Simon Barrett

Let me start with a question, what is the lightest material on the planet? The answer is something called Aerogel. It is so light and so durable that NASA used it to capture ‘Stardust’. Impressive for a product that has its roots in a #2 Pencil, Carbon. Why do I introduce this Fact?

Karen Biehl has created the musical equivalent of Aerogel, the music is so light yet so well composed that the listener is picked up and transported to a world of peace and tranquility, a place that is so sadly lacking in our modern world.

Some music is designed to provoke, some music is designed to be ignored, and some music just picks you up and takes you on a journey. Starlight Dreams is certainly in the category of ‘taking you on a journey’.

As with any musician I listen to I went digging online for information, her website is www.maestramusica.com What surprised me about the site was that it was not your usual, About me, Buy My Album, and Good Bye. She also is involved with a Youth Scholarship Program. Everyone preaches STEM from the rafters but I think the arts are just as important.

Kinetic Element, a band based in Richmond, Virgina (USA) that finally made a mark in the prog world in its tenth year in 2016 by performing at ROSfest and Terra Incognita, and in 2017 at Progtoberfest, has been through some changes in the last couple of years. Sporting a new guitarist and vocalist, and venturing into vinyl for the first time, they composed and recorded their third studio album, “The Face of Life,” during 2017 and 2018. The band, founded and led by veteran multi-keyboardist Mike Visaggio, after breaking into the genre with their first album “Powered by Light” in 2009, garnered acclaim from around the progressive rock universe with their 2015 release of their second band album, “Travelog.” They began becoming known for their epic pieces,containing spiritually uplifting lyrics and symphonic style arrangements following in the footsteps of the founders of the style like Yes and Genesis, as have other great bands like Transatlantic, Knight Area, Frost, Also Eden, and others like them. Reviewers have said that while they can clearly hear the influences, Kinetic Element has molded them into something uniquely their own.

This week on the program author Joel Moore and I will be joined by Robert Hicks and Shauna Devine to discuss medicine of the civil war.

Kinetic Element, a band based in Richmond, Virgina (USA) that finally made a mark in the prog world in its tenth year in 2016 by performing at ROSfest and Terra Incognita, and in 2017 at Progtoberfest, has been through some changes in the last couple of years. Sporting a new guitarist and vocalist, and venturing into vinyl for the first time, they composed and recorded their third studio album, “The Face of Life,” during 2017 and 2018. The band, founded and led by veteran multi-keyboardist Mike Visaggio, after breaking into the genre with their first album “Powered by Light” in 2009, garnered acclaim from around the progressive rock universe with their 2015 release of their second band album, “Travelog.” They began becoming known for their epic pieces,containing spiritually uplifting lyrics and symphonic style arrangements following in the footsteps of the founders of the style like Yes and Genesis, as have other great bands like Transatlantic, Knight Area, Frost, Also Eden, and others like them. Reviewers have said that while they can clearly hear the influences, Kinetic Element has molded them into something uniquely their own.

Experimental beyond expectations, HOIA is an infusion of musical interests by Prateek Rajagopal. Popularly known for being a virtuoso guitarist, budding film composer and writer/producer for death metal legions  “GUTSLIT” & Indian/Amercian prog metal supergroup  “The Minerva Conduct,” his interest in genres and art forms beyond metal gave rise to HOIA, inspired by Avant-garde, progressive rock, experimental and industrial music.

After releasing two EPs with HOIA, Prateek is all set to release his debut album titled “Scavenger.” The record has a more sophisticated songwriting approach compared to his previous releases, albeit still very ‘prog,’ and also features Prateek as a vocalist for the first time. The instruments used on the album are unlike his other projects, using samples of rotating fans and vehicle sounds, analog synthesizers and digital manipulation along with organic instruments like guitars (acoustic, electric), piano and strings.

This week author Joel Moore and I will be joined by Gary Dyson. Gary is the author of A Civil War Correspondent in New Orleans: The Journals and Reports of Albert Gaius Hills of the Boston Journal. The press played an important role in the Civil War.

What is interesting is that here we are some 150 years later and not much has changed. The press treats news with a bias. The coverage of the war by The New York Times was vastly different to the coverage by The Charleston Mercury. Both covered the same battles but with very different perspectices.

This is an encore presentation

Kathleen Urquhart has just released her  debut novel, Pigtails and Potter's Field.. It is a sweeping story of a familly and their lives. From the outside looking in, they are the perfect familly, under the surface though, there is a very different story. The book takes on the challenge of sexual abuse

This week author Joel Moore and I will be joined by Ted Ubanski and Sue Hegman.

Were they brave heroes, or terrible traitors? The answer is deternined fby which side you were one. Spying was a dangerous but very important element of the Civil War

Keyboard veteran Andrew Colyer has secured possibly one of the most difficult gigs today – covering keyboard parts made legendary by Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Jordan Rudess and Tony Banks! Andrew will be performing with 3.2 featuring Robert Berry this coming spring! If anyone is qualified for the position, it's Andrew who has performed and collaborated with the likes of Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson), Jon Anderson (YES), The Tubes, Sound of Contact featuring Simon Collins, Ryche Chlanda (Fireballet, Renaissance), Max Flyer (CBS Records), Clark Terry, Louis Bellson among others....not to mention his own band, Prog-award-nominated Circuline!

 

Keith Emerson left a legacy of music. From his beginnings with The Nice in the 1960's, to worldwide fame with Emerson Lake & Palmer in the 1970's, to his reinvention in the 1980's with the #9 Billboard hit “Talkin' Bout” in the band “3” with Robert Berry and Carl Palmer, Emerson's name is one almost everyone has heard of.

A singer and songwriter most famous for his work on the television show Scrubs, MIGHTY QUINN (aka Quinn Walker) grew up playing Rock, Funk, Soul, and Gospel, and he presently writes music and plays shows with his live Punk band, set to release their self-titled debut album MIGHTY QUINN & THE OAKLAND RONIN in stores and online worldwide November 2, 2018. The album will also be available as a Vinyl LP, and in true Punk fashion includes a ton of leftist political messages about social justice mixed with classic upbeat tunes about love, loss, addiction, depression, and a few pirate references.