The Park

I met Sue Kittredge and Steve Reeths at a party on my birthday—it wasn’t MY birthday party but it was a party ON my birthday—about 20 years ago. We found we had a lot in common in regard to music. Steve and Sue had played in the Muskegon area for quite some time and had been very successful, especially with bands like Solid Ground, which was a powerhouse country band, and Amaryllis, which is a legendary local band. And I was in a band called The Swinging Stem Cells. ‘nuff said. When I got a chance to go see them play, I was taken by the fact they were very professional and both really, really

good musicians. As you’ll see in the podcast, they got to those places in different ways. The thing that I value about them besides the friendship, is that they’re really professional about the way they approach music. They have the customer in mind like lots of companies would like their people to have the customer in mind. They’ll do anything to make sure people have a good time listening to the music, and generally speaking, when you go to see Steve and Sue play, in any of the bands they’ve been in, you’re going to have a good time because they’re that good. I couldn’t have asked for better teachers, mentors, examples as to how to go about the music business than these two.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. It’s the first podcast we’ve done as a remote. Talking to Steve and Sue, you’ll be able to tell by some of the background noise at their home in Florida that I was talking to them from the palatial studios of the Park Podcast. There are some glitches, clicks and a guy on a motorcycle decided to find out what his engine can do but I generally think it’s pretty good. The bird sounds are great and no, I did not put them in there for effect. They’re actually real birds. But it worked out as well as should be expected and I think we’ll probably get better and better as we’re forced to do podcasts remotely.

I don’t edit the podcast much. (And the congregation says, NO SHIT!) When I do, it’s usually because I’ve been running my giant mouth. I think I’m a good interview subject because the interviewer can ask me a question, go have lunch, run to the bank, take a nap, and be reasonably sure I’ll still be rambling on when they’re done.

Unfortunately, I display some of the same characteristics as an interviewer. You see, I really like to tell stories.  I don’t exercise much discretion as to when I launch into one of my many vitally important and tremendously entertaining stories. The unfortunate interviewee may trigger a burst of storytelling by uttering a word...any word.  It would be okay if I simply asked a question and waited - quietly - for an answer.  But the act of asking the question is likely to trigger another story.

Me : So you were attacked by Big Foot. Can you tell me about it?

You : Well it was pretty terrif—

Me : (interrupting) I knew this guy with big feet once. I went to high school with him.

...and I’m off to the races.

All you have to do is look at the distribution of squiggly lines (the technical term for wave forms) on the respective tracks. If there seems to be an equal amount of squiggles for each track, somebody is talking too much.

Fortunately, this wasn’t an issue with “Patti Eddington: When Patti Met Mary Ann Lopez.” The story is so compelling and well told, it forced me to concentrate, thereby missing my opportunities to hog air time. Oh well, my loss is your gain.

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I’ve known Jon Workman for a long time. When we met, he had been home from Vietnam for a while, daughter Erin had been born and he was in school and playing music in local bars. We didn’t have much in common at that time. Jon was much more experienced and much, much, much cooler than I was.

I have made some progress in the experience category, very little in the coolness part. Jon, on the other hand, has continued to build on his experience and is still crushing the cool part.

Jon has been a student, a teacher, a soldier, a coach, a musician, an artist and a dad/grandfather. And later in the spring, he will add boat builder to his already impressive list when he launches his first homemade boat. These were not hobbies. The student and soldier bits aside, Jon taught in the Spring Lake and Muskegon districts and also coached volleyball in those districts. He is a professional artist and sells his work out of his studio in Muskegon or by commission   and as a musician, he has opened for artists like John Prine, Leo Kottke and Jimmy Buffett. He also has six granddaughters - he receives no compensation for that.

Through it all, Jon has remained unfailingly positive. You sort of have to be to undertake building your first boat - by yourself.

For a while and before we really knew them, we lived across the street from Patti and Jim. I should mention that the “street” was a busy road and we were on “the big curve” which received its name because “Dead Man’s Curve” was taken. Crossing the road on foot was challenging.

Initial contact was in a fundraising effort to support school music programs. But we moved and lost contact a bit.

When I decided to do The Park podcast and began searching for subjects, Lisa suggested Patti. I knew Patti had recently had a genealogical revelation and I reckoned she would be willing to talk about it. A perfect guest.

I’m only occasionally wrong. Rarely this wrong. Not only did she say no but she said she wants to interview me. The cheek! This is MY podcast!

So I politely said yes ma’am and turned on the mic.

It is probably a bad idea to attempt to describe any person with a single word. Born in St. Louis and raised in LA, it is hard to detect either location on Kwame Kamau. And there are all the other roles he plays. For example, if you describe Kwame Kamau as a poet, you risk missing the singer/songwriter part. Or the activist bit. Or the coordinator chunk. Or the vitally important husband, son, and father section. As you’ll hear in this discussion, all the things Kwame does and all the things Kwame is frequent collide with each other while fighting for a place in a sentence. However, there is no confusion about his passion for his friends, family and community.

And another thing, Kwame is an energetic seeker and if you’re lucky enough to be close when he goes out looking for answers, he may take you along. And if he does, buckle up!

To celebrate the release of their new single - Lone Caravan - Where Do I Start?, here is a rerelease of the of the original podcast. 

Here’s the link to the song:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17mNsHeoWC8&feature=youtu.be 

 The idea behind this podcast was that there are many people doing interesting things we wouldn’t know about if we didn’t ask.

However, there are people who don‘t need much encouragement to tell you, in rich detail, who they are. Colt Snuffer and Raziel Castaneda are two of those people. You are likely to hear about music and their band Colt Snuffer and The Dead Horsemen (including Jacob Scott on guitar and Larry Passenier on drums a few seconds after hello. These guys totally dedicated to their music and the process of making music in general. If you happen to be a musician, they don’t have to be encouraged to pick your brain. They are profoundly humble. In short, as you’ll hear, a real treat to be around.

Colt describes the music as Country Gothic. I think it is unique and uniquely good. You can hear Colt Snuffer and The Dead Horsemen on Spotify, iTunes and wherever you buy your music.

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It’s unusual for a marriage to last 43 years. Even more unusual for a musical partnership to last 43 years. There’s just so many things that can go wrong. Ruth and Max have managed to do both. And they’ve made it look easy. It’s obvious to those of us who know them that they enjoy what they do. All the loading and unloading, travel, less than spectacular food, and long drives home don’t seem to have fazed them. They bring the same level of attention and enthusiasm to each show.

it’s obviously paid off because after 40+ years in the business, they’re still adding fans and friends.

You can find them at ruthbloomquist.com or on Facebook.

The correct answer to this Carnegie Hall question is, of course, practice. My next guest has done that. More than Carnegie Hall, she’s sung in every opera house in the world she's wanted to sing in, save one. 

Gwen and I have known each other since we were children so I didn’t think she could surprise me. As far as her many accomplishments are concerned, the people she’s met, the places she’s performed, she didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me is her unfailingly positive attitude and the joy she still takes from music. 

Gwen has plenty of reasons to have a not-so-rosy outlook on life. But somehow she finds a way to remain a positive force in our universe. And we’re all the better for it.

At the time we recorded this, Jeff and Katie Steele had 11 kids living with them. Five of their own and 6 fosters. There’s little doubt that the Steeles practice what they preach, believing there’s always room for one more. 

Jeff and I discuss the demands and challenges of being a foster parent as well as the need for foster parents is Muskegon and Ottawa Counties. 

Jeff, a pastor at Watermark Church in Grand Haven, has been heavily involved as a parent and trainer of new foster parents. 

Musician, teacher, goat herder and Nonnina, Mary Ellen is in constant motion, moving toward the next thing. It’s amazing she keeps her balance as well as she does. Maybe it’s from hanging around all those goats. The owner of Woodsprite Farms shares her insights.