Three Song Stories

Missy Balsam is a yoga teacher, singer-songwriter and recording artist. Missy began teaching yoga in 2007, after spending her 20s and 30s in a stressful, high-level sales and marketing career in New York City and Los Angeles. Missy began her music career by blending elements of alternative rock with Sanskrit mantras from the yogic tradition called kirtan. Her 2016 debut studio album REVEALED was c...

Chuck Garfien is an Anchor and Reporter for NBC Sports-Chicago - he hosts White Sox Pre and Post-Game Live with Ozzie Guillén, Frank Thomas, and other former White Sox players. He also writes for nbcsportschicago.com and hosts the White Sox Talk Podcast. Chuck basically gets to live and breathe Chicago White Sox for a living. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sean Dunnigan is Owner of Ollie's Pub in Cape Coral, FL, a punk venue located on Cape Coral Pkwy. Ollie’s was one of the few venues in Southwest Florida that hosted live, original rock, metal, punk, and experimental concerts and events.  Following a challenging 2020 and weathering the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Ollie's, unfortunately, had to make the difficult decision to close its doors in April...

CLAY is a Los Angeles-based alt-pop musical artist who has amassed more than 45 million streams across her platforms, and just wrapped up her “Waiting for God in the Garden” tour, which was her first full headlining run across the U.S. with performances in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Denver, and San Francisco. She joined us from her home in LA See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Ken Wells is vice president and general manager of Cabbage Key. His family has owned Cabbage Key since 1976. As a young boy he collected and sold shells to visitors out of a cardboard stand along Cabbage Key’s shoreline. In October of 2023, Ken was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer at the age 44. He turned to making music as an emotional outlet amid the physical and emotional battles that ove...

Dr. Chaerin Kim is a multi-instrumentalist (she actually plays 10 instruments) who currently teaches piano and harp at University of Massachusetts Boston. She’s also a conductor and composer who has released 146 songs on 7 albums, and she’s scored more than 100 versions of her original song “Rendezvous” which began as a piano piece but has now been produced in  80 different languages. Dr. Kim was...

Charlie Pace is a Southwest Florida singer-songwriter who's been performing since she was 7 years old. She released first her single at the age of 14, and a few months out of high school, Charlie became a backup vocalist for the nationally-touring Pink Floyd Tribute band, Floyd Nation. She performs original and cover music under her own name, as well as original punk music with her side band CAAM....

Dave McMahan (known best by his stage name Dave! Ja! Vu! is a prominent name in SWFL's local music scene, taking the stage as a one-man acoustic guitar and harmonica playing folk punk band. Fueled by DIY punk energy, Dave records all of his own albums and handmakes his merch, down to the artwork inserts and clothing.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. April Lynn James (AKA The PhDiva) is a classically trained soprano with a PhD from Harvard. Her “delightfully readable” book, The Tenth Muse: How Maria Antonia Advanced the Pastoral Opera debuted at #1, and is an international best-seller. During her doctoral studies did she begin her holistic wellness journey in earnest, in order to heal from stress induced weight gain, depression, and tendon...

Dr. Fredara Hadley is a professor of ethnomusicology at Juilliard in New York City. She teaches courses on ethnomusicology, jazz history, and African American music - and her research focuses on the diverse musical legacies and impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Hadley’s commentary is featured in the recently released PBS series, "Gospel" and the 2021 series "The Black Chu...

Tim McGeary is a singer-songwriter who started out in the New York club scene playing at CBGB's, Trax, and Danceteria. In 1982 he was signed to A&M records with the band The Rescue - they were together for two years and opened for the likes of Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Simple Minds, Missing Persons, and Stray Cats. Tim has recorded three solo albums, the first two under the name "Wonderful John...

Emma Rodriguez is a journalism student at FGCU. She’s southwest-Florida born and raised and says her goal is to help keep the spirit of local journalism alive in her hometown.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chion Wolf is the host of Audacious on Connecticut Public Radio. It features  conversations with people who have uncommon or misunderstood experiences, conditions, or professions. Audacious is a three time Gracie Award winner - the Gracie Awards recognize exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment. She is also the host of Other People...

Kirsten Hines is a writer, photographer, and environmental educator who started out as a wildlife biologist, but found herself being drawn toward storytelling with images and words versus collecting data so made a big pivot in that direction. Kirsten’s photographs and writings have appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications, including eight books…the latest of which is “Wild Florida: An Ani...

Jason Crosser is owner and operator of 8-bit Hall of Fame, where he buys, sells, and trades video games, consoles, collectables, accessories, trading cards, pro-wrestling memorabilia, and Vinyl albums, figurines. In 2022 hurricane Ian destroyed his store and more than $2 million of inventory, but the store reopened and Jason is back doing what he loves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Stacey Holman is Series Producer & Director of the new four-part PBS documentary series, Gospel . She's a Harlem-based filmmaker who has directed and/or produced a number of award-winning projects including an episode of the 2018 PBS series Reconstruction: America After the Civil War hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. She was a producer on the critically acclaimed documentary Tell Them We Are Ri...

Gina Sabiston has been a DJ, sold puppets, is an eight-time Golden Apple Finalist, and has served on the City of Fort Myers Historic Preservation Board since 2003, also chairing the board for a significant portion of that time. She has served on the Charter Review Committee, ran for city council, and dedicated her time to nearly 30 boards.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Walt Tiburski spent more than 50 consecutive years in the commercial radio business, starting in college at a local radio station as a “gopher” and working his way up to becoming a radio station group owner of 23 stations. Walt quickly rose from Account Executive to Sales Manager to Vice President and General Manager of the legendary WMMS 101.1FM “The Buzzard” in Cleveland. Also during that time T...

Katie Garcia is Vice President of A&R at Capitol Music Group. Prior to that Katie worked at Secretly Group for 8 years and helped sign some of their flagship artists including Slowdive, Faye Webster, serptentwithfeet, Japanese Breakfast, and Phoebe Bridgers.  Before that she was the label manager and head of A&R at the independent record label, Captured Tracks. She also co-founded Bayonet...

Preston Rumbaugh is a roots-music veteran now based in Clarksdale, Mississippi  where he is a member of the Big A & the Allstars blues trio. He also leads his own blues band that features Big A & the Allstars members Anthony "Big A" Sherrod and Lee Williams, and he plays solo gigs.  Preston has backed a who's who of blues legends including Robert "Bilbo" Walker, Big George Brock, and Terry...

Grace Lougen is a guitarist and songwriter from Buffalo, NY. She toured Europe and the US with award-winning bandleader Robert Parker and with Grace Stumberg, who also performed as Joan Baez’s background vocalist for 8 years.  In the studio, Grace has contributed her songwriting and guitar playing to more than a dozen full-length records and in 2018 she joined forces with Megan Brown, Josh English...

Dr. Dawn Belamarich is president and CEO of the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, which used to be the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. She leads a team that coordinates efforts to solve Southwest Florida’s social problems on an eighteen-year deadline. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration and Leadership, and has dual master’s degrees in Sociology/Criminology, as well as Ment...

Bryce Ivie is Events Director for Sugarshack Music Channel - and he hosts their podcast that features conversations with the cool bands they bring to their porch. He’s also the frontman for an Americana Folk Rock band called Sun State Blues.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chef Paul Rogalski is the Culinary Director & Co-Owner of Rouge Restaurant in Calgary - one of San Pellegrino’s "World’s 50 Best Restaurants". He can be seen starring in Les Stroud’s Wild Harvest on PBS, where he explores natural landscapes across North America with Survivorman Les Stroud. In each location, Les forages native ingredients that Paul then turns into culinary delights.  See omnyst...

Dan Navarro is a singer and has been a songwriter for artists including Pat Benatar (he co-wrote “We Belong”) The Bangles, Jackson Browne, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick and more. He's also a voice actor and singer. Most recently, he sang on six Lin-Manuel Miranda songs in the Disney Film Encanto . He’s also done voice work for Family Guy, American Dad , and for video games and TV commercials. Da...