Dropped Among This Crowd Podcast is taking this week off to finish up the massive Summer Camp Music Festival 2021 recap episode coming your way next week. In the meantime, dive into the vault stuffed full of past episodes! And don't miss the fall edition of Crooked Conversations, now available! Head to datcmediacompany.com to get yours!

This week on the show, hear what went down when Umphrey's McGee returned to the Midwest and hit up Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, WI on August 13th, First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN on August 14th + Lauridsen Amphitheater at Water Works Park in Des Moines, IA on August 15th.

This week on the show, hear a run down about the band's return to Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham AL on August, 8th and Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids MI on August, 12th.

*Also tune in to hear an official announcement and more details about "Crooked Conversations", the quarterly publication and new members only website from DATC Media Company *

I am very excited to welcome back to Dropped Among This Crowd Podcast, this week's guest Mary Welch Fox Stasik! This time around Mary is going to talk about all things design and Breaking Bland, her HGTV show that premiered last month!

~ Mary takes us back to when her love of interior design started

~ The day she declared that she wanted to be on HGTV

~ The nerve wracking moment of the big reveal when clients see what she created in their home

~ How she finds inspiration when working with clients

~ The craziest thing she’s ever experienced when renovating a home

~ Her biggest pet peeve about being a designer

~ Her favorite part about doing the show, biggest takeaway and learning experience

~ How the 100 day challenge that we were both a part of helped during the filming of the show

~ Her plans for 2021 and 2022 for her business

~ What advice she would give a young designer

~ Her new passion project – hype mirrors and how the idea came for those

~ She also tells me some more about her blog and more!

* Check out the show notes for links to the episodes from the other two times Mary was a guest on Dropped Among This Crowd *

Tune in this week to hear my chat with fellow umphreak, lighting enthusiast, founder and CEO of Repsy, Tranum Fitzpatrick. In our chat, Tranum and I talk about:

~ Where his passion for lighting came from

~ 2020 and what the past 18 months have been like for him, some of the things he’s been up to

~ His company Repsy, who he represents and how although his company launched in August 2020, during the depths of the pandemic when live music was basically at a stand still that actually turned out to be an advantage for him.

~ His first Umphrey’s McGee show

~ What he likes about being a part of the Umphrey’s community

~ How Umphrey’s lighting inspires him, what he liked about Waful’s lighting and of course we talk about Ben Factor

~ Tranum also tells me about his podcast that’s coming soon, The Luman Show

~ His friendship with Clay Maddox from Crescent Sun Lighting and what it was like getting the call from him when he needed help with "Wrapped around Nashville" back in February and his biggest take away from that weekend and experience

~ He also tells me about the time he got Umphrey’s McGee to play his college homecoming dance – yep, October 17th 2014.

This week on the show, check out a rundown of what happened when Umphrey's McGee hit the south for a sold out evening in Wilmington, NC at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater on August 5th and an inaugural two nights at Beech Mountain Resort on August 5th and 6th.

Tune in this week to hear my conversation with artists Pete + Stephanie Herzog.

In our chat, Pete, Stephanie and I talk about:

Their journey to finding Umphrey’s McGee

Taking their kids to shows, and playing "Stump the Umph” with them

Pete shares where his passion for computer animation came from, and Stephanie tells me when her love for art began

We also talk about the many cool projects that Pete's gotten to work with Umphrey’s on: when the band came to visit his animation studio, Flight School Studio in 2008, The VR project in 2016, The AR Roctopus Red Rocks poster from 2018 and of course the most recent project they’ve been working, the dry erase doodles

They tell me how during the depths of the pandemic in 2020, the doodles started as a way to cope with not being able to see music, how they morphed from just doodles into doing musical icons

We also talk about how Umphrey’s has inspired them personally, professionally, and artistically and so much more!

*Stay tuned for more about where you can see the video of our conversation featuring some artistic input from Pete *

Tune in this week to hear a complete rundown of what went down the two nights Umphrey's McGee played at Northlands in Swanzey New Hampshire on July 23rd and 24th.

Tune in this week to hear my conversation with the owner of Crescent Sun Lighting and Nashville Heat Sauces, Clay Maddox.

Clay and I talk about a whole bunch of topics like:

* Where his passion for lighting came from and his incredible and cosmic journey to starting his lighting business.

* Meeting photographer Keith Griner and the path to having to opportunity to light Wrapped around Nashville at Kris Myers' house. Clay tells me what it was like watching the whole event come together, unfold live and what he learned from the experience.

* We talk about his other business Nashville Heat Sauces, how the idea came to fruition and how doing the lights for UM helped bring the collaboration and their new line of hot sauces to life.

Tune in this week to hear what went down when Umphrey's McGee played a midnight set at Peach Music Festival on Montage Mountain in Scranton PA on July 3rd. Also in this episode, a run down of the two nights the band played at The Caverns Outdoor Amphitheater in Pelham TN on July 9th and 10th.