Planetary Gig Talk

Emily Martinson is a Doctor of Audiology, who says "the power of sound is tremendous," and when the sound goes away in terms of hearing loss, it is a big concern. She took piano lessons and sang as a child, but she remembers the effects of significant hearing loss on her grandfather, who separated himself from groups, conversations, and music. Her mother was a speech pathologist, and audiology bec...

Victor Wooten is a legendary Grammy award-winning bassist, and also author of the amazing book, The Music Lesson, A Spiritual Search for Growth through Music. He says that he knew music was really special at a very early age, when playing shows with his brothers. His spiritual sources, in addition to his parents and brothers, include A Course in Miracles (his brother Roy turned him on to the Cours...

Eric started playing the piano when he was 8 years old, but by high school guitar had become his first love. He played with high school mates, and 40 years later, many of them are still playing together! He says, "Music takes you to a place nothing else does;" there is a sense of peace, euphoria, and freedom when you play. Eric is a huge Beatles fan and even visited Liverpool; he feels the traject...

Jeff Arbor's father played the organ, and Jeff started on sax in 4th grade, moved to guitar, and now plays the bass. He found Reiki ten years ago and is now a certified teacher. Reiki is a universal energy and can show us that "we are more connected than we know." He says, "Reiki and music have been wonderful healing sources in my life." He also has spent three weeks at Victor Wooten's camps and s...

Skip played a lot of drums and guitar in his life until having an epiphany about music. He had an experience of knowing he could play the blues, and he just had to do it. He says surrendering in music is being drawn to play and being able to say, "I am a musician." Then, you just go with what you play in the moment. He also says, "Music is available to everybody." And it's important to just start,...

Ben Potock says that music was always part of the fabric of his family and that he always wanted to be a musician. He saw a friend play a drum solo when very young and he told himself, "I want to do that!" He says music can help you know yourself and connect better with other people. He has read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten and says it changed the way he thought about music and his relationsh...

Geoff Seals always liked harmonica, and after playing a lot of standard songs, started playing blues harmonica about 20 years ago. He now teaches blues harp at Archie Edwards Barbershop and at Blues Week. He says, "You experience the spiritual side of music before you understand it...you just ride the wave as it lifts you up." He also read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten and says it made him ref...

Jay Summerour's grandmother taught him to whistle, and he has been playing music ever since. He always had a harmonica, while walking, fishing, jamming with people in the backyard, or around in DC at many different venues. He says, "Music affects peoples' lives; people live by music. Music can really calm you down; I feel so at ease when I play the blues."

Scott Castonguay first got the "bug of music" when he was around 10, playing the saxophone. He switched to guitar, and now plays and teaches full time. "I love to play and I can teach and make money," he says. "Music is the language of the heart, it's a language of feelings...we can share feelings without words; there is a geometry to the structure of music that's like physics...music is built int...

Robert Lighthouse remembers listening to the Beatles when he was very young, got a guitar when he was 12, and loved Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. He played on the streets of his home town in Sweden, then moved to the U.S. He says that any kind of art, like music, makes you think. A musician can "put feeling into a note and it goes straight to your heart." He says music is more powerful than dicta...

Donna Fletcher sang as a child and learned harmony from her mother, and played protest songs in coffee shops when she was young. She started going to Blues Week thirty years ago and learned from some great Piedmont guitar masters, like John Jackson and John Cephas. She comments that "playing with other people will improve your skills by osmosis if you listen," and that "listening is a participator...

Deletta Gillespie grew up surrounded by music; both of her parents were musicians. She has been singing in churches since she was a child, and is an incredibly powerful blues singer. She says, "Music is a gift. Music changes the vibrational frequency of wherever you are." She believes everyone can sing and also that "You can literally hum or sing your pain away." Singing and dancing are part of co...

Rico Amero, Sr., has been making music since he started teaching himself guitar at age 5. He also plays trumpet and is a sound man, having done sound all around the world, including DC's famous Blues Alley and currently at Madam's Organ. He has always focused on listening, listening, listening, and advises us to "Listen to excellent music." He says, "Music possesses the ability to instantly transp...

Joe Steen first remembers singing Nat King Cole's song Paper Moon when he was 5 years old. He went on to play in churches for decades, but first played the blues at Archie's Barbershop. He is now 82 and says, "Music is universal in nature and it is a healing thing." The blues is great, he says, because people can get out of a bad mood and feel happy. "Music touches everybody," he says.

Miles Spicer got his first guitar when he was 23, first went to Blues Week in 1991, and learned from many masters, including John Cephas, John Jackson, Mike Baytop, and his teacher Paul Bell. Miles said he "wanted to be able to sit in any situation and hold my own." He has now been playing with MSG - the Acoustic Blues Trio - for over 15 years. "Music is my form of self-expression," he says. "As a...

Jamie Logie started teaching himself guitar in his early teens. He loves the guitar, which he says is a complex instrument that takes a lot of work to play. Jamie often says, "I just want to play music with my friends." He says that playing music together is collective creativity and that, through music, we can learn to create together. Music is a great way to intentionally work at producing good...

Eleanor Ellis loved to sing as a child and played a lot in New Orleans during college, especially bluegrass. She moved to Maryland and started playing "spiritual and truth" music with Flora Molton, and also played country blues with Archie Edwards. She is one of the founders of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. She says it is really positive and good for people to connect, and music do...

Gaye Adegbalola has been playing music all her life; her father played in a jazz combo and her mother brought her records from the jukebox to listen to as a child. She first started singing on the streets and wrote her first song at an early age. She played the flute and piccolo in high school and then played guitar. She found her dharma, her purpose, to make music at Blues Week. "Blues is a heali...

Eric Noden's father played roots music, and that's what Eric plays now with musical partner Joe Filisko. Eric learned many guitar styles when young, even taking classical guitar, which taught him discipline and technique. He has been involved with Blues in the Schools and other children's programs. He says there is an honesty and sincerity in music, and roots and folk music allow anyone to partici...

Shauna Simon grew up in a musical family and played music all her life, including piano, recorder, and guitar. She lived in an ashram for 20 years where there were chanting meditations, and Shauna writes and plays chants (listen to a short example in the podcast). She says people use music to feel calm when they are worried or upset, or when feeling joy; yoga can help us in the same way. Music hel...

Tom Cox was first captivated by the bass as a youngster while watching the bassist in a combo playing in a ship crossing the Pacific Ocean. He was mesmerized by the Beatles in 1964; everything changed for him. Tom says, "Music makes me feel really, really good. Listening to or playing music sure beats going to a psychologist." He says, "Everywhere you go, whenever you hear music, you know people a...

Scott has been playing music all his life. He says, "Music is therapy for me; it's a lifelong love." He was with Up With People, "which has pure positive energy and gives people a hopeful message." He founded the Positive Music Association, as well as World Singing Day, which is for everyone and is held the third Saturday of October. "If you can speak, you can sing," he says, and "research shows s...

Hamilton Belk has been captured by music since he was 10 years old; he remembers his father playing an old guitar. He says there's always a song in his head. He says, "I don't think there is anyone who is not musical." He plays because "I just want to make music that moves me and hopefully others can have a positive experience from it." Finally, Hamilton says, "If everyone played music, the world...

Stan Orr has been playing guitar since sixth grade, when he played "Gloria" a million times in his room! He says music was his outlet and sanctuary, and is a very personal thing. Stan says, "Music affects everyone no matter what they're doing. Music is a unifier that creates an opportunity for dialog and love and respect." He says the current situation presents a great opportunity for an organizat...

Diane Phillips sang with her family from a young age, and loved to perform. After touring with Up With People and performing for years, she realized it was important for her to help others with music and that she had been missing the root of music, which is joy. So, she taught groups like Kids of Note (KidsofNote.com) and The Notations in Saskatoon, Canada that include children with and without di...