This Business Of Music & Poetry Podcast

In this episode, Michael and Clifford interview Dave Brandwein. 

Dave Brandwein is the frontman, guitarist, and one of the creative forces behind the phenomenal band Turkuaz. www.Turkuazband.com

Balancing male-female harmonies, strutting guitars, wild horn arrangements, and interminable grooves, a spirit takes shape on stage nightly for Turkuaz via larger-than-life performances. Among numerous critical plaudits, The New Yorker claimed, “[Turkuaz] delivers horn-filled funk incorporating elements of R&B, psychedelic pop, gospel, Afro-pop, New Wave, classic rock, and just about any genre that gets people dancing.” 

The Brooklyn-based nonet—Dave Brandwein [guitar, vocals], Taylor Shell [bass], Craig Brodhead [guitar, keys], Michelangelo Carubba [drums], Chris Brouwers [trumpet, keys], Greg Sanderson [tenor sax], Josh Schwartz [baritone sax, vocals], Sammi Garett [vocals], and Shira Elias [vocals]—ignite an explosion of energy punctuated by neon hues, deft musicality, and show-stopping singalongs on their newest EP, Kuadrochrome.

Touring incessantly in support of four full-length studio albums, EPs and live releases, they’ve lit up stages everywhere from Bonnaroo, Hulaween, Okeechobee, Electric Forest, and Mountain Jam to Telluride Jazz, High Sierra, and Lock’n, in between gracing stages at legendary spots such as Red Rocks, Terminal 5, and The Fillmore, to name a few. Since emerging in 2011 with their self-titled debut, the group have quietly animated a movement. 

In this episode, Michael Amidei and Clifford Brooks interview the phenomenal musician, Neal Francis. 

Neal Francis (www.NealFrancis.com) 

“I just wanted to be honest about everything, from my musical influences to my story,” muses Neal Francis. After years of dishonest living—consumed by drugs, alcohol, and addiction—such sincerity is jarring from the 30-year-old Chicago-based musician.

Born Neal Francis O’Hara, the piano prodigy found himself touring Europe by the age of 18 with Muddy Waters’ son and backing up other prominent blues artists coast-to-coast. In 2012, Francis joined popular instrumental funk band The Heard. With Francis at the creative helm, The Heard transformed into a national act, touring with boogaloo progenitors The New Mastersounds and chart toppers The Revivalists and appearing at Jazz Fest and Bear Creek. As The Heard’s star rose, however, Francis sunk deeper into addiction. Once a promising sideman, by 2015 he had been fired from his band, evicted from his apartment, and was perilously close to self-destruction. “When you get close to death like that you can feel it,” Francis recalls. An alcohol-induced seizure that year led to a broken femur, dislocated arm, and, finally, the realization that he needed to get clean.

The journey from a hospital bed to launching his solo career was neither predictable nor straightforward. There were musical fits and starts, relapses, and broken relationships. Yet the overwhelming passion driving Francis in this second act has been an abundance of creative energy. “Drinking held my music in a half-cocked slingshot. I was always so consumed by drugs and alcohol that I didn’t have the time, money, or creative energy to do it. Sobriety let it loose.”

Determined to realize the songs swirling in his head, Francis assembled a crack team of musicians, calling on bassist Mike Starr (The Heard) and drummer PJ Howard (The Revivalists, The Heard). He linked up with producer and analog-obsessive Sergio Rios (Orgone, Cee Lo Green, Alicia Keys) and self-funded a trip to Killion Sound in Los Angeles to record the initial batch of material. “I learned to trust my instincts in that room,” says Francis. Buoyed by classic horn arrangements and Rios’ fierce guitar work, the resulting tracks illuminate a lifetime spent studying the masters of rock and soul music.

From the RMI electra-piano riff that kicks off “She’s A Winner” to the screaming organ swells of “This Time,” Francis and company let it all hang out. This is fun music, dance music. Yet verse after verse and chorus after chorus, Francis wrestles with his past in a straightforward manner: “It’s 5 o’clock in the morning, but I’m not home/ I’m surrounded by people, but I’m really alone.” Like Toussaint and Russell before him he’s married the upbeat rhythms of New Orleans R&B with the lyrical approach of a confessional singer/songwriter. The refrain on “This Time” serves as a foxhole prayer for a better future:  “Let me get it this time/I won’t let you down/Let me get it this time/I won’t fool around.”

In this episode, Cliff Brooks interviews Faylita Hicks. 

Faylita Hicks (www.FaylitaHicks.com @FaylitaHicks) is a queer Afro-Latinx activist, writer, and interdisciplinary artist born in Gardena, CA, but raised in Central Texas. They are the former Editor-in-Chief of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), which was a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize, and the 2019 Julie Suk Award.

They have been awarded fellowships and residencies from Tin House, Lambda Literary, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Broadway Advocacy, and the Right of Return USA, the first fellowship designed exclusively for previously incarcerated artists.

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview musical legend Alain Johannes. 

Alain Johannes (http://www.alainjohannes.com) a musician, vocalist, and producer.

He is a founding member of several bands, including the alternative rock group Eleven, and has been involved with acts such as hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey, Chris Cornell, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan and The Desert Sessions, both as a musician and as a producer.

In this interview, we dive into parts of his fascinating life, his views on music, and Alain gives his advice to musicians about how to live a life filled with the artform. All of this from a man who has done it at the top levels.

Instagram @AlainJohannes

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet Angela Dribben. 

Angela Dribben

After 22 years as a massage therapist, Angela Dribben’s scoliotic spine gave her reason to retire and turn to writing. She found herself at Bread Loaf a few months later. Then onto Randolph College’s MFA program. From there her work made its way into journals such as Crab Creek Review, Cider Press Review, San Pedro River Review, Blue Mountain Review, and Crack the Spine. Her first collection, Everygirl is now out with Main Street Rag.

Facebook Angela Dribben

Everygirl at Main Street Rag Publishing

Insta

@angiedribben

Twitter

@angeladribben

In this interview, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview guitar phenom Justin Johnson. 

Justin Johnson (www.justinjohnsonlive.com)  has been hailed by Guitar World as a "must-see act", dubbed "The Wizard" for his mastery of stringed instruments, and recognized as Slidestock International Slide Guitar Champion. In 2014, Justin Johnson recorded his debut double album, "Smoke & Mirrors," a celebration of the art, history, and traditions behind handmade roots instruments. Along with 18 modern-built roots instruments representing builders from all over the world, the album resurrects the voices of 8 of the oldest cigar box guitars and banjos known to exist. Having never previously been recorded, these fragile relics emanate voices on the album that would otherwise have been lost to time. "Smoke & Mirrors" saw it's official release in March of 2014, as Johnson took the stage to present his signature approach to Roots music to thousands of fans at Port Fairy Folk Festival, Australia's largest and longest-running Folk Festival, thus ushering in the "2014/2015 Smoke & Mirrors World Tour," which spanned mainland Australia and Tasmania, North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom. In response to worldwide demand for his educational offerings, Justin Johnson founded "Roots Music School" in Nashville, TN. Under this umbrella, he has released an Instructional Series consisting of DVDs and books on Roots Music technique and theory. As Roots Music School founder, Justin Johnson has partnered with educators across the country to develop Roots Music curriculum for schools.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet, memoirist, podcast host, and veteran Rebecca Evans. 

Links

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview author Christopher Swann. 

Christopher Swann (https://christopherswann.com) is a novelist and high school English teacher in Atlanta, Georgia. A graduate of Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, he earned his Ph.D. in creative writing from Georgia State University. In 2018, Chris was a Townsend Prize finalist, a finalist for a Georgia Author of the Year award, and longlisted for the Southern Book Prize. He lives with his wife and two sons in Atlanta, where he is the English department chair at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview musician and songwriter Angel Snow. 

Angel Snow (www.angelsnow.net) is a talented and inspiring musician and songwriter living in Nashville, TN. Her albums include "Magnetic", "Arrows" and "Stripped".