeon: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lindström Kitty Sisters "Tanzen Ist Schön": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLbvFKLg6c BOW-tanic @ An Den Decks: https://andendecks.de/staffel-2/s02-1-10/s02e03-dj-bow-tanic/ Phonoton: https://www.discogs.com/de/label/241078-Phonoton Tim Fischer: https://www.timfischer.de Dizzy Gillepie "Night In Tunisia": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfLVVHxk4IM #andendecks #djpodcast #stephanwuthe #thedirkness #djthomashaak #podcast #djlife #berlin #friedrichshain #addcast #podcaststudioberlin #podcaststudio

Swanee joins Gavin and Simon for a trip down memory lane.  Have a listen to hear some great memories and stories from the great John Swan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Swan OAM, better known as Swanee, was born John Archibold Dixon Swan in Glasgow, Scotland in 1952, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1961. John is an Australian rock singer who started his musical career as a Drummer when he was 11, when he joined the Elizabeth Caledonian Pipe Band. When his mother remarried in the mid-1960s, he was the only child to keep the surname of his biological father. John left school aged 13 and joined his first professional band Happiness, as a drummer when he was fourteen. When he was seventeen, he enlisted in the Australian Army, and was discharged after two years of service. In early 1974 he was the drummer with The James Wright Band, moving on to Jim Keays' Southern Cross for a short time. In 1975 he joined Adelaide band Fraternity MK II replacing Bon Scott on vocals for two years. In 1977 he became the vocalist with Feather. This band had been known as Blackfeather in the early 1970s, but by 1977 no original members were left so the name was shortened. Feather recorded one single with John, "Girl Trouble", before he left in 1978 to establish himself as a solo artist. Under the name Swanee by which he was already known, he released his debut solo single "Crazy Dreams" in 1979. An album, Into the Night, and several other singles followed. In late 1981, his version of "If I Were a Carpenter" became a national hit, peaking at number 5. The single was followed by the 1982 studio album This Time It's Different that spawned another two hits, "Temporary Heartache" and "Lady What's Your Name". In 1987, he replaced Angry Anderson as lead singer of The Party Boys. John's time with the band proved to be the group's most successful period. A cover of the John Kongos song "He's Gonna Step On You Again" peaked at number 1 on the Australian charts. The band's self-titled album made the Australian top 20. He remained with the band until 1989 before going solo again. In 2015, John was announced as South Australia's Senior Australian of the Year, and in 2017, recognised for his work with various charitable organizations, he was appointed an Order of Australia Medal (OAM). If you have enjoyed this interview please share the link! Music: Intro "Band It About" written and recorded by Catherine Lambert & Michael Bryant. Outro "Here's To You" which is off of Swanee's 2014 album One Day At A Time. Links: https://www.swaneemusic.com/ To support this independent podcast: https://paypal.me/banditabout?locale.x=en_AU To leave a review: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/band-it-about-podcast-series-985443/reviews/63027 To contact: banditabout17@gmail.com To Follow: https://www.facebook.com/BAND-It-ABOUT-Podcast-Series-103410885324059/ https://www.instagram.com/banditaboutpodcastseries/?hl=en https://twitter.com/dispillane?lang=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCNweO_mZe1jWmQ2MDWmQng http://www.subscribeonandroid.com/anchor.fm/s/10a6ecfc/podcast/rss https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/band-it-about-podcast-series/id1493050539 https://open.spotify.com/show/0uKplg6T4LiVKD1n2MSHVA #banditabout --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane/message

Kitty Carlisle Hart (1910-2007), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded by phone. This interview has never been heard via radio or podcast. Created for an unfinished radio documentary on the life of George Gershwin, this interview was the final of seven interviews recorded for the program before it was abandoned, recorded in 2001 or 2002. Best known for a long stint as panelist on a popular television quiz show, To Tell the Truth, from 1956 to 1978, with cameos in a handful of films late in life, Kitty Carlisle was born in 1910 and died in 2007.  She came of age as an opera singer and Broadway performer, moving to Hollywood for a handful of  films, including the Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera. She dated George Gershwin from 1933 until he moved to Hollywood six months before his death. After that, she married playwright Moss Hart, a marriage that lasted until his early death in 1961. She was a leading advocate for the arts and arts funding, serving on the New York State Arts Council for twenty years. In the interview, she mentions going out with George, accompanied by a friend, a “piano player.” Most likely, that person was composer Burton Lane (Finian's Rainbow, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever). George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people's songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn't until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983. Previous Gershwin Project podcasts: Interview I: English Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's brother-in-law and George's wingman in the 1920s. Interview II: Musicologist Deena Rosenberg and Michael Strunsky, Ira Gershwin's nephew. Image from “A Night At The Opera,” Alamy stock photo available for non-profit use.     The post The Gershwin Project III: Kitty Carlisle appeared first on KPFA.

John Swan OAM (born 15 March 1952), better known as Swanee, is an Australian rock singer.He was born John Archibold Dixon Swan in Glasgow, Scotland in 1952. He is the older brother of singer-songwriter Jimmy Barnes, and an uncle of stage performer David Campbell.In 2015, Swan was announced as South Australia's Senior Australian of the Year. and in 2017, was appointed an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

Excerpt of the 29 Jun 1935 Shell Chateau starring Al Jolson with guest star Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom. Al Jolson begins the segment with a comedy routine, and follows with two great songs, and a segment interviewing the famous boxer, which concludes with Rosenbloom singing a song in his unique style. The complete broadcast, along with other Jolson radio shows, is available at the Official Al Jolson Website at www.jolson.org.

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.Today we speak with John 'Swanee' Swan about his move to Coffs Harbour, his complicated relationship with his younger brother Jimmy, and why he's looking forward to a visit back to South Australia.What's John up to at the moment?   Let's find out .....

George Gershwin was an American composer, pianist and painter whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, the songs "Swanee" and "Fascinating Rhythm", the jazz standard "I Got Rhythm", and the opera Porgy and Bess, which gave birth to the hit "Summertime".WikipediaBorn:Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz, September 26, 1898, Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.Died:July 11, 1937, Los Angeles, California, U.S.Resting place:Westchester Hills Cemetery

durée : 00:24:58 - George Gershwin à New-York en 1935 (2/5) : Les premiers succès - par : Anne-Charlotte Rémond - Dans les années 20, suivant le succès de Swanee, George Gershwin et son frère Ira enchaînent les commandes et multiplient les partenariats de premier choix tel Fred Astaire. Les deux auteurs deviennent des piliers incontournables de Broadway - réalisé par : Claire Lagarde

Why We Should Expose Our Kids To Classical Music https://ourtownlive.net #herbw79George Gershwin (/ˈɡɜːrʃ.wɪn/; born Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz, September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the songs Swanee (1919) and Fascinating Rhythm (1924), the jazz standard I Got Rhythm (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935) which spawned the hit Summertime.Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century and an American cultural classic.Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. He died in 1937 of a malignant brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with several becoming jazz standards recorded and covered in many variations.

Birthday number 4 is here for our hosts and their family. This time, it's all about the patriarch, the padre, the pater familias, the Dad. We are watching the film "My Favorite Year", a film that everyone should know about, but for some reason no one does. Does it have explosions? No. Does it have race cars? No. Does it have a suave tuxedo-clad alcoholic? Yes, but it's not James Bond. However, does it have a live comedy TV show in the 1950's? Yes. Peter O'Toole is back in our podcast, this time he's basically playing himself as the charismatic film star Alan Swann, a man who can get away with anything. Overseeing his show prep is the young writer  Benji Stone, AKA Mel Brooks, AKA Alan Swann's biggest fan. Erin and Brennan spend most of the podcast reciting lines verbatim, recreating scenes, and all around having a very fun time. Happy Birthday DadLove, Niblik (Your Sherpa Guide from the Himalayas)

Oh say can you FreakShow! Erika and Whitney become minstrel characters, “Mista' Tambo n' Mista' Interlocutor,” to present the perverse-circus-sideshow oddities of America's institutional and corporate racism. Star experts join them to bear witness and unveil slavery‘s toxic legacy, woven within modern corporate policies and legislation. Professor Adam Rothman chronicles the sordid history behind one of America's finest educational institutions, Georgetown University. Voting rights activist Desmond Meade disrupts the panhandle circus with Florida Amendment Four to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people with felony convictions. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee illustrates how the sad perversities of fighting for systemic injustice persists. And the MLK of tipped wage workers, Saru Jayaraman, nails the corrosive tradition of tipping to slavery and the ongoing fight for fair wages within America's largest private sector workers. Finally, Erika croons a new Swanee tune that makes the White Superiority hit list! “Step back Beyoncé!” For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Adelaide born drummer Joe Turtur had a quick rise to fame in the early '80s, with the band Heaven, who were signed to a determined little indie label called Deluxe, also home to a young bunch of hopefuls called INXS. Heaven who changed their name from Fat Lip, looked like they just might be the next AC/DC. Their singer Alan Fryer had, in fact, auditioned to replace Bon Scott. Soon after the core of the band – Fryer, bass player Lawrie Marlow, lead guitarist Bradford Kelly (ex-Swanee) and, a little later, rhythm guitarist John Haese and drummer Joe Turtur – relocated from Adelaide, they signed with AC/DC's former manager Michael Browning. The aim was always to get overseas, and within a year of releasing their debut album, Twilight Of Mischief, in 1982, that's exactly what they did, picking up the opening slots for among others, Judas Priest and Motley Crue. American guitar manufacturers Jackson even developed a Jackson Kelly model with the now sadly late guitarist. Within another two years, however, it was all over. Joe discusses very openly his time with Heaven as well as his post band career which saw him tour as a part of the road crew and drum tech for some of Australia's hottest acts including the Divinyls. Joe has also catered for many national and international acts at Clipsal, Byron Bay Blues Festival, and RocKwiz Live touring show. Joe has had a remarkable career, evident in the stories that he shares throughout this great interview. Music chosen by Joe for this interview is performed by Heaven "Storm" written by Heaven and "In The Beginning" written by Fryer, Kelly, and Marlow. Both songs appeared on the Heaven debut album "Twilight Of Mischief" released in 1982. Links: https://www.youtube.com/user/heavenaustralian https://www.facebook.com/Heaven.FC/ Xpresso Delight Byron Bay Blues Fest RocKwiz Band It About Facebook Email: banditabout17@gmail.com YouTube Band It About - Proudly Supporting Live Music Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Anchor RadioPublic Google Podcasts Pocket Casts Castbox Breaker and Vurbl #BandItAbout #JoeTurtur #Adelaide #SouthAustralia #MusicIndustrypodcastinterviews #Drummers #Drums #UNESCO #HeavenAustralia #HeavyMetal #RockBands #Music #musicpodcasts #DiSpillane --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane/message

Wherein Josto makes one rookie mistake after another during a post-asphyxiation cuddle with Mayflower, Gaetano and Josto reunite with all being eventually forgiven, Deafy pays Loy a visit, Mayflower feels the heat, Roulette and Swanee go out in a blaze of glory, Odis steps it up, and the Kettleman Gang out of Fargo rides in to save the day...

This is Season 4, Episode 8 of Fargo, “The Nadir”. In the eighth episode of Season 4, Loy plays with fire, Josto wears his heart on his sleeve, Oraetta makes a surprising discovery and Deafy closes in on Zelmare and Swanee. Connect and become a part of our Fargo podcast, email | Facebook | Instagram… The post 408 The Nadir first appeared on WestCoastProject.

Wherein we meet Dick "Deafy" Wickerson, who leads a raid on the Smutny's funeral home while Josto and Nurse Mayflower have a car date allowing Gaetano to take advantage of Josto's absence to order Calamita and Rabbi to do a hit on Loy's eldest son, and hilarity ensues when Swanee eats the Ipecac-laced pie right before she and Zelmare hit Loy's gambling headquarters...

In this episode, The Land of Taking and Killing, Bill and Charpie discuss the lion in the cage. Who is it? We meet some jail-weary travelers in Zelmare and Swanee. Ethelrida is clearly getting under Oraetta’s skin so she decides to make Ethelrida her new pet project. Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t end up

Excerpt of the 16 Sep 1950 Al Jolson performance at the Itazuke Air Force Base in Japan. This excerpt includes three songs from the half-hour transcription, which includes Jolson joking and singing for his favorite audience, soldiers at the front. "Swanee," "April Showers," and "The Anniversary Song" are the three songs heard here, there is quite a bit more in the original program. This is likely the last transcribed performance of Al Jolson; he died about one month after this show. The complete broadcast, along with other Jolson radio shows, is available at the Official Al Jolson Website at www.jolson.org.

Excerpt of the September 8, 1937, Memorial Concert to George Gershwin with George Jessel and Al Jolson. This brief excerpt of the two hour program includes Jessel's eulogy of Gershwin, and Jolson's performance of Gershwin's first, and greatest, hit, "Swanee," which he sang without whistling. An edited version of this long show is currently online, along with other Jolson radio shows, at the Official Al Jolson Website at www.jolson.org.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

We have a new podcast series - Awesome Aussie Songs - please check it out, it's available at iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher or where ever you get your podcasts.There are episodes on Skyhooks, AC/DC, Swanee, Short Stack, TMG and plenty more!https://awesomeaussiesongs.podbean.com/

Al Jolson - "Swanee" http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/91938

Al Jolson - "Swanee" https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/91938

Interview Swanee 04/03/20 - we got the chance to talk to one of the greats of Australian music : John Archibold Dixon Swan, better know as Swanee, not so much about his music but about his charity work. But we did get to mention his music work too.....

For All Abilities – The Podcast Episode Nine - Davis Graham - Dyslexia - Thriving After Failure    In this episode, I interview Davis Graham, Customer Implementation Coordinator at Qure4u. On the podcast, Davis talks about his life with dyslexia. He describes his struggle through school with vulnerability and honesty. He also discusses how he uses technology to minimize the negative effects of dyslexia on his life.  To connect with Davis, please follow him  on LinkedIn (Davis Graham) or email him at daviswgraham@gmail.com.   Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism. Thanks for listening!  Betsy     Thanks for listening to For All Abilities today!    Share the podcast with your friends, they’ll thank you for it!   Get our newsletter and stay up to date! The newsletter link is on our website www.forallabilities.com   Follow me   Twitter: @betsyfurler   Instagram: @forallabilities   Facebook: @forallabilites   LinkedIn: @BetsyFurler   Website: www.forallabilities.com       Full Transcription from Otter.ai   Betsy Furler  0:05   Welcome to for all abilities the podcast. This is your host, Betsy Furler. The aim of this podcast is to highlight the amazing things people with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism are doing to improve our world. Have a listen to for all abilities, the podcast and please subscribe on whatever podcast app you're listening to us on.   Davis Graham  0:33   Hi,   Betsy Furler  0:33   welcome to for all abilities, the podcast. This is your host, Betsy Furler. I'm so excited for you to be here and hear another guest who has gone through your trials and tribulations with severe dyslexia and has landed on a really successful career. My guest today is Davis Graham. So let's take a listen to my interview with him.   Davis Graham  0:58   My name is Davis last name is Graham like graham cracker, and I was recently interviewed by Jay bez libretti, who is a writer and contributor for Forbes magazine. So if you want to see the latest article, just type in Google and in Google Davis, Graham comma, Forbes and the article pop up. I work at a medical software company. its eventual venture capital startup is called cure for you with a que and I recently received my masters at Brandeis University in health and medical informatics. I did that. I completed it in 2016. It was an intensive course took it over three years. Prior to that I was in radiology. I started off as a as an administrator and then move Up to the Chief Financial Officer. I was quite the bean counter. We had a 95 employees at the top of the of the size of the company. And we're seeing at the end, we were seeing about 290 patients a day with several different sites. Single physician practice that, yep. Prior to that I was in. Yeah, that was 22 years.   Betsy Furler  2:29   Yeah. And talk about different brains, my brain would not be able to do that.   Davis Graham  2:35   So prior to that, I was in Washington DC, where I worked for. For seven years I worked for Rhea child's she's passed away as has her husband. He was the senator of Florida and then also the governor of florida and in the he died, actually while he was in office, and then prior to that was school, and so just kind of get back to the beginning. My father was a pediatrician. My mother was a nurse. We had they had two children, my brother and I, and then my sister, rosemary. And then I have two other sisters, Bonnie and Megan. So my brother was born first and then I was born second, then my sister was born. I was born at Fort Benning, and then moved to Bradenton, Florida, which is where I am now. And we moved over to Saudi Arabia. My dad worked for him cool company, and the frustration of my learning surface over there when I was probably six or seven. And it was pretty dramatic. I knew I felt his frustration and and so when we got back To the stapes. They took me to a psychologist at University of Miami. And that's when I was originally diagnosed with dyslexia now, this is 1967. So it it just came out they put me into a school that was, I call it the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest school because the new would line up for pills. The pill line was longer than the lunch line, and they blast them out and there's little, there's little cups like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's like and it was just, it was a crazy time at it. So I, I eventually, my parents didn't like the way that was happening. And they also became a little bit more less reactive with my learning techniques, and so was mainstreamed into private school system. And had remedial you know, reading classes and things along those lines, but I never really did well in school. And so whenever you're dyslexic, and you don't have an outlet, in education, you create other outlets and so, you know, the class clown or social shaping. So I was quite the ham, the class clown or the hambone. And But anyways, I worked through there in Miami, and then we moved back to Bradenton and I went to several different schools got kicked out of one for stealing and, and transferred to another one and the headmaster, this the seventh grade, said, Does he have dyslexia and was the first time my parents ran into the fact that some other educator actually knew about dyslexia, and I think went to high school. Got my pilot's license in high school, which was really interesting. And I then went to apply first of all took the LSAT score test scored 650 on the essay t as a total. Some teacher told me it's not true but that she gets 300 points just for signing. But it was pretty low score and then I took on the LSAT untimed and got an 800 and then and that was it. I applied to several universities and   Betsy Furler  6:38   I want to interrupt you real quick, just to ask about that. Did you were you given the option of taking the sat? Was someone reading it to you or did you read all the questions?   Davis Graham  6:49   Yes, I did. And that a little bit of the side that that a lot of people don't talk about but the counselor, the guidance counselor who have been Came good friends with later on. He said, I don't know why you're doing this. You're never gonna make it through school.   Betsy Furler  7:08   Wow, that's terrible. Yeah. Okay. So you went so   Davis Graham  7:15   incredible.   Betsy Furler  7:17   You ended up going on to school even perseverance?   Davis Graham  7:23   Well, I you know, I'll talk about that. But I got I got my pilot's license I got accepted into three schools, one was Embry riddle, which had a medical engineering with and then I got into University of Montana. And that was in I think, kuleana are up there in and then also got into Westminster. And so, I, I, I, I went with Westminster because it was a liberal arts I didn't want to put myself into the aeronautical engineering, or you know, some side of that that kind of pigeon holed me. So I went with Westminster College and Fulton, Missouri, I met Hank oranger, who's now retired, excellent LD director. And we started out I was introduced to books on tape through Rfb D, which is what it was called back then now it's called reading ally, and or learn Learning Ally. And then and I, for the first time, you know, I started feeling a little bit of the freedom of technology. I had my books   Betsy Furler  8:44   that you went that long without having any audio books now.   Davis Graham  8:51   Yeah. I mean, so I'm probably on the edge of discovery on that side. But today You know, is completely different, and I'll get to that. But I do want to state at the beginning that any I had anybody that has a child with dyslexia. Number one, they're living in a technical dream world come true. And, and that our education system is based off for reading and writing, not off of how well a person consumes tech information and is able to express the information they've consumed. So, so anyway, so I was at Westminster. I had a 2.5 I, I cheated a lot in high school, but college, that was my own deal. And one time I cheated. The professor caught me. I told her, you know, I'll never do that again. And I never did.   Betsy Furler  9:53   And when you think about we're so hard on kids for cheating, but I'm sure you felt like it was your own.   Davis Graham  10:01   Yeah, it's it's one of the only options and there's a and there's a problem even, even once you stop cheating, there's a pseudo competence, which is a false idea of being competent. And you know it. And I and that's, you know, from watching TV or giving an article to somebody and saying, you got to read this article. It's a great article, and all you read was The headline, you know, in duping and so that that's kind of the foundation that really chips away at the dyslexic and so what I have a son that's dyslexic, and I started having him hook up with Bookshare. And the Voice Dream Reader is what we use. And he he has read every Nancy Drew. He's now into john, the attorney that Gus Oh yeah, I think of it in a minute but It's, I mean, it reads you know, so there's nobody in that has dyslexia and I'm severely dyslexic, I was again diagnosed. Before I went into Brandeis University up in Waltham, to be able to get my accommodations and I am in the I'm supposed to say I'm in the top, I'm in the top 1% reading with, which is not good reading with my eyes. But I'm in the 98 percentile when reading with text to speech with comprehension and the ability to, you know, produce knowledge from it from what I listened   Betsy Furler  11:40   to. What a difference that makes.   Davis Graham  11:44   It's huge in in so there's an I read approximately 25 books a year. But anyway, so that's a little bit down rabbit. So I went to Westminster from Westminster. I felt like they were holding me back A 2.5 I transferred to the University of the South at Swanee, Tennessee.   Betsy Furler  12:06   I kind of grew up there.   My dad got his doctorate. audiences. My dad was an Episcopal minister and yes, worked on his doctorate in summer in the summer. And so for many, many years, every summer, our family, went back to class and then moved back to Houston. And then yeah, I attended there to me, which is the reason I didn't go there because I didn't want to get someplace with my sister.   Davis Graham  12:38   So that's where my mistakes from is Roy Benton Davis was one of the was was a chemistry professor there that my dad became a mentor for my dad. And so that's where I got my first name. He died in 56.   Betsy Furler  12:56   That's incredible. What a world. So what am I What a small world suwannee I want to go on with your story now.   Davis Graham  13:03   So at Swanee, I want to tell you something about any any, any person that has dyslexia has this unbelievable thirst to learn. I mean, we we just taken things, you know, orthogonal thinkers, which means and, you know, we connect multiple sources to one another and, and I want to tell you, I remember we're walking through the DuPont library. And I'm thinking one day, I'd love to read every single book in this in this library, but but you can't. And so, at Swanee, I didn't have the found the the support, tech and technical support like I did at Westminster, where Hank, you know, really arranged for note takers he arranged for test givers. He arranged my books to be read if they weren't on our fbd. And so it was a little bit of a struggle. And I actually, but I, I took tutoring, you know, for this and the, the Spanish teacher was so nice. But the tutor was like, What high school did you go to? How did you ever make it to college? I mean, those are things that that you hear, yeah, that that you keep in the, in the you put that that is the biggest voice and so if you know, the voice of truth by Mark hall with casting crowns, you know, it's, it's you feel this failure, they're constantly will the Voice of Truth is one voice but the voice you hear most of the time is is the false voice and that's one constantly tapping on your shoulder that you're a failure. And, and I remember I i Dr. Clarkson there who was the English teacher, awesome guy. He said Davis He brought me into his office. He said Davis you know this point but this paper is an F he says once you know is not on this paper and then I had a professor there that that taught me that you know you can record your I want you to record your paper for me he was an awesome I think was Dr. Richardson he was religion and he said everybody write down the books and then I don't want to see another pencil raised in this classroom for the rest of the semester and I was like oh my gosh I'm because he can't keep up with notes you don't know words you don't know how to spell words you get lost. I mean it's it's the worst experience you feel like you're you're in an industry that is so technical and you're not given any tools and you're just you are completely lost.   Betsy Furler  15:49   And I bet then you're all your energy is then going to trying to write it trying to read it. What I did ness and not on your strength   Davis Graham  15:58   I recorded Every I recorded classes and I would go back and verbatim transcribe what I listened to. Wow. And I'm telling you I put in a lot of time studying it Swanee and it created a a, a study at edik. That wasn't is not efficient, but right but, but I was doing everything I could but but I, I could feel the grade slipping. And this is the first time I ever had to deal with suicide.   It's hard to talk about   Betsy Furler  16:44   I can imagine I know that. I bet. Thank you for mentioning it because I think my listeners need to know the ramifications of all of this.   Davis Graham  16:57   I wanted to I wanted to catch up on Studies and so, so I took two weeks off. And the first one the spring break came. So it took two weeks. I took the first week and i i geared it towards studying   and I just knew I was never going to make it up. And I started thinking about hanging myself in the house that my friend loaned me for the spring break. And, and I you know, the other side of it is is a the psychologist who tested me for Brandeis University. She goes, how come you never white? What stops you? And I said, you know, that's a great question. Nobody's ever asked me that question. I said that what stopped me was the love my parents had for me, and acceptance that they had. And I realized that you know what, I wasn't going to go to home to shame. The only same I would have would be at the school. But but   Betsy Furler  18:04   but parents loved you and right when accepting no matter what, right?   Davis Graham  18:10   And they said, Davis, you just do your hardest and as long as you've done your hardest, you will never be disappointed. And so I knew it would create more questions then then create solutions. And so, so I, I, I just pushed through and I remember I got in a car with a Rhodes Scholar to get a ride to Westminster, which is where I was headed for spring break, you know for the second week and to for dyslexic to ride in a in a car with a Rhodes Scholar from Swanee to to Jefferson City, Missouri. I went he he didn't want it. He had like some Oldsmobile that he loved. And he kept kind of falling asleep at the wheel   and I was like, Don't You want me to drive?   And it you know, so I got to Jeff. So I went from trying, thinking about taking my life to try to save my life in this Oldsmobile. And I got up to Jeff city in God's providence. His sister lived in Jeff City, Missouri, and his, his sister's husband was a psychologist. And I remember with suicide, what you do is you put a little stone in your pocket natcher out. And so if you ever start feeling the failure, you know, you can drink you can drug you can do all that to numb the pain, but the ultimate is to just take your life. And, and so, and you feel it. It's like waves of emotions. And so, I I remember, Johnny Carson was on and and I got down and here comes the guy the house. We just finished dinner. And he goes, Hey, how did he end up at Westminster? And I said, Well, he goes, Do you know anybody that goes there? And I said, No. And he says, Well, I had and I said, I'm dyslexic. And I had to, I had to find a school that had a learning disability program. And he said, I'm dyslexic. He says, Son, you got a long, hard road to hoe. But you'll make it. Wow. Yeah. I mean,   Betsy Furler  20:28   God sends the right people exactly at the right time.   Davis Graham  20:32   Right. And so so I, so I got back to Swanee. I transferred to USF I couldn't, which is University, South Florida. My folks were moving out of the country. I wanted to be closer to my brother Plus, I could feel the shark of failure, you know, circling around me at school. And so I tried to transfer into USF University, South Florida here in Tampa and they said they wrote me a letter and they said, you can't you You that they sent to my parents. And so my parents came home, my mom says we need to talk. And so she sat me down. I remember exactly where we were. She handed me two letters, one from the University of the South. That said, You're academically suspended and he can't come. And she handed me the other letter that said, you can't get in. Because you are. You are your grade point was too low. And so I was like, so I said, Well, I will. I'll, they gave me the opportunity to petition my way and of which I did. And when I and they accepted me, and then a year and a half later, I, I was academically suspended from USF. And they put me in the special services for the handicapped program, which is, you know, like any disability, you are standardized You know and and so it's it melts down the the attention that I think you need and I want to make you make you aware of one point that my mom didn't Hand me those two letters. Actually that came on my when I failed out of academically was suspended from USF. She handed me that letter as well as the Swanee letter. The the letter that I received, I did not know about the failure. So she so what so let me just step back. So when I transferred to USF, they said you need to petition to get in we're not accepting you on the credentials that you that you produced. Would you be willing to if you want to appeal the denial of acceptance, then please do so. And I did. I did. I went and I presented it and auditorily In front of a panel of professors, they let me in, and a year and a half later I failed out and that's when my mom handed me the two the two letters of academic suspension so so I so so now you're in my I'm a lead is I'm a second semester junior and I receive my academic suspension from USF and and I took two years off and I worked for a nightclub organization   and I was pushed up to regional trainer so I was traveling around the country because they did an IPO Initial Public Offering made a lot of cash and but the night club life is is terrible. And, and so I said, You know what, I don't want to do this rest of my life, and I couldn't get a job, you know, at any place that I wanted to. So I thought okay, I'm gonna Go back to school. So I reapplied to USF after my academic suspension was over. So I, so I, I then went to USF I applied, I showed up, the Dean of social behavior services came up to me says, Davis, what are you doing here? And I said, I'm going back to schooling goes, What are you going to major and I said, I'm going to major in psychology and he goes, you should change your major, you're not going to make it unless you can make a be average. And I said, if that's what I need to make, that's what I'm going to make. And so they put me in touch with Chris Martin, who was in charge of sheet of special services for the handicapped, she knew nothing. And then she said, Davis, I don't know anything about dyslexia. You got to tell me everything you can. I did. I took the help. I took note takers, books on tape, read, you know, the the classes, the exams were done outside the classroom, and I graduated with a with a three point I am not a 3.1 not a 3.05 a 3.0. And, and then I graduated with a BA in psychology from USF. Wow. That was that was a long road Long, long route. And I made it and I went to you went to got a job with Rhea child's up in Washington DC I ran the Florida house for seven years. The first thing I did is called our fbd. And I said I want to thank you all so much. And you know, those reception is picking up the phone because I don't know what you're talking. But that's just how I felt. But the first the last 10 minutes of this I want to talk about I want to talk about about technology today. Yeah. So I did the first time I ever found so I told you I was the CFO of Radiology center and they kept giving me contracts, six figure seven figure contracts that I was signing, and I needed to read them and I thought there's got to be something online and so I wrote in text reading software up jumped a program called read please which is still available for Windows but free download. And I was like it's a OCR the contract in and I read them and I would send them back to the manufacturer with footnotes you know as to and I say read them. People say oh, you really were you reading that? I said, Well, actually I was listening to them but I call it consuming the printed word and so yeah, and and I can do it at a high rate contracts I'm right around 650 to 700 words a minute. And and because you're looking for something that's not in there, or something that's in there like a word may you don't want that in a contract, you know, right and right and so so that started my ability to read and then I did a a article for talking books. And Pat Schubert who is actually like 100 blocks by 100 feet from me. She doesn't work there anymore. From the The library she said would you do an article and and I said sure. And she she then said you should become a member of Bookshare and this is 2007 and I'm married. I have my beautiful wife Trish and our we have four kids now. And and I said what's book Sharon? She said it's an online library for or digital library for the print disabled. And then book started company. So I became a member USF they found my that I was looking I needed proof of disability. I talked, picked up the phone of special services. He goes, Oh, I know you Davis. I got your file right here. It's been 20 years by the way. And he says I've got your file, I'll sign them and i sin and I started reading and as I stated earlier, I read about 25 books a year, and Ron Chernow, some of my is one of my favorite authors. Well, I started to tutoring kids how to use this technology with Bookshare. I use Voice Dream Reader, or you can use the TTS on any Apple device across all platforms. And you can read anything today or consume anything today more efficiently than a normal reader.   Betsy Furler  28:17   Yeah, and so amazing.   Davis Graham  28:19   Absolutely amazing. And so that then allowed me to when I was offered the, to go to graduate school for masters. I was like, Am I going to walk the talk of these kids that I'm telling they can make it in college? And so I, I, it's scary. And so I, it's, you're reading 350 to 500 pages a week. And so, but I said, Yes, I got re credentialed. So I had to take all the battery of psychology tests and Brenda mcalary who was the psychologist I said, you know, Brittany, the funny thing is, is now that I'm reading with text to speech, so often I don't feel like I have dyslexia and she goes, Oh, that's not it, you have dyslexia. And she said, You are actually on price list you can be. And so it was it was crazy. But I got into Brandeis and Daniel, I never pronounce his name. He was my I'll send it to you. And then Gwynn's Maxwell, were my advocates there, they would get me the information. What I needed was the book, the ESPN number, I would contact the, the, the publisher, I would ask for a book and alternative format, they would send it a paper to me I would send I would fill it out and send that to Gwyn, she would sign it and then send it back to the publisher and I had the book, you know, usually within a week and sometimes within days, and and I would read, I would line up all my readings and I'd put A Voice Dream Reader and I'd read them and then I have time to read extra books, because I read through, you know, so quickly. So I read, you know, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and blah, blah, blah and, and so I, I got to close to graduation, and I made an 86 on a test and I turned to my wife Trish and I said, sweetie, I don't think I'm gonna make it. And that's how, that's how close failure just follows you around. Your I am being and she goes deaconess. You're making straight A's. And, and I was like,   Betsy Furler  30:36   yeah, it's actually sad. Like, almost, you know, that. That feeling of   Davis Graham  30:42   post dyslexic syndrome. So, um, but anyways, I February. I was on I graduated may of 2016. They called me up and they said, Davis, this is Brandeis University. They said you receive you The you've been nominated for one of two academic honors. Yeah, wow. And we want you to lead the 2016 class for the graduate Professional Studies into the commencement ceremony. And it was amazing. It's amazing what we have a technology if I'm reading something, and I don't know where it is, I can click on the word, and I can go to it and see it or hear or read about it. I can make notes in my in my text, and then export those notes that I've made with speech to text out to a Word document and then post it, you know, I I use now you can use voice typing with Google Docs. The V the VC place that I'm at cure for you, you know, I'm reading all the time all the time with with Apple's text to speech, and it's it's we're living in a technical dream. world come true and to hear Dyslexics get on interviews and say I haven't read one book of my whole life is is not doing where we are justice. The education system needs to change. This should be made available for everybody. I'd say, you know, start a third grade level people don't get that will do. You don't want a child that's afraid of the printed word.   Betsy Furler  32:22   Now that's my that's been one of my missions to I had a previous podcast called your app lady. I love technology and I love apps and I love what it can do for us and I do a lot of consulting in both the education world and lawyers on just I mean, it's so easy now it's these accommodations are so easy, but people have to know that it's out there and the kids have to be allowed to use it and and adults in the workplace. They have to like it's not cheating. It's not what we asked not doing the work. It's actually A different skill and harder some to listen versus to read it yourself. So it's not, it's not giving someone an advantage over the other kids it is or the other employer employees. But the tech we have now it is amazing. I'm so glad that you are benefiting so much from it and are such an advocate for it.   Davis Graham  33:24   So just worked with MIT match nets on a voluntary basis. First of all, readings only been commonplace for 200 years. So we've based our whole system off of a skill that's one of the toughest skills to teach. And we we, we, the human brain didn't evolve to read when you actually teach somebody to read, you repurpose the part of the brain was made for something completely different. This is john Gabrielli at MIT and, and then you just go on, they say there's no backup plan, but there is a bad A plan we just talked about it. Right? And then Matthew schnepp says our current methods of reading is based on ancient engineering constraints no longer relevant in today's society. It's so true we are we are at a crossroads. Where if if and I would love to introduce I've talked to are sent resumes to Ohio State, any college that's ready to implement this technology into the core curriculum will find you you've read purpose, the YouTube generation, right right to what they are used to how many people listen to your podcast at two times, because you can actually understand up to 600 words a minute.   Betsy Furler  34:48   Right. And a lot of people do I know that. That's it's becoming, it's becoming common among people who know that it exists, but there I still think there So many people that don't know, they don't know that they have this option and I run into it on a daily basis.   Davis Graham  35:06   Yeah. Well, it's it you know, to be an advocate for a child with a disability is one thing because you have a purpose and a reason. But to introduce this technology that is, is just innovative thinking for any educational institution, what's good bring it in. I'm an expert in it. I showed you you know, on LinkedIn, you can't read it doesn't allow for the accessibility about you know, when it goes to the about person, I've reached out to LinkedIn and I sent it to the person I never heard good, but but you it doesn't read but I showed you how you can take a picture of it and then Voice Dream Reader as well as Microsoft wouldn't lens you can OCR it into a text rich format. So yeah, anyways,   Betsy Furler  35:51   so I know people are going to want to keep in touch with you or or get in touch with you. So how can they do that? What's the best way to reach you.   Davis Graham  36:00   So if you go to the Forbes article, Jay bez labret put in their lifelong or life lifelong, I, my LinkedIn has my phone number right on it. But my, my LinkedIn, My phone number is is 9142120 to nine, nine, and then or you can email me and it's a, it's Davis w gram, all one word@gmail.com   Betsy Furler  36:29   awesome. And I will post a link to that article in the show notes as well as to your LinkedIn and your email.   Davis Graham  36:37   Any advocacy you can create for me, I would love to come speak to educators. You know, of course for a fee. I would I it's it's a dream come true if we can. And you know, the cool thing is it's language agnostic. I was at a school here and in Korean, I showed the guy on his phone a good turn this Simon turn that on. He goes, Oh, you know, like to see those faces change creates hope in a new a new future for everybody to step out.   Betsy Furler  37:11   Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for thank you for sharing your story and being on the podcast. I know this is going to help so many people. So thank you so much for for being here with us. Okay,   Davis Graham  37:26   I will bless you.   Betsy Furler  37:27   Thank you Same to you. I will talk to you soon. Thanks so much for listening to the for all abilities podcast. This is Betsy Furler, your host and I really appreciate your time listening to the podcast. And please subscribe on any podcast app that you're listening to us on. If you'd like to know more about what we do and our software that helps employers support their employees with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism. Please go to WWW dot for all abilities. com. You can also Follow us on Instagram. And you can follow me on LinkedIn at Betsy Furler. Have a great day and we will see you soon.

QUARTET HISTORY MONTH. TODAY WE HONOR JOHNNY JONES & JOHNNY MIMS OF THE SWANEE QUINTET

Swanee is the elder statesman of one of Australia's most distinguished musical families and he has lived the rock and roll life.In this episode we take a look and listen to If I Were a Carpenter by Swanee.Thanks for Listening to Awesome Aussie SongsGuest Suggestions are more than welcomed.Awesome Aussie Songs is presented by Josh Ursem and written and produced by Sheldon Kidd.Intro / outro music is Australia, So Nice by Holly KirstenHail, Hail, Australian Rock n Roll.

Some of the top hits of 1920, including Swanee, Apple Blossom Time, Whispering, You'd Be Surprised, Crazy Blues and The Japanese Sandman. Performers include: Al Jolson, Mamie Smith, Eddie Cantor, Nora Bayes, Paul Whiteman and Marion Harris.

If you’re shopping for a Ford Ranger, you need to hear this episode! In this episode of the Miracle Ford Podcast, host John Haggard talks to Chris Laye, Ford Sales Zone Manager, about the new 2019 Ford Ranger, its exciting features and technology. Other topics discussed include the following: Chris’s Start in the Automotive IndustryChris’s Favorite Travel DestinationWhat Does a Sales Zone Manager Do?The Growth in Ford Market in Gallatin, TNThe Rise of SUVs and TrucksThe New 2019 Ford RangerAwards the 2019 Ford Ranger Has Already GarneredThe Most Exciting Features of the New Ford RangerFord Ranger Technology That Everyone Should Know OfAndroid and Apple Car PlayFord Ranger’s Frequently Asked QuestionsWhy Pick a Ranger over Other Brands and ModelsChris’s Go-to Hometown RestaurantUpcoming Mustang-inspired SUV This November Transcript John Haggard 0:02 Welcome to the Miracle Ford podcast where you will learn the best ways to purchase, lease, service and maintain, accessorize, and sell your vehicle for the highest resale value possible when you’re ready, and also to learn more about the capabilities and fun features of new vehicles. I’m your host, John Haggard, and throughout each month, we’ll also have special guests join us and you’ll also see a transcript of each podcast for quick reference. If you need some additional information, you can just go find it. On this podcast. We’re speaking today with Chris Laye. He’s the Ford Sales Zone Manager for Zone C in the Memphis region. Hey Chris, welcome to the podcast. Chris Laye 0:40 Thanks, John. Thanks for having me. Man. I’m excited to be here and excited to talk about the all-new Ranger and the new products we have coming out. John Haggard 0:47 Good. I think a lot of folks always want to know about the future. We know about the past but hey, what is coming up? So before we dive into the world of Ford, and get an idea as to what is upcoming, tell us how did you get started in the automotive business. There were a lot of professions you could have gone into, why automotive? How did you get there? Chris Laye 1:05 Yeah, absolutely. So if you spend enough time around Ford employees, you’ll probably hear the phrase, “my blood runs blue”. John Haggard 1:12 Yeah. Chris Laye 1:13 And that’s certainly the case for me. So my grandfather’s on both sides of my family worked for Ford Motor Company, as well as my father. So actually, I held the same position that I do now. So kind of following in their footsteps. But when I was growing up, I started out working at a local dealership, washing cars in the summers and high school and helping out with events. From there, I went to college where I had an internship with the marketing sales and service team out of Atlanta. And at the end of my internship, I was fortunate enough to receive a full-time offer, which I accepted and that’s how I got my start in the automotive business. So kind of always been in my blood and Ford has it as well. John Haggard 1:53 Yeah, it was very interesting. Your story parallels that of Jim Galvin, dealer principal from Miracle ord. Because I said hey, how did you get started? He said, Well I, you know, went to work for my dad I started washing cars to get gas money so I could go to school and all this type of thing. So I guess it really does sometimes run in the family. Did you do anything before automotive, like, you know, maybe you were working in a restaurant when you first got your driver’s license or anything like that. Chris Laye 2:18 To go back to Mr. Galvin. Jim Galvin’s father, Jim Galvin SR., actually worked with my grandfather in Ford. So yeah, small world. So I was excited to be covering that story as well. So the only other job actually had that wasn’t automotive-related was I worked at an animal shelter and I think my freshman year of high school, which I really enjoyed giving back to the community and helping those dogs find a home. John Haggard 2:47 So where are you originally from? Chris Laye 2:50 I’m originally from Swanee, Georgia, which is about 30 miles north of Atlanta. John Haggard 2:54 Okay, about 30 miles north. And you’ve lived in… where are you living now, by the way? Chris Laye 3:00 So I currently live in Memphis, which is where our regional headquarters is. To kinda give you a little bit of background of what we are what areas we cover. So our regions actually made up of five different zones. We cover the state of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and then parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. So Memphis is our central location. John Haggard 3:21 And you travel all of those. Is that right? Chris Laye 3:24 I only cover Nashville. And we have there’s four other sales managers, and each one of those managers covers one of those states. John Haggard 3:32 All right, so when you’re not doing Ford 24/7, Chris, what are your passions outside of work? What do you like to do? Chris Laye 3:39 I think my biggest passion is probably traveling. I enjoy going to new places, meeting new people and seeing things from a different perspective. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day work of our lives. So traveling is a good way for me to slow things down and enjoy living in the moment and invest in other people. John Haggard 3:56 Any favorite cities or destinations that you have been to that maybe someone has not been to that you would recommend? Chris Laye 4:04 My favorite places I have probably been… Santorini in Greece. It’s a gorgeous gorgeous island. Then the beautiful scenery. So if you know if you get the chance head out to Santorini in Greece. John Haggard 4:16 Alright, so let’s fantasize for a moment. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Chris Laye 4:22 Oh, that’s a tough one. I’m gonna go with the first one I thought of, and it’s got to be flying. John Haggard 4:26 Okay. So if you could just sort of like jump off the ground and fly? Chris Laye 4:29 Fly. I mean, that would take care of my passion for travel and not a bad superpower to have. John Haggard 4:35 Kind of like Superman? Chris Laye 4:36 Right! John Haggard 4:37 Yeah. You wouldn’t have to stand in any long lines at the airport to go anywhere. You could just jump off the ground and go. That would be kind of fun. Chris Laye 4:44 Right! Yeah, take care of the Atlanta Atlanta airport issue we have going on over here. John Haggard 4:49 You know, I think a lot of people Chris would love to have your job, especially in the world of Ford and on automotive. It’s a fast-moving, fun, exciting industry, always something new to report. What is it about that job that just makes you want to get up every morning and go to work? Chris Laye 5:05 What you’ll hear from myself and probably a lot of people that have been in the business for many years is that no day is the same. And so I enjoy waking up every morning and not really knowing what’s going to happen because it’s going to be a different day. It’s certain incentives that are coming out. There’s customers coming in, new vehicles are being released. And you know, the relationships that you build with your co-workers and the dealer body are absolutely incredible. So you never know what’s going to happen. And I think that’s what makes it so exciting to wake up in the morning and give this job 110% effort. John Haggard 5:39 So tell us about your role specifically, what is it exactly? Chris Laye 5:44 So I think one of the most exciting parts about my job and you know, probably the most valuable asset that we have is Ford Motor Company is our dealer network. So I get the opportunity to work with 13 of the Ford stores each day. Most of them are in the Greater Nashville area but go all the way to Jackson, Tennessee up to Paducah, Kentucky. So a lot of territory to cover, but I get to work with their stores every day. My job is basically to be the liaison between Ford Motor Company and the dealer body that I cover. So I provide business operations consulting, consumer experience support, as well as sales forecasting and metrics to show growth opportunities. But one of the most important pieces of my role is wholesale vehicles. So two weeks out of each month, I go to each store so I’ll start to my stores and we build a sales forecast together to decide how many vehicles they need to purchase from Ford. And this process is extremely important because a dealership needs to have the right quantity and mix of vehicles to better serve the market that they’re in. So I always tell my friends that we know when you drive by a Ford dealership, you’ll see all the new line of Rangers, F150s, Explorers. And those vehicles go through me, so a dealership will earn their wholesale through a Sales Zone Manager. John Haggard 7:09 All right. And as you look at Gallatin, Tennessee for Miracle Ford, just the market as a whole, what do you see there? Chris Laye 7:16 I think the Gallatin market is one of the top 10 fastest growing cities in America. So there’s a huge opportunity for growth throughout that area, which is why you are seeing the pick-up in different OEM moving to the area, as well as Miracle Ford continuing to do a great job in the area. You know, what’s interesting about the Nashville zone and certainly about Gallatin as well is the small utility market. So I think you’ve probably heard a lot from Ford about how we are getting rid of or discontinuing certain car lines. And the industry data all over the zone and in Gallatin show that more and more people are wanting to buy SUV. So whether that’s a small utility, like an Escape, or what we’re going to talk about today, like the new 2019 Ford Ranger, which is a medium-sized pick-up, these customers want to get out of cars move into either a medium or large SUV or truck. John Haggard 8:18 What is causing that trend? Would you say, Chris Laye 8:20 You know, I think it’s the spirit of adventure, the spirit of wanting to have a vehicle that can go off-road. Now maybe you never take that vehicle off-road, but the looks of it, the ability for it to do that. I don’t think you can get that out of a car. So that’s why I think you’ve seen a lot of crossovers and trucks with the ability to have those off-road or aggressive features. John Haggard 8:43 So let’s jump into the new 2019 Ford Ranger. By the way, is that the newest addition to the Ford lineup? Chris Laye 8:50 Yes, it’s kind of a tricky question. You know, the automotive industry. We refresh or come out with our new products every single year similar to how you know somebody might get a new iPhone or an all-new iPhone. And with the Ranger, it’s a nameplate that we’ve had in the past. A lot of customers are aware of our old Rangers that we stopped building in 2011. And so we are bringing back this nameplate and it is the first time we’ve brought back a nameplate in quite a while in an all-new product. John Haggard 9:16 Alright, so it’s been eight years then since there was a Ford Ranger. Chris Laye 9:21 Yes, sir. That’s correct. John Haggard 9:22 All right. And so what do you see right now, you know, Consumer Reports and magazines like that always want to rate cars and trucks and SUVs and whatever it may be, any awards so far that the 2019 Ranger has won a 2019 Chris Laye 9:36 Ranger was actually one of the most awarded medium size pick-ups when it came out. And so two of those really stuck out to me. Both are from JD Power. The first is the best performance and the other is the highest quality, the mid-size pick-up truck segment. And you know, when you think about purchasing a new vehicle, probably two of the most important things are you looking for are performance and quality. So the fact that we can take home both of those awards certainly stands out to me. John Haggard 10:01 All right, and then what would you say are the most exciting features of the new Ford Ranger? Chris Laye 10:06 I have three favorite features that I think are important especially to somebody that’s in maybe a younger generation. The first one being the terrain management system. So we have a normal mode, snow, mud, and sand, which will come in handy if you are taking that off-road. Followed by trail control, which is similar to cruise control, but for load speed for low-speed off-roading. And then one of the safety features that Ford’s done a really good job of not only putting in the Ranger but really cross our lineup is Ford Co-pilot 360, which includes automatic high beam headlamps, bliss, and Lane Keeping system. John Haggard 10:43 All right now so we’re into the technology of the Ranger and people like you were mentioning earlier. You know, every year there’s a refresh and a new iPhone comes out or whatever. Any more about the technology of the Ranger that people are really excited about? Chris Laye 10:57 Yeah, one of the new pieces of technology we’ve really put a lot of innovation and research into and FR to come out with this Ford Pass Connect. So Ford Pass Connect is an app that connects to your vehicle that allows you to lock, unlock, start and stop your vehicle, as well as scheduled maintenance, appointments through your hometown dealership and scheduled times for your vehicle to turn on in the morning. So you can have a warm vehicle in the winter and a cooler vehicle in the summer. I know, often when I take flights or if I’ve been out of my car for a while, I’ll go ahead and start that started from my plane or when I land. And like I said before, Ford Copilot 360 is one of my favorite features. I think anybody that’s buying a new vehicle, this is something that they should look at, because it does have the bliss which is incredibly important. That’s that yellow light that pops up and your mirror to let you know that a vehicle is next to you so as not to get over. And then the lane-keeping system so just stay in the lane. And then the trail control would be exclusive to the Ranger as well. John Haggard 12:04 All right, and we hear a lot about Android and Apple Car Play. Does the Ranger have those available? Chris Laye 12:11 Yes, sir. So the Ranger does have Android and Apple Car Play. So both are available when it comes to choosing which one is really a personal preference. So if you have an Apple phone, use your Apple, if you have Android, you can use Android. Or you can use sync, which is the Ford technology that we have it most Ford customers are used to say. John Haggard 12:31 All right, so really, do you see any advantages over other systems other than Ford SYNC, Android and Apple Car Play? Or are there any other systems out there? Chris Laye 12:39 To me, it really comes down to personal preference. I have friends and I’ve seen customers that have Apple Car Play available that prefer sync. And I’ve seen customers that swear by Apple Car Play. So really, I would try both of them. see which one do you enjoy more, which one’s easier to navigate. And that’s the one that I’ll go with. But all three are available. John Haggard 12:58 What would you say, Chris? Are the top two or maybe three questions that people ask about the Ford Ranger when they are considering Hey, do I get this? Or do I go with another brand? Or what? Chris Laye 13:10 There are quite a few questions that people will ask themselves. And so I kind of wanted to relate that one back to why would somebody pick a Ranger over and F-150. I think when it comes to the Ranger, Ranger customers seek freedom and adventure kind of going back to that transition from cars to SUVs from the mainstream on road to kind of having that adventure feel. And the Ranger customers I think have the need for the freedom of maneuverability, capability, and versatility. And I think that’s what’s going to come into play when you’re looking at a medium-sized pick-up truck. And I think these are kind of the reasons why you would choose the Ranger over an F-150. John Haggard 13:56 All right, you know, there’s a lot of competition out there. Every car brand manufacturer wants to do a deal, of course. So if you were to say, look, here’s why you would want to pick a Ranger over say a Toyota or over a Nissan or a Chevy. Chris Laye 14:11 There are basically three different vehicles that are in these medium-sized pickups that are popular and everybody’s heard of them. So you got the Ford Ranger, the 2019 Chevy Colorado, and the 2019 Toyota Tacoma. When you think about the Chevy Colorado, the Ford Ranger is best in class max payload capacity. Ranger offers more cargo-hauling capacity than the Colorado. The Ranger also offers available technologies not found in the Colorado such as adaptive cruise control, with forward collision warning and intelligent access with push-button start. And it also has a 10-speed automatic transmission with the auto START STOP technology which the Chevy Colorado does not have. And then one of the more popular mid-size pickups is the 2019 Toyota Tacoma. However, we have the best in class max payload the Ranger with its standard 2.3-liter eco boost in line for engine which is an incredible engine. It out tows the Tacoma equipped with either the 2.7 or 3.5 v6. So a smaller engine that able to out tow a vehicle with a bigger engine, which also usually results in better gas mileage. And then the Ranger also offers some technologies that aren’t found in the Tacoma. so smart trailer tow connector, as well as the class-exclusive 10-speed automatic transmission. So several different reasons why you would choose a Ford Ranger over a Colorado or Tacoma John Haggard 15:34 And is a Nissan… Does Nissan have anything in that space that would be something someone would look at to compare? Chris Laye 15:42 Yeah, so Nissan has the frontier which is a vehicle that hasn’t really been updated in the past 10 years. I think most customers are these based off of the market share data that we look at are looking at the Colorado Tacoma, of course, the Ranger. You just don’t see as many customers comparing a Frontier to a Ranger. John Haggard 16:00 Gotcha. Okay, so when you get hungry, Chris, what’s your go-to order at your favorite hometown restaurant? Chris Laye 16:08 Well, I’m hoping that some of the podcast listeners can agree with me on this one. I eat a lot of chain restaurants because I travel pretty often. So if I will go home, it’s been a long week and I need that pick me up. I’m going to Chili’s I’m getting a Triple Dipper. John Haggard 16:22 All right. Does anybody come in second place? Chris Laye 16:29 Second place um, I’d say fast food-wise, Chick Fil A is my hero. So anytime that I need to grab something on the go, I’m always at Chick Fil A grabbing a chicken sandwich. John Haggard 16:40 All right, when you know we all develop in life and there are lots of influences that help us get on our way so to speak. Who would you say is the biggest influence in your life? Chris Laye 16:49 Yes, I think my biggest influence and my role model is my grandfather. I mentioned that I have family members that worked for Ford and that’s why we all kind of bleed blue. And so my grandfather had a significant impact on me when we were young, and he’s still doing really well. So I learned a lot from him. I value his character. He’s taught me many things that are hard to teach, like, compassion, generosity. And so those values that I think he’s instilled in me are priceless, and I think that’s why he’s my hero. Chris Laye 17:24 All right, so is there any book that you would recommend that someone read? John Haggard 17:29 You know, in which as much as I travel, I tend to listen to podcasts. So instead of reading, podcasts are usually my go-to. One of my favorite podcasts out there is it’s called Afford Anything by Paula Pant. It just talks about life and making decisions and how people use their money or save their money and I just find it extremely interesting. John Haggard 17:49 So take a look back if you, something that you wish you had known, is there something that you wish you had known that you do know now that when you first started out in the automotive business, you say gosh, if I’d only know, if only knew today what I knew then? Chris Laye 18:07 Sounds obvious when you think about it, but the relationships that you build and the impacts that they have on your day to day and your, you know your personal life, I just didn’t expect the impact that they’ve had with how much Zone Managers travel. They’re going back and forth, you’re on the road. Now, five days a week, the dealer body and the dealers have truly become not only business assets, but they play a role in your personal life as well. The relationships that you’re able to build not only with the stores, but with customers that you meet and your co-workers is certainly something that I did not expect to be the way that it is. John Haggard 18:44 So you thought it would sort of be kind of all business. Okay, I’m here let’s transact let’s do the market share reports. Let’s see what we can do and off to the next door. Chris Laye 18:52 Correct. John Haggard 18:52 Alright, so is there a story that you could share, just something that we’re a dealer or somewhere down the line has helped you with something or look at something differently or vice versa. Anything like that? Chris Laye 19:01 I think I got a story for you that kind of demonstrate to the relationships that you build with these guys. So my previous zone was New Orleans, which I truly enjoyed. And one of my stores down there had actually won President’s Award. And so in celebrating the partnership and relationship of them winning President’s Award, we actually spent two days out deep sea fishing off the Gulf Coast. Those are the moments or the relationships that you build. You know, I certainly did not take what we’re going to happen in this job. Like you mentioned earlier. I thought it was going to be more transactional. And I’m very, very happy to say that it’s not yeah, you truly enjoy being around all these guys. John Haggard 19:43 So did you reel something in on that deep sea fishing trip? Chris Laye 19:48 I did. Thankfully, because it would have been embarrassing if I did not. I won’t know if I get invited back. I caught a couple of red snappers, and that was good enough for me. I just enjoyed being out there with everybody and I’m just happy I caught something. John Haggard 20:04 What would you say that you are most curious about right now? Chris Laye 20:08 Most curious about? So I guess as it relates to the automotive industry. You see more and more manufacturers coming out with all-electric vehicles, especially Ford so we actually reveal our all-new Mustang-inspired SUV crossover on November 17th. And so I’m most curious about the direction of what we are using as fuel moving forward, and how hybrid and electricity will play into the drivetrains and the engines that we will use in the next, you know, probably a decade or two decades. John Haggard 20:44 One last question, Chris. What would you say the one thing – what is the one thing – that most people don’t know about you but they would be very surprised to learn? Chris Laye 20:56 Oh, man! Going back to what I spoke to about earlier about my passion for travel. About three, four years ago completed a lap around the world. John Haggard 21:07 A lap around the world? Chris Laye 21:09 A lap around the world. So I went to about 15 different countries and did a full circle around the world. John Haggard 21:15 Wow. Okay, so obviously flying into 15 different countries that way. Is that how you’re saying? Chris Laye 21:22 Yes. So one lap around the world. Some of those were flights, some of them were trains. But yes, completed the full lap. John Haggard 21:30 Wow. So what? Just a few of the cities that you landed or took the train to? Chris Laye 21:37 Yes, I went to, I guess, the countries where I went to, Iceland, the Netherlands, Germany, India, Thailand, Belgium. So basically started in Atlanta and then worked my way east. John Haggard 21:52 All right. How long did it take you to do the circle to do the lap? Chris Laye 21:55 60 days? John Haggard 21:56 60? 2 months? Chris Laye 21:58 Two months. So I spent a couple days of each place that I went to and learned a lot and enjoyed meeting new people and having different experiences. John Haggard 22:07 Talking to Chris Laye everybody, the Ford Sales Zone Manager for, they call it, Zone C in the Memphis region on the Miracle Ford podcast. Chris, thanks for joining us here today. Chris Laye 22:18 John, thank you so much for your time. It was an honor to be on the podcast with you. Thank you so much! John Haggard 22:22 You bet. And join us again, folks right here for other topics on the podcast throughout each month. Our goal here is to show you the best ways to purchase, lease, service and maintain, accessorize, and also to sell your vehicle for the highest resale value possible when you’re ready to, and to learn more about specific vehicles that you might be interested in. And don’t forget the transcript of each podcast. Yes, we do have it right here on the website. You can easily refer to it for more information at your fingertips. I’m your host, John Haggard, and we’ll see you next time.

AkA “The Rob” joins in about Gordon Lee, The Mocs, Tennessee and Bama and more

L'historienne Janick Auberger répond à la question : Est-ce que les sociétés peuvent apprendre de leur histoire?, 1919 - Plus jamais ça, avec l'historien André Champagne et retour sur la création de la chanson Swanee composée par George Gershwin. Animation : Joël Le Bigot

Puttin’ On The Ritz (Australian and UK Tour 2019) (review)With a full supporting cast of west end singers and dancers.The spectacular American production of PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ first toured the UK in 2014, where it broke box office records on its first time in front of a British audience. Since then the show has toured around the globe playing to sell out houses.PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ takes you on a musical journey with wonderful music from three legendary composers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. Songs in the show include Cheek to Cheek, Alexander’s Rag Time Band, Birth of the Blues, Swanee, Night and Day, I Got Rhythm, Easter Parade, and Puttin’ On The Ritz.For more information visit  http://www.puttinontheritztour.com/about/ Theatre First RSS feed:   https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ivetheatrereviews  Subscribe, rate and review Theatre First at all good podcatcher apps, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), Stitcher, Pocket Casts, CastBox.FM, Podbean, ACast etc.If you're enjoying Theatre First podcast, please share and tell your friends. Your support would be appreciated...thank you.#theatre #stage #reviews #melbourne #australia #puttinontheritz  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest today is kind, calming, and unassuming, but don’t ever let that make you think she is missing any piece of what it takes to be a GSD Entrepreneur. Marion Blount is one of the lucky ones who grew up in Hawaii in an artistic, creative family. After getting her undergrad at Swanee, she […]

Episode 54 of Lake County Sports Talk with Jon Kerr of Tribune Media and Joe Aguilar of Daily Herald. Recorded on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Our guest is long time Stevenson High School coach Paul ‘Swanee' Swan. He is in his 50th season as a coach in 2018-19. We start the conversation by asking Swanee if kids are different today than they were when he started coaching (3:00). He says building relationships are keys to motivating kids (5:00). Jon wants to know Swanee's secrets to being a successful assistant coach and working with so many different personalities over the years (7:00). Joe asks about dealing with parents in today's culture and specifically one parent of a famous Lake County boys basketball player who played at Stevenson (10:00). Swanee then reveals his one thing all high school athletes and coaches can take to heart in finding happiness (14:00). He shares memories of the Jalen Brunson years (18:30) and we close the interview with Swanee sharing the moment in his life when he knew he was born to be a coach (22:30). In our Headline of the Week, Joe offers highlights of the first month of the boys basketball season (27:30). And in our Extra Point segment, Jon lauds the importance of recent milestones reached by several Lake County basketball coaches (32:30) and Joe has a clearly stated request for area basketball referees (37:00). It's another great episode of Lake County Sports Talk. For more information on the podcast and how to subscribe to the show on iTunes, go to https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lakecountysportstalk.com (www.lakecountysportstalk.com).

Episode 54 of Lake County Sports Talk with Jon Kerr of Tribune Media and Joe Aguilar of Daily Herald. Recorded on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Our guest is long time Stevenson High School coach Paul ‘Swanee’ Swan. He is in his 50th season as a coach in 2018-19. We start the conversation by asking Swanee if kids are different today than they were when he started coaching (3:00). He says building relationships are keys to motivating kids (5:00). Jon wants to know Swanee’s secrets to being a successful assistant coach and working with so many different personalities over the years (7:00). Joe asks about dealing with parents in today’s culture and specifically one parent of a famous Lake County boys basketball player who played at Stevenson (10:00). Swanee then reveals his one thing all high school athletes and coaches can take to heart in finding happiness (14:00). He shares memories of the Jalen Brunson years (18:30) and we close the interview with Swanee sharing the moment in his life when he knew he was born to be a coach (22:30). In our Headline of the Week, Joe offers highlights of the first month of the boys basketball season (27:30). And in our Extra Point segment, Jon lauds the importance of recent milestones reached by several Lake County basketball coaches (32:30) and Joe has a clearly stated request for area basketball referees (37:00). It’s another great episode of Lake County Sports Talk. For more information on the podcast and how to subscribe to the show on iTunes, go to www.lakecountysportstalk.com.

Regarded by many as the Godfather of Newcastle rock music, Mark Tinson was a band member with Heroes, Rabbit, Swanee, Tex Pistols and Ted Mulry Gang. He has worked as record producer and sound engineer with some of the biggest names in Australian music and has been mentor to many Novocastrian musicians including Silverchair and The Screaming Jets. In his autobiography Too Much Rock ‘n’ Roll. A Life in Music, Mark covers growing up in Maitland and provides a frank account of his musical accomplishments and failures. The book not only unfolds his musical past but the part he has played in the history of Newcastle’s and ultimately, Australia’s music industry. Recorded at East Maitland Library 19 June 2018

Mike Howerton chats this week with Erik Hjorleifson and Pat Fleming. Erik talks about his win at the Jay Swanson Memorial and the state of pool in Canada, and Pat talks about hie living legends challenge, the Accu-Stats video on demand service and plans for future matches. Show Features: Mike Howerton, Erik Hjorleifson, Pat Fleming Cue … Continue reading Erik Wins the Swanee and Pat Fleming looks for his shirt →

Deena Rosenberg, 2017 Michael Strunsky, 2015 An interview with Deena Rosenberg, author of “Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin” and Michael Strunsky, nephew of Ira Gershwin, recorded August 14, 1992, hosted by Richard Wolinsky with guest host Alex Davis. In 1992, as part of the KPFA Morning Concert series, Richard Wolinsky interviewed both Deena Rosenberg and Michael Strunsky, co-hosted with San Francisco concert pianist Alex Davis, who prepared excerpts of Gershwin's work for the show. A full-scale radio documentary was planned following the program, and a handful of interviews recorded before the project was abandoned. One of those interviews, with Michael Strunsky's father, English Strunsky, was aired for the first time on August 29, 2016, and the complete one-hour version was uploaded as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. But the project began with this program, originally a live two-hour radio broadcast featuring songs and original recordings from the Gershwin archive. For copyright reasons, outside of short segments performed by Alex Davis, those recordings have been removed. Some of the dialogue has been tightened, but the result is what was heard from the KPFA studios that morning. George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his brother Ira two years earlier. At the age of 15 he took a job as a song-plugger, playing other people's songs on a piano for Remick Music Publisher for the sale of their sheet music. His first composed song was published when he was 17, and at 21 he scored his first big hit, Swanee. But it wasn't until 1924 when he teamed up with his brother Ira as lyricist that George Gershwin became, what we might call a superstar, which he remained until his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira Gershwin, who went on to work with other composers until he retired in the early 1960s, died in 1983. Through a search, songs from the various shows mentioned in this interview, as well as individual songs, can be found on You Tube, in particular George Gershwin's performance of Variations on I Got Rhythm from his radio broadcast, and Oscar Levant's recording of the Second Rhapsody. Digitized and remastered in 2018 by Richard Wolinsky. The post The Gershwin Project II: Fascinating Rhythm appeared first on KPFA.

It’s Episode 114 with Swanee Astrid! We talk about her writing, mythology, Iceland, runes, gender and more. Get your own personal rune casting by visiting Swanee’s website: https://caswanee.wordpress.com This episode is sponsored by Trans/Actions, premiering February 4th at Dairy Arts Center. More information and tickets: http://bit.ly/2hRrsPY Become part of the #TRANSACTIONS100! We’re looking for 100 folx to donate $10 in support of the transgender and gender non-conforming artists performing in it: https://www.coloradogives.org/transactions

This week we read Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters, a tale of love, deception and baffling cellphone habits. When Alix's girlfriend Swanee dies, Alix realises she may not have known Swanee at all. Meanwhile, we realise we have no idea how to pronounce Swanee's name. That aside, we're left to contemplate just how much plot is actually in this book. Also, why some parts worked and some really didn't. And that's before we get to whether the main character was actually the best choice for main character at all... It's not all bad though. Once we dust away the chaff, there's a whole lot of wheat. And by 'wheat' we mean 'adorable girls in love', obviously.

Songs include: My Window Faces the South, Swanee, Mint Julep, Down South Camp Meeting, Alabama Jubilee and  Georgia On My Mind. Performers include: Phil Harris, Thomas "Fats" Waller, Mildred Bailey, Glenn Miller, Bill Monroe, Al Jolson and Jelly Roll Morton.

"How can we make Philanthropy a Family Affair?" is a question many ask when trying to involve and engage family members in charitable activities. Giving with families is one of the things many people aspire to and often finding challenging. Join Helen LaKelly Hunt and Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a mother-daughter duo, on April 23rd for an intimate conversation about family philanthropy. We'll dive into topics ranging from tips for engaging family members to strategies for working as a team and balancing individual interests that arise in a family setting. As Helen says, "Funding together allows all family members to learn about each other at the deeper soul level. It has become an important and joyful part of all our lives." Helen is the co-founder of several public foundations and nonprofit organizations, including Women Moving Millions, a community of individuals who have made gifts and pledges of one million dollars or more to organizations promoting the advancement and empowerment of women and girls. Swanee her sister helped catalyzed this vision. Helen is also passionate about the Safe Conversations Project, whose goal of interrupting the downward cycle of poverty by strengthening relationships at home. Leah, Helen's Daughter, is an active player in the family's philanthropy as an advisor to the Sister Fund and advisor to other initiatives. She helped start the Solidare Network, a community of people with wealth aligning their resources with movements that promote dignity, justice, and equality. Leah has spent the past decade at the intersection of theory and practice, combining a study of moral philosophy and democratic theory with research around the world in grassroots organizing and social movements. --- Hosted by: Jason Franklin; Featuring Bold Giver: Helen LaKelly Hunt; Participant: Leah Hunt-Hendrix

The life and music of songwriter Irving Caesar.  Songs include: Tea For Two, Animal Crackers In My Soup, I Want To Be Happy, Swanee, Is It True What They Say About Dixie and Sometimes I'm Happy.  Performers include: Al Jolson, Mildred Bailey, Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Wingy Manone, Mildred Bailey and Jimmy Durrante.

Not unlike my Swanee in G but a tad different.. I really like rattling this one off for some reason, usually mixed in with April Showers...!

Not unlike my Swanee in G but a tad different.. I really like rattling this one off for some reason, usually mixed in with April Showers...!

Played on a restored 1946 Wurlitzer Jukebox model 1015 Bubbler. This 78 album still sounds great! Shot in HD. SHot and edited by John Belche

Women, Money, Leadership and the Fate of the World As this first quarter Moon reminds us to be wise stewards of whatever wealth is entrusted to us, by being dynamic pragmatic mystics, Caroline is joined by her guest, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, daughter of one of the quirkiest and autocratic of Billionaires. Swanee has been not so much money laundering as money cleansing in her dedication to Women Waging Peace. She joins us directly from receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce. The post The Visionary Activist Show – January 25, 2007 appeared first on KPFA.

This week David and Milt presents"Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep" by Ben Bernis, "Some Of These Days" by Sophie Tucker, "Swanee" by Al Jolson, "K-K-K-Katie"by Billy Murray, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" by Fred Astaire and "Get Out Those Old Records" by Mary Martin&Larry Hagman.The Music Museum is another one of the great Yesterday USA Old Time Radio Show Programs.After being broadcast on YUSA, this famous program is now available thanks to a special arrangement between Radio Nostalgia  Network and Yesterday USA. Listen Live to YESTEDAY USA,  http://yesterdayusa.com