Music FridayLive!

Texas-based singer/songwriter Sarah Pierce was musically influenced by her family’s heritage in the cattle business and she sings about the long line of women who get things done on the ranch.  Writing and playing classic country from a woman’s viewpoint and from a place firmly rooted in the land, she combines heartfelt story telling with an honest message in the 9 albums spanning her career.  Pierce released her newest CD, Barbed Wire, on the Little Bear Records imprint. Produced by Merel Bregante, Barbed Wire was recorded at The Cribworks Digital Audio in Liberty Hill, Texas, and she is launching her support tour this month in Texas.

Gina Chavez is a bilingual Latin-folk singer/songwriter from Austin, Texas, who blends the sounds of the Americas with tension and grace. Her latest independent release, Up.Rooted, is a collection of bilingual songs traversing cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and folk combined with dynamic vocals and sharp social commentary. The album topped the iTunes and Amazon Latin charts and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. She is the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner for her song “Siete-D,” a rock-cumbia-rap mix that explores the delights and dangers of El Salvador from the bus she rode as a volunteer there in 2010. She is currently on tour and will be onstage in Los Angeles at the Hotel Café, Oct 10 with Mitre and Irene Diaz.  But she stops in at Music FridayLive! this Friday.

Rafe Offer is a seasoned marketer (with stints as Director of Marketing at both Disney and Coca Cola, plus clients such as Amazon.com, AXA, The Daily Mail and Microsoft as a Marketing Consultant) but his passion is music, specifically music in a living room. So he created SOFAR to hold concerts in his living room and then his friends living rooms and now living rooms in over 180 cities around the world - all free and all curated.  He joins us Oct 2 at 11:04 am PT/2:05 pm ET/7:05 pm London to tell us how he did and how anyone anywhere can be part of what may be the next revolution in music.

Bob Malone has toured the world as a solo artist for two decades and has played keyboards with rock legend John Fogerty since 2011. His sound is a one of-a-kind hybrid of rock, blues, and New Orleans R&B, delivered with high-energy piano virtuosity and a voice all his own. Currently based in Los Angeles, he still plays with Fogerty’s band  plus an average of 100 solo shows a year.  Malone has shared stages with Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Rickie Lee Jones, The Neville Brothers, Rev. Al Green, among others. He comes to us Friday with tales from the road (he will be calling in from the tour) and great songs from teh new EP,not yet available in the US.

Damien Ike is a recording artist who has worked with a long list of headline artists in the UK.. I n fact you could say he is the real deal when it comes to British Musicians.  Championed by SBTV, BBC 1XTRA,Indie Shuffle, Complex Magazine, BBC Introducing, Hype Machine and  many other media tastemakers, his music is pure and offering a yet-to-be heard spin on relate-able truth, love and experience.  He recently released his first 'online' single 'Kingdom Come”, and the song has already placed at #3 on the Hype Machine chart.  He is now in the USA, introducing fans in the world’s most important music market.  And he joins us on Music Friday Live this Friday.

Halo Circus founder Allison Iraheta (“American Idol” Season 8 finalist) collaborated with producer and bassist / keyboardist Matthew Hager of Duran Duran to form the LA-based band, recruiting drummer Veronica Bellino and guitarist Brian Stead. The band blows away crowds with infectious, unapologetic, bilingual alternative rock crammed with seductive, powerhouse vocals and crowd-pleasing rhythms. The band is currently putting the finishing touches on its debut album due out in 2015 with Hager producing at 76 Steps Studios in LA.

Heaps n Heaps have been creating raw and magnetic indie-rock since 2012, when Sydney Australia native, Alisa Fedele, met Salt Lake City, Utah native, Zach Moon, in LA through knew that an incredible chemistry was there between their voices. It wasn’t long before he band headlined a packed EP release show at the Troubadour with their soft and sweet to fast and danceable alt rock. Now on tour with two EP’s under their belt, they have entertained at SXSW and toured the hot spots of LA and beyond.

New Zealand-born, LA-based singer/songwriter Jackie Bristow just released a new single and is set to release her second album, after the smash hit “Freedom”. The Freedom album  picked up by Starbucks for rotation in the US.  A prolific performer, Jackie has been the opening act for John Oates, John Waite, B.J Thomas, Joe Ely, Marcia Ball, Charlie Robison, Rick Springfield, Art Garfunkel and many more.  She joins us this Friday with her new single and a peek at the new album.

Krysta Youngs is an artist with a message, multiple skills in delivering it and a deft skill with pop music. The Berklee graduate has sprinkled her talents across the country from her home in Michigan where she picked the piano instead of ballet because she hated tights (and still does!) to songwriter rounds in Nashville, TN, to the inspiring streets of Los Angeles and the creative minds  in The Writing Camp..  Her eclectic alternative pop music has been featured on hit television shows like MTV’s The Real World, Lalaloopsy, ESPN, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians and launches soon on Starbucks. A genius in many ways, she is also just plain fun, with or without the eyeglasses.

Born in London to Greek parents, Athena Andreadis - Athena to her fans - finally got the piano she wanted at 16 and has been performing in English and Greek ever since. An extraordinary singer/songwriter,  she sings, records and performs at clubs, top stages and major European festivals. She has seen her music score ads, films and television programs in Europe and has even been the subject of a BBC documentary. The US beckons, so she played at Hollywood's prestigious showcase venue, Hotel Cafe and blew away the audience.  Athena is currently recording her first US record and 4th studio album at The Village Studios in Los Angeles with producer Ethan Allen and a star-studded lineup of collaborators including Jimmie Paxson from Stevie Nicks band.Focused on the studio, she is still taking time off to talk with us this Friday.  

Straight outta’ North Georgia comes a rock solid authentic country band, Smith and Wesley  - two brothers, Scott and Todd Smith.  Somehow these two siblings and their band blend  Jimmy Hendrix electric guitar action, gut-busting blues feeling, snare drum rock beats, and down home country western writing and singing that grabs you by the throat, shakes you until your boots loosen up and the kicks you out on dancefloor with music that says “Rock out America”.  Their debut album, Choices & Chances, just out on Garage Door records, will blow the doors off any Georgia barn or Hollywood nightclub.

Cuban-born, New York City raised singer/songwriter  Elsten Fulano Torres is a two-time Grammy nominated BMI and multiple award winning singer/songwriter. His music is a sprinkle of British pop with a dash of Cuban troubadour and a chunk of American heartland soul, developed through years of writing and performing all over the world.  After a 2014 world tour, Fulano has released a new greatest hits album, Éxitos Acústicos with his long-time Grammy-winning producer Rodolfo Castillo. He is now on tour supporting the album and will join Music FridayLive! This Friday.

MAN MADE TIME is a pop duo from Los Angeles, comprised of two multi-talented artists, Hillary Grace and Albert James Babanian. Their original songs have a commercial yet unique feel drawn from their inspirational backgrounds of 80's and 90's pop, rock, and tribal influences. Together they create an sound like you have never heard before, drawing from world genres to create a perfect sound for today. Both growing up in musical families, the two collaborated make beautiful, melodic sounds that are driven by tribal catchy beats adn tehy join us wsith their first releases this Friday..

Noctambule is a duo of visual and musical artist Marla Fibish and her husband, guitarist Bruce Victor . Together they set poetry to song using Marla’s long experience Irish music, the mandolin, accordion and voice and Bruce’s world class guitar chops. Their new album, The Waking, sets the words of many poets to stunningly beautiful music.

The Mekaal Hasan Band unites the Sufi, Folk & traditional musics of Pakistan with Western jazz harmony and rock.  Hasan, a major star in North Asia, reframe centuries-old Sufi and Punjabi court poetry as smoldering, growling rock anthems while doing the impossible: they honor traditional musicianship, while totally opening  its sound and meaning. The result is mind-blowing for both Asian and Western fans.  They are touring the USA and will be with us this week on Music FridayLive.

Aubrey Logan is an award-winning artist whose vocals range from deep and electric, to delicate and vulnerable. She breaks genre barriers by combining jazz vocals with R&B, neo-soul, pop and a touch of rock.  Winner of the 2009 Audience’s Choice and Jury’s First Place Awards at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.  Her voice and talents have appeared on television shows and albums such as the 57th Grammy Awards with Pharrell Williams, a Josh Groban single, ABC’s the Golbergs, and more.  She is back in LA and rocking the scene with  hot jazz, cool trombone, bright red platform heels and lots of fun.

A native of Hudson Bay, Saskatchenwan, KalseyKulyk’s battle with cancer at the age of seventeen inspired her to adopt the mantra, Sing And Be Heard; one that she has carried with her throughout her musical journey. At only 19, she moved to Las vegas to work with famed record producer, Richard Dashut (Fleetwood Mac), landed her a record deal with Phaymis Records and released her successful debut EP in 2014 and later her hit single “Rewind”. She joins us from Canada to give us some insight into how a small time girl from northern Canada madeit to the big music world in the USA.

The LA/NYC-based rock band OWL - Chris Wyse (vocals/bass), Jason Achilles Mezilis (guitar), Dan Dinsmore (drums) - releases its third album, Things You Can’t See this week on Overit Records. The melodic hard rock band built around former Cult bass and electric stand-up bass player Wyse is now on tour and packing clubs from New York’ BB King’s Blues Club To Hollywood’s legendary Whiskey A Go Go. Wyse and Mezilis join us and brings the new EP to preview on Music FridayLive!

Las Cafeteras' vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and a community  sings with a focused political message. Their Afro-Mexican rhythms, zapateado & inspiring lyrics love & the fight for justice, remixing  traditional Son Jarocho sounds with Afro-Caribbean marimbol and cajón, poetry in English and Spanglish, and instruments like jarana, requinto, a donkey jawbone and the Tarima. Currently on break from their most recent tour, they join Music FridayLive! This Friday.