Local Open Mic

Alan Brewer, originally from New York, has worn many hats in his five decade long career. From contributing musician and arranger to full producer for major movie releases and even a publisher, Alan has found himself working with many of the who's who in the music and movie industry, including the likes of Rick Wakeman, Pete Townshend and Arlen Roth. While still in a successful band in the late 70's, he was approached with the idea of leaving his band to be one of the new front men for Jefferson Starship… before Mickey Thomas. We play six songs that Alan had a hand in producing, including a few that wrote and played on. His skill as a musician will never be overlooked and as an arranger, he is always in top form. The stories behind the songs are as diverse as his career.  You'll love the story about Pete Townshend.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanbrewer/

Arlen Roth is an artist with an amazingly diversified resume, so where does one start in talking about Arlen Roth. Here, I'll give you the short list of accomplishments, his band was the only band to play at the Second Annual Woodstock Festival to a crowd of 50,000 fans, he played with the Bee Gees during a 1974 tour in Canada, he was in the first skit on SNL in 1978 with Dan Akroyd and John Belushi that shortly evolved into the Blue Brothers, he was the last to record with the legendary Johnny Winter, before his passing in 2014. Arlen has many more stories to tell, both professional and personal, including the back stories to four songs we'll hear in the episode.

Website: Arlen Roth

Booking: [email protected]

General Information: [email protected]

Today we're talking with Ivan Bodley aka Funkboy! If you like funk music, you will love this episode! This is one cool cat! Ivan has a book, available on Amazon entitled, "Am I Famous Yet?: Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star". We will be talking about the book along with his musical roots. Before his career as a working-class rock star, Ivan worked for major record labels as a publicist and has eight platinum and multi-platinum records he has contributed too, but who's counting! These include projects with Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, Michael Jackson and Bad, Luther Vandross, even Weird Al Yankovic and his platinum Fat project that was a parody of Michael Jackson's big hit. As a performer he's played on two grammy nominated records, with Pete Seger and Raphael Cruz. We'll hear four of his original funk tunes and get the back story for each. Let's bring in Ivan!

Website: www.funkboy.net

His book on Amazon: Am I Famous Yet?: Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star: Bodley, Ivan "Funkboy", Clarke, Stanley: 9798711152200: Amazon.com: Books

A Local Open Mic first! A special blend of songs from artists we’ve interviewed. Start your summer right with the 2021 Summer Blend Playlist!  Some of our guests were songwriters only and so they needed other singers to perform the song they contributed too.  Find the song you like and look up their interview, get the backstory to all of these great songs.

Berry Leef (Baby Come Back) Kevin Kelly (For All Time), Paul DeMarco (Designs On Your), Megan Barker (Tequila Told Me To), Rae Leigh (All Of Me), MonaLisa Twins (Still A Friend Of Mine), Rorie Kelly(Magick Comin), Bill O'Hanlon(Southern Nights (duet)), David Shanhun(Whiskey and Red Wine), Taryn Laronge(Juliet), Lucy LeBlanc(Afraid Of The Dark), Toby Tobias(), Dakota East(Runaway), Lorraine Baron(Down The Road), Corey Pryor(Light Up My Life), Tom Scott(Hooked), Joe 'Rockstar' Nelson(Haight Street), Lewin Barringer(Ignoring All The Stop Signs), Tara Jamieson(Birches)

Tara Jamieson! Tara Jamieson is a Canadian singer/songwriter living and attending university in Dublin, Ireland, with aspirations of being a medical doctor! Funny thing happened on the way to her Hippocratic Oath, she auditioned for Ireland's Got Talent and made it all the way to the semi-finals. With classic Canadian politeness, she writes songs of personal experiences in her life, and along with the back story to each of the three songs we'll hear in this episode, you'll not only feel as though you know her but you will like her too.

Website: http://tarajamieson.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tarajamiesonmusic/

Intagram: @tarajamiesonmusic

YouTube: Tara Jamieson - YouTube

Tiktok: @tarajamiesonmusic

Dakota East is a country singer/songwriter, living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She just released her first song, 'Runaway', that is already being added to several major iTunes Playlists. Dakota spent time in the trenches, playing rock, blues and jazz before finding her passion in a country sound that only she can bring. Hear the song and the story behind it, along with other details of her musical journey.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dakotaeastmusic

Intagram: Dakota.East

Website: https://www.dakotaeastmusic.com/

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of the Local Open Mic podcast! In this first episode of season 2, we talk with Kevin Kelly. Kevin, is a well-known and highly regarded producer/recording engineer and musician in the New York City area. Among his credits is recording the earliest known demo by Blondie, that's right, Blondie and it is from 1975! Four out of the five demo songs went to Gold Record status and yes, they were the versions he recorded with the band. He has worked with many of the best artists from the 70's and 80's, recording live performances with Hall and Oats, Billy Joel, The Police, Edgar Winter and many more. Many of these recordings made it to the artist's 'live' album/cd releases. He was the bass player in several successful bands in the 70's, even touring with the Bee Gees throughout eastern Canada in 1974. By 1989 he changed gears and turned to teaching, becoming a tenured professor at a local Long Island college. Twenty five years later and about five minutes after retiring, Kevin launched a studio again, The Workshoppe East. He will talk about all of these things and the never before heard stories behind five songs we'll be playing in this interview.

Website: The Workshoppe East – Music Production & Mixing

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-kelly-8a618b109/

Tom is 'modern easy'. He takes life one day at a time and has managed to remain a viable performer during the challenges in the past year due to public health concerns. He has a nearly unmatched repertoire of cover songs he can perform on request. You'd be wrong to think of Tom Scott as a cover artist though, he in fact has released some amazing music that we'll hear, along with their back stories. His faith in Christ contributes to his unpretentious approach to life, so much so that he only mentioned an American Idol contestant covered a song of his after the interview was over! He is a rare find and worth your time to listen.

Facebook: tslionsong

Spotify: Soul Frosting

YouTube: "Time" by Tom Scott

Toby Tobias, grew up in South Africa, leaving his homeland after high school for an music education in Israel and eventually immigrating to the United States and settling in Long Island, New York. He is passionate about his musical journey and has produced a live show about it called, "Journey From Johannesburg", performed across the United States, from New York to California. Toby writes and produces all his own music and has a decided South African feel it. He brought four songs for us to hear and each has a great backstory you won't want to miss. Let's get right to the interview.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toby.tobias.58

YouTube: (2) The Toby Tobias Ensemble - YouTube

Northshore Original Open Mic: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WELOVENOOM

Wednesday: 8 - 10 PM EST