Follow Your Dream - Music And Much More!

Merel Bregante is an acclaimed country rock drummer. He played with Loggins and Messina, Chris Hillman, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and banjo star John McEuen. He’s a Grammy nominated producer and engineer. And he’s got 13 Platinum and Gold records to his credit. My featured song is Richie Furay’s live version on this podcast of his song “Pickin Up The Pieces”. -------------------------------------...

Pat Coil is a pianist to the Stars. He’s toured with Michael McDonald, Carmen McCraie, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Woody Herman, Larry Carlton and Olivia Newton-John. He’s recorded with just about everyone including Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow, Peter Cetera and Michael Feinstein. He’s also played on commercials and TV shows and film scores. And he’s released his own albums.  My featured song is my vers...

Michael Weintrob is a Rock Photographer who has blazed a new path. In addition to the standard rock photography of artist portraits and album covers, he has created the dazzling, innovative “InstrumentHead” and “InstrumentHead Revealed” coffee table sized photo books. The first contains photos of musicians with their instruments covering their head, in all kinds of interesting and exotic costumes...

Billy Cobham is one of the world’s greatest drummers. He dominated the Jazz Fusion era of the 1970s with The Mahavishnu Orchestra. His own debut album, Spectrum, hit #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and contained the iconic track “Stratus” which was covered by many artists including Jeff Beck. He’s played with everyone including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, George Duke and Ron Carter. M...

Clifford Carter is a Keyboard Superstar who has played with a Who’s Who in music including James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, Idina Menzel, The Four Tops and Cher. He’s been featured at Carnegie Hall in The Music of Paul McCartney, the Kennedy Center Honors tributes for Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Chuck Berry, Sting’s Rainforest Benefit, and...

The Brooklyn Bridge were 1960s Stars. They had a massive hit in 1968 with Jimmy Webb’s “The Worst That Could Happen” featuring the late, great Johnny Maestro on lead vocals. Jimmy Rosica is a founding member of the band, and Joe “Bean” Esposito - who had a worldwide hit with “You’re The Best” from the movie The Karate Kid - is the current lead singer.  Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett and the Union Ga...

Orion Weiss is a Superstar Classical Pianist. He is one of the most sought after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation. He’s been praised by the New York Times as a “brilliant pianist”, and the Washington Post has hailed his “powerful technique and exceptional insight”. He’s performed with Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax and violinist Augustin Hadelich, and with major orchestras wo...

This is the third time that I am releasing this episode, begging for an end to the gun violence and mass shootings that plague our country. In 2018, in the immediate aftermath of yet another senseless, hate driven mass shooting at the Tree Of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, I wrote “Tree Of Life”. It’s a somber, mournful plea to find “a better way” to deal with gun violence and mass shootings. ...

Bobby Brooks Wilson has an incredible story. He was brought up in foster homes, served in the Navy, and then became a professional singer and entertainer. He began to perform as an impersonator - a tribute artist - for the late, great Jackie Wilson, who had so many hits including “Lonely Teardrops”, “Higher and Higher” and “To Be Loved”. He was such a dead ringer for Jackie Wilson that people thou...

Fred Bronson is the world’s leading music author. For Billboard - the music industry bible - he wrote the Chart Beat column for 16 years. He’s also the author of The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits, and The Billboard Book of Number One R&B Hits. He’s been featured on American Idol as a repertoire expert. He’s had his own radio program and an online radio station...

Jeff Coffin is a superstar saxophonist who performed with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones for 13 years and currently is with the Dave Matthews Band. He’s a 3x Grammy winner. He’s also performed with Snarky Puppy, J.D. Souther and David Crosby. And he’s the leader of his own group called Jeff Coffin and the Mu’tet. My featured song is “This Time” from the album Bobby M and the Paisley Parade. Spotify...

Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I’m rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II.  Oscar Hammerstein II was Broadway’s greatest lyricist. He was responsible for the book and lyrics to so many of the musicals that created the Golden Era of Broadway. With Richard Rogers he wrote “The King And I”, “Oklahoma”, “The S...

Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I’m rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II.  Ron Carter is “the Maestro”, the world’s most renowned bassist. He’s the most recorded bassist in jazz history and a 3x Grammy winner. He’s played with everyone from Cannonball Adderley to Thelonious Monk to Roberta Flack and of co...

Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I’m rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II.  David Amram is a National Treasure. He’s a Musical Giant in Classical, Jazz and Popular music. He’s performed with a Who’s Who in all three genres including Aaron Copeland, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson...

Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I’m rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II.  Al Kooper is a true Superstar of rock music. He was a member of The Blues Project. He founded Blood Sweat & Tears. He recorded Super Session with Michael Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. He played the iconic organ part on Bob Dylan’s...

Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I’m rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II.  Judy Collins is an iconic Renaissance Artist and Grammy Winning Singer/Songwriter with 55 albums and hit singles including Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Send In The Clowns”. She has been a dominating forc...

Lou Christie was a Star and a Hit Machine in the 1960s with his distinctive falsetto voice and songs like “Lightnin’ Strikes” (a #1 smash), “The Gypsy Cried”, “Two Faces Have I”, “Rhapsody In The Rain”, and More. He was featured in Dick Clark’s Cavalcade Of Stars and on all the major music television shows including Where The Action Is, Hullabaloo and American Bandstand. My featured song is “My Ba...

Joey Dee and the Starlighters were Stars of the early 1960s. Joey wrote and sang “The Peppermint Twist”, a #1 song in 1962 that was integral to the worldwide twist dance craze phenomenon. They became the house band at The Peppermint Lounge in NYC, where people lined up each night to get in to rub elbows with the Stars of that era including Jackie Kennedy, Judy Garland and John Wayne. The band went...

Peter Asher (Peter & Gordon) and Jeremy Clyde (Chad & Jeremy) were stars during the British Invasion era of the 1960s.  Peter & Gordon had massive hits with songs like “A World Without Love” and “I Go To Pieces”. Peter went on to have an illustrious career in the music business, first as the head of A&R for Apple Records where he signed a then-unknown James Taylor, then as producer for many artist...

WORLD PREMIERE! "The Gift": song by Robert Miller and  arrangement by Michael Abene. I originally wrote "The Gift" as a love song ballad on the occasion of the birth of my first granddaughter. My band, Project Grand Slam, recorded and released  the song in 2015 on our "Made In New York" album. In April 2024 Michael Abene was a guest on this podcast. Michael is a Grammy winning arranger and compose...

Harvey Brooks is one of the most important and heralded bass players of the entire rock era. Starting in the 1960s he played on so many seminal albums and singles including Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited", "Super Session" with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bloomfield's band, The Electric Flag, and even Miles Davis's groundbreaking album "Bitches Brew". He also played on hits by...

This is a Very Special Episode celebrating that we’ve just passed 2 million downloads for the podcast! I started the podcast in March 2021 during the depths of the pandemic, with no audience at all. It took two years to reach 1 million downloads but just one more year to reach 2 million. I’m extremely thankful for all the wonderful guests that I’ve had, and so appreciative of my audience for your...

Chris McDonald is a Grammy nominated, Emmy winning arranger/composer. He's been a fixture in Nashville's recording scene for over 40 years as the "go to" arranger for brass, strings and orchestral writing, and for big bands. His group, the Chris McDonald Jazz Orchestra, recently released its 9th album called "It's About Time". He's done arrangements for Carrie Underwood, Amy Grant and Willie Nelso...

Annie Haslam is the longtime singer for Renaissance, the celebrated British symphonic and progressive rock band. She's also had a long solo career and a 2nd career as a visual artist. With Renaissance she recorded 11 studio albums plus several live albums. She has a 5 octave range. Renaissance had a hit single in 1978 with "Northern Lights" which reached #7 on the UK charts.  Annie talks about her...

This is a Drum Summit, a Special Episode of the podcast. It features three of the world’s best jazz drummers: Peter Erskine, Danny Gottlieb and Adam Nussbaum. Each has previously been a guest on the podcast, but now they’re together in this episode. Peter Erskine is a 2x Grammy winner and a 10x Best Jazz Drummer winner. He’s played with Weather Report, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Joni Mitchell,...