Creative Evolution

In Episode 27 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with her longtime friend P Cha$e, an independent artist, producer, and entrepreneur who helped launch her music career in Knoxville. They talk his path from East Knoxville and West African drumming into the city's rap scene, the merch business he built from the ground up, the hard lessons of losing something he helped build, and what it me...

In Episode 27 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with her longtime friend P Cha$e. He grew up on Knoxville's East Side, where soccer was one of the few outlets available to him growing up. He found his way into music through West African drumming as a teenager, and by his mid-teens he was writing, producing, and selling his own CDs out of his trunk, years before that hustle became a main...

In Episode 26 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Greg Krutial Carney. He started in ninth grade as part of an anti-drug rap trio called the Homeboys, turning his poetry into music to spread a message in schools. He has never had a drink. Never smoked. He went on to become a top one hundred finalist at Beyonce's world tour audition in Chicago, danced in an MC Hammer Pepsi commercial,...

In Episode 26 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Greg Krutial Carney. He started in ninth grade as part of an anti-drug rap group called the Homeboys, turning his poetry into music to spread a message in schools. He has never had a drink. Never smoked. He went on to become a top one hundred finalist at Beyonce's world tour audition in Chicago, danced in an MC Hammer Pepsi commercial...

In Episode 25 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Daniel Michael Crane. Born in Medellin, Colombia, adopted as a baby with his twin sister, and raised on Long Island, Daniel is a classically trained lyric baritone, seasoned actor, and the twenty twenty five Entertainer of the Year at the North American Country Music Association International. He has performed everything from Broadway...

In Episode 25 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Daniel Michael Crane. Born in Medellin, Colombia, adopted as a baby with his twin sister, and raised on Long Island, Daniel is a classically trained lyric baritone, seasoned actor, and the twenty twenty five Entertainer of the Year at the North American Country Music Association International. He has performed everything from Broadway...

She calls herself a singer song confessor. She excavates her deepest traumas and serves them up on a silver platter in the hopes that there can be some connection. And there usually is. In Episode 24 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Lauren Oxford, folk songwriter, photographer, album designer, and one fourth of the Starlight Darlins. Her debut album was recorded in twelve days, re...

She calls herself a singer song confessor. She excavates her deepest traumas and serves them up on a silver platter in the hopes that there can be some connection. And there usually is. In Episode 24 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Lauren Oxford, folk songwriter, photographer, album designer, and one fourth of the Starlight Darlins. Her debut album was recorded in twelve days, re...

He made a vow early on. He would never get on stage and pretend to be something he is not. Just his story, his culture, and beats that pull from West Coast hip hop, cumbia, dancehall, Afrobeats, Arabic music, and anywhere else he has not discovered yet. In Episode 23 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with El Chino, born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, son of a Salvadorian father and...

He made a vow early on. He would never get on stage and pretend to be something he is not. Just his story, his culture, and beats that pull from West Coast hip hop, cumbia, dancehall, Afrobeats, Arabic music, and anywhere else he has not discovered yet. In Episode 23 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with El Chino, born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, son of a Salvadorian father and...

He grew up sneaking into his father's recording studio after bedtime. At fifteen he made an entire techno album and shipped it to record labels. They wrote back with one question. How old are you? Decades later a phone call from Frank Sheadrick Jr changed his life with one sentence. Grab all your stuff and come down. You got a room. In Episode 22 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down at her...

He grew up sneaking into his father's recording studio after bedtime. At fifteen he made an entire techno album and shipped it to record labels. They wrote back with one question. How old are you? Decades later a phone call from Frank Sheadrick Jr changed his life with one sentence. Grab all your stuff and come down. You got a room. In Episode 22 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down at her...

What do a bassist who's kept the faith for fifty years, a Nashville born country singer who found her real family in Knoxville, and a multi-instrumentalist who calls his gift an affliction all have in common? They all figured out that there is no shortcut for experience, that community beats competition every time, and that belief always comes before validation. In Episode 21 of Creative Evolution...

Some people call it the gift. Tommie John calls it the affliction. He has to make music. He has to collaborate. It is just what he is meant to do. And for over thirty years that affliction has taken him from babysitting BB King's grandson at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival to touring the entire eastern seaboard to sitting on a dock on a lake in East Tennessee talking about why a rising...

Some people call it the gift. Tommie John calls it the affliction. He has to make music. He has to collaborate. It is just what he is meant to do. And for over thirty years that affliction has taken him from babysitting BB King's grandson at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival to touring the entire eastern seaboard to sitting on a dock on a lake in East Tennessee talking about why a rising...

In Episode 19 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Alicia Harvey, Nashville born and Knoxville made independent country artist, songwriter, CMA member, BMI songwriter, and six time Josie Music Awards nominee. Alicia has played over five hundred shows, crowdfunded her own debut EP entirely on her own terms, and won Song of the Year at the 2024 Josie Music Awards on the Grand Ole Opry s...

In Episode 19 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Alicia Harvey, Nashville born and Knoxville made independent country artist, songwriter, CMA member, BMI songwriter, and six time Josie Music Awards nominee. Alicia has played over five hundred shows, crowdfunded her own debut EP entirely on her own terms, and won Song of the Year at the 2024 Josie Music Awards on the Grand Ole Opry s...

In Episode 18 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Mike Hamer, the bassist for Josi J and Dessert, US Army veteran, church musician, and one of the most grounded and hilarious humans to ever step into the Creative Evolution Hot Seat. With over fifty years of bass guitar behind him, Mike has spent a lifetime serving something bigger than himself. In the military, in the church, and on...

In Episode 18 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with Mike Hamer, the bassist for Josi J and Dessert, US Army veteran, church musician, and one of the most grounded and hilarious humans to ever step into the Creative Evolution Hot Seat. With over fifty years of bass guitar behind him, Mike has spent a lifetime serving something bigger than himself. In the military, in the church, and on...

What do a veteran frontman with over two thousand shows, the Siren of Soul who reinvented herself through karaoke bars, and a guitarist who kept punk rock CDs hidden under country music labels all have in common? They all figured out how to protect their peace, reframe their marketing, and take care of the people who hold them up. In Episode 17 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J is joined by guest...

What does it look like to spend twenty years doing the thing nobody could make you stop doing? In Episode 16 of Creative Evolution, independent music and creative business podcast host Josi J welcomes back her dear friend and guitarist Mandy Wilson, aka The Virgin Mandy, for one of the most honest, funny, and genuinely moving conversations of the entire season. Mandy is a multi-instrumentalist, so...

What does it look like to spend twenty years doing the thing nobody could make you stop doing? In Episode 16 of Creative Evolution, independent music and creative business podcast host Josi J welcomes back her dear friend and guitarist Mandy Wilson, aka The Virgin Mandy, for one of the most honest, funny, and genuinely moving conversations of the entire season. Mandy is a multi-instrumentalist, so...

In Episode 15 of Creative Evolution, independent music and creative business podcast host Josi J sits down with Jeanine Fuller, the Siren of Soul, at her kitchen table in Knoxville Tennessee. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jeanine is a powerhouse vocalist, bandleader of the True Funk SOULdiers, CEO of J9 Queendom Entertainment LLC, and one of the most resilient independent artists in East Ten...

In Episode 15 of Creative Evolution, independent music and creative business podcast host Josi J sits down with Jeanine Fuller, the Siren of Soul, at her kitchen table in Knoxville Tennessee. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jeanine is a powerhouse vocalist, bandleader of the True Funk SOULdiers, CEO of J9 Queendom Entertainment LLC, and one of the most resilient independent artists in East Ten...

In Episode 14 of Creative Evolution, host Josi J sits down with veteran frontman Evan Thor of Thor and the Rains, a power trio out of Knoxville, Tennessee that has been delivering wildly eclectic live performances for over 20 years. Evan Thor is not your typical musician. A US Air Force veteran, self-taught guitarist, and Doctor of Business Administration, Thor picked up the guitar at 20, was sele...