Three Song Stories

Episode 297 - Kidd Kwest (AKA John McCullers)

Kidd Kwest is founder and member of DeadLink Clique art collective, and the booking and event manager for Trackout Studios. He writes all his own lyrics, raps, and produces music as well as dabbling in acting. He’s performed in New Jersey, California, and Texas for SXSW, and all over Florida including the 2nd ever Rolling Loud Hip Hop festival.

Episode 296 - Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong is a pianist who has performed for audiences all over the world, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.

He has performed with conductors including as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with a bunch of Quartets and as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Episode 295 - Brent Crawford

 Brent Crawford is the Managing Director for Busey Bank’s Wealth Management Group Southwest Florida.

Episode 294 - Wendy Oxenhorn

Known as the “Barefoot Baroness”, Wendy Oxenhorn is the founding director and vice chairman of the Jazz Foundation of America, a non-profit that helps jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds.

Prominent board members include Quincy Jones, their current chairman; Richard Parsons, Agnes Varis, Elvis Costello, Danny Glover, Michael Novogratz and Lou Reed. Under her leadership the foundation has raised more than $70 million and helped countless musicians in crisis over the decades.

Wendy also plays a mean harmonica and was named a NEA Jazz Master in 2016.

Episode 293 - Jon Brooks

Jon Brooks is a Canadian singer songwriter who holds record for most nominations for ‘Songwriter of the Year’ at The Canadian Folk Music Awards.

His seven albums explore themes of paradox, love, fear, grief, religion, war, post traumatic stress, AI, refugee crises, animal justice, murder, ecology, esoterica, and the stars.

Episode 292 - Robert Margouleff

Robert Margouleff is a Grammy Award-winning record producer, sound engineer, and electronic music pioneer who might be best known for his work with Stevie Wonder in the early '70s on a string of award-winning albums, like Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness's First Finale. In 1980, Margouleff produced DEVO’s Freedom of Choice album which included Whip It.

Robert has spent time in the studio producing and engineering for Quincy Jones, Jeff Beck, the Doobie Brothers, Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, DEVO, and the list goes on and on.

He was a colleague and friend of synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, and was also an early creative resource for Andy Warhol's "factory" and co-producer of the cult classic film “Ciao! Manhattan” in 1972.  

Episode 291 - J. Robert Houghtaling

J Robert Houghtaling is a BMI writer with film score credits on National TV shows including "Big Bang Theory," "Madame Secretary,” as well as on shows on the Travel Channel and Hallmark Channel.

He’s appeared on folk stages around Florida as a fiddle player with the likes of John McEuen and Chief Jim Billie, and he’s warmed up shows for the Charlie Daniels Band, Doug Kershaw, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Bonnie Raitt.

J Robert's music is featured in several Florida feature films, including the award winning PBS documentary "The Great Florida Cattle Drive,” the recent PBS film “Southwest Florida’s Mangrove Coast,” and the upcoming story of “Peter Gerbert – Florida Nature Artist.”

Episode 290 - (3SS LIVE!) Terry Tincher

Terry Tincher has been involved in almost every aspect of the arts here in Southwest Florida: music & theater, and he’s been a gallery & bar owner. He's owned Space 39 and The Tincture Gallery in downtown Fort Myers. He now works as a consultant to the Alliance for the Arts and represents several national and regional artists.

Episode 289 - Jeremey Hunsicker

Jeremey Hunsicker was the frontman for one of the most popular Journey cover bands in the USA, called Frontiers, and in 2007 he was even offered the role of lead singer with the actual band Journey. His songwriting contributions earned him a Platinum RIAA sales award for the band’s 2008 release, Revelations.

Jeremey’s life and career has spanned everything from sales and operations in the trucking industry, to professional musician and songwriter, to his current career as a copywriter and direct response marketing strategist. He’s founder of the email marketing firm, The Isotope Agency.

Episode 288 - Sheena Brook

Sheena Brook is a singer and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was selected for Season 12 of NBC’s The Voice and since that appearance she’s moved on to partner with several Multi-Platinum Songwriters and Artists.

She’s also the founder of The F.E.M. Collective, a nonprofit that hosts events in support of women and equality in the industry.

Sheena will also be one of the featured performers at the Island Hoppers Songwriting Fest which runs from Sep 22 - Oct 1.

 

Episode 287 - Thomas Lockyear

Thomas Lockyear is manager of the Museum of the Everglades in Everglades City, Florida. He made his living as a musician from the late 80s until the early 2000s, first as a keyboardist for the band My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and then as the frontman and songwriter for the Electric Hellfire club. They toured extensively in the U.S. and recorded five full-length albums.

He then put music aside and moved to Key West to start over in 2005 and has now been a museum professional for 17 years. Thomas has served as curator at the Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum, and at Historic Pigeon Key. He was then Executive Director of the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada before taking on his current role at Museum of the Everglades. 

 

Episode 286 - Megan Borowski

Megan Borowski is a Senior Meteorologist for the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, headquartered at the UF. Megan completed her B.S. in Meteorology from Rutgers University and graduated at the top of her class. She was formerly a freelance meteorologist for ABC News in New York where she produced content for Good Morning America’s Ginger Zee and Rob Marciano. Megan’s prior work also interned as a meteorologist for WNBC in New York and interned at the National Weather Service.

Episode 285 - Michael Owen

Michael Owen is an award-winning photographer who has shot weddings, apparel, food, and fashion for individuals and commercial clients like the Boston Red Sox and Marissa Collections.

After getting his Masters, Michael became teaching Photo II at FGCU, and also shot for the Naples Scout Guide for two years.

Episode 284 - Greg Hennessey

Greg Hennessey is host of In the Flamingo Lounge with Rockabilly Greg - a podcast that focuses on musicians and music industry professionals from Buffalo and Western New York. He’s also a vocalist with a folk duo called "Old Friends", and has performed as a guest vocalist with the Andrews Sisters tribute act “Buffalo Dolls” and in local musical theater productions.

Greg has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and currently serves on the Board of the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation. 

Episode 283 - Jonathan Lawrence

Jonathan Lawrence is a classically trained jazz violinist and fiddle player who began studying violin when he was 9. He utilizes his skills as an electric violinist, guitarist, vocalist, pianist, and loop station artist to perform both original songs and new takes on Americana covers. His album is called The Lonely Warrior which is available on most streaming platforms. 

He also teaches general music, violin, orchestra, and chorus at the elementary level, performs with the Gulf Coast Symphony, and sometimes subs with the Southwest Florida Symphony. 

Episode 282 - Mia Borders

Mia Borders is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who's become a perennial figure in the uptown New Orleans music scene. She's performed at House of Blues New Orleans, Essence Festival, Brazil’s Bourbon Street Music Festival, Santa Cruz Blues Fest, Chattanooga’s NightFall, Voice of the Wetlands, Memphis’s Levitt Shell, Long’s Park Amphitheater, and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

Her catalog includes live albums, six LPs, five singles, and three EPs – including 2019’s “Good Side of Bad” produced under her own label, Blaxican Records.

Episode 281 - Phil Roy

Phil Roy has written songs for some of the greats, including Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, and Joe Cocker, and Mavis Staples, and songs for two Academy Award-winning films: Leaving Las Vegas and As Good As It Gets. He co-wrote one of his songs, Melt, with his long-time friend, Nicolas Cage.

Phil was born and raised in Philadelphia, and attended Berklee College of Music as a guitar major. It was around then he first took an interest in songwriting. He moved to LA in 1981 and almost immediately got signed to Warner Brothers records with his band Carrera. In 1987 he became a staff songwriter.

In 2000 he self-released his album Grouchyfriendly - it won “Independent Album of the Year” from Musician’s Atlas Magazine. He has since released three more solo albums: Issues + Options in 2003, The Great Longing in 2005, and In The Weird Small Hours in 2009, which won a “Concept Album of the Year” by the Independent Music Awards.

Episode 280 - Scott Carter

Scott Carter is Co-creator and Executive Producer Love & Respect with Killer Mike on PBS, and was a writer for Politically Incorrect hosted by Bill Maher on Comedy Central, and then writer and producer for Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO for its first 16 seasons.

Scott’s podcast Ye Gods! with Scott Carter launched in February of 2023. On it, he discusses personal faith and ethics with a diverse group of interfaith and non-faith celebrity guests to uncover what we believe and what we don’t. 

 

Episode 279 - Dr. Jonathan Harrison

Dr. Jonathan Harrison obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Leicester in the UK in 2006 and then migrated to Florida that same year. He has taught as an adjunct instructor since 2012 at FGCU, Florida Southwestern State University, and Hodges University. Jonathan has written extensively about segregation in Fort Myers and contributed to the WGCU documentary With a Made Up Mind, which explores the history of voter suppression in Southwest Florida.

Episode 278 - James Priestner

James Priestner is the frontman of the Canadian band Rare Americans. They’ve released four albums and an EP and their songs, each paired with narrative-driven animated video, have garnered them a Billboard 100 album, a JUNO award for their most listened to track to date, “Brittle Bones Nicky,” more than 500 million streams, and more than 875K YouTube subscribers. 

The band just released the first installment of their most ambitious project to date, “Searching For Strawberries: The Story Of Jongo Bongo.” It’s one-part 33-minute-long fully animated musical feature and one-part good old fashioned album that together create an immersive listening and viewing experience.