Listening Lyrics

Listening Lyrics is proud to present Didar Singh Khalsa. Joining Didar is Jeff Brooks, percussion. Didar has played guitars for 52 years, but started writing, singing and recording songs only six years ago, inspired by six consecutive trips to the guitar/songwriting camp taught by the amazing Richard Thompson. He claims the muse is relentless and not even very intermittent. Let’s test that theory.

Eric Jordan grew up in Davis, and while he was in high school he fell in love with the opera. The world ended up being his stage. Performing around the country and the world, he ended up with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In New York he suffered a massive stroke which eventually ended his career as an opera singer.

While performing in opera productions, he also had an alter ego (as The Opera Cowboy) and performed country music, especially Johnny Cash songs.

In this episode of Listening Lyrics, Eric joins us as we listen to some of his story and music, both in opera and as the Opera Cowboy.

Bass Eric Jordan has been sought by opera companies for his trademark "big bass and presence to match" (Opera News). His voice is described as possessing "a resonant, ringing tone that" (St Louis Post-Dispatch), and The New York Times opines that his "powerful, nuanced singing and thoughtful acting amounted to a wholly remarkable portrayal."

Billy Larkin, who lives in Davis, is an award-winning pianist/composer/arranger who has been bringing his individual brand of musical artistry to audiences for over 40 years. He defies easy categorization and helps define true expression through the collaborative process.

From his website: "Following his studies in piano, music theory, and composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Billy worked in New York City as music director for cabarets, and wrote and performed music for the modern dance company Cheryl Wallace Dance Works. He went on to co-found Stone Street Foundation for the Arts in Cincinnati, which received numerous grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts for large-scale original productions featuring dance and live music.

"A master of multiple musical styles, Billy has performed his music around the world, including during two trips to Ukraine and Russia as cultural ambassador for the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Committee. He has written music for film, video, and commercials, and works as a producer and arranger for various recording artists.

"He has also written for and performed on numerous full-length albums both as a solo artist and as director of the ensembles Etheréal, Ekimi, and Sleep Theatre. Recent projects include: a Broadway-style musical based on a popular children’s book, a live original score for a dance work for the Contemporary Dance Theater in Cincinnati, and working as musical director for Broadway veteran Susan Emerson’s one-woman show The Ripple Effect. For the last five years, Billy has been working with a production team in Los Angeles on a new musical.

"Billy also serves as the music director for the Center for Spiritual Living Davis"

Listen to this program over the air, via the show archives, or on most podcast apps under Listening Lyrics.

Joey Wisgirda (Big Joe Daddy) has been playing trumpet since the age of 9. He has studied jazz theory and composition with jazz legend John Tchicai, and performed throughout California with a diverse range of players that includes Joe Craven and Rick Montgomery (David Grisman Quintet), Fully Fullwood (Peter Tosh), reggae superstar Alton Ellis, Hamsa Lila, and John Tchicai. He has opened for such acts as John Scofield,  Galactic, Charlie Hunter, Bassnectar, Kraddy, and Tipper.

For the past decade, Joey has extended his musical efforts into the computer realm, using  soft- and hardware synths, and tying it all together with a Morrison Digital Trumpet (MDT) to morph from jazz and funk to breakbeats and dub. His live performances on Ableton and the MDT are cutting edge.

Listen to this program over the air, via streaming on www.kdrt.org, via the show archives, or on most podcast apps under Listening Lyrics.