Leader and co-founder of legendary group Public Enemy and part of the supergroup Prophets of Rage, Chuck D is a social activist, author, film producer and digital music pioneer. He first rose to acclaim in the 1980’s with a string of critically lauded and commercially successful albums that addressed weighty issues about race, rage and inequality with a jolting combination of intelligence and eloquence never seen before.

The New York Times has named Public Enemy’s music to their list of the “25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century” and in 2005 The Library of Congress added Fear of a Black Planet to their National Recording Registry. In 2013, Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, Public Enemy’s “Say It Like It Really Is” provided the powerful backbeat to the trailer for the critically-acclaimed film, Selma, and “Harder Than You Think” was selected for NBC’s official Super Bowl XLIX commercial after being the cornerstone of the 2012 Paralympics campaign (which drove the song into the UK Top 5). When the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC began curating its archive, the group was asked to donate iconic items from their history. “It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” (15) “Fear of A Black Planet” (176) were both named to Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2020, the same year Public Enemy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the GRAMMYs. This year, “Fight The Power” was named #2 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2021 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (which also included “Bring The Noise“).

In June 2016, Chuck debuted Prophets of Rage, a new “supergroup” with former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, Cypress Hill’s B-Real and DJ Lord of Public Enemy. He formed Enemy Radio in 2019, the DJ-MC soundsystem component of Public Enemy and toured throughout Europe with Wu-Tang and De La Soul.

In June 2020 he released the single “SOTU (STFU)” with Public Enemy and a few weeks later the group opened the 2020 BET Awards with “Fight the Power Remix 2020,” featuring guest performances and new lyrics by Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, YG and Questlove. By August, Public Enemy announced a return to Def Jam, the record label that launched the group’s career, led by the release of “Fight the Power Remix 2020” and followed by a new album, “What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down” that was met with global critical acclaim.

Chuck D is also a visual artist whose work has been shown in galleries nationwide, a best-selling author (including 2017’s 300-page “This Day In Rap and Hip Hop History”), a highly-sought after speaker on the college lecture circuit, has been a prominent member of music industry non-profit organizations MusicCares and Rock The Vote (which honored him with the Patrick Lippert Award in 1996 for his contributions to community service), runs his own record label, SpitSlam, and launched the websites Rapstation.com, HipHopGods.com and SheMovement.com. He has served as national spokesperson for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, the National Alliance of African American Athletes and Hip Hop Public Health. In 2018, Chuck was named the Chairman of the Celebrity Board for the forthcoming Universal Hip Hop Museum in New York. This year, Chuck has released a graphic novel and, in the fall, will release a limited-edition book and print collection of his fine art works.

Chuck has co-hosted an episode of the lauded PBS series on the Blues, created by Martin Scorsese, and the critically-acclaimed Watts-Stax documentary. He also wrote the theme song to ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball show, as well as the 2003 ESPY Awards and hosted the network’s documentary Ali Rap in 2006, which was nominated for several Sports Emmys including one for his theme song composition. Public Enemy’s song, “Harder Than You Think,” was used as the theme song to the MLB Network’s 2013 baseball season coverage and Chuck, along with Amani K. Smith, composed and contributed additional music to LeBron James’ Showtime docu-series, “Shut Up And Dribble” in 2018. He was the host of a 2006 Sundance television special, Chuck D’s Musicians Studio, where he interviewed Quincy Jones at length, returned to the network for an episode of Iconoclasts with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and was an executive producer of their lauded Dream School series (2014). As a producer, he has partnered with BBC Studios and PBS for a docu-series due in the fall of 2022, is Executive Producer for the documentary “Use of Force” which debuted on Peacock in January and has several film, television and digital projects in production. He also created an installment for Audible Originals’ Words + Music series, “Songs That Shook The Planet,” earlier this year.

DJ HYSTERICA has been igniting DJ decks throughout the tri-state area with her selections of 60s psych, garage, glam, power pop, ye-ye, greasy R&B, new wave, dark wave, and punk. This extends to HYSTERICA's weekly Monday 3 pm Some Weird Sin show on WFMU's Sheena's Jungle Room and monthly Rock 'n' Roll Radio show on WHUS.

On Everything Harmony, the fourth full-length studio release from New York’s The Lemon Twigs, the prodigiously talented brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario offer 13 original servings of beauty that showcase an emotional depth and musical sophistication far beyond their years as a band, let alone as young men. While they eagerly devour musical influences from everything and everywhere, they have somehow arrived at a cohesive and dynamic sound that speaks to our troubled times.

Having bounded onto the music scene with their precocious 2016 debut Do Hollywood, they threw caution to the wind two years later on their followup Go to School. By the time of their third album, Songs for the General Public (2020) The Lemon Twigs had begun to pull from a wide range of multigenerational inspirations, expertly darting from twee chamber pop balladry to full on glam punk, mixing plaintive singer-songwriter confessionals with an almost Syd Barrett sense of outré pop. In an interview from the time, they expressed an interest in creating “something really beautiful sounding” based on vocal harmonies and developing their combined melodic sensibilities into a setting where “the sounds were as important as the songs” themselves.

On Everything Harmony, the brothers have fully realized that vision, with a unified “Lemon Twigs sound” that successfully blends their distinct personalities while giving voice to their diverse and eclectic influences. Opening the album with the unassuming acoustic folk of plaintive “When Winter Comes Around,” which echoes the sophisticated grandeur of classic Simon & Garfunkel recordings, they immediately switch things up to the sunny classic pop motif of “In My Head.” From that point on Everything Harmony makes it clear that the Lemon Twigs can’t be pinned down.

Having recently worked with friends like Natalie Mering, with whom they appeared on the latest Weyes Blood album, they also collaborated with classic rock hero Todd Rundgren on his most recent album, Space Force. Rundgren, himself no stranger to eclecticism, says he can relate to their time-tripping approach to contemporary pop.

“They started when they were five and six years old, doing TV and Broadway and things like that,” says Rundgren. “So, they have built-in appreciation for music that is of a couple of generations before theirs. I think they were bored by the music of their own generation, and since you can’t fast forward to the music of the future, you just start going backwards to music that was made before you were born. I can empathize with that impulse, because I did that too, back in the seventies.”

Released as the album teaser track, “Corner of My Eye” channels an Art Garfunkel-like vocal melody over a moody, vibraphone-tinged backing track suggesting the chamber pop of Brian Wilson.

Everything Harmony was mostly written and recorded between 2020 and 2021, when tracking for the album began at a “very chaotic” rehearsal studio in Manhattan.

“It was one of the noisiest places I’ve ever been,” says Brian. “We did takes of acoustic guitar in between metal bands rehearsing next door and fire engines roaring down 8th Avenue. After months of sessions there, where we recorded the basic tracks to ‘Corner Of My Eye’, ‘In My Head,’ ‘I Don’t Belong To Me,’ ‘What Happens To A Heart,’ ‘Ghost Run Free,’ and ‘New To Me,’ we decided enough was enough and we looked into studios that had acoustic echo chambers after hearing East West’s chambers during the recording of Weyes Blood’s latest record.”

They finally got out of town, but instead of ‘doing Hollywood’ again, they took the tapes to San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios where they added the album’s omnipresent vibraphone textures, harpsichord, French horn, strings, and many layers of vocal harmonies. To finish up, they flew home to their brand new studio in Brooklyn to finish mixing and mastering with the help of Paul Millar of Bug Sound.

Brian D’Addario notes the influence of two late lamented artists in particular this time; Moondog, and Arthur Russell whose album Iowa Dream encouraged them to lean into their own melodic tendencies and keep the arrangements delicate.

“Their arrangements entered my head when we were arranging the strings on the album,” says Brian, “and we worked for a long time on our vocal blend. On previous records, whoever wrote the song might do most, if not all, of the harmonies on their track but not so much on this one. Our blend is a strength that we tried to exploit as much as possible.”

While they had no grand concept for Everything Harmony, both the D’Addarios felt a “palpable mood of defeat” prevailed while writing and recording it. “New To Me” was inspired by their shared experience with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s, “What You Were Doing” is dressed in the tortured jangle of vintage Big Star, while “Born To Be Lonely,” written after watching John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, deals with what Brian calls “the fragility that often comes with age.”


“The album cycles through moments of depression and isolation on songs like ‘What Happens To A Heart,’ or ‘Born To Be Lonely’ to episodes of dizzying euphoria in ‘Ghost Run Free’ or the title track. There’s very little middle ground. On ‘What Happens to A Heart’ we were going for a 70’s Spector vibe, along the lines of Leonard Cohen’s Death Of A Ladies Man. We tracked it with me on piano, Daryl Johns on electric bass and Michael and Andres Valbuena both playing drums. I overdubbed a fretless bass. Two pianos, two organs, harpsichord, and celeste. The basic track was done in New York, and strings and French horn recorded in San Francisco. We got the Friction Quartet to overdub themselves about 8 times to get a more symphonic sound. We also recorded about 8 acoustics and bounced them down to two tracks; we did the same with the electric guitars.”

Everything Harmony is a unified song cycle born of shared blood and common purpose. With two musical heads being better than one, there’s no shortage of ideas to draw on. Their only impediments are time and the challenge of keeping up with their own prolific musical inspiration.

“We share an intuition and tend to be influenced by one another,” says Brian, “so the lyrical ideas on this record tend to complement each other. Writing has never been the issue for us. It’s completing, editing and compiling that takes the time. We’re trapped in a web of songs!”

Nick Depuy is an evocative singer-songwriter who boasts a unique sound that is rooted in old time folk, country rock, jazz and blues. His influences do not define him however, as he puts his own stamp on the likes of rock, pop, and hip-hop in the songs he writes and sings as a solo artist, also with his friend and collaborator Barbie Tatum, and with his Band, The Big Fly.

Nick is flattered to be compared to musical greats like James Taylor, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, and songwriting legend, Leonard Cohen. He was first recognized in his teens for his songwriting, unique guitar style and voice by Paul Leka (he wrote Na Na Hey Hey, and discovered Harry Chapin) and music executive legend, Bruce Lundvall (President of Columbia, Electra and Blue Note Records).

He has already had the great privilege of opening for Hall of Fame singer songwriter Jimmy Webb, Neil Finn of Crowded House, first year winner of The Voice, Javier Colon, jazz trumpet player Kermit Ruffins, and art-rock legends Procol Harum, receiving standing ovations for his performances. He also was privileged to share the stage with Norah Jones and Dianne Reeves when Mr. Lundvall received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America.

Nick has been featured on WPLR 99.1, ABC Channel 8, CBS WTIC 1080 and numerous cable network shows. He has played numerous venues including Fairfield Stage One, the Bijou Theater, Ridgefield Playhouse, the Gathering of the Vibes Music Festival, The Rockwood Music Hall, The Living Room, Arlene’s Grocery, Joe’s Pub in NYC, and the Connecticut Folk Festival where he was both a “new artist” and “new songwriter” finalist.

Nick’s debut L.P., "Don't Be Sorry" is available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and You Tube. Having penned music and lyrics to more than 80 songs and counting, he has several themed EP’s and full albums in development, while he focuses on individual releases and his craft.

Thirty years. It’s an eternity in rock ‘n’ roll, and a marathon for the bands who fly its tattered flag. Revisit the class of 1988, and the casualties are piled high: a thousand bands that blew up and burnt out. In this chew-and-spit industry, the Spin Doctors are the last men standing, still making music like their lives depend on it, still riding the bus, still shaking the room. They’ve never been a band for backslaps and self-congratulation. Even now, plans are afoot for a seventh studio album and another swashbuckling world tour, adding to their tally of almost two thousand shows. But faced with that milestone, even a band of their velocity takes a breath for reflection. “I’d never have guessed,” admits drummer Aaron Comess, “this would have turned into thirty years of making great music together.”

Like all the best rock ‘n’ roll mythology, the final page of the Spin Doctors’ biography remains forever unwritten. But if the band’s story is to begin anywhere, it should be at New York’s New School university in the fall of ’88, when a fateful door-knock sparked the first meeting of Comess and guitarist Eric Schenkman. Trading as the Trucking Company, Schenkman, local legend John Popper and a charisma-bomb vocalist named Chris Barron had been making a glorious noise in the clubs downtown. But when Popper committed himself to Blues Traveler, the remnants sought new blood. Having assured Schenkman that he’d “check them out,” Comess formed a ferocious rhythm section with Bronx-raised bassist Mark White. “When I first met them,” recalls White, “I thought, ‘These are some funky-assed white boys.’ I’m the black guy in the band, and they had to teach me to play the blues.”

The nascent Spin Doctors lineup hit the Lower Manhattan blues circuit like a wrecking ball. Flexing their musicianship and announcing their elastic approach to live performance with jams that stretched to the outer reaches, the lineup’s glorious ability to supercharge a tune was in evidence on 1991’s debut live release, Up For Grabs, where some tracks stormed beyond ten minutes. They didn’t know it yet, but the Spin Doctors – alongside peers like Blues Traveler, Phish and Widespread Panic – would drag the jam-band ethos into the ’90s era, their DNA later dripping into the scene’s post-millennial resurgence. “We had a big fanbase,” notes Comess, “who loved that we stretched out and jammed out and played different shows every night.”
Just as important was the band’s habit of bending the house rules at the downtown blues clubs by slipping in their own songs alongside the rocket-fuelled standards. And it was that same flair for original songcraft that carried them into a deal with Epic Records, setting up the Pocket Full Of Kryptonite album that defined the early-’90s rock scene. “There was a feeling of magic in the band,” reflects Barron, “and a belief in the air. That first record felt really innocent. Y’know, we were surrounded by millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, and when we recorded “Two Princes,” Eric rented a $50,000 Les Paul.”
Led by relentless touring, the album sold steadily – but within a year, Epic had declared it “dead” and pushed the band to return to the studio. “But we decided to go back on the road,” says Comess, “as we felt the buzz building and believed in the record. Sure enough, within a few months, Jim McGuinn up in Vermont started playing “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and it went to #1. He wrote to the head of Epic, telling him they’d be crazy not to push this band. That was the fuel that lit the fire.”

Barron still recalls the circus when Pocket Full Of Kryptonite exploded in 1992 (“When we were selling 50,000 records a week, I’d walk into a mall to buy underwear and 300 kids would surround me”). Pass a record store and you’d hear the tills ring, as that all-conquering debut album marched towards 10 million sales. Pass a news-stand and you’d see the lineup staring back from the cover of Rolling Stone. Flick on MTV and you were serenaded by planet-straddling follow-up hit “Two Princes,” whose irresistible groove and scream-it-back chorus took it to #4 on the Top 100 singles chart and more US radio spins than any other rock ‘n’ roll song in 1993. “When you’re freaking popular,” says White, “and people are throwing themselves at you, if you don’t like that, you’re on the wrong planet.”

The numbers were staggering. But it was the Spin Doctors’ capacity to reinvent themselves throughout the unfolding decade that confirmed their status as a great American band. In 1994, they struck back with Turn It Upside Down: a bitter-sweet album that has some superb songs, from “Cleopatra’s Cat” to “You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast. “

Every long-serving rock band must endure a period of stormy weather, and the Spin Doctors have scars to go along with the award statuettes. Schenkman left before 1996’s You’ve Got To Believe In Something, while the departure of White during 1999’s Here Comes The Bride was a hammer-blow to a band that ran on chemistry. For a heartbeat in the post-millennium, this most bulletproof of bands appeared to be on the ropes, as morose nu-metal gripped the rock mainstream, and Barron was laid low by vocal cord paralysis. “You just don’t know,” he considers, “when life is gonna strike you with something that stops you executing your plan.”

If the singer’s fight back to vocal fitness was miraculous, then fewer still would have foretold the spectacle – in September 2001 – of the classic Spin Doctors lineup reuniting at the Wetlands club in Manhattan where they had cut their teeth. “Getting back together,” remembers Barron, “was intense.”

The chemistry proved too strong to put back in the box, and scattershot live shows ultimately spilled into 2005’s Nice Talking To Me. “We went off to LA for that record,” remembers Barron, “working in Sound City, where Nirvana made Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac made Rumours. There were some cool ghosts in that studio. I really enjoyed working with Matt Wallace. That guy is a fucking genius. He made us play everything acoustic beforehand. Aaron had no drums – Matt made him sit on the couch and pat his knees to the beat. He wouldn’t even let us rehearse in electric until it worked. Which sorta reconfirmed my feeling that if a song doesn’t work with just a voice and piano or guitar – then it’s not a real tune.”

The band’s next move was as real as it gets. Faced with 2013’s acclaimed sixth studio, If The River Was Whiskey, some rock journalists spoke of a change of direction. Long-term fans knew better: these gritty blues originals tipped a hat to the band’s first steps on the New York circuit, managing to revisit their roots while reinvigorating their sound. “We cut that record in two days,” recalls Schenkman. “It was very similar to how we initially made records, when we’d go out and play in the bars of New York, then we’d record music because we were playing so good.”

“For a rock band to make a blues record is a really ballsy move,” points out Barron, “but that was the best-received album we’ve ever done, critically. Everybody played their asses off. We all got in one room and we were just stood looking each other in the eyeballs – and just throwing down. There were old songs that we hadn’t played in years, but we wrote the title track and “Some Other Man Instead” just on-the-fly in rehearsal. And the way those two new songs came together so quickly made me feel really good about our future creatively.”

Long-term strategy has never been the Spin Doctors’ style. While cultural commentators have long since given up plotting the trajectory of this most unpredictable band, it’s a revelation to learn that the lineup themselves have no road map. “For the next album,” considers Barron, “I kinda want to stay spontaneous. I’d personally like to make a quarter-turn and do a rock record. But I have a feeling it’s gonna get funky. Y’know, there’s that great quote from Keith Richards when he went to meet Mick Jagger at AIR Studios to make Steel Wheels. And he told his wife – ‘I’ll either be back tomorrow or in a month’. I think that’s how it’s gonna go for us, too.”

Thirty years. A thousand twists. But whatever happens down the road, rest assured that the Spin Doctors will always be the last men standing, still making music like their lives depend on it, still riding the bus, still shaking the room. “It’s been a great ride,” considers Comess. Then he adds: “So far…"

Meg Dalton is an audio producer and journalist who reports on everything from our obsession with Mars to the art of creating fictional languages to the future of death care in America.

Dalton is currently the deputy director of storytelling for Connecticut Public and previously worked for The Takeaway from WNYC, in collaboration with WGBH and PRX. She has also reported and edited for the Columbia Journalism Review, PBS NewsHour, Slate, Energy News Network, Architectural Digest, MediaShift, Hearst Connecticut newspapers, and more. Dalton’s audio work has appeared on ‎Mobituaries with Mo Rocca, WNYC, WSHU, Marketplace, WBAI, and NPR. Dalton earned her master's degree from Columbia Journalism School in 2017, where she specialized in audio storytelling and narrative writing.

Jack Hitt is the cohost of the podcast Uncivil, which won the Peabody Award in 2018. His most recent book is Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character (Crown, 2012). He’s a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, This American Life and Harper’s, and his nonfiction, for which he’s won the Livingston and Pope awards, also appears in the New Yorker, WIRED, and Vanity Fair. His book Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain (Simon & Schuster, 1994) was made into the 2010 motion picture The Way.

Tony Visconti has been described as one of the most important producers in the history of rock. Contributing to the creation of iconic records such as “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” and “Cosmic Dancer” by T. Rex, David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” “Heroes,” and “The Man Who Sold The World,” The Moody Blues’ “Your Wildest Dreams” and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere,” along with many more, have secured his place in Rock ‘n Roll history.

He’s just released Produced by Tony Visconti, a new multi-disc box set available on CD and vinyl that spans the producer’s six decades and features famous material from David Bowie, T.Rex, U2, Joe Cocker and many more, alongside lesser-known gems from the likes of The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Thin Lizzy, The Radiators, Zaine Griff, Gentle Giant, Manic Street Preachers and more from Tony’s fifty-plus years of production credits.

ony’s currently in the studio with Rogue Oliphant feat. renowned Irish poet/lyricist Paul Muldoon, Chris Harford (guitar), Ray Kubian (drums), David Mansfield (guitar), Cait O’Riordan (bass), and Warren Zanes (guitar). Recently, Tony remixed music for the David Bowie film Moonage Daydream, produced the new Paul Simonon (The Clash) feat. Galen Ayres album entitled Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, mixed new music by Kris Singh, mixed the David Bowie 50th Anniversary Space Oddity album in Dolby Atmos, arranged and conducted strings for Kelly Reilly‘s “Happiness Lasts,” as well as produced the new Daphne Guinness album.

Tony’s autobiography, Bowie, Bolan, and the Brooklyn Boy (Harper Collins UK) is an evocative, brilliant overview of Visconti’s life, musical beginnings, and adventures in London with David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Thin Lizzy, Paul McCartney, and so much more

Paul Cavalconte: The absolute sound is reality, but radio is the next best thing.

Paul Cavalconte grew up spinning discs from his parents’ expansive record collection in the basement of a big, old house in the Bronx. He had an eclectic musical palate from a young age, with interests spanning rock, pop, jazz, and more. But when it came to classical, he was intoxicated. He would flip and change 78 RPMs of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade like reels of an ancient movie, envisioning the action and drama as he craned his ears to hear past the crackle. After an adolescence spent DJing in the basement, Paul landed his first official radio gig as an on-air student volunteer at Fordham University’s WFUV. It was there that he got his first experience presenting classical music.
Today, Paul spends his weekends jumping from station to station, exploring all the myriad musical works that bring him joy. He is the weekend morning host of WQXR, where he plays everything from Bach to Dvořák and flexes his wax muscle with the midday Sunday Vinyl, cutting through the digital noise with an analog groove. On Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, Paul can be heard on WNYC, where he delves deep into the American Songbook, mining for gold as he revels in the tradition’s countless wonders. And in the midst of a whirlwind weekend, Paul squeezes in a Sunday show at WFUV, the station where it all began over thirty years ago. We don’t know how he does it all!

Audrey Golden is a New York-based author, journalist, and editor whose work focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. She is also station manager of Louder Than War Radio where she presents a weekly show, Breaking Glass, which highlights women in all aspects of the music industry.

Audrey holds a PhD in literary studies from the University of Virginia, a JD from Wake Forest University School of Law, and a BA from Wesleyan University. She has given public lectures at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and has taught courses at the University of Virginia, Coe College, Simmons University, and Columbia University.
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When Audrey isn't writing, she's collecting rare books/ art/ music ephemera, buying post-punk and new wave records, or traveling across the globe. You can find links to some of her photography here. She also occasionally lends her expertise on antiquarian books, archiving, and collecting to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).

Karen Ponzio is an arts and culture journalist for the New Haven Independent who cultivated her love of both listening to and writing about music while making mix tapes and reading liner notes as a teenager. She has shared her poems, displayed her artwork, and hosted a variety of live shows at venues throughout the New Haven area over the past ten years as well as the CygnusRadio.com show The Word According to KP which featured both poetry and music.

Matt Starr is a drummer, singer, producer, career coach and public speaker. As a drummer, Matt has built a reputation for working with some of rock’s most influential musicians including Ace Frehley (KISS), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow), Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot), George Lynch (Dokken), and Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert in Mr. Big. He has also worked with members of Guns 'n Roses, Bon Jovi, Foreigner and Whitesnake.

In the studio Matt has recorded with producers Jimmy Bralower (VP A&R Atlantic Records, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Joan Jett), Toby Wright (Metallica, Alice In Chains, Korn), Mike Chapman (Blondie, The Knack, The Sweet), Dave Bianco (AC/DC, Tom Petty, KISS), Anthony Focx (Aerosmith, Foreigner) and Warren Huart (Aerosmith, The Fray).

Matt's column The BIG Deal with Matt Starr in Drumhead Magazine helps musicians navigate the music business as well as understand the difference between "playing a drum roll and getting paid to play a drum roll'. His workshop and course NEXT LEVEL FOR PRO MUSICIANS has taken Matt around the world speaking to musicians and non-musicians in both academic and corporate settings.

JOHN DENSMORE is the drummer for the legendary rock band The Doors, who have sold over a hundred million albums worldwide. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and since then, he has earned a Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to his two books, the best-selling Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison & The Doors and The Seekers: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians (and Other Artists), his writing has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, the Guardian, the Nation, and Chicago Tribune, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.

IN THE DOORS UNHINGED, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR and legendary Doors drummer John Densmore offers a powerful exploration of the “greed gene”—that part of the human psyche that propels us toward the accumulation of more and more wealth, even at the expense of our principles, friendships, and the well-being of society. This is the gripping account of the legal battle to control The Doors’s artistic destiny. In it, Densmore looks at his conflict with his bandmates over the right to use The Doors’s name, revealing the ways in which this struggle mirrors and reflects a much larger societal issue: that no amount of money seems to be enough for even the wealthiest people.

Alisyn Camerota is a journalist, author and anchor/correspondent on CNN in New York, New York.

In her three decades in journalism, Camerota has covered stories nationally and internationally, earning two Emmy Awards for her breaking news coverage of the death of George Floyd and arrest of Roger Stone, as well as the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for her breaking news coverage of Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico.

After joining CNN in 2014, Alisyn spent more than six years as co-anchor of CNN’s morning show “New Day” and was at the forefront of the day’s most pressing news events, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 election and Trump presidency, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, and the Parkland, FL school shooting. Her interviews with the Parkland student survivors in the hours after the massacre, as well as with the NRA, became integral parts of the national conversation on gun safety. In covering the 2016 and 2020 president elections, Alisyn’s Voter Panels were must-see viral moments. As a leading voice of the #MeToo movement, Alisyn helped to provide the #SilenceBreakers with a platform to tell their stories.

Camerota has also anchored a number of primetime specials, including “Tipping Point: Sexual Harassment in America”, “The Hunting Ground: Sexual Assault on Campus”, “TOXIC: Britney Spears’ Battle for Freedom”, and “The Baby Business”. She is on the national advisory council of The News Literacy Project, which works to teach kids how to spot misinformation and fake news. She’s also an Advisory Member of Press Forward, working to combat sexual harassment in newsrooms.

Alisyn attended American University on a Presidential scholarship, graduating cum laude in Broadcast Journalism. Alisyn’s debut novel, Amanda Wakes Up, was selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of the year, and by Oprah Magazine as “a must read.”

Alisyn Camerota’s new memoir Combat Love is her story of growing up longing for stability and attachment as the foundation of her family crumbled. Set on the Jersey Shore in the free-range 1980s, Camerota finds the belonging she craves courtesy of a local punk rock band named Shrapnel and their diehard fans. Combat Love chronicles her near-misses and misadventures at clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, coupled with the sex, drugs, and punk rock of 1980s New Jersey. By the time she leaves home at sixteen, it feels like home had left her long ago.

The two-time Emmy-award-winning Camerota retraces her steps down an often gritty path toward her dream of becoming a journalist. At times heartbreaking and pulse-pounding, Combat Love is an inspiration for anyone who’s ever searched for that elusive place called home.

I've been drawing and painting from the age of 7. As I was growing up, my parents owned and operated a laundry and dry cleaning business. I became exposed to some of their customers, artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Malcolm Morley and photographer Jay Meisel, when I delivered their laundry. It was thru this personal perspective that I took in the art worlds of the 60s, from studio to gallery.

Somewhere around the age of 17, I was taken thru a door at the CBS Television Production Center, on West 57th St. in Manhattan. Upon entering the scenic shop floor, I took in a variety of scenic elements, varying in motif- Greek columns, modern soap opera sets, a brownstone stoop, etc. The idea of set design as three dimensional painting has remained with me since that visit.

It is from these roots and environments that my own spectrum of light has evolved. I also like to scuba dive.

Bringing vast knowledge and experience in the broadcast industry, joined CRN in 1981 as partner and executive vice president. Has created and directed many of the company’s award-winning broadcast marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Began his career in radio in Detroit before moving to Connecticut in 1970 to join the management team of WPLR-FM, one of Connecticut’s most successful radio stations.

A student of new breakthrough digital technologies that make up the new foundation of consumer communication. Has served as an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven, current guest lecturer at The Columbia University Graduate School of Business and is a member of the Connecticut Business Hall of Fame.

CRN/Sounds Great 1981 – 2021

Veteran marketing strategist and innovator, partner in 40-year-old radio marketing organization CRN International, which holds the rare distinction of being named three separate times to INC. magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies.

Inducted as a Charter Member of the Connecticut Business Hall of Fame in 2007.

Judge for ANA Reggie Marketing Awards 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019

Created and directed many of the company’s award-winning broadcast marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies and major consumer brands.

An expert in breakthrough digital technologies and monitoring consumer behavior and trends, has stayed on the cutting edge of marketing techniques and tactics and has been able to identify new growth segments, and media consumption characteristics including multicultural and generational market segments.

- 2016, 2017 and 2018 Contributing writer for RadioInk Magazine

- 2015 Recipient of Corporation Partner of the Year Award from Connecticut Works, the state employment re-training program.

-- Managed nationwide Spanish language radio and television promotion of all MLB World Baseball Classic events in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

- Current guest lecturer at Columbia University Graduate Business School of Management; 2011- present

- Guest lecturer at Yale, Brown and Boston College in broadcasting, marketing and management.

- Adjunct Professor of Mass Communications, University of New Haven, 1977 - 1978.

- Managed the New York Giants Radio Network, including the 1987 Super Bowl.

- Managed the Villanova Basketball Radio Network including game broadcast and distribution of the 1985 NCAA Championship game.

- Managed the first nationwide weather triggered commercial campaign on radio for Campbell Soup Company, setting the standard for weather based campaigns to follow.

- Produced one of the first nationwide integrated manufacturer-retailer television campaigns for The Campbell Soup Company featuring U.S. Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi

Ed Michaelson (Eddie Wazoo)

A lifetime music lover, Ed Michaelson was always drawn to radio. Growing up in Fairfield, he regularly listened to the likes of WABC-FM and WOR-FM, then followed by WNEW-FM and WPKN, where he became a staff member in 1970. In 1975 Ed joined WPLR, as Eddie Wazoo. He left WPLR in 1981 and then pursued a career in technical sales.

Bruce Manke was a professional radio broadcaster in Connecticut from 1972 to 1981. Raised in Waterbury, he studied English Literature, Speech and the Performing Arts at Southern Connecticut State College (now SCSU) and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971.

While attending school Manke walked to the second floor of the College Union Hall one day to find out who was playing music into the cafeteria on the main floor where hundreds of students gathered. What he found was a broom closet-sized space and a student running the controls of cast-off broadcast equipment donated by local AM Radio giant WELI. Manke was drawn by the music he heard being played: Chicago Transit Authority, The Beatles, Stones, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, among others. The genre mix was staggering, and it sounded great. It resembled the new style of music he was hearing broadcast from Yale’s WYBC from downtown New Haven at 94.3 on the lesser used FM frequency. AM-Radio had been King of the airwaves. Manke already knew that a huge change was around the corner and that FM radio was about to eclipse AM’s popularity.

He volunteered to play music from the school studio for nearly two years. After graduation he attended the CT School of Broadcasting to learn more about the business, then returned to Waterbury to get his first job as a broadcast news journalist in early 1972 at the City’s AM pop music giant, WWCO. It also meant that he would broadcast his news reports on the station’s FM sister station WIOF (W-104), which featured Country Western & Swing played for a statewide audience. Both channels were in the same building. He went by the name Alan Mitchell.

By now FM radio was emerging as a monster venue for the best music. The half dozen FM stations around the State were cultivating huge audiences and the revenues that followed. To Manke’s ears, the best of the emerging stations was WPLR back in New Haven where his personal world had evolved. He set his sights on joining the staff of the station, who was about to expand its overnight to become a 24-hour a day entertainer.

Considered among three who auditioned for the overnight slot to be named by Program Director Jay Crawford, Manke finally landed his job as an already accomplished broadcast journalist at WPLR, working afternoons during Gordon Weingarth’s show in August, 1973.

By the next year Manke had also acquired two regular weekend appearances as a Music Host, the job he really wanted. Having cultivated respectable audience numbers with the weekend shows, Manke eventually became the Utility Music Host, a kind of Sixth Man, who sat in for everyone in the regular lineup. Showing up almost anytime during the day or night heightened his popularity as a regular Music Host.
He continued to ply every skill he could muster to expand the station’s popularity, volunteering for fund raising walks around the City, playing music at the starting line of the groundbreaking New Haven Road Race, introducing bands at all of the great music theaters and venues all over the State. It was always about the Music, and New Haven was at the center of culture & the arts for the entire State. He also played music in nightclubs and for private parties and other venues around the tri-state area, work that he would continue to do long after leaving WPLR in September, 1981, until 1993.

By then he had created a film & video editing company of his own, Video Imagination, centered in the Northern suburbs of New Haven.

Today he lives in Wallingford, Connecticut. He is the father of two Sons.

Ponybird is the moniker for the alt-folk singer-songwriter Jennifer Dauphinais, who also produces electronic psych music as the project called WEAREBISON. Dauphinais plays regionally as both an acoustic singer-songwriter and experimental electronic artist, drawing from a fifteen-year catalog of original work. They have also mentored youth songwriters and facilitated songwriting circles for participants of all ability levels. As an Alumnus of Columbia University, Jennifer also works as a Professor of Education at Quinnipiac University with a focus on teacher identity and Critical Curriculum Studies.

Marcus Thomas is an educator and entertainment attorney who is also trained as a screenwriter and publicist. During his 25-year career, he has maintained a boutique entertainment law practice and held several in-house positions with entertainment companies including a major record label, major-affiliated music publisher and the nation's largest education music print publisher.

Thomas serves as Associate Professor, Chair of Music Industry at The Hartt School, University of Hartford. He previously served as Associate Director of The Los Angeles Film School’s Entertainment Business program, where he was an instructor and faculty training developer for five and a half years. Thomas also served five years as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Georgia State University’s Music Management program.

Previously, Thomas headed business affairs for Alfred Publishing where he negotiated digital distribution, print, and sync license agreements for a catalog of over 40,000 titles, including the entire former Warner Bros. Publications catalog.

Thomas also served as a publishing administrator for Dallas Austin Recording Projects and previously worked as an attorney for LaFace Records where he prepared and negotiated agreements for the label’s roster that included Usher, Toni Braxton, TLC, Outkast, Donell Jones, Goodie Mob, and Pink.

In addition to his administrative roles, Thomas also works as a creative semi-professional. He produces and engineers for independent recording artist Inobe. He was an assistant recording engineer at Doppler Studios and an on-air personality for Country 95.5FM WNGC. Thomas mixed sound for NBC Sports’ Take A Seat: Egypt and Take A Seat Alberta. He has song placements in indie films Dead Tone (2007), The Open Door (2008), and Jesus’ Secretary (2009).

Thomas co-authored “The Commercial Music Industry in Atlanta and the State of Georgia – An Economic Impact Study.” His study served as support for passing the Georgia Entertainment Industry Act of 2005. Thomas holds a Juris Doctor from Georgia State University, a Master of Fine Arts from Full Sail University, and a Master of Mass Communication from the University of Georgia.

Thomas contributed as a Governor for the Recording Academy’s Atlanta chapter and on the Atlantis Music Conference’s Urban Advisory Board. He has also been a participating member of the Georgia Music Industry Association, the National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music, MusiCares, the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association, and NAMM Generation Next.

ASCAP award-winning and BAFTA-nominated composer Tom Salta is one of the most versatile and prolific music artists/producers working in film, television, advertising, and video games. Renowned for crafting emotionally engaging soundtracks for multimedia, Salta has received widespread industry acclaim for his world-class produced hybrid scores featured in film, television, and video games such as Red Barrels’ THE OUTLAST TRIALS, Arkane Studios’ DEATHLOOP, Machine Games’ WOLFENSTEIN: Youngblood & Cyberpilot, Microsoft’s iconic HALO series (Best Original Soundtrack Award at Game Developers Conference), Ubisoft’s PRINCE OF PERSIA: The Forgotten Sands and RED STEEL (IGN Award for Best Original Score), Tom Clancy’s GHOST RECON and H.A.W.X series, as well as the epic theme music for the record-breaking online multiplayer game PLAYERUNKNOWN’s BATTLEGROUNDS, which has sold more than 75 million units with over 700 million players.
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Most recently, Salta metamorphosed his musical persona to compose the score to Red Barrels’ latest co-op multiplayer horror game, THE OUTLAST TRIALS. The musical palette utilized in The Outlast Trials ranges from haunting orchestral compositions to the depths of dark organic and synthetic textures, culminating in moments of pure aural pandemonium. Salta's incorporation of unnerving diegetic music — spanning eerie pastiches of mid-century styles — creates an unsettling contrast that deepens the overall experience of the score. The Outlast Trials soundtrack is a spine-tingling journey through the very essence of fear and despair. Red Barrel’s Audio Director, Francis Brus, adds, "In the realm of horror, music is not just an accompaniment; it's the conductor of fear, the orchestrator of tension, and the unseen hand that grips our hearts in a symphony of terror. This unique soundtrack didn't just complement "The Outlast Trials" but became an integral and unforgettable part of the bone-chilling odyssey into the terror that the game offers. Fans can anticipate a terrifying and immersive soundtrack that masterfully accompanies the game's horror-filled world. Tom Salta's meticulous craftsmanship will deliver a sonic experience that heightens every emotion, from spine-tingling tension to heart-pounding suspense. Prepare to be captivated by haunting melodies, chilling soundscapes, and all-out madness."

Peter Lawrence Gray is a singer/guitarist with a lifelong passion for music.
He currently has three songs on the radio in the USA and Europe include: WFOX, WFUV, WUSB, WAPJ, Sunshine 96.7, OcioNews (in Spain), ExcitementRadio, and others. Gray is currently #12 on WDFN; a flagship NPR station and also #11 on Germany’s NB Radiotreff and #50 on Radio ARA in Luxembourg.
Gray has worked with Argentinian vocal coach Olivia Olmo, guitar teacher Tom Hess, recording with Audio Engineer Tom Stewart of Factory Underground in the U.S.A. and collaborating with Producer Kenny Cash on original songs. Promotion efforts are being strategically led by Stephen Wrench – a 6x Grammy Awardee with over 50 Gold and Platinum albums.
Peter is inspired by the music and musicians of the 1950's. In today's society, we have lost so much of human touch, interconnectedness, and tenderness. Gray hopes, through his music, to help us reconnect with earlier, simpler times.
His songs can be heard not only on the radio, but also on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, iHeartRadio, and most other major streaming platforms.

This queen of blue-eyed rock n’ soul, who grew up loving equally the sweetness of a Memphis horn line and the raunch of an electric guitar riff, whether played by Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, or Pop Staples, teased her blonde hair into a beehive in honor of Ronnie Spector and never looked back, picking up a guitar and forging a career as a songwriter in the process. She’s the current, long-time vocalist with the Saturday Night Live Band (SNL40’s anniversary post-show concert also featured her star turn onstage with Jimmy Fallon, Elvis Costello and the B-52s), whose latest CD, The Deep End, was honored on five national Top Ten lists and features special guests/duet partners Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci, and Marshall Crenshaw, plus Levon Helm, GE Smith, Andy York, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, Catherine Russell, Big Al Anderson, and others.Ohlman topped the Alternate Root.com’s Readers’ Poll as top Americana vocalist, joining other winners Paul Thorn, The Mavericks and Rodney Crowell.

Cindy is best known for the iconic costumes she designed for the Alice Cooper Group pioneering the Glam Rock and Shock Rock fashion trends.
In the late 60’s Cindy created men’s clothing for the Inside Outside Boutique in Hollywood where her designs were purchased by many bands including members of Pink Floyd and The Who.

Cindy’s brother, Neal Smith, was the drummer in Alice Cooper, and she is married to Dennis Dunaway the bassist. Her stage clothes can be seen on the group’s album covers and are an important ingredient in the creation of arena rock shows. Elton John raved about her costumes following the Alice Cooper show at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Alice Cooper group wore Cindy’s costumes throughout the Billion Dollar Babies Tour which was the biggest grossing tour in 1973, over Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.

In 1974, Cindy opened Grenouille, a women’s boutique in Greenwich, Connecticut, offering her hand made, one-of-a-kind women's fashions. Soon she moved into wholesale by creating her label, “C.S. Dunaway,” specializing in one of a kind bridal gowns, evening wear, costuming, accessories, and designs made from vintage fabrics. She worked closely with the buyers at Henri Bendel, Bloomingdales, and other fine stores in NYC and across the nation.

While raising their two beautiful daughters Renee and Chelsea, Cindy and Dennis owned and ran a retail store Moon Hollow in Wilton, Connecticut, which featured Cindy’s vintage lace patchwork dresses.

Cindy did the set designs, costumes, and makeup for the Cold Cold Coffin Rock Cinema, which won the Best Music Video Award at the Los Angeles Motion Picture Film Festival and is currently being considered in the Nyack International Film Festival.

Manhattan born Tish & Snooky migrated up to the Bronx when they were 9 and 11. As teenagers, they were hip and fearless enough to hop a subway late at night to downtown Manhattan to join the bohemians, celebrities, and rockers downtown and in the East Village at places like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. They hung out with the Warhol crowd, performed in underground productions, and joined rock bands. Tish and Snooky became the darlings of the downtown scene.

People went gaga for the sister’s handmade stage costumes and club wear, so in 1977, they gathered some of their original designs and opened their legendary Manic Panic shop, America’s very first Punk Boutique specializing in vivid hair color and cosmetics, clothing and accessories reflecting their rock & roll roots.

During the day they managed their shop MANIC PANIC, and the slightly controversial two-word phrase became not just a store but a brand synonymous with all things punk rock. The sisters are responsible for helping to style of one of the most exciting movements in history and MANIC PANIC is an iconic internationally acclaimed brand.

Tish & Snooky® launched their rock and roll career in 1975 as singers in the original lineup of Blondie with Debbie Harry. Their legendary NYC punk band, Sic F*cks, has appeared in films and museum exhibits. as well as countless live performances from 1977 to today!

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Tish & Snooky music bio

Tish & Snooky® launched their rock and roll career in 1977 as singers in the original lineup of Blondie with Debbie Harry. They co-fronted the legendary NYC punk band, Sic F*cks, which has appeared in films and museum exhibits.

Over the years, they have performed with some of rock and roll's greatest icons including RuPaul, Squeeze, Ronnie Spector, Patti Smith, Robert Gordon, Moby, the Blues Brothers, Michael Musto, Johnny Thunders, David Johansen, Handsome Dick Manitoba and many more. They currently sing backup vocals for the band Blue Coupe - a supergroup comprised of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Dunaway of the Alice Cooper Group and Joe and Albert Bouchard of The Blue Oyster Cult.

Tish & Snooky® created the MANIC PANIC® brand (beginning with their store on St. Marks Place – the first punk boutique in America), specializing in products reflecting their rock & roll roots.

Legendary bassist, Founding Spiders and Alice Cooper Group Dennis Dunaway will also be in attendance.

Dunaway was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 as a founding member of the band named Alice Cooper. In addition, Dunaway and the group are in the Grammy Hall of Fame for co-writing “School’s Out.”

The original Alice Cooper group has sold millions of singles and albums and were on the cover of Forbes for having the largest grossing tour in 1973 over Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. The original Alice Cooper group is in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest indoor audience of an estimated 120,000 to 148,000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1974. The Billion Dollar Babies album reached #1 in the U.S. and Great Britain, and the group is recognized as the innovators of theatrical rock shows that included giant balloons, hangings, snakes, and spidery eye makeup. The group’s movies are Diary Of A Mad Housewife, Good To See You Again: Alice Cooper, and Super Duper Alice Cooper, and Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper, which has won four film festival awards so far.

Dunaway’s book, Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!: My Adventures In The Alice Cooper Group has been translated into German, and the audiobook, narrated by Dunaway, is available at Audible.com. And the new paperback version features a very special introduction by Alice Cooper.

Dunaway currently records and tours with Blue Coupe featuring Joe and Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult fame and singers Tish and Snooky of Manic Panic. Blue Coupe are about to release their third album.