Three Song Stories

Episode 100 - David Mayfield

David Mayfield is the front man of The David Mayfield Parade. He's played in Cadillac Sky, and alongside The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons. David grew up playing bass and touring in a bus with his family’s bluegrass band. He started collecting national awards while still a teen for his dexterity on guitar and mandolin. He has also appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

His fourth album Boy Howdy! is just out.

 

Episode 99 - Joe and Jessi Lachut

Jessi Lachut is a Fort Myers native who has been involved in the local DIY punk/activist scene since the 90s. She has put out zines, started a Women's health collective and was involved in feeding the homeless with the Fort Myers chapter of Food Not Bombs.

Joe Lachut is a Western New York native that moved to Naples in the early 90s, and then up to Fort Myers in 2001. He's been in a number of local bands including, Merkit, Panzram, Evil Existence, Jiyuna & currently plays in Plural Being. Recently Joe made the leap, quit his day job, and along with Jessi opened Graveyard Shift Screen Printing, he says to combine his love for the art form with the ethics he learned from his involvement with Do-It-Yourself culture.

Episode 98 - Luc Flannery

 Luc Flannery is the TV traffic coordinator at KPBS in San Diego, but his twitter bio is a better read on him: "Luc Flannery, NPR, PBS, BBQ, BJJ" Luc has done radio, television, live music, kitchen prep, mead and sake brewing, martial arts, competitive bbq, and vegan ice cream making at a shop he ran with Mike Cosden - out guest from Ep. 78. Luc’s one of those people that fills the spare time he has with whatever he’s passionate or curious about, and then dedicates himself to those things.

Episode 97 - Alissa Roca

Alissa Roca is an opera singer who says she enjoys performing in a variety of styles ranging from Baroque to Contemporary and everything in between. She has worked as a soloist with a variety of symphonies, and has produced and performed numerous solo recitals.

She’s also known for her work in contemporary music, and frequently works with composers including Joseph Thalken, Dan Welcher, Jesper Koch, Michael Daugherty, and primarily with composer Jason Mulligan. She premiered his first vocal work in 2012 and the two have continued to collaborate on countless projects including a premiere as a part of the New American Voices series. She has premiered over sixteen pieces including a full length concert drama and set of songs of her own texts.

Episode 96 - Lee Bretschneider

Lee Bretschneider is creator, producer, and co-host of the Know Nonsense Trivia Podcast. Lee is also a native son of Southwest Florida, where he spent much of his formative years attending local music shows, reading comic books, playing video games, and making funny videos with his friends. He briefly served as an adjunct professor of comics and animation at FSU, and today, Lee works as a multimedia artist under the moniker Breshnyda while moonlighting as a trivia quizmaster. 

 

Episode 95 - Rich Orloff

Rich Orloff is a playwright living in New York City. Rich’s full-length plays have had over 300 productions, and his short works have had over 1800 productions on six of the seven continents and a staged reading in Antarctica!

Before becoming a playwright, Rich wrote for newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, industrial films and educational videos. While in Kosovo in 2000, Rich wrote the children’s play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Fight Tuberculosis for Doctors of the World.

Episode 94 - Kat Epple

Kat Epple is an Emmy Award-winning composer and musician who has released 36 albums, and has composed music for film and television including for National Geographic, PBS Nova, Carl Sagan, CNN, History Channel, MTV, NASA, and Apple Computers.

Kat has performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The United Nations, Guggenheim Museums, and in concerts all around the world. With her 1980s San Francisco-based Electronic Space Music duo, “Emerald Web”, she was a pioneer in Electronic Music, New Age Music, healing music, and music technology in general. For twenty years, her friend and legendary visual artist, Robert Rauschenberg, commissioned her to perform at his art openings.

She performs and records with Anthropology Band, the Heavy Metal band, Devin Townsend Project, and Sonic Combine. 

Episode 93 - Brandon Robertson

Brandon Robertson’s an EMMY nominated Music Director, a notable Bassist who can be seen playing in downtown Fort Myers as part of the Dan Miller/Lew Del Gatto Quartet at the Barrel Room, and the Instructor of Jazz Studies & Director of the FGCU Basketball Band. He's also got a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from FSU.

He recently released his first album "Bass’d on A True Story" through Canadian label Slammin Media/Believe Distributions. It reached #16 on the iTunes Top 200 Jazz Releases.

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 92 - Maestro Raffaele Ponti

Maestro Raffaele Ponti is Music Director of the Punta Gorda Symphony, and the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. His main goals are to raise the artistic level of the orchestras; achieve passionate and inspired performances; enrich lives through great orchestral experiences; and make the orchestra important and relevant to the community.

Maestro Ponti has worked with world class artists from all over the world. His reviews have dubbed him a “rising star”, “charismatic”, “electrifying”, and “empowering.” He was recently named a “Leader of Distinction” by the Florida Weekly. 

 

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 91 - Skyler Denison

Skyler Joseph Denison is a chef, drummer, and native to Southwest Florida. He grew up working in bars and restaurants and played music around the area and state for what he says “seemed like forever” in local bands like Crimson Fetch which was renamed to Drawing Maps.

When he’s not wrapped around the finger of his 5-year-old daughter, Locklyn Aver, you can find Skyler serving up some of the best veggies, fried chicken, and tacos in the area.

Episode 90 - Mayor Randy Henderson

Our guest today is Mayor of my hometown, the City of Fort Myers, Randall or just “Randy” Henderson, Jr. Randy’s been mayor for about a decade -- he’s now in his third term. Mayor Randy is an active community volunteer, including currently being on the boards of Keiser University, the Edison Pageant of Lights, and The Salvation Army. He’s past president of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and Fort Myers Kiwanis Club. He was president of the Florida League of Mayors in 2015 and 2016.

We got Mayor Henderson on the agenda after episode 2 guest, Lydia Black, texted me a while back saying “Mayor Henderson wants to do Three Song Stories! Just confirmed him!” - thanks Lydia!

Episode 89 - Barbara Fischer

Barbara Fischer is a Southwest Florida harpist who has never known a home without a harp. Barbara’s had the opportunity to play under renowned composer, conductor, and clinician Dr. David R. Holsinger. She says she frequently adds musical ambiance to events like weddings, dinners, and church services. But she says her main love is arranging music for the harp: especially gospel and pop, which she shares on her youtube channel.

She says she loves the feeling of playing what she calls “unharpistic” pieces on an electric harp, and hopes to bring the harp off of the pedestal and into the real world. Barbara was awarded best musical performance in Ghostbird Theatre Company’s 2017 24-Hour Festival...and she participated in their 2019 festival alongside a chicken. Seriously. 

 

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 88 - Patton Dodd

Patton Dodd works for the H. E. Butt Foundation in San Antonio, Texas, where he's creating an initiative that tells multi-media stories about local inequity to try to change the narrative about why so much poverty exists and persists in San Antonio.

His writing on religion and American culture has been featured in the Post, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, TheAtlantic.com, CNN.com, and Christianity Today.

Patton holds a doctorate in religion and literature from Boston University, and he is the author of “The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice,” “The Tebow Mystique: The Faith and Fans of Football’s Most Polarizing Player,” and “My Faith So Far: A Story of Conversion and Confusion.”

 

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 87 - Tim McBride

Tim McBride is a former marijuana smuggler/pot hauler who had a hand in bringing millions of pounds of pot into the country via Everglades City from the late '70s until the late '80s.

His book “Saltwater Cowboy: The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire”, which was published in 2015, details how he wound up smuggling weed in the Everglades, after leaving Wisconsin in 1979 to do some work as a crab fisherman.

He and his crew were middlemen between a Colombian marijuana cartel and their distributors in Miami. His team included fishermen, drivers, stock houses, and security - his book says seemingly all of Chokoloskee Island was in on the operation back then. Tons upon tons of marijuana would pass through his hands during that time...until he was busted in 1989, and spent four years in prison.

Episode 86 - Bob Hilliard

Put simply, Bob Hilliard is a local living legend. From the time at the end of World War II when he was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of liberated Jews, to his years in theater, radio and television in New York City, to his decades in public service in Washington where he played a role in the foundation of public broadcasting, to his decades in academia as a college dean and professor. Bob has always stood up for those who need someone to stand up for them, and bravely spoken truth to power in a way we could all learn a lesson from. Needless to say, we are way more than honored to have him in the Three Song Stories chair, and hope you are as inspired by him and his stories as we are.

BONUS - Richard Chin Quee (Pilot) Remastered

A remastered version of our pilot episode with better audio quality, and longer music.

Episode 85 - Shannon Arnold

Shannon Arnold is Artistic Director of the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers. She is also the music director at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in North Fort Myers.

Prior to moving to Florida, Shannon received her Masters degree in Choral Conducting at Temple University with Paul Rardin, Mitos Andaya Hart, and Rollo Dilworth. She got her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Penn State University where she studied piano with Dr. Steven H. Smith and conducting with Dr. Christopher Kiver.

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 84 - Andy Howl

Andy and his wife Alainna run HOWL Gallery/Tattoo, and Andy co-founded the Fort Myers Art Walk and founded the Fort Myers Music Walk events.

Andy published a yearly coffee table art book series entitled The Devils Reign, co-curated by Peter H. Gilmore and featuring world renowned tattoo artists, painters and illustrators.

This year, Andy started an original heavy metal band, their debut performance will happen this Winter at HOWL Gallery.

 

This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

Episode 83 - Fabiana Solano

Fabiana Solano is a photographer for FGCU, Residential Conduct Committee Chair for FGCU Housing, and FGCU Office of Student Involvement Marketing Assistant. She's also an immigrant from Venezuela and current student at FGCU working on her master's degree. Oh, and she's got her own cardboard cutout in the University Welcome Center. She says she’s passionate about sustainability, and that her ultimate goal would be to work for an organization with an environmental mission in mind.

Episode 82 - Kym Hudson

Kym Hudson is a Library Associate in Telephone Reference at the Lee County Library System. (If you have ever called the library, you've probably spoken with her). Telephone Reference is considered the central reference point for all Lee County libraries.

She is a multi-generational Cape Coral native and a second-generation adoptee with roots running all the way back to when Chiquita Boulevard was known as Molter Grade.