Four years ago, in the middle of the pandemic's first year, the band had a weekly video program for 20 or so weeks, with guests, music, interviews, sketches, and other fun elements. We've been asked "when are you going to do that again?". Well, the answer is we'd like to try something new, along the lines of a video podcast. The idea is to have guests on a regular basis, but not particularly every week. It's just a way for us to check in and for our fans to interact with us in the comments. The idea is to keep it light and less than 15 minutes as opposed to the half hour we did each week from mid '20 to the end of the year.

So here's just a rough intro of what we may do. Ella and Lila had no idea that Jefferson was intending this to be an informal launch of the podcast, so they seemed almost speechless at times! As they warmed up, they were more open. Jefferson is a chatterbox, so the idea is to rein him in!

Secret Monkey Weekend are a family power pop trio from Durham NC. They have been playing live since sisters Ella and Lila were 13 and 8 years old. Papa Jefferson Hart (Jeff Hart) is a longtime mainstay in the NC Americana music scene. They have recorded two albums with producer Don Dixon (REM - Smithereens), the second one due out in 2025. PBS recently profiled the band. More on that below.

The Emmy Award winning PBS mini-feature on Secret Monkey Weekend https://youtu.be/xbBiy6lSzIw?si=DIOGQ9C6QE9dzFlq and https://video.pbsnc.org/video/secret-monkey-weekend-ukc7h8/ https://linktr.ee/secretmonkeyweekend http://www.secretmonkeyweekend.com http://youtube.com/secretmonkeyweekend http://www.facebook.com/secretmonkeyweekend http://www.instagram.com/secretmonkeyweekend https://open.spotify.com/artist/3yHOi73zNW69IHwW9GUQEX?si=B1wljj0VTgi2lXZl6GlnTw https://music.apple.com/us/artist/secret-monkey-weekend/1606815318

Drums and vocals - Lila Brown Hart Bass and vocal - Ella Brown Hart Electric guitar and vocals - Jefferson Hart