Song of the Soul

Mike Plaisted  lives out multiple passions, in part through his work as a lawyer performing a vital role in the lives of his clients, especially with folks in Drug Court, but also through his performing music, something that deeply feeds Mike. He's a member of the Milwaukee Musicians Co-op, and performs regularly on  Riverwest Radio .

Patrick Landeza  is passionate about the music of his Hawaiian roots, though he's Berkeley, CA, born & raised, and a special man. He was awarded the  Musician of the Heart  award as part of the Listen for Life concert for peace at Carnegie Hall, and he's the first mainland artist to win the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Slack Key Album of the Year, Hawaii's equivalent of the Grammy...

A.L. Williams leads Milwaukee's  One Lane Bridge  and broadcasts his music Friday night ever 5 weeks on  Riverwest Radio . Enjoy some creative themes, diverse music styles, and stanch advocacy of cooperative local music.

The Milwaukee Musicians Co-op is celebrating 34 years of upholding one-another as of 3/12/2016, at the 19th Street Coffeehouse. We talk to 5 long-time Co-op members to explore some of the soul of the group: One Lane Bridge/A.L. Williams , Rick Kokan , Mike Plaisted , Friar Otto/Michael Hoppe , Mud River Lee

Evalyn Parry mixes music, spoken word, with writing, directing and performing theater. With beautiful vocals, wide-ranging thoughts and creativity, and lots of engaging attitude, Evalyn makes magic, including her musical theater production, Spin, concerning the early feminist movement & biking.

Steve Carlson doesn't really think that PleasantVille is all that pleasant and he associates Christmas with A Hell of a Time, so this is a world view with some spice in it. With country roots and under a folk canopy, Steve makes beautiful music filled with lots of social commentary.

Frank Florin began with hard rock music, but along the way he found his spiritual and musical appetite filled exclusively by the Hindu devotional practice called kirtan. Frank now passes on his love for this special music through performances with the group called Temple of Light kirtan .

Micah Sommersmith has a real range to the music he's involved in. Part of his work is as a church music director, but he's also the kind of creative, quirky, musician you'd expect of someone who has played piano, trumpet, euphonium, guitar, and accordion, and who'd write a Song about Glass. He mixes deep and playful, and profound and surprisingly profound, lyrics.

A different format for Song of the Soul - we sit in on the quarterly open-mic experience known as  White Pines . In a low-tech, high-personality event, folks come out to share their down-home skills and creativity for a special community-building opportunity, 26 years into its life.

Darrell Smith's day job is with  Purple Cow Organics , which tells you something significant about one of Darrell's passions, and in his other hours he plays with  Embedded Reporter  and  The Pardee Boys , using his skillful voice and fiddle.

Heart of the Earth  is the recently released CD by  Judith Gottlieb  &  Liz Kohlenberg , calling the listener to a deep musical & spiritual encounter with the land, the water, the place of people in our environment, all comfortably fitting with a scientific knowledge and appreciation of the Earth, including Judith's education in geology and civil engineering.

Ellen B. Ochs  is a prolific songwriter and perenial participant of all sorts folk musical - song circles, Stringalong weekends, White Pines quarterly open stage, and jams. An English major pouring creativity through her pen, Ellen brings joy and community through her music.

Rabbi Darkside's website  tells us to "Use the force to enter" - enter the world of Hip Hop culture and rap music and alternative ways of connecting the world. Sam Sellers is  Rabbi Darkside , a creative, emotive, healing force who was raised Jewish and self-describes as a secular humanist who practices Kum Nye meditation.

Possibilities always surround us, and we can use lemons to make a sour face, or to serve a lemonade feast to all our acquaintances. In spite of a challenging start to life including bad role models, abandonment, and some JD points, Glen Roethel received grace through adoption and has chosen to pass it on. Part of the House Band for the Posi Awards for many years, Glen seeks to uplift and shine Lig...

Jo Schlesinger finds the fullness of her soul in international folk dance, and it comes out of her mouth when she sings as part of a group of women singers called The Balkan Babes. The members of this Pittsburgh-based group join Jo to sing the music of Jo's soul.

Radoslav Lorkovic grew out of a supremely musical family from the region of the former Yugoslavia, Croatia specifically for him, and he's amazingly cross-bred with blues, folk, jazz & country music, having performed with the likes of Greg Brown and Odetta. This only scratches the surface, and when you scratch deeper you'll find an original with vast talent and ability.

Living well off the beaten path in hillbilly shack in the Ozark Mountains,  Carolyn Carter  has been singing for her supper as long as she can remember. With a voice that is soft and wild, 100% Arkansas, Carolyn plays the listener's heart strings while strumming those of her guitar. Inspired by church music and folks like Joan Baez and Emmylou Harris, Carolyn is gifted and passes on the...

Walter Craft  has been spreading his message of  Serve the Song  for close to 50 years, on a trajectory between Minnesota down to Florida, eager to provide a force that feeds hearts & souls and nudges the world in a good direction. Down-home, sing-along, is Walter's preference, gracing places like  The Bullfrog Fish Farm/Eat My Fish  or the  Wrong Place Saloon .

Alex Smith has a deep voice & deep roots in the Allegheny Mountains of northern New York. He was a punk rocker in high school, but at 23 makes music of the folk/Americana vein, about the people & places of his rural home.

Inspired by the likes of Odetta & Pete Seeger, Lisa Meissner makes music with the feel of traditional folk music, but with new tunes and themes, concerns like Climate Change and much more. With her husband, Klaus, they are  The Rustic Riders .

From Tillamook to Nashville, to Bend, Lindy Gravelle has always been all about music. And Friendz. And Love. Growing up part of a family band, having 9 CDs of her own, and with her enduring local following in Bend (and elsewhere), Lindy's voice, piano, and, sometimes, guitar & uke, are enchanting and moving.

Nicolas Boulerice  was a founding member of  Le Vent du Nord , a group from Québec playing progressive folk music, mixing a traditional repertoire with their own originals. Reinterpreting, energizing, and conveying the power of songs, old and new, the band aims to both please and motivate listeners to make a difference.

Jillian Rae  says that she's got music genre ADD, unable to stay focused on any one genre of music. Trained in classical music on the violin, she's likely to be on stage singing and playing pop, cosmic country, old-school folk, hard rock and anything else in reach. You can see her in person at the  Great River Folk Festival , August 28-30, 2015.

Sandy Weisto  has been a part of Milwaukee's folk music scene for 30 years, in front of and behind the spotlights. Having done organizing and sound for Milwaukee's  The Coffee House  and at  The Miramar Theatre , and performed individually and with groups like  Sweet Diversity ,  The Silver Linings , and, currently,  Green Sails , Sandy puts a beautiful voice to...

Our third visit with musician/poet/artist extraordinaire,  Carrie Newcomer , during her visit to the 2015 FGC gathering at Western Carolina University. Along with the release of her 15th album,  A Permeable Life , Carrie released her first book, of poetry, by the same name. Carrie's gentle spirit and her deep and persistent passions combine with her music to make world-changing songs.