Local Open Mic

Sean Leahy updates our fans with the latest happenings at Dublin City Today since our original interview.  You'll recall that Dublin City Today is a premier busking channel on YouTube, featuring new and experienced buskers.  A few of these buskers are making huge career strides because of what Dublin City Today does for them. YouTube: (2) Dublin City Today - YouTube Facebook: https://www...

Alan Brewer, originally from New York, has worn many hats in his five decade long career. From contributing musician and arranger to full producer for major movie releases and even a publisher, Alan has found himself working with many of the who's who in the music and movie industry, including the likes of Rick Wakeman, Pete Townshend and Arlen Roth. While still in a successful band in the late 70...

Arlen Roth is an artist with an amazingly diversified resume, so where does one start in talking about Arlen Roth. Here, I'll give you the short list of accomplishments, his band was the only band to play at the Second Annual Woodstock Festival to a crowd of 50,000 fans, he played with the Bee Gees during a 1974 tour in Canada, he was in the first skit on SNL in 1978 with Dan Akroyd and John Belus...

Today we're talking with Ivan Bodley aka Funkboy ! If you like funk music, you will love this episode! This is one cool cat! Ivan has a book, available on Amazon entitled, "Am I Famous Yet?: Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star" . We will be talking about the book along with his musical roots. Before his career as a working-class rock star, Ivan worked for major record labels as a publicist and has...

Tara Jamieson! Tara Jamieson is a Canadian singer/songwriter living and attending university in Dublin, Ireland, with aspirations of being a medical doctor! Funny thing happened on the way to her Hippocratic Oath, she auditioned for Ireland's Got Talent and made it all the way to the semi-finals. With classic Canadian politeness, she writes songs of personal experiences in her life, and along with...

Dakota East is a country singer/songwriter, living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She just released her first song, 'Runaway', that is already being added to several major iTunes Playlists. Dakota spent time in the trenches, playing rock, blues and jazz before finding her passion in a country sound that only she can bring. Hear the song and the story behind it, along with other details of her...

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of the Local Open Mic podcast! In this first episode of season 2, we talk with Kevin Kelly. Kevin, is a well-known and highly regarded producer/recording engineer and musician in the New York City area. Among his credits is recording the earliest known demo by Blondie, that's right, Blondie and it is from 1975! Four out of the five demo songs went to Gold R...

Tom is 'modern easy'. He takes life one day at a time and has managed to remain a viable performer during the challenges in the past year due to public health concerns. He has a nearly unmatched repertoire of cover songs he can perform on request. You'd be wrong to think of Tom Scott as a cover artist though, he in fact has released some amazing music that we'll hear, along with their back stories...

Toby Tobias, grew up in South Africa, leaving his homeland after high school for an music education in Israel and eventually immigrating to the United States and settling in Long Island, New York. He is passionate about his musical journey and has produced a live show about it called, "Journey From Johannesburg", performed across the United States, from New York to California. Toby writes and prod...

Joe Nelson, locally known as Joe Rockstar, is from the Daytona Beach, Florida, area and comes from a family of musically accomplished performers. His taste of the big-time came as the lead guitarist the very successful 90's band, Sozo. Joe brings his edgy style of playing and producing to the music he continues to release since his Sozo days. He has a fascination with Christmas music, you don't he...

Del Puckett, his motto, "6 strings is 3 strings to many", explains a lot about an amazing lead guitarist who discovered 3-string cigar box guitars! Handy with his hands, he also discovered quickly that he could take these simple boxes into beautiful instruments. His craft has put him at the top of YouTube cigar box luthiers. In addition to Del's successful lead guitarist roll and founding member o...

Today's guest is Rorie Kelly, she lives on Long Island, NY and was firmly embedded in the music scene in the Big Apple, New York City, playing several nights a week and earning a fine living doing so. She hosts a regular show on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch called "Monday Night Muses with Rorie Kelly", it streams live… you guessed it, on Monday's. Rorie has four songs to share from her up coming a...

Lorraine Baron. Lorraine, a bi-lingual University Professor, has been doing music for only four years now, since retiring. During her four years as an musical artist, Lorraine has already been part of a collaborative team that won a German Hip Hop award! No, not a contest, a genuine national award in Germany! She brought four songs for us to listen to along with their back stories. And hey! The st...

Barry Leef or Baz to his friends, has a long and storied career as one of Australia's most recognizable musical voices. Baz started his career in the late 60's with a couple of #1 hits on the New Zealand charts before moving to Australia and joining the progressive hard rock band, Bakery in 1972. His talents though, were never exported commercially to the world like his contemporaries. Baz was und...

Mona and Lisa form the band, MonaLisa Twins, a musical duo, residing in Liverpool, England, that take their love of all things Beatles to the stage and YouTube by performing songs that commanded their attention as young girls, growing up in Austria. Coming from a family that was embedded in the European music scene for decades, by way of a successful recording studio, they had a chance to see and...

Corey Pryor, famously known as an early member of Newsboys, makes his home in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Professionally, he is a highly regarded and award winning DJ, producer and song writer and was a driving force in some early #1 hit songs the Newboys released. He'll take about all that and more. You can still hear that classic style in Corey's current music today. We'll play a few...

Lewin Barringer is the musician you want to be, he is accomplished playing many instruments, he produces and mixes professionally with great success, especially in the Philadelphia area, where he was born and raised. In addition to all of that, as if that is not enough, his YouTube channel, GarageBand and Beyond, is the longest running home recording channel on YouTube! Before folks knew what YouT...

In Episode #12 of Local Open Mic we chat with Megan Barker, she is a singer/songwriter and host of a popular live event in Nashville on Sunday nights called "Jammin' In Jammies", three years running now. Jammin' In Jammies is THE place to go to showcase your talents as a song writer. Many locals find song co-writing partners while attending.  Megan started performing at an early age in Las Ve...

In Episode #11 of Local Open Mic, we interview David Shanhun.  David is a musician from Auckland, New Zealand. A place where the locals say you can't be a full time musician in New Zealand and yet he's been doing it for nearly 11 years now. How does that work exactly? He even has the streaming cred to prove it with a #1 iTunes song from July 2020. David Shanhun cut his teeth as a busker and l...

In Episode #10 of Local Open Mic we talk with Australian native, Rae Leigh.  Rae is a singer/songwriter from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. She seems to conquer just about anything she turns her attention too. Coming from a rich gospel background, you can hear the honest lyrical stylings that make her music a stand out in a sea of quality music being produced 'down under'. In addition to her m...

In Episode #9 of Local Open Mic , we talk to Taryn Laronge .  A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, she started her 'artsy' life as a promising dancer and stage performer, garnering a scholarship to an exclusive dance school.  On the way to beginning her advanced training she was met with a life changing automobile accident.  As she was recovering, she spent time sitting at a pia...

In Episode #8 of Local Open Mic, we continue our interview with Bill O'Hanlon. We deep dive into the co-writing process of song writing and visit some more fascinating stories he has to share about the business and his experience with it.  Remember, Bill can be contacted at billohanlonmusic@gmail.com and on Facebook(@bill.ohanlon).

In Episode #7 of Local Open Mic, we interview Bill O'Hanlon. Bill is the very definition of self reinvention. He would described himself as a restless soul and always wants to be doing something he is passionate about. His current passion is song writing, specifically, country music. You'll hear, in his own words, about his journey to this point in his life and get to hear some of his recently pro...

In Episode #6 of Local Open Mic, we interview Lucy LeBlanc.  This Canadian from British Columbia is an in-demand co-writer of country music, coordinating song writing sessions with talented song writers from around the world.  She's been recognized in a feature article in American Song Writer magazine beside the likes of song writing legends Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Web and David Crosby. &nb...

In Episode #5 of Local Open Mic we continue where we left off with Paul DeMarco, the original tune we played from Part 1 gives you a taste of the two additional songs you will hear in Part 2. After listening to the remaining part of our interview with Paul you will be hooked as a life long fan. Find him at PaulDeMarcoMusic.com , Facebook(@pauldemarcomusic) and on Instagram (@pauldemarcomusic).