This Business Of Music & Poetry Podcast

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet and professor Victoria Chang. 

Victoria Chang (www.VictoriaChangPoet.com) is an American poet and children's writer. Her fifth book of poems, OBIT, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. It won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the PEN Voelcker Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize and was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and long listed for the National Book Award. It was also named a New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Best 100 Books of the Year, a TIME Magazine, NPR, Boston Globe, and Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year.

In 2021, she published Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief, Milkweed Editions. The book was a TIME, Lithub, and NPR most anticipated book of 2021.

Her prior book of poems, Barbie Chang,[1] was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017. Her third book of poetry, The Boss was published by McSweeney's in 2013—it won a PEN Center USA literary award and a California Book Award. Her second poetry collection is Salvinia Molesta (University of Georgia Press, 2008). Her first book, Circle (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), won the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry.

She also writes picture books for children and middle grade novels, and her picture book, Is Mommy? published by Beach Lane Books (Simon & Schuster) in the fall of 2015, illustrated by Marla Frazee, was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her middle grade verse novel, LOVE, LOVE was published by Sterling Publishing in 2020. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017, a Lannan Residency Fellowship in 2020, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2017, a Poetry Society of America Alice Fay di Castagnola Award in 2018, a Pushcart Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks interviews author Michael Romkey. 

Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Michael Romkey writes smart, character-driven horror. His first and much-imitated vampire-themed novel, "I, Vampire," is a cult classic. His series continued with “The Vampire Papers”, “The Vampire Princess”, “The Vampire Virus”, “Vampire Hunter”, “The London Vampire Panic” and “Telluride Blood”.

Other works include “Fears Point”, “The Vampire’s Violin”, and “American Gothic”.

The bio on his website reads:

I live on the banks of the mighty Mississippi in the U.S.A. Heartland — Iowa, to be specific. My musical interests are what might be called, for lack of a better label, Americana — a variety of fiddle tunes, bluegrass, folk, blues, country blues, Irish, Scottish, Celtic (the bigger category), punk classical, country … basically, music as people play it sitting in their kitchens or on the front porch with a cup of coffee or glass of rye nearby.

In this episode, Michael Amidei and Clifford Brooks interview Clark Hagan. 

Clark Hagan (www.clarkhaganproductions.com)    is a Grammy award-winning Producer/Engineer with a world-class resume and a legendary mastery of the recording arts.

After graduating from the University of Colorado at Denver, Clark began to master his craft as a recording engineer while working with the legendary Bill Porter whose credits include artists such as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers while at RCA from 1959 to 1964. After a short stint at Allen-Martin Productions in Louisville, Kentucky, Clark moved to Nashville where his trusted relationship with Porter provided the opportunity to work with the legendary Chet Atkins.

In his time with Atkins, Clark engineered the Grammy Award Winning record in 1996 for best country instrumental and was nominated again in 1997 for a record with Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel in the same category on which he also played guitar. Clark’s success with Atkins paid off and subsequently led to work with some of Nashville’s top artists including Ray Stevens, Alison Krauss, Bryan White, and Jeffery Steele amongst others. In the highly competitive world of Nashville Clark continued to build relationships with such producers as Scott Litt, Tony Brown, Kyle Lehning, Billy Joe Walker Jr., Bill Schnee, and James William Guercio while also getting to work out of some elite studios such as Woodland Sound Studios, Quad, Omni, and Masterfonics.

Clark has worked with other such national artists as Kenny Passarelli, Marty Haggard, and Eugene Moles along with Colorado artists such as Dave Preston, Oscar Ross, Wild Angels, Nick O’Connor, and Casey James Prestwood and the Burning Angels to name a few. Clark has also been working with the Caribou Ranch estate on the “Caribou Collection” project with artists Elton John, Billy Joel, and Chicago, and is also refurbished one of the original Caribou Ranch consoles “Olive”.

Whether it be mixing, tracking, or producing, from rock to country, Clark brings his rich heritage and diverse experience to every project and is always looking for artists who share the same passion. to make great sounding records. Along with doing projects out of Macy Sound Studios, Clark is also an experienced technician and is also knowledgeable and competent tech and audio consultant.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet Ashley M. Jones. 

Ashley M. Jones (https://ashleymjonespoetry.com/) is Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026). She received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. 

She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida’s Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. 

Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, Quiet Lunch, Poets Respond to Race Anthology, Night Owl, The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, pluck!, Valley Voices: New York School Edition, Fjords Review: Black American Edition, PMSPoemMemoirStory (where her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016), Kinfolks Quarterly, Tough Times in America Anthology, and Lucid Moose Press’ Like a Girl: Perspectives on Femininity Anthology. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. 

Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. 

She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press, and she is the 2019 winner of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Jones is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and a 2020 Alabama Author award from the Alabama Library Association. She was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020.

She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. 

Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview musician & founder of Alzheimer's Music Fest Vincent Zangaro. 

Vincent Zangaro (https://alzheimersmusicfest.org) 

Vincent's Alzheimer’s journey began over a decade ago at the age of 29 after his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. At 68 years old, the elder Zangaro’s health rapidly declined, leaving him unable to care for himself – and that’s where his son, Vincent stepped up. Driven by the challenges he faced navigating the ups and downs of his father’s disorder and health, a fire was lit in Zangaro to offer help to those living and affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia-related illness.

Combining his expertise within the music industry, a decade-long career as a regional staffing director at mega-brand Hot Topic and years of Alzheimer’s caregiving experience for his father, Zangaro flexed his creativity, leadership, love, and passion for music by founding the Alzheimer’s Music Fest in 2013, with the goal to raise awareness and funds to help families care for loved ones. Through festival fundraising efforts, Zangaro met Dementia Spotlight Foundation CEO and Co-Founder Whitney DeMarlo Oeltmann and came on board with the organization in 2017.

Zangaro supports DSF by overseeing outreach initiatives and actions, serving as the Director of Development and Special Events. He works tirelessly to orchestrate several weekly online support groups, prioritizing the importance of providing free respite care support, and he is an integral facilitator of locating and providing critical medical equipment for families in need. As a full-time advocate for Alzheimer’s and dementia families, Zangaro plans events and secures much-needed grants and sponsorships. He also oversees the Atlanta and Tampa Alzheimer’s Music Fests.

The Alzheimer’s Music Fest has since become an annual rock ‘n’ roll event, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and helping hundreds of families care for loved ones. In 2020, Zangaro expanded the Alzheimer’s Music Fest with a Live Nation Tabernacle partnership and by leveraging relationships with many well-known performers who have also been impacted by dementia-related issues.

Zangaro currently resides in Canton, Georgia with his wife Amy and can be found playing an occasional nightly gig, writing songs about his experiences, walking his dog Jupiter or in his home kitchen playing gin rummy, a favorite pastime.

Note: Due to Covid the Alzheimer’s Music Festival is postponed until early 2022.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet and professor Lee Herrick. 

Lee Herrick (https://www.leeherrick.com) is the author of three books of poems, Scar and Flower, Gardening Secrets of the Dead, and This Many Miles from Desire. He is co-editor, with Leah Silvieus, of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (forthcoming Spring 2020, Orison Books). He served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. His poems appear widely in literary magazines, anthologies, and textbooks including The Bloomsbury Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, The Normal School, The Poetry Foundation, ZZYZYVA, Seeds from a Silent Tree: Writing by Korean Adoptees, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California's Great Central Valley, 2nd edition, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed, One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form, Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, and HERE: Poems for the Planet, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama (Copper Canyon, March 2019), among others.​ Herrick is on the advisory board of The Adoption Museum Project and has traveled throughout Latin America and Asia and has given readings throughout the United States. He was born in Daejeon, South Korea, adopted at ten months old, and raised in California. He lives with his daughter and wife in Fresno, California. He teaches at Fresno City College and in the MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College.

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In this episode, Michael Amidei and Clifford Brooks interview Gary Chapman. 

Gary Chapman (www.GaryChapmanArt.com) is Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, as well as a BA and BS from Berea College.

Chapman has had over 70 solo exhibitions with institutions such as The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, The Arts Center of St. Petersburg, FL; University of Cincinnati, University of Georgia, and the Indianapolis Art Center. He has also participated in numerous group and invitational exhibitions with regional, national and international venues.

Chapman was awarded and named a Joan Mitchell CALL Legacy Artist in 2013 and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a 1996 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting from the Southern Arts Federation and a 2002 and 1994 Individual Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. His work has been reviewed extensively and is published in over 20 catalogs and books including the 4 Editions of New American Paintings.

13 Paintings by Chapman have been purchased for the collections of ten museums in the southeast region as well as by many corporate and private collections throughout the country.

In this episode, Michael Amidei and Clifford Brooks interview Megan Baxter. 

Megan Baxter (www.MeganBaxterWriting.com) holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Vermont College of the Fine Arts and a BFA in Poetry from Goddard College. In 2004, when she graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy as a Creative Writing Major, Megan was honored as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. While working for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Megan taught “pop-up” writing workshops at public schools in South Carolina, including poetry writing sessions in under-served and at-risk educational communities. In 2019 and 2020 she returned to Interlochen Arts Camp as an instructor of high-school level fiction and nonfiction.

Megan’s first book ‘The Coolest Monsters, A Collection of Essays’ was published in 2018 by Texas Review Press. Her memoir ‘Farm Girl’ is forthcoming from Green Writers Press in 2021. Megan is pleased to announce that her essay collection 'The Body(Electric) will be published by Mad Creek Books from Ohio State Press as part of their 21st Century Essay Series. Megan is currently seeking representation for her debut novel.

Megan has won numerous national awards including a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been listed in The Best American Essays of 2019. Recent publications included pieces in The Threepenny Review, Hotel Amerika, The Florida Review, and Creative Nonfiction Magazine. Megan serves as a mentor to young writers and loves developing cross-genre and innovative creative writing pedagogy for her workshops and classes. Megan lives in New Hampshire where she loves walking her dogs, running, and cooking with local foods. She teaches writing at Colby-Sawyer College.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview Maal The Pimp. 

Maal The Pimp (www.maalthepimp.com) released his first solo album Business As Usual in the Spring of 2003, after appearing on numerous independent projects since 1998. In 2004, Maal graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Recording Industry: Music Business. He then relocated to New Orleans, La to work with former Cash Money Records platinum artist B.G. under his newly established label Chopper City Records, which was distributed thru Koch/E-1, Assylum, & then Atlantic Records. During his time at Chopper City Records, Maal was head of Marketing & Promotion, In-House Studio Engineer, Booking Agent, & Road Manager for all artists signed to the label.

In 2005 while still at Chopper City, Maal launched his company Pimpoholic Entertainment & Booking, releasing several mixtapes, albums, & documentaries under his own imprint. Due to his expertise & experience in the music industry, along with his college degree, Pimpoholic Entertainment & Booking renders several services such as management, legal consulting, reading/writing contracts, marketing & promotion, event booking/planning, video treatments, mixing/mastering, & label building. Maal The Pimp is more than just an artist, HE’S A BRAND!!!!

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview guitarist Jimmy James. 

Jimmy James (https://linktr.ee/jimmyscratchjames) a man of another era- an old soul w/ an encyclopedic knowledge of 60’s soul music & the creative drive to evolve that sound into the future. His guitar phrasing, tone, and temperament are something truly creative and inspiring. His unique tube amp guitar sound defines classic and is a vital part of the WeCoast sound. Born and raised in Seattle on a steady diet of soul music, gritty R&B, blues, and Jimi Hendrix. Through his influences and his own deep explorations into music, he has crafted something truly special & original.

He is the guitar man behind The True Loves, Tiffany Wilson, F2D aka Funky 2 Death, and so much more.

He is a part of the Delvon Lamar Organ Trio. He is also an original member of F2D aka Funky 2 Death, the legendary live Friday night show at Seattle’s Seamonster Lounge.