Song of the Soul

Kristin Lems  is insightful, determined, compassionate, and talented, and sees our world with eyes honed by the experience of living in Iran, Algeria, & Mongolia, the last 2 as a Fulbright scholar. She's founder of the  National Women’s Music Festival  in Champaign-Urbana (this year in Middleton, WI), and got  Dr Demento's  attention with her music, including the very...

John Vento  self-describes as making  Americana Classic Rock with Indie Folk Pop surprises , which you can find when he performs solo, with  Nied's Hotel Band , or, in the past, with  Xposure  and  Bmen . He has sometimes been called the chameleon of Pittsburgh's music scene.

Tom Kimmel  spent more than 3 decades in Nashville sharing his songs with folks like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, Nanci Griffith, Dolly Parton, Shawn Colvin, Art Garfunkel, and many, many other well-known performers, and performing them himself. Tom's songs expose his heart and move the hearts of others, both though the words & music, combining his gifts as a songwriter,...

Clare Norelle  is all about healing & wholeness, and that quality pours through her music. Her voice & lyrics are soothing, dancing, flowing, & beautiful. Clare also enchants the world with things like community yoga & story-telling, in Madison, WI. Her latest release is  Islands of Possible Things .

So much to love about  Ash Devine  - her songs, her singing, her humanitarian clowning, her Magic Penny instrument gifting, her Earth connection, her social activism, & much more. Combining indie-folk and Appalachian music influences with her Theater & Community Arts for Social Change studies, Ash is a captivating performer, breathing spirit & joy through her vocals and a dan...

Johnsmith  includes exactly the right mix of heart, wonder, & whimsy in the songs he writes, combined with a flawless voice and impeccable guitar. He has produced 8 solo CDs, was a Kerrville New Folk winner, & has decades experience performing all across the USA.

Each year there's a contest sponsored by the Renaissance Artists and Writers Association called  Songs for Social Change , and today we have here the winner of last year's contest.  Mary Lou Fulton  rated number one out of many hundreds of submissions with her song  Not Going Back . What makes it all the more remarkable is that she did it with the very first song she ever relea...

A tribute to  John Prine , with 6 guests, some singing songs by John, others singing songs about and inspired by John, all paying tribute to a great, truly unique, country-folk singer who died this past April.  Carsie Blanton , Laura Farley , and Johnsmith will be singing originals, while Sammie Purcell of  Foxes and Fossils ,  Tom Pirozolli , and  Joe Jencks  will be...

Peter Alsop's  latest release is  Camping With Dads , and it includes all the fun & profundity you expect from Peter, providing learning about all kinds of stuff, from racism to listening to violence to gorillas.

Shawn Gallaway  is a minstrel of health, wholeness, hope, & love, a message and mission that opened its stride to cover more of the Earth with his anthem,  I Choose Love . His music is soul-deep, a power conveyed clearly through his crystal vocals and heart-opening lyrics. Shawn is a long-time resident of Nashville emanating his Transformational Music across the country and world. He...

Amanda Udis-Kessler is a music-creation fountain whose recent project is  QueerSacredMusic.com , 60-plus songs beginning with sacred music relative to LGBTQ concerns, but enriched by the spiritual experiences relative to the arrival of COVID-19 and the nationwide uprising against racism and other injustices. Amanda's theology is open, accepting, and rooted in a universal love, and is enriched...

A look at some of the finalists of the  Songs for Social Change  contest  in 2019 , artists with a variety of styles & themes, all about change for the better. With reggae, electronica, rock, & folk, 6 different artists share their various soulful songs, working for a better world, with first prize going to  Mary Lou Fulton  for  Not Going Back .

Sparky Rucker  was introduced to the music of the civil rights movement when his mother took him to his first march at the age of 14, but he was already steeped in the music of the era in the black Pentecostal church of his youth and the distinctive Appalachian culture of Eastern Tennessee. Sparky Rucker has woven together music, activism, history and culture for more than 5 decades, raising...

Joe Newberry  has a wonderful voice, and writes tunes & lyrics to enrich that wonderful voice to the point of sublime. Writing music that tends toward old-timey, bluegrass, spirituals, torch songs, & more beyond that, Joe's songs draw deeply on the Missouri of his youth and the North Carolina of his adulthood. Renowned for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe has won multiple awards from...

Though  Rick Ruskin  has a voice sometimes reminiscent of James Taylor, with all the enchantment that implies, and though he's got a lot of wonderful lyrics & tunes, the way that Rick most distinctively shines is through his magic on the guitar.

Leslie Evers  has been singing and writing songs forever, but she waited decades to release them to the world. With her beautiful voice, lyrical skill, and trusty guitar and banjo, she casts magical-musical spells. Located on the folk-jazz continuum, Leslie has also performed for years with  The Gryphon Carolers . Home is Palo Alto, CA, and she will soon release her first hymn!

Robinlee Garber  started out from New York, explored other cities & states while also exploring careers in creating art, stage production, and clinical art therapy, but she found home in Chicago, where she also found found fulfillment in adding music performance to her art therapy work. Her musical passions are life-long, centering around folk, blues, jazz, and what she calls torch-folk,...

Laura Farley, along with her husband, Jym, are  High and Rising , a duo from La Crosse, Wisconsin, getting ready to release their first CD. For some years now they, and up to 4 other people, are known as the  Merry Weathers , playing folk/Americana, including bluegrass, folk, country, and rockin music, with a major emphasis on original tunes and including some long-loved covers.

Larry Heagle  is an Eau Claire-centric, Midwest-roaming musician with a specially in comedy stand-up, who just published a memoir, of sorts, loaded with all the kinds of comedy & quirky world-view he's famous for. It's called  Not Really Sane, Not Really Sorry: Tales of an Itinerant Performer  and you better get ahold of Larry if you want a copy - not Amazon or anyone else.

Remembering the Gems & Jewels of Summer 2019 shows, with  Jerry Hui (Voices United) ,  Jennifer Evans (Just Folk in Boston) ,  Randall Adams (Wind, Waves, Dreams, & Music) ,  Regla Garcia-Schmidt (Sweet Angel Warrior) ,  John McCutcheon In Person! ,  Joe Iadanza (Long Island's Exceptional Common Man) ,  Ben Reel (Ireland's Darkness & Light) , and&nbsp...

Song of the Soul broadcast retrospective of a simpler, less COVID-19, time, one year ago, in 2019,  with   Victoria Shoemaker (Bewitching) ,  Kora Feder (Painting the Sky with Music) ,  Peter Phippen (Living Music, Sacred Flute) ,  Ira Levin of The Levins (Harmonizing With Lamed Vavniks, Hafiz, & The Gita) ,  Sally Rogers (Happy 100th Birthday Pete Seeger) , ...

When Tom Pirozzoli isn't making or playing folk music, you can pretty much find him painting in his New Hampshire studio. Having rambled widely over many continents, Tom has gathered lots of "grist for the mill" in his song writing. His fingers dance the guitar strings, his voice dances the tunes, and his heart dances touching, fun, and insightful lyrics into our lives. Be sure to catch his video...

Kirk Mann  weaves so much together - passion for the guitar, deeply spiritual lyrics & tunes, a seeking, listening soul, and  healing work via Chinese Medicine . Find him  on Facebook ,  on Reverbnation , and via his  YouTube channel .

Jude Johnstone  touches hearts & souls with her songs, whether sung by her or by the likes of  Johnny Cash ,  Bonnie Raitt ,  Stevie Nicks ,  Bette Midler , or so many others. From Maine, to LA to Nashville, Jude has found an enthusiastic reception for her music, and memorable companions on the path. In particular, her songs like "Wounded Heart" and "Unchained" powerfu...

Deidre McCalla  showed a flair for the limelight even when she was 7, so it was no surprise to find her performing folk music with her high school trio, Friendship, which brought them to the edge of local fame. A university theater degree got overridden by the comparative ease of a life as a performing musician, although Deidre later realized that a couple years at the  Wisconsin Conserv...