Planetary Gig Talk

Bill Barclay is Director of Music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. When he was young, he took piano lessons and sang with folk groups in church, and in middle school was in choirs and orchestras, and plays bass, guitar, trombone, and other instruments. He is a composer, director, musician and actor, and enjoys music most when it serves a story. He has been a fan of Shakespeare forever and...

Shana Oshiro had music all around her growing up; her parents met in a band and Shana was always singing and immersed in music. She has degrees in voice and music therapy. She was classically trained but began singing Barbershop, which involves intricate four-part harmony singing, which was based on many African American singing styles, such as work and spiritual songs. The singing creates amazing...

Pearl Bailes took piano lessons as a child and played the oboe for a while, but later in life she says, "the harmonica chose me." She says when you play that little unique instrument, the sound really comes from your body and you just need to breathe. Playing harmonica is joyous, she says, and the most important thing about playing is about communicating. She also says music builds community and i...

Christina Lewellen grew up with Barbershop singing; her father started when she was just born, and her entire family are Barbershoppers, including her mother, husband, and children. She has won an international competition and recently finished her term as President of Harmony, Inc., which is a longstanding and wonderful female Barbershop signing organization. Four-part harmony singing is not easy...

Lyric Hartley grew up in Alabama, where participation in the Church of Christ was a big part of his life. The Church had many services, but all were a cappella, without instrumentation, and Lyric loved the singing. His family also got together frequently for musical gatherings called 'Pickin's" where everyone participated with some sort of instrument or singing. Lyric spent a lot of his life on sp...

Enjoy some of the highlights from Planetary Gig Talk podcasts 12-22 with Rev. Kim Capps, Moe Jackson, Erasmus Caffery, Sharon Kneebone, Scott Ballantine, Andra Faye, Nina Casey, Mike Lessin, Jane Callen, Jeffree Heaton, and Adalia Tara. You'll especially want to hear about the body tambura and fonging!

Joe Filisko is one of the best harmonica players, teachers, and technicians in the world, but he didn't play harmonica when he was young. He started playing guitar in his teens and it "made time simultaneously stand dead still and fly ahead rapidly." After playing a while in a guitar ensemble, he became intrigued by some of the master blues and roots harmonica players, joined a harmonica club, sta...

Gary's earliest musical inspiration was his mother, who had a terrific voice. When he was four, he saw his grandfather play music and "how happy everyone was." When seven, he received his grandfather's harmonica, and Gary knew he had found his purpose. He since has played in many bands, both harmonica and guitar, and written many songs, too. Gary says, "The power of music is love, pure love; ... m...

Jason Walker was smitten by the drums early in life, and is still playing with some of his childhood friends. He says he has been fortunate to play in a lot of different situations and always wants to see where music leads him. "Music takes you out of regular time and space," he says. He plays with the intention of best serving the space he is in. Vibrations of music are a powerful thing, he says,...

Kanttara Naba has been singing her entire life. She was born in Israel; her mother was from Yemen and her father from Iraq; she has since moved to the United States and recently to Hawaii. She says, "Music is what I was born to do." She was very shy as a child, but when singing, "something greater than me took over." Kanttara says music and singing can and should be used to elevate consciousness....

Planetary Gig Talk host features short highlights from the first eleven podcasts, featuring Eric Weinberg, Steve Little, Allen Holmes, Michael Roudebush, Alison Chase Radcliffe, Barry Warsaw, Grant Dermody, Frank Fotusky, Mary Flower, Erick Schonher, and Tara Gorman! If you didn't have a chance to listen to the initial podcasts, this compilation will be fun. Further compilations will be published...

Alexander Sovronsky grew up in a very musical family, and fell in love with the violin when he was 2 years old watching Itzhak Perlman play on Sesame Street! He started with Suzuki violin and has become an exceptional professional violinist, actor, and musical composer. One of his specialties is studying how Shakespeare used music in his plays. Alexander says Shakespeare's goal in using music in t...

Bob has a clear image of when he first remembers music; it was at his grandmother's home when he was about 3 or 4 years old. He figured out the keyboard and played songs, making up stories in song, started playing saxophone when he was 11 and was gigging by age 16 or so. He has played with many great musicians, including Paul Simon and Mike Stern, and recently has been playing in a trio with Victo...

Liz's mother was famous musician Ann Rabson, so Liz had a lot of music around the house growing up. She started on the sax when she was 8, played clarinet and flute too, and began guitar when she was 14 years old. She says making connections with people through music really can enrich their lives. Also, teaching people that they can play music is very positive. Her mother was very interested in mu...

Kelley Hunt says, "My first musical memory is of my mother's voice." She was an incredible singer and her father played bass; there was always music in the house growing up. Kelley couldn't see well when she was young and navigated by touch and sound. She started playing piano at 3 or 4 years old and could play songs by ear; she didn't have a lesson until she was 10. She says the core of a piece o...

Dave Dickens played music on and off throughout his life but got serious when he turned 60 and started focusing on playing bass. He says the power of music is a "freedom you just can't express." He has attended many Victor Wooten camps and says they "change you forever on the inside and you become a better person." He says it would be great if we could spread the feeling of Wooten Woods around the...

Andy's mother was a piano teacher, and he says the piano was powerful and was an "energy source in the home." He realized early on that he just needed to play music, and that's what he has done his whole life. He and his wife Linda recently went on a house concert tour around the country in a van that they call Tour de Friends, doing over 50 shows in a year. Andy says, "Who doesn't want to head fo...

Ariane Cap took classical piano growing up, but a trip to America when she was 18 opened her up to new kinds of music she knew she had to play, eventually picking up the bass guitar. She says, "When you can get together with musicians, you want to create something good and beautiful." She says, "I see the connecting power of music; deep down, everyone just wants to lead a good life. I deeply belie...

Alixe Landry remembers when she was a child feeling the vibrations of the piano when her mother played. She took lessons and played some guitar, but stopped when she became a mom. Later, she says music came into her life and saved her spiritually. "I felt so blessed, when I was going through such a dark period of time, to have music come to me right then; I couldn't think about anything else and I...

Zig listened to records constantly as a kid and knew early on that he wanted to be a drummer. He says, "Being a great listener is the key to music." He played in jazz and other bands in L.A. and then moved to Nashville, where he started playing for kids. His "Hands On With Zig" program has brought joy to well over a million children. He says, "Music has no boundaries." He especially enjoys working...

Rick Franklin started playing the trumpet when he was young, then harmonica, and finally found guitar. He played in rock bands, but met Archie Edwards and John Jackson and fell in love with their style of playing, Piedmont blues. He used to regularly visit Archie's Barbershop, which he said was a "safe space where a group of black men could hang out and not feel threatened." He still loves the Bar...

Michael's mother was an excellent musician, and Michael first sang for people when he was six; by the time he was in 5th grade was a cellist. He played in youth symphonies and later in college began playing more eclectic styles of music. He met Victor Wooten in 1988 in Nashville. He says The Music Lesson book has very special thoughts and ideas, and that spiritual growth through music is central t...

From an early age, Bob Hemenger was into music (piano at 5 and sax starting in 5th grade) and nature (loving the outdoors since a kid). "My two loves truly are music and nature," he says. He met Victor Wooten at tracker school; he helped Victor make his first fire, and Victor helped Bob see nature as music. "To be a good musician, you have to listen deeply," he says, and for both music and nature...

John O'Connor has been playing music with friends all his life; his main instrument is the bass. He always saw that music had the power to make people happy, but also to make them think, so he was drawn to music with a purpose. Through a nonprofit organization he helped found, Concerts Unite Us, he is putting on concerts for equal justice. He says we don't use the power of music to address social...

Eli Namay's parents were both very musical and artistic, he played all sorts of music growing up, and now plays bass in several bands in Chicago. He says, "Music just feels like the right thing to do." He believes music is very powerful and that musicians have a deep responsibility to examine what they are doing and putting out into the world, and that political and cultural activity are distinct...