California Honeydrops
California Honeydrops
The Honeydrops have come a long way since guitarist and trumpeter Lech Wierzynkski and drummer Ben Malament started busking in an Oakland subway station, but the band has stayed true to that organic, street-level feel. Listening to Lech sing, it can be a surprise that he was born in Warsaw, Poland, and raised by Polish political refugees. He learned his vocal stylings from contraband American recordings of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Louis Armstrong, and later at Oberlin College and on the club circuit in Oakland, California. With the additions of Johnny Bones on tenor sax and clarinet, Lorenzo Loera on keyboards, and Beau Bradbury on bass, they’ve built a powerful full-band sound to support Wierzynski’s vocals. More like parties than traditional concerts, their shows feature extensive off-stage jamming and crowd interaction. “The whole point is to erase the boundaries between the crowd and us,” Wierzynski says. “We don’t make setlists. We want requests. We want crowd involvement, to make people become a part of the whole thing by dancing along, singing, picking the songs and generally coming out of their shells.”
C. I. Dennis
Location – Florida
C.I. (Casey) Dennis
C.I. Dennis lives in Vermont with his family and dogs. He is the author of five novels featuring Vince Tanzi, a 50-something private investigator with a knack for finding trouble, both personal and professional. Tanzi’s quips, fast-paced action, witty dialogue and vivid characters propel his adventures across Vince’s native state (Vermont) and his adopted one (Florida).
Dennis has also published two novels under the name Zig Davidson: The Stick Season (2017) and Unglued (2014).
Jerry Douglas
THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND
Dobro master and 14-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas is to the resonator guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar: elevating, transforming, and reinventing the instrument in countless ways. In addition to being widely recognized as the foremost master of the Dobro, Jerry Douglas is a freewheeling, forward-thinking recording artist whose output incorporates elements of bluegrass, country, rock, jazz, blues and Celtic into his distinctive musical vision. Called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, fourteen-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas is one of the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of groundbreaking bands including J.D. Crowe & the New South, the Country Gentlemen, Boone Creek, the Grammy-winning The Earls of Leicester, and Strength In Numbers.
Douglas’ distinctive sound graces more than 1500 albums, including discs released by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, and Ray Charles, among many others. Since 1998, he’s been a key member of “Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas”, touring extensively and co-producing and playing on a series of platinum albums. He has produced albums for Krauss, the Del McCoury Band, Maura O’Connell, and Jesse Winchester and is is co-Music Director of the acclaimed BBC TV series Transatlantic Sessions, and his latest solo album Traveler features guest appearances by such notable friends as Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, and Eric Clapton, among others. (from NPR)
In studio with John Hiatt on a great tune — “All the Lilacs in Ohio”
Phillip Margolin
Location – Oregon
Phillip Margolin
A great collection of legal thrillers written over a span of forty years.
Dina Greenberg
Dina Greenberg
In the Fall of 2021 Dina published her first full novel, Nermina’s Chance.
In the realm of discovering new writers, it is often by chance.
Enjoying this book. Great chance.
War sears its imprint on the human spirit in infinite ways.
After her family is murdered and her body ravaged by Serbian soldiers, Nermina Beganović’s only chance of survival is to flee her Bosnian homeland during the Balkan War, circa 1992.
Nermina’s Chance by Dina Greenberg reimagines the essence of family and plumbs the depths of a mother’s ardent connection to her daughter.
Related links for independent authors:
Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III is the author of seven books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, Gone So Long and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times “Editors Choice”.
Gone So Long, is a masterpiece of thrilling tension and heartrending empathy. Few writers can enter their characters so completely or evoke their lives as viscerally as Andre Dubus III. In this deeply compelling novel, a father, estranged for the worst of reasons, is driven to seek out the daughter he has not seen in decades.
Recently published, Such Kindness, is the story of people whose stories are rarely told. The novel charts a remarkable rebirth, not from poverty to wealth but from bitter helplessness to the knowledge of self worth. The result is a gripping and transformational journey towards kindness. The result is also a tremendously moving novel.” – Ann Patchett
