Author Tina Jackson on The Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show - Sea...

This Wednesday at Noon ET, my friend, author Tina Skindiva Jackson joins me for the first episode of "The Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show." We'll be talking about her new book, "Love Don't Hurt," and her upcoming May 25, at 5 pm appearance at Sisters Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center, Inc., along with authors Arleen Jamison and Rhonda Lyles.

Tina and I gush a little over Daniel Boone TV's Fess Parker, and what I found in watching this show as a grownup. We'd also love for you to check out the children's book, "Los Mas Pequenos," inspired by a Natalia Zukerman song about loving the little beings in our world. *yup, Anne's posting a poem on her poetry site about spiders...

Join Tina and me on Wed. on YouTube at noon ET/9 AM PT/6 PM South Africa time. #Inclusion #Kindness #Recognizingachievements #recognizinggood

Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends’ “Beyond the Warrior’s Eyes"

Music Video w/ Jean Luc Ponty! Album Tops Fusion Charts, Top 4 Jam Band!  

A lot is going on in the Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends’ camp with their album, “Beyond The Warrior’s Eyes,” which is being played now on over 100 radio stations. This includes a new A.I. music video with Jean Luc Ponty, Florida media visits from Brian’s band, and radio chartings.

Distributed by Downtown Music/Dashgo Distribution, “Beyond The Warrior’s Eyes” topped the fusion charts on the Roots Music Radio at number 1, and broke the top 5, hitting number 3 on Relix/Jam Band charts. The album recently entered Roots Music Radio’s jazz charts at 44.

Brian and Jean Luc’s new music video, “Beyond the Warrior’s Eyes” from the album of the same name is at 

This A.I. generated video and shows Brian and Jean Luc on a musical mission with Roman gladiators. Brian knows, “We are warriors in the musical sense.  We took on the mission of giving praise and thanks to veterans around the world through our musical message.”     

The video is created by Dave Pellizza,  who helmed the Josie-award-winning “Brothers in Arms” video with Brian and Joe Satriani. While “Brothers” had a modern warfare look, Brian instructed Dave to “go in a different direction focusing on the classical world of Spartan and Roman times. I attached Jean Luc’s and my performance videos for Dave to transform.”

Inserted at the end of the video is the “Hope for the Warriors” logo, the album’s charity. Hope For the Warriors supplies counseling and healthcare to veterans and housing to families that visit the veterans in the Washington, DC region. Donation page is at  https://support.hopeforthewarriors.org/Beyond-The-Warriors-Eyes
   
Brian and his band are treating Florida media colleagues and programs to in-person concerts and interviews at their stations. Witness Brian play fusioin guitar with his bandmates drummer Reggie Pryor, bassist Brandon Miller, and saxophonist Don Black.
 
Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends’ “Beyond The Warrior’s Eyes” features collaborations with great guitarists and eclectic musicians—notably Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Chris Poland, Steve Morse (Deep Purple), Dean Brown (David Sanborn), Hal Lindes (Dire Straits), Chris Poland (Megadeth), John Tropea (Billy Cobham), Steve Kindler (Jeff Beck), Carl Verheyen (Supertramp) & Larry McCray (John Mayall), the late Phil Naro, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra), and electric violinist Jean Luc Ponty. 

Brian Tarquin is a guitarist/composer that has radio hits in several formats as Smooth Jazz, NACC Loud Rock & CMJ’s RPM charts. He’s had songs on major TV shows and popular movies including CSI, Seinfeld, Good Morning America…. He’s won 3 Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series” for All My Children, a Global Music Award, honors from SESAC. Brian has appeared on 50 releases, has 38 million streams on Pandora, Spotify & Apple: selling over 140,000 records in his career. Brian is an award-winning published Author.  Brian’s weekly NPR radio show called Guitar Trax on WFIT 89.5FM on the Florida Space Coast is streamed on wfit.org. 

Dean Friedman Embarks on 40+ City 2024 UK/Ireland Tour accompanying release of a new compilation album, “More Words & Music”

Dean Friedman, one of the pre-eminent songwriters of his generation, announces a 40+City UK/Ireland concert tour, to accompany the release of his new compilation album, “More Words & Music.” The tour runs from January 12th thru August 21st, 2024, including stops in London, Manchester, Leeds, Cambridge, Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff, Bridgwater, Penzance, Rayleigh, Glasgow, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and more, winding up at Dean Friedman’s SongFest, a 2-day micro-music-festival, hosted by Friedman, held at the Draycote Hotel in Rugby, featuring some of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters.

“More Words & Music” is Friedman’s second compilation album (following the previous “Words & Music”) and contains hand-picked tracks from Friedman’s last eight studio albums, including work from his critically acclaimed albums “American Lullaby,” “12 Songs,” “Submarine Races,” “Squirrels in the Attic,” “The Treehouse Journals,” “Songs for Grownups,” “Rumpled Romeo,” and the classic “’Well, Well,’ Said the Rocking Chair.”  “More Words & Music” is a double CD containing thirty tracks, in all, that confirm Friedman’s status as a master songsmith and one of the finest recording artists working today. Fans can order the physical CD set or stream and download the album at deanfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/more-words-music.

Friedman, best known to UK and Ireland audiences for his string of chart hits: “Lucky Star,” “Lydia,” “Woman of Mine,” “McDonald’s Girl,” and “’Well, Well,’ Said the Rocking Chair,” will be performing solo, on guitar and keyboard, featuring songs from throughout his four-decade career, including familiar, radio hits and fan favorites, drawn from his nine studio albums.

 "Soundtrack of our lives!" – NYTimes; "Songsmith extraordinaire!” – MusicWeek; “Dean Friedman is entirely unique and utterly brilliant” – ThreeWeeks; “Stunning Musicianship!” - Hot Press

Invite family and friends and join Friedman for an evening of powerful, poignant and hilarious songs about the ordinary and extraordinary lives we share.

Tickets to all of Friedman’s concerts, as well as his new album, can be purchased via his website: www.DeanFriedman.com 

Dean Friedman 2024 UK/Ireland Tour

https://www.deanfriedman.com/gigs/gigs_home.html

January 2024

12         Hull  Wrecking Ball Press

13         Doncaster  The Little Theatre

14         UK West Coast Folk Festival – Blackpool Winter Gardens [feat. Dean (on Sunday); Eddie Reader, Steve Harley, Kiki Dee, Tom Robinson, and more]

16         Barnoldswick  Barnoldswick Arts Centre

17         Manchester  Matt and Phreds  

18         Milton Keynes  Stantonbury Campus Theatre    

19         London            The Pheasantry (Pizza Express)  

20         London            The Pheasantry (Pizza Express)  

21         London            The Pheasantry (Pizza Express)  

April 2024

30         Runcorn  The Brindley 

May  2024

2          Farsley (Leeds)   Old Woolen  

3          Stamford  Stamford Arts Centre

4          Havant  The Spring      

5          Rayleigh  The Mill Arts Centre  

7          Cheltenham  Cheltenham Town Hall     

8          Cambridge  Junction / J2         

9          Stourbridge  Katie's Secret Garden      

10         Bridgwater  Bridgwater Arts Centre       

12         Poole  Lighthouse        

14         Penzance  Acorn Theatre          

15         St Austell  St Austell Arts Centre          

16         Torquay  Babbacombe Theatre 

17         Cardiff (Pentrych)  Acapela Studios      

18         Oxford  JDP

19         Shrewsbury The Buttermarket

                                     

August 2024

2          Arbroath  Webster Memorial Theatre    

3          Aberdeen   Aberdeen Arts Centre

8          Findhorn    Universal Hall                     

10         Glasgow   Websters Theatre

11         Kinross  Green Hotel / Backstage

13         Belfast  Oh Yeah Music Centre

14         Dublin  Aras Chronain

15         Nottingham   The Running Horse

16           Shropshire   Camp Bestival    

17 & 18   Rugby   SongFest     

21         EdFringe   Prestonfield Fringe  

 

Songs on “More Words & Music”
1. Your Pretty Face  
2. The Hummingbird Effect
3 Too Much Stuff  
4. I Could Fall for You  
5. The Deli Song (Corned Beef on Wry)  
6. Lydia  
7. S & M  
8. Halfway Normal World  
9. Just Another Birthday Song  
10. You're Invisible  
11. Smartest Man in the Whole Wide World
12. The Ducks of St Stephen's Green  
13. This Guitar  
14. Summer Days  
15. Malala  
16. I Will Never Leave You  
17. I'm a Clone  
18. The Saddest Girl in the Whole Wide World  
19. I Didn't Mean to Make You Cry  
20. The Lakelands  
21. Welcome to the World  
22. Baby Sitting Song
23. Let Down Your Hair  
24. Typical Town  
25. American Lullaby  
26. Welcome to Stupid Town  
27. I Wish You Joy 
28. Something Right 
29. Maybe in a Million Years 
30. On a Summer's Night  

Refestramus’ New Video “Smiling” and Album "Intourist"

  Refestramus’ new music video is called “Smiling” and on YouTube at

Directed by Anna Fokin, “Smiling” features Romanian actress/actor Monica Pop (https://www.facebook.com/MonicaPopArt) as Agent M. Refestramus’ drummer/songwriter/Wizard Derek Ferguson discovered Ms. Fokin’s work on YouTube, where she has “the absolute best video series for learning Russian”: (https://www.youtube.com/@yourrussian6200).

Derek loves “recurring characters, like 'Aqualung' and 'Cross-Eyed Mary,' which appear in multiple Jethro Tull songs. Combined with my belief that Prog needs to be more photogenic, I created the character Agent Mikrovolnovka, which is a joke. 'Mikrovolnovka' sounds mysterious and alluring, but it is actually the Russian word for 'microwave oven.'”

Both the song and video for “Smiling” are about maintaining other people’s happiness by not expressing your own displeasure. There’s a bit in the middle of the video and song where the music stops, the aquarium breaks, and all the water breaks loose, and that's a metaphor for bottling things up and then having them all spill out.

Art rock group Refestramus, pronounced re-fes-TRA-mus, is named after a word that Derek’s mother made up to mean “rearrange.” Colouratura’s Ian Beabout produced the new album, "Intourist" (Melodic Revolution Records)!

Much of the group was found on Fiverr.com: Induction lead singer Craig Cairns, Brazilian keyboardist maestro Rogelio Desouza, and rock vocalists NIDA, Denisse Ferrara, and Vedrana Lina. The rest of the group came from work connections Ian and Derek have, including Colouratura bandmates Derek Pavlic and Nathan James, saxophonist Mitch Lawrence, plus multi-instrumentalists Jerry King (bass) and Dave Newhouse (accordion).

"Our music seeks to embrace the full spectrum of human emotions, weaving narratives that reflect both the peaks and valleys of life, in line with Prog Magazine's praise of our 'high-brow concepts and bizarre comedic turns.'"

Refestramus.com