I met Jon on a chat during Meagan Gillis’ live event on Facebook, and said to myself “I’ve always wanted to talk to him. He wears a cookie monster onesie, but he’s incredible on xylophone.” It was lovely to meet and chat with Jon and meet his daughter, who was hiding in the dresser drawer for most of the podcast.

Yuko and I have been friends for a long time through our mutual mentor Cliff Alexis. She is an amazing musician, composer, arranger, pan tuner and builder. I’m honored to call her a friend. You won’t regret listening to this chat.

Nadia is a musician I’ve crossed paths with many times in many green rooms but never really got to know. green room honesty: I was afraid to talk to her. She was good. I was not. Pretty simple. She’s amazing at what she does and thinks long and hard about her music and her podcasts (which you should check out) called Living Music and Meet the Composer. I thoroughly enjoyed this chat. You can her work at www.nadiasirota.com

Meagan is an amazing xylophone player and timpanist and is an all around gem of a person. I saw her on a facebook/instagram live performance a few weeks ago where she was improvising over ragtime music and taking requests, chatting, and drinking a beer. She was hilarious and VERY ok with making mistakes and having a blast, and I was like “I gotta chat with her.” It was time well spent. Enjoy.

Matt Dudack, Dr. Larry Snider, and I chat with the current percussion students at the University of Akron. It’s always good to be home. www.uasteelband.com

Doug and I talk for a brief while to put the nail in the “corona-cast” series of the Concert Honesty Podcast. I don’t want to label my chats with friends, new and old, with that name any more. Time to move on! Doug is my bubby and the first Corona-cast guest, so it seemed fitting. Enjoy.

Zach is my brother , and we chat about and google the current RIDICULOUS conspiracy theories surrounding the covid-19 outbreak. If you hate conspiracy theories, and the people who talk about them AT ALL, then here’s a piece of friendly advice…scroll on by. I’ll talk to anyone, even my dearly beloved brother! Try and stop me. My next chat with him is on “here’s what to listen to in 5 youtube links and why if you’re only gonna ever click on 5 YouTube links to learn about the blues” (as far as he’s gonna teach me in one podcast). Can’t wait. Enjoy!

I Talk with Victor about his life as a pannist and educator now during the covid-19 outbreak. He eventually convinces me to play “jazz.” First lesson: It’s not “jazz” to play the minor 3rd all the time, and I mean literally all the time as your starting note. Lesson learned.

Bill and I killed a bat, quite on purpose, in our living room, together, as one, when we lived in the same apartment in Akron during college. Bill is a wise percussionist living in Wisconsin. We have an illuminating conversation about politics and humans, but also talk about drums for exactly 1 minute. I WILL talk with Bill on our next episode about arranging music for other instruments. (ie. Bach for marimba, Chopin for double second steel drums, etc.)

Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

Gloria is a percussionist in Chicago and we talk about finding meaning in our craft, as well as dealing with anxiety and depression and using it as a superpower.