This month we talk with 2 partners - the singer and songwriter Adam Labeaux and cellist Sara Gibson. They share their musical stories and extol the joys of connecting with an audience and collaborating with other musicians. They also give some helpful advice on improvising and organizing a music festival.

Want to know more? Check out http://www.adamlabeaux.com/ Adam's Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Mw2MS4VjwrhnPAcrXbKJL and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/adamlabeaux Listen to Sara's cello accompanying other small artists' music on this playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7pZmWfaO0zziVfnoVdPkHp

Barker & Broski take a couple hours to talk to Memphis Hawk (Steve Phelps) about the joy, challenges, and strategies surrounding the solo artist - how to manage the many hats of writer, performer, producer, and recording engineer. We touch on one of the benefits of being a small musician: all of our life outside of our music that feeds and inspires our songwriting.

For the music of Memphis Hawk, listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/6PgPCozfh1yRUJDochFjfn For performance and other information, you can find that on his Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MrMemphisHawk/ 

Our special guest this month is the delightful country singer and songwriter Kandace Fredrick. We talk about songwriting, family, and our shared love of music. 

For videos of her songs and performance dates and locations, check out her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kandace.fredrick

Barker and Broski chat with Tom Alter and Katie Williamson about their musical duo After Blue. We talk about their musical life and history, plus balancing music with family, collaborative songwriting, and the joys of being a small act - only playing the music you like, no more often than you want. They also share some tips on booking gigs and how to enjoy them when you end up playing to an audience smaller than your band. For more information about their recordings and performances, check out https://www.afterblueband.com/.

Mike Gentry is an accomplished songwriter, performer, and local producer around Southeast Michigan. In this episode of "Making it Small", he shares stories from his musical journey with Mike and Chris and doles out wise advice on writing and performing. We are excited to share this with all of our amateur musician friends, and anyone else who would like to listen. 

For more information about Mike Gentry and his music, his website is a good place to start https://mikegentrymusic.com/

Behold our first episode with a real guest! And it's a good one too. David roof is a local professional recording engineer and session player. He talks about his music journey and has a lot of great advice for other aspiring musicians. Find out more about Dave on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RooftopRecording/

In our second practice podcast, Barker interviews Broski who shares his musical story starting when he was 8 years old all the way to the current day. I think we are starting to get the hang of this. Maybe we'll even have

You can hear Chris's music at the Barker & Broski project on Spotify and on the Barker & Broski You Tube channel.

In our debut episode, Broski interviews Barker (Michael Snyder-Barker) so we can get a little experience with the whole podcasting thing before pressuring our other friends into coming on the show. Mike recounts his journey from musical obscurity to still musically obscure, but older now.

You can listen to his music on the Internet at the Michael Snyder-Barker artist channel on Spotify and on the Bark's Tales YouTube channel, among other music sites.