Kathryn Lasky | Daughters of the Sea

September 23, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Kathryn Lasky [40:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From Wikipedia:

Kathryn Lasky is the American author of many critically acclaimed books, including several Dear America books, several Royal Diaries books, 1984 Newbery Honor winning Sugaring Time, The Night Journey, and the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is married to Christopher Knight, with whom she lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Kathryn is the award-winning author of several children’s books, including the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book, She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! Her imaginative new series, ‘Daughters of the Sea,’ tells the story of three mermaid sisters who, separated at birth by a storm, go on to lead three very different, and very exciting lives.

Posted by jamie | Filed Under Childrens, Fiction, Entertainment, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Terry Healey | At Face Value

September 20, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Terry Healey [16:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From his website:

Terry Healey is a cancer survivor who endured over thirty surgical procedures in an effort to reconstruct his face, which was disfigured by a fibrosarcoma. Terry has been published in Guideposts Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Psychology Today, and Coping Magazine. He is also a contributing author of Reading Lips, released in 2008, Make Your Own Miracle: Surviving Cancer, released in November 2004, and a contributing author of Open My Eyes, Open My Soul released in December, 2003. He is an Honorary member of the Board of Directors for The Cancer League, Inc., and serves on the Leadership Council of the Wellness Community for the San Francisco Bay Area. Terry is also the President of a sales and product strategy consulting firm called Ridgeview Consulting. Terry has recently appeared on ABC’s “Sunday on Seven” with Cheryl Jennings, Total Living TV Network with Jerry Rose, KTVU/Fox 2 “Mornings on 2″ with Ross McGowan, and appeared on over 30 radio stations across the U.S. Also a professional speaker, Terry regularly presents to corporate sales professionals, medical professionals, and students.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Motivation, Health, Medicine, Spirituality, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, Inspiration, PODCAST

Steve Knopper | Appetite for Self-Destruction

September 19, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Steve Knopper [21:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From his website:

Steve Knopper covers the music business for Rolling Stone magazine. His next book, on the record industry in the digital age, is due from Free Press/Simon & Schuster in January 2009. He is a Denver-based journalist who has written for Spin, Details, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, National Geographic Traveler, Wired, New York, Chicago, Backpacker, as well as the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The Washington Post, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Denver Rocky Mountain News, the Miami Herald, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and many books and websites.

He is the former on-air technology correspondent for Fox News Chicago and has appeared as an expert source on CNN, NBC News, MSNBC, WNYC-FM in New York, WXRT-FM in Chicago, and G4: Attack of the Show as well as in print publications such as Reuters. He has written or edited several books, most recently Moon Colorado, a travel guide. He also co-wrote, with rock-band manager extraordinaire and northwest Denver neighbor Mark Bliesener, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Band; it contains a foreword by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. For three years, he wrote the Daily Net Buzz column for Yahoo! Internet Life until that magazine folded in 2002. Steve’s specialty is pop music, but he writes about a range of other topics as well.

Born in Livonia, Mich., he moved to Boulder, Colo., at age 13 and wrote his first-ever story for the high school newspaper about students’ tastes in music. (Dig the extremely strange Patament reference.) After attending the University of Michigan and working for The Michigan Daily, he spent a year on the 5 a.m. obituary desk at the now-defunct Richmond News Leader in Virginia. After that, he became pop music critic and feature writer for the Daily Camera in Boulder; within four years he’d moved up in the Knight-Ridder Newspapers chain to the (Gary, Ind.) Post-Tribune, where he wrote about truck-stop prostitution, mob-style triple homicides and wigs. He quit the paper in January 1996 to become a full-time freelance writer, and has been happy that way ever since.

Steve lives in northwest Denver, with his wife, Melissa, and daughter, Rose. He has occasionally been known to rock.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Publishing, Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

John Abrams | The Abrams Brothers, Viva La Vida

September 19, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: What a great tune, Viva La Vida. Of course, it’s a Cold Play song, and what a version of it, it’s awesome. And I’ve heard that it’s going to be, or already has been, on CMT, and I’m welcoming to the show John from the Abrams Brothers. Welcome to the show.

John Abrams: Hey there, how are you guys?

Dr. Kent: Pretty good. So tell me, tell me about this song, Viva La Vida. I have not heard that before, and it’s pretty exciting. This was on CMT?

John Abrams: It’s going to be coming out on CMT this Monday in the United States, and this coming Saturday in Canada, and it’s a song by Cold Play that was released by those guys. They’re a British rock band. It was released last summer by Cold Play, and we’re certainly big Cold Play fans. So we decided to do a country rock version of the song and put it on the Internet last summer, and stirred up a whole bunch of buzz with CMT and a whole bunch of other people, and we’re really excited about it because it’s a great song. We love to sing it and play it.

Dr. Kent: And the sound is absolutely awesome. It’s driven by a banjo in it. Who’s playing the banjo?

John Abrams: Oh, that’s Brandon Green. He actually, he played banjo with us last year and he’s a fantastic musician, and he recorded the part with us when we did the single last summer.

Dr. Kent: That’s wonderful, and tell me about this, the core of this group, of course, you’re the Abrams Brothers, and a cousin. Are you guys all still together then, in the group?

John Abrams: Yeah, yeah. James and I are the brothers, he’s 16 and I’m 18 and we grew up playing bluegrass music, and we certainly love that. That’s our accord, and also gospel music, we have a lot of reaching gospel. But this is actually a very, as you can probably already tell, it’s a very family oriented thing. We’re actually the fourth generation playing roots and gospel music in our family, on the road actually, the fourth generation on the road. So that’s a pretty exciting tradition to carry on. And we’re joined by our cousin Eli on the bass and our family travels with us on the road. Our grandparents, they help drive the bus and cook and clean and cut our hair and run the merchandise table, and we have a great thing going, we’re really excited about it.

Dr. Kent: So they must be all pretty pumped that this thing is happening on CMT on Monday?

John Abrams: Yeah, it’s really exciting. We’re just really glad that we can bring our roots and bluegrass music and take it into a contemporary setting and have it recognized by other people in the industry, and also the fans and people who listen to it. They’re, they seem to be relating to it, and we really appreciate our generation latching onto a great tradition, but just kind of packaged in a newer way.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about the three of you. Who does what?

John Abrams: Well I’m John Abrams, I’m 18, I play, I play acoustic guitar and electric guitar and also I do a lot of the lead vocals, and some harmony singing. My brother James plays a lot of fiddle, a little bit of guitar, and he’s a 16 year old, and he does a lot of the singing as well And then we’re also turned by our cousin Elijah, he’s 18 and he plays the electric and upright bass. And we have a drummer. Ethan Myers, and a banjo player whose name is Nick Picianini, and that’s pretty much everyone that goes out. We’re also joined by our producer, Chris Brown. He produced the album Blue on Brown that we put out a little over a year ago. He plays keys with us on the road sometimes. So we kind of have a, I guess you could say a bluegrass, rock, country group that goes out together, and that creates the Abrams Brothers style.

Dr. Kent: And I wanted to play a song here, if you want to wait on the line, because the album Blue on Brown was what drew me to you in the first place. I’m a huge Arlo Guthrie fan, as you guys obviously are as well. This is an album of Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Tell me about that album, Blue on Brown.

John Abrams: Yeah, we’re just, we’re really excited to be able to record a whole bunch of great material, great songwriting material. Both of them are fantastic writers. And we originally were just going to do a whole bunch of bluegrass versions of their songs, but two years ago now, a little over two years ago we met our producer Chris Brown, and he produced the Mild Man Tribute To Steve Goodman album, actually, for the Goodman family. And of course the song City of New Orleans is on that. We recorded the song by Steve Goodman, City of New Orleans, which certainly was an Arlo Guthrie hit as well. And we met Chris because of our mutual affection for the song, and he lives just near where we live, on Molt lsland, just off of Kingston, Ontario, which is our home town. And we connected with him, and ever since we’ve been making music together. So that’s kind of the story of Blue on Brown album, but all those are great songs, and we’re really excited to be able to perform them and carry them on in the Abrams Brothers way for a generation that might not have been exposed to them.

Dr. Kent: Well, if you want to hang on the line, I’d love to listen to the whole track of City of New Orleans. It’s about five minutes, so you could probably go and have a snack and then brush your teeth and come back, but we’re all excited to listen to City of New Orleans, where it all started with this album Blue on Brown. Here we go.

(music)

Dr. Kent: That’s a great tune, it’s called City of New Orleans. Of course, that’s a famous tune by Steve Goodman that was covered first by Arlo Guthrie, and this is a version that was recorded by the Abrams Brothers. The label is UFO Music, United For Opportunity is the name of the label, and it is their work that they did with all sorts of amazing musicians. And Arlo Guthrie, who most famously said that, “They’re too young to sound that good,” and we’re going to get John back on the line, John Abrams, and that’ll take just a second for that. And then we’re going to listen to another track from the album, which will be called Gotta Serve Somebody. The album is, of course, both Dylan songs and Arlo Guthrie songs, and the album’s called Blue on Brown. We’re having a little bit of technical difficulties, hold on just one minute. And do I have John on the line?

John Abrams: Hello? I’m here.

Dr. Kent: Hey there, John, how are you doing?

John Abrams: Good, how are you guys?

Dr. Kent: We lost you for a second there, that’s our fault.

John Abrams: Hey, yeah.

Dr. Kent: But we listened to the whole track of the City of New Orleans. Great tune. Not the easiest song to play the first time you pick it up.

John Abrams: Sure, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of chords in that one, but we wanted to learn it exactly how, really, we listened to Arlo Guthrie’s version cause of course it was our tribute to Arlo Guthrie, but you know, it’s just, it’s one of those timeless songs, one of those memorable songs. It doesn’t matter which generation listens to it, as long as you bring it into that new generation in context. This is just one of those timeless songs, and I just, I really think a timeless song the way it’s written, the way the melody is, is a timeless song (inaudible) for years and years.

Dr. Kent: How do you compare these Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie songs to, you know, Cold Play? Do you guys just pick up on great music and say, “Let’s try this one?”

John Abrams: I’m sorry?

Dr. Kent: Do you just pick up on any kind of music and say, “Hey guys, let’s try this one,” like the, you know you played the Cold Play song at the beginning, Viva La Vida. These are Dylan songs and Arlo Guthrie songs. What won’t you guys try?

John Abrams: Oh yeah, no, that’s a great question. We like to try all kinds of different styles of music and different songs from different genres. And to us it’s all about taking a song and the writing and what was done before and bringing it into our sound, in the Abrams Brother’s music. And that’s certainly that combination of bluegrass and the contemporary styles, like rock and country. So yeah, the Viva La Vida song, the City of New Orleans song, these are less covered than us doing our own version of the song that’s already been (inaudible). Actually, the Viva La Vida song didn’t become a hit on our album of all original material, but we’re working on that now, songs that we’ve (inaudible). So we’re excited about that conversation.

Dr. Kent: That is fun, yeah, and there’s nothing better than kicking it off with a CMT appearance, that’s on Monday. So folks should check out on CMT and see if they can see the Abrams Brothers. Otherwise, you know, there’s a lot of places people can find out about you. Where can folks go online?

John Abrams: Yeah, you can go on www.abramsbrothers.com and we’re also on Facebook, MySpace, I think on Twitter now, yeah, I know we’re on Twitter now, and YouTube, and we like to update those all the time and try to keep in contact with everybody. So yeah, and eventually it will be up, the brand new website will be up in the next couple of days with the base for video and we’re really excited about that. So you can check us out again at www.theabramsbrothers.com.

Dr. Kent: And how about, what’s your take, I mean, it was a horrible day yesterday for music. You know, I grew up hearing Michael Jackson. What your take on the passing of the King of op?

John Abrams: Yeah, I mean, you know, I haven’t been watching the news a whole lot at all, but just, I’m hearing about his passing last night. I mean, he had incredible talent, and it’s a real loss because he was a, left a legacy of fantastic song, memorial songs and good music. So yeah, he will definitely be missed around the world, yeah I think we’re all pretty sad.

Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been a pleasure speaking to John Abrams, the Abrams Brothers on a ride, a ride to the top, I think. They’ve got a great sound and some amazing tunes, I can’t wait to hear their new album with original tunes. The sound on Viva La Vida is amazing, and we’re going to listen going out to another song from their Blue on Brown album. It’s called Gotta Serve Somebody, of course, Bob Dylan song. And than you so much for chatting with me, John.

John Abrams: Thank you so much. It’s been a real pleasure, and hope you enjoyed the songs.

Dr. Kent: And everybody tune in on CMT on Monday, and see if they can find the Abrams Brothers.

You have a great day.

Dr. Kent: You too. Now let’s listen to Gotta Serve Somebody by the Abrams Brothers. Here it is.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Pop, Bluegrass, TRANSCRIPTS, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW

Raymond Benson | James Bond Novelist

September 18, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Raymond Benson [14:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From Wikipedia:

In 1996, John Gardner resigned from writing Bond books. Glidrose Publications promptly chose Benson to replace him. As a James Bond novelist, Raymond Benson was initially controversial for being American, and for ignoring much of the continuity established by Gardner. Benson had previously written The James Bond Bedside Companion, a book dedicated to Ian Fleming, the official novels, and the films. The book was initially released in 1984 and later updated in 1988. It was nominated for an Edgar Award by Mystery Writers of America in the Best Biographical/Critical Work category. Benson also contributed to the creation of a module in the popular James Bond 007 role-playing game in the 1980s. In total, Benson wrote six James Bond novels, three novelizations, and three short stories. He was the first Bond author since Ian Fleming to write short stories, although Benson’s stories are uncollected, unlike Fleming who had two anthology books published.

Since authoring Bond novels, Benson has had a number of books published, including original suspense novels Face Blind (2003), Evil Hours (2004), and Sweetie’s Diamonds (2006) as well as the non-fiction work The Pocket Essential Guide to Jethro Tull (Jethro Tull biography) (2002). In 2004, Benson began writing the first of two books based on the acclaimed video game series, Splinter Cell, although both are credited to the pseudonym, David Michaels. Further titles in the Splinter Cell series have also been credited to David Michaels, but were not authored by Benson. The first book, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell was published in 2004 followed by Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda in 2005. In 2008 Benson wrote A Hard Day’s Death about a private investigator who looks into the death of a rock star. The book spawned a series with the second novel due out in 2009 called Dark Side of the Morgue. Benson also wrote the novelization to the video game Metal Gear Solid in 2008^[1] and will follow that up in 2009 with a novelization of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Raymond Benson continues to write a series of classic film reviews for the publication “Cinema Retro“.