Songwriter Trysts

Meet Pete Marksteiner A mid-life husband and dad, Pete describes himself as "a fairly average guy, blessed by an extraordinary family, leading a blissfully ordinary life." After 35 years of the Monday-Friday grind he, like many folks, started losing focus on the things that make all our lives wondrous and beautiful. As an avid songwriter and now first-time kids' book author, Pete's passion is making art, both musical and literary, that encourages smelling some roses every chance you get, and savouring life's very best moments.

Pete was one of the first people to ever reach out to me to be apart of the songwriter trysts podcast when we started in August this year and his song and book 'Little Pink Kitty" really spoke to me and brought a tear to my eye. It was the perfect song and person to end the year on and hope that this Christmas you too can find a little Christmas Miracle of your own. 

Little Pink Kitty story book can be purchased from Amazon HERE 

Here is the link to the Little Pink Kitty Song 

Connect with Pete:

Bill O’Hanlon is a songwriter who turned to psychotherapy then has come back to songwriting. After a long successful carrier as an author in self help books and psychology he has now professionally songwriting with multiple artist cuts and TV show sync deals. He has co-written books on songwriting with Marty Dodson and Clay Mills which you can find here.

He has also had artists, Paul Demarco, Kings of the Earth, Kevin Herchen, Jennifer Mlott, Luke McQueen, Steel Ivory, 23rd Hour, Chris Ising Trio & Charlene McDearis Wentworth all release songs he is a writer on. Checkout this playlist with his songs on it on Spotify HERE.

Songs we highlight in the podcast include: 

Connect with Bill;

Jennifer Mlott is a multi-talented award-winning Singer, Songwriter and Choreographer from Indianapolis, Indiana. Jennifer is the 2019 International Singer Songwriters Association Rising Star of the Year & 2020 ISSA Vocalist of the Year. In Oct. 2019, 2018 & 2017, Jennifer won the Entertainer of the Year & Vocalist of the Year for the Kentucky Country Music Association. She also captured the 2018 North American Country Music International Association's, Video of the Year for her Single, Different Drummer.

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Kevin’s songs have been covered by a long string of artists over the last 40 years, including Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings, Patty Loveless, The Judds, Bobby Bare, Ray Price, The Highwaymen (Willie, Waylon, Cash and Kristofferson), Linda Ronstadt, Solomon Burke, Garth Brooks, to name a few.  In 2018-19 Chris Stapleton recorded and released his song “Millionaire”, which stayed on the Billboard Chart for over 50 weeks and made it to #2 and had over 5.7 million views on YouTube. 

Kevin came out from behind the curtain in 1990 and recorded two records for Warner/Reprise, Kevin Welch and Western Beat.  In the mid-90s he co-founded the Americana flagship indie label Dead Reckoning Records, and released Life Down Here On Earth, Beneath My Wheels, and Millionaire, which was cut in Denmark and Nashville with the band known then as The Danes.  Along with label partner Kieran Kane came 11/12/13: Live in Melbourne, and then three successive records with Kieran Kane and Fats Kaplin, You Can’t Save Everybody, Lost John Dean, and Kane Welch Kaplin.  The trio were nominated two years in a row for Best Group by the Americana Music Association.

In 2008 he relocated to the Hill Country of Texas and made one record outside of the Dead Reckoning fold for his friend Jimmy LaFave, A Patch Of Blue Sky, and later, back to Dead Reckoning with the most recent, Dust Devil.

He offers one on one songwriting sessions and workshops, to find out more about opportunities to learn from and work with Kevin, check out his website. 

Connect with Kevin:

Keppie Coutts Is a well established songwriter and educator, recommended to the show by Pat Pattison she lives in Sydney and works with the online Berklee College of Music course, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney, Collarts in Melbourne, and River Road. 

She has taught at the Australian Institute of Music been an Assistant Professor of Songwriting at the Berklee College of Music, as well as teaching at the The Songwriting School of Los Angeles. With all of this expertise in songwriting and a passion for sharing she lovingly has given up her time to share some key wisdoms that he has learnt along with advice she got from working with John Mayer and other industry professionals from all of the world in all different Genre's.  

She also has her own music which she releases and performs and shares the deeper story behind where music really began with her after loosing a parent at a very young age, starting a Law degree and dropping out to chase after what she was supposed to be doing with her life.  

She recommends people to find a community of songwriters to connect with and mentioned songwriting communities like 'I Heart Songwriting Club' 

Connect With Keppie:

Katie Brooke is an Australian singer songwriter sweetheart with a magical sound and perspective on life. We talked about her journey with music, art and her difficulty when she was younger with the idea that there were "rules" that she felt she was being told she had to follow to build a career in music. She is a graduate of the Australian Academy of Country Music (AACM) in Tamworth and continued to work on her music as a young musician. 

After taking some time out and working as a personal trainer she has made some big changes this year and jumped back into releasing music after a long time. Taking her power back and being the amazing artist she has always been. So proud to have her on the show and share her amazing gift with you. 

Connect with Katie:

Singer Songwriter ELEEA from the Gold Coast, Australia is presenting her new travel collection of music after a world of experience as a singer who started very young and a love for backpacking and travelling around the world she is inspired by life, music and travel. She has faced so many challenges and with wisdom picked herself up and learnt from every experience, the good and the bad. She describes how songwriting has been a way for her to processes her big emotions and used it as a therapy.

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Todays episode of Songwriter Trysts has been done in honour of the life and music of songwriter John Condrone. His family have requested and organised for us to feature John and his music on this podcast to honour his life with the help from close friend and co-writer Scott Southworth who joins me in this podcast today. This man urges everyone through his life and music to "leave a little love in the world" 

If anyone would like to support his family there is has been a go-fund me page set up HERE - https://gf.me/u/y5v2tt

Thanks to the people from Knoxville songwriter association for their quotes and stories from Johns life which are included in the podcast. 

Find out more about John:

I'm joined to today by Australian singer songwriter and teacher Lyn Bowtell.

"Finding that drive inside of you can be hard but enjoy the wins and remember that it’s okay to feel any way that you feel in the moment and that sometimes can come through in the song you write." Describes Lyn in this featured podcast. She wanted to be a singer forever and never really considered another option, it's what she wanted and has always done. We talk through her journey as a singer, songwriter and teacher along with check out some of her new collaborations and work. 

She encourages us to "find the right people to share your songs with who can validate you and nurture your songwriting."

“The more personal the more universal” was a great quote that she loves when writing songs. 

Director of the country music academy which is going online for 2021 with country superstars. 

Check out the online course here: academycountrymusic.com.au

Connect with Lyn:

Ainsley Costello originally from Seattle just moved to Nashville at the age of 16 with her parents to pursue her music career just as the Covid 19 lockdown hit, hear how this pandemic has impacted Nashville and the arts through the eyes of this ambitious 16 year old girl and her family.

Trying to be who she is but at 16 she is aware that she doesn’t know exactly who she is, Rae and Ainsley talk about how life changes over the years and that who you are keeps changing and they make a comparison of life to the old “choose your own adventure” games.

She has a long list of artists she would like to write with but top of the list in the podcast was John Mayor.

Connect with Ainsley.