In Session With Darren Walters

Shawn Pelton is an American drummer and percussionist. He has recorded with a wide range of artists and has been a first call player since moving to New York in the late 1980s.

Shawn has recorded with artists such as Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, Natalie Merchant, Ingrid Michaelson, Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Pink, Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, Five For Fighting, Michelle Branch, Regina Spektor, Tears for Fears, Citizen Cope, Matisyahu, Jonatha Brooke, David Byrne, Edie Brickell, Marc Cohn, Richie Havens, Joan Osborne, Hall and Oates, Odetta, Pavarotti, Phillip Phillips, George Michael, Carly Simon, Dixie Chicks, Chris Botti and Buddy Guy, and has played on several Grammy winning albums for artists including Ray Charles, The Brecker Brothers, Shawn Colvin, Les Paul and the Hank Williams tribute album with Bob Dylan.

Shawn is also the longtime drummer in the house band for the NBC TV network's sketch comedy and music program Saturday Night Live.

Co-Host - Jason Brinkworth

Jayson Brinkworth is a professional musician, educator, author and drum industry builder who grew up and still makes his home in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Ten platinum and gold studio albums. Five concert DVDs and live discs. Five PBS specials. One Juno Award. Eleven nominations. One Gemini Award. Three Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. One Acoustic Guitar Magazine Player's Choice Silver Award. A wall full of similar accolades. Thousands of concerts indozens of countries. Millions of YouTube views and audio streams. Countless fans around the globe. And a career that is celebrating its 25th year andcounting.

Greg Godovitz has been an active member of the Canadian music industry since 1964. The year 2018 marks his 54th anniversary as a musician.

His recorded works with Toronto based group Fludd produced eight top ten hits including the SOCAN Hall Of Fame inductees Cousin Mary, Brother and Me and Turned 21 which have reached the amazing milestone of over 100,000 airplays.

Greg went on to enjoy national success with Toronto power trio Goddo, recording and producing eleven albums and touring the country extensively from 1975 to the present.

"Canada's Prince of Piano" – that's how the Beijing Times, China's leading English-language newspaper, described Canadian pianist and composer Martin Mayer.

Born in the Czech Republic, and now based in Vancouver, Canada, his music has been defined as instrumental fusion – a combination of smooth jazz, classical, pop, and rock. Mayer's European roots add a good share of thoughtful and longing soul, his North American education contributes a healthy dose of high-octane energy. An explosive mix.

The Galway, Ireland, and Nashville-based quartet––comprised of two sets of brothers, Enda & Fergal Scahill and Martin & David Howley––continually push musical boundaries while maintaining an unwavering devotion to the essential audience experience. WB3 seamlessly converge the shared and varied traditions of Americana, Bluegrass, and Celtic music with pop-sensible songcraft to create a truly unique and gratifying signature sound. Brilliantly commanded instruments––banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and percussion––effortlessly elevate lead singer David Howley’s propulsive voice. Live on stage, their songs carry the listener along until, at the perfect moment, the band crescendos into catchy choruses with pitch perfect harmonies. We Banjo 3 deliver their music with such palpable rapport, stunning precision, and infectious energy, it’s impossible to pigeonhole what kind of listener might suddenly consider themselves a WB3 fan

As a best-selling author and Emmy-award winning television producer for nearly 20 years, Paula has produced health, wellness, and lifestyle segments with a range of top experts, including JJ Virgin, Jillian Michaels, and Deepak Chopra. She served as senior health producer for Fox News Channel in New York City for over a decade. Today, Paula works with experts, authors, and entrepreneurs on how to position themselves for media (traditional as well as blogs and podcasts), build their lists, and engage customers and fans for their brands, books and businesses.

Paula created the productivity site ListProducer.com and is the best-selling author of Listful Thinking: Using Lists to be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed, which has been translated into 12 languages and has been featured on many media outlets including Fox News, Fox Business, Prevention, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Brides and made it on Oprah.com’s list of “Self Help Books That Actually Help.”

Jesse Brewster is a roots-music Renaissance man — a singer/songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who's spent the better part of two decades sharpening his personal brand of West Coast Americana.

From their beginnings in mid-Sixties Ohio as a group of friends playing cover tunes to the present-day unit featuring founding member/pedal-steel innovator John David Call, veteran bassist Mike Reilly, propulsive drummer Scott Thompson and guitar ace Donnie Clark, PURE PRAIRIE LEAGUE continues to embellish the rich 43-year history of one of Country-Rock’s pioneering forces. As one reviewer recently wrote: “PPL’s sound combines sweet memories with edgy, contemporary muscle. Their vocals are as strong as Kentucky moonshine and the musicianship and performance skills are as sharp as a straight razor”.

Their eponymous first album – featuring the Norman Rockwell/Saturday Evening Post cover that introduced fans to PPL’s trademark cowpoke “Sad Luke” – has been hailed as a “major early influence in the emerging popularity of Country-Rock music”. Their second effort, the multi- platinum “Bustin’ Out” brought us the Craig Fuller-penned classic “Amie”, along with other gems of the genre. With “Two Lane Highway”, nine more albums and countless shows, a legacy has been forged and enriched during the

‘70s and 80’s, highlighting contributions from several noteworthy members, including original co-founder George Ed Powell, Cincinnati’s legendary Goshorn Brothers, Country Hall of Famers Gary Burr and Vince Gill, award-winning writer Jeff Wilson (3 Top-20 singles) and a host of other guest appearances from Chet Atkins, Johnny Gimble, Emmy Lou Harris, David Sanborn, Eagle Don Felder, Nicolette Larson, and many more.

Now in their fifth decade, Pure Prairie League continues to lead the way for the new generation of Country/Rockers such as Keith Urban, Nickel Creek, Wilco, Counting Crows and so many others that cite PPL as a major influence.

As crisp and clean as spring water and as comfortable as a well-worn cowboy shirt, Pure Prairie League still brings it all back home.

Kevin Williams enjoys over 45 years’ experience in the music industry and private postsecondary education system. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist/composer with an impressive catalogue of scores for film and television as well numerable album production credits, Kevin has an extremely diverse skill set which includes, musician, producer, audio engineer, studio owner, publisher, lecturer and a sought after mentor and speaker in the music business.

For more than 50 years, their distinctive harmonies and stellar musicianship helped define the sound of country-rock. Still led by the band co-founder and multiinstrumentalist who wrote and sang their biggest hits, they are a dedicated unit of four formidable songwriters, vocalists, arrangers and players. And rather than rest on any of these considerable laurels, they instead hit stages coast-to-coast armed with the kind of classic songs and instrumental chops that puts performers half their age to shame.