THE STEWARTS STOP IN AND TALK ABOUT THEIR NEW SINGLE "STAND" AND MUCH MORE!

The Stewarts are back with the fast, dance infused R&B-funk-Motown gospel single “Stand”

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By Kurt Beyers

With a message of brotherhood, sisterhood and faith — gospel delivered at high speed in a joyful fusion of pop, funk, R&B, Motown and dance — The Stewarts, brothers Del and Garry K., are back with “Stand.”

Joy is a hallmark of all their music.

“‘Stand’ is a good-message song for the world, for brothers and sisters to come together, to show love to one another,” said Garry. “No more hatred. Show love. Pick up your brothers and sisters when they fall down. Pick them up.”

“In my personal opinion,” said Del, “‘Stand’ will generate hopefully more conversation about coming together, about treating people fairly, standing up for each other — brothers and sisters coming together.”

“And stand up for your faith,” added Garry.

Show the love of Christ

If you have the choice of colors, do you love one & hate the others

We’re all sisters and brothers — show love, show love,

Show love to each other, oh stand, stand up for each other

“We were going with the drum beat initially, and the words just came to us,” said Dell. “We were ping-ponging the words back and forth because we knew people needed to hear a positive-message song about brotherly love and sisterly love.”

On the mix of music, Del said, “Garry and I, we sat down and we went back to our roots. We went back to the ’70s.”

The clavinet sound comes from Stevie Wonder, and others come from the Dayton, Ohio, group Slave from their song “Slide.”

“We were listening to their production, and we incorporated that as well as the Stevie Wonder production into our song,” said Del.

The Stewarts, who have been writing and performing since the ’70s, were opening a new phase of their career back in 2020, getting ready to move out into the world with their music. That was when “Stand” was written, but they put it on hold because two other songs, “His Door Is Open” followed by “Faith,” took off, reaching the top of the Upcoming charts, Nos. 1 and 2 respectively.

About the time they were ready to push out “Stand,” Covid hit. The virus took down Del and Garry at different times.

“It threw us behind,” said Garry.

“But also we know that God is good, and once we started feeling better, we started putting things together,” said Del. “We said, ‘Hey, let’s get back on our feet and rock and roll.’”

“Sometimes, when you experience setbacks,” he said, “it also makes you stronger when you come back, because God is good all the time, and when you fall, you gotta get up and continue to try.”

The brothers come from a musical family. Johnny Hodges, who played sax for Duke Ellington, was a cousin. Their mother, Corinne, sang gospel with Sam Cooke. Del and Garry were introduced to Motown’s Howard Davis by another cousin, Luther Bond of Luther Bond and the Emeralds.

Their faith infuses their music. R&B, rock, funk, pop and Motown help propel the gospel of The Stewarts. Joyous worship accompanies the messages in their songs, messages indicated in the titles: “Stand,” “His Door Is Open,” “The Truth,” “Walk With Me Jesus,” “Battle of Survival,” “Family Affair.”

They are working on other songs, including an EP, but for now the focus is on promoting “Stand” because, said Del, “the world needs to see the video and listen to the lyrics, and, hopefully, we can captivate a different type of audience.”

“This is a song for everyone, from the young to the old,” said Garry. “You can be 8 years old and get something from this song.”

“We want the listener to enjoy the song. The beat hopefully would capture the attention, but the lyrics would also capture the attention as well, because we were writing the song so that it’s uplifting,” said Del.

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THE JIMMY DIXON GROUP STOPS BY AND TALKS ABOUT THEIR NEW SINGLE "IN THIN AIR" AND MORE!

Old school rock and roll storms in with “In Thin Air” from The Jimmy Dixon Group

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By Kurt Beyers

If rock and roll songs were rated like hurricanes, “In Thin Air,” from The Jimmy Dixon Group, would be a category 5.

First rain, then distant thunder, now driving, insistent piano and, ten seconds in, thunder riding on guitars crashes inside the earbuds. The storm rages righteously for another four minutes.

“We just tried to write a good, old fashioned rock and roll song,” said Jimmy, “where the listeners would wonder what happened to their socks: well, they got rocked off by The Jimmy Dixon Group! So, we wrote a little rock and roll tune for our vintage electric guitars and plugged ’em into an amp.”

Mission accomplished.

“Hopefully, people can dig the groove. It's just a song that makes you feel good.”

For those who want to groove on the lyrics:

Up in the thinnest of air

Fading a sense to care

No more pain

Lost touch of what is sane

“The great thing about a song is that it can have one meaning to one person and mean something completely different to someone else. And neither one is wrong. For me, it’s about, I guess, being on a higher plane,” said Jimmy, “however one gets there, and being able to think about who you are, what you’re doing, how you’re spending your time.”

Like, listening to rock and roll?

“That’s right. Exactly.”

The Jimmy Dixon Group is seven people, all with the surname Dixon (no relation anywhere) as far as anybody outside the group is concerned. The website carries the highly entertaining origin story, and anybody willing to believe it is welcome to do so.

 

Jimmy is lead vocals and, with his 1955 Martin D-28, “some guitar.” Chubbs Dixon is the drummer. Cranky Dixon has a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Special and his wife, “Midnight” Mae Dixon, is the pianist. Gary Dixon plays a 1968 Hofner 500/1 bass and sings backing vocals.

Capo Dixon, rhythm guitar, is supposedly named for his love of using a capo on his 1967 Martin D12-35 12-string acoustic and his 2017 Rickenbacker 660/12 electric.

Benmont Dixon plays strings.

“In Thin Air” is the second of 10 tracks on the album Rough Demos, released this year. This is the first music the group has released.

 

Jimmy tells the story of these seven people who just wanted to get together with their vintage instruments and their love for vintage rock and roll and write and play music. A couple years ago, they did just that. They gather in person from time to time but otherwise work and collaborate from a distance.

“We didn’t go into it thinking we would make an album. We just went into it thinking we’d have a little fun together, writing some songs and playing together. We spent a lot of time on it, and then all of a sudden we had songs that we had a lot of fun making, and we thought somebody would get a little joy out of listening. So we scraped together what we had in the studio and made an album.”

The Rough Demos name has its own origin story, supposedly being “recorded whenever and wherever the group could find an empty studio and an engineer who had his back turned,” according to the official group bio. Believing that is optional.

“We really love, and we’re really proud of, the album.”

Their music is inspired by “the roots of rock and roll,” said Jimmy.

He cites ’50s Chicago blues — Willie Dixon (no relation), Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter — then moving into the ’60s with artists such as Dylan, and on to the ’70s (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers).

The tracks, whether fast and furious like “In Thin Air” or meditative and whimsical like “Capo 5th Fret No. 2” (“Art is dead, long live the art/Priced to move at Neil’s new store”), are full of wonderful performances by the musicians.

They are about 90 percent done, he says, with the music that will be Rough Demos II, which will be released early next year.

They love the tones of the old instruments too, he said, especially the ’50s and ’60s Fenders, Gibsons and Martins.

“They just have their own unique sound that we really love. Nothing wrong with the new stuff, but we love the sound that you get from an old tweed amp after you plug in that Gibson Les Paul.”

“In Thin Air,” a fine piece of old-fashioned rock and roll, has, says Jimmy, “a nice groove to it and people can feel the rock and roll.”

He says the band has no career destination.

“We started out not really having a goal in mind, just playing and creating, having fun and getting joy out of music. We take it one small step at a time, and if we can connect with a couple people here and there who really like our music, that is tremendously exciting for us.”

Feel a vintage groove in modern form and connect to The Jimmy Dixon Group on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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SINGER SONGWRITER 'JAMES ATLAS' TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW SONG "RETAIL THERAPY" AND A LOT MORE!

James Atlas takes off in a new direction with fun, electro-pop shopping anthem “Retail Therapy”

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By Kurt Beyers

With a ditty-bopping, hand-clapping dance beat and playful lyrics, Australian artist James Atlas makes fun of and celebrates a kind of mall and shopping culture in his latest synth-pop release “Retail Therapy.”

“It’s about my own shopping addiction, and it’s about me kind of laughing at that while also reveling in it,” he said.

In fact, the inspiration came from one of the world’s most famous malls.

“When I listened to the arrangement for that one, I was walking around Dubai. I’d just been to the Dubai Mall, and the track took my mind straight to what I had just been doing at the mall. They were so closely related in style that I thought it would be funny to do a song about shopping addiction.”

“How do I fill / this void inside of me?” the song asks, and answers:

Oh I know / oh I know

Take it all / home with me

I want more / Of every thing

And I don’t care / what it takes from me

“It’s the craziest mall I’ve ever seen. I've never seen anything like that,” he said.

“Retail Therapy” is the first of 12 tracks to be released in the coming year for what will be his first album, the self-titled James Atlas. The song is also an inflection point in James’s musical style. He has turned from the acoustic sounds of earlier years to a more experimental treatment.

“It’s pretty much electro pop,” he said. “It’s got all synths in it and kind of ’80s style drums and different elements. I put some experimental kind of things in there, like cash register samples and credit card swipes that we thought would be kind of humorous to throw in.”

He says it is a dance track that can be played at a club or that people can sing along with.

“I’m trying to encourage people to use it as a soundtrack to shopping-haul videos or unboxing videos.”

His musical career started as a drummer in metal bands while studying jazz and exploring different kinds of music. He started releasing his songs in 2020 as an acoustic singer-songwriter.

“I started writing on the acoustic guitar—it’s obviously like the perfect instrument to write songs on.”

In his earlier work he was experimenting with the guitar, “and I realized I liked a space vibe.” His Spotify tagline is “Music from the cosmos.”

He got a pedal to trigger samples over the guitar, and then began running the guitar “through different kinds of spacy foot pedals as well.”

Speaking of space and retail, he has used his background in 3D modeling to design and produce a rocket.

“And in the porthole of the rocket will be a QR code, and people can scan the code on their phones and it will take them to the album. I will eventually put them up on the website, and we’ll be selling them at the shows. I think each show we’re planning to give away one rocket—whoever makes the most noise, or something.”

His move to pop, and work on the album, began in earnest in the early part of this year, when he met DJ server and started trying out different sounds.

Born in Australia, he has lived in the United States and Europe. His music incorporates elements of lo-fi, pop, rock and jazz.

“‘It’s the direction I’d love to head in moving forward, and obviously I’ll still mix it up stylistically. We’re already talking about a second album. It was definitely a big, big move for me and pushed me out of my comfort zone in the different genres.”

Of “Retail Therapy,” he said, “I just want it to be everyone’s new shopping anthem.”

Launch with James Atlas on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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INDIE POP ROCK ARTIST "SUNSCREEN" STOPS BY AND TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW RELEASE "MOVE WITH ME" PLUS A LOT MORE!

SUNSCREEN moves fast, high, hard and happy in “MOVE WITH ME” and its album

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By Kurt Beyers

Indie-pop rock artist SUNSCREEN’s tag line is “SUNSCREEN is a feeling.” A good feeling. If his latest release, “MOVE WITH ME,” doesn’t make you feel good, or at least better, watch the video on his YouTube channel.

If that doesn’t do the trick, wait five minutes, play it again. If you’re still unmoved, see a doctor.

“At the end of the day,” he said, “my songs elicit feelings. ‘MOVE WITH ME’ is meant to be a wedding playlist, dance floor song.”

The song starts off fast and kicks into high gear after the intro, which is intended to get people excited and in position to dance “at a wedding or a party or any sort of social gathering.”

“The song itself is about dancing with your partner or your loved one or boyfriend or girlfriend, or whatever, at any sort of social event.”

The video features what looks very much like a large extended family of several generations gathered in a dance choreographed specifically for the video. 

“MOVE WITH ME,” the “surf-rock banger,” is the first song on his new, 10-track album EAT SUNSCREEN, released the same day as the single and the video. 

The feelings he wants in his music extend to the names he chooses. EAT SUNSCREEN, for instance.

“I was thinking about making this self-titled, since it’s my debut SUNSCREEN album, but I wanted to put a spin on the self-titled business. So, I was thinking, ‘What could I put before or after SUNSCREEN?’ And I thought of EAT SUNSCREEN, and since the album is kind of a blast of happiness and energy and joy, and the EAT SUNSCREEN title put a smile on my face, I decided to go with it.”

He started work on the album in January and made one song a month until he had 10. The working title was THE LITTLE THINGS, because the theme of all the tracks are little things that bring joy.

“You can hear it in any song. Thematically, I’m focusing on the little things in life that bring us joy and happiness and community, that create the in-betweens that make up most of what life is.”

The songs deal with such subjects as being outdoors, being in nature, travel, falling in love.

He put out a six-track EP last year, SMILE, YOU’RE ON CAMERA!, that dealt with an overall theme of meeting and falling in love, inspired by meeting the person who became his wife. He is now coming up on the second anniversary of his marriage.

“And this one is about some of those themes of love and commitment and romance within celebrating all the other little things that bring us joy and pleasure.”

From “MOVE WITH ME”:

One, two, three

Turning up the radio

Cause you and me we got a flow

Follow you wherever you go

Move with me 

He has already released eight tracks in advance of the album, with titles like “CHERRY RED SUMMER”; “TAKE A VACATION”; “HEY!”; and “ICE COLD WATER.”

However, do not think that the titles indicate the little things being celebrated in the individual songs.

“Every song is about a specific little thing. If people want to try to figure out what little thing each song is about, there’s a meaning on the surface that they might get, and then there’s a second-level meaning they can get if they’re looking closer.”

He provides a clue: “One of the songs is about my dog, but I never say that.”

And no dog barks from any of the titles.

He began releasing music as SUNSCREEN only last year, when he came out with his EP. That one he did over a two-month period. He loves the songs, but “it kind of felt like it just came and went.”

“It was nice to spend a little bit more time on this record and focus on each individual song.”

But it was a lot of work over an extended period, so what is next for him is “a nap” before getting back to work putting out more singles and another album.

The first singles off EAT SUNSCREEN have been well received.

“This year has been exciting in starting to find my audience. The first EP was somewhat of a shot in the dark to see if anyone would latch on,” he said.

The feel-good vibes in EAT SUNSCREEN, the pure fun and energy of them, are the point. He is not ignoring the pain of life, he says, he is simply focusing on things that bring pleasure.

“I feel like there’s a lot of sad music out there right now and a lot of negativity, and I want to do my part to spread some of the goodness of life with zero agenda other than life is good if you look at it from the right angle.”

Move into the sunlight with SUNSCREEN and connect on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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4 CHAIR TURN SINGING SENSATION "SHYE" FROM SEASON 26 OF "THE VOICE" STOPPED BY AND TALKED ABOUT HER BLIND AUDITION AND MORE!

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Season 26 of NBC's "The Voice" has delivered some of the best singers in the country, and one of them is a young lady named Shye! She wow'd the judges with her rendition of "Superman" which netted her a 4 chair turn!

Shye had all of the judges making STRONG pitches trying to get her to select them to be her coach. Gwen Stefani seemed visibly touched by Shye's performance and pitched very hard to get her. Shye went with singing legend Michael Buble' 

In this Podcast Shye talks about her journey and working with Buble' , as well as life since the blind auditions. Have a listen!

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J PAUL FROM "THE VOICE" SEASON 26 STOPPED BY AND TALKED ABOUT HIS AMAZING BLIND AUDITION AND WORKING WITH MICHAEL BUBLE'

J PAUL FROM SEASON 26 "THE VOICE" TALKS ABOUT HIS BLIND AUDITION 3 CHAIR TURN AND MORE!

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Season 26 of "The Voice" kicked off strong with performances like J Paul's blind audition. He got a 3 chair turn (almost 4) because Snoop was right on the edge of pushing his button. J Paul sang "I keep forgettin'" by Michael McDonald and as soon as he started singing, the chairs started turning. 

Legend Gwen Stefani pitched so hard that she stood up and got the entire audience to sing her song "Hollaback Girl" with her, and J Paul joined the party. Incredible moment. That all said her pitch was great, but it was Michael Buble' that got J Paul's attention, so he picked him.

Listen in to what J Paul had to say about the entire experience.

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ANA VILHETE'S STORY HAS RECEIPTS FOR THE INSPIRATION SHE OFFERS TO OTHERS - Q&A INTERVIEW

Ana Vilhete’s story has receipts for the inspiration she offers to others

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By Kurt Beyers

Ana Vilhete has a London business with offices in London, the Netherlands, the United States and, most recently, South Africa.

Alium Consultancy, which Ana founded in London in 2020, now grosses more than £10 million a year — roughly $13.4 million. She also has a London law firm with seven attorneys working under her. She is an entrepreneur, investor, a volunteer and an inspirational speaker.

And now, she is bringing her business and her story to America.

In her mid-30s, she is by any measure a success, and her story begins with virtually nothing in an inner-city slum in Luanda, Angola. She was born in the middle of that country’s 27-year civil war.

She lived without hot water until she was 13. She is dyslexic.

So, when she says the heart of her message as an inspirational speaker is, “If I can do it, anyone can do it,” she has the credentials.

“I think I have a great story to share of resilience and tenacity,” she said, “and I want to share my story, to inspire people. If I am able to be an inspiration to someone, I would love that. That is the legacy I want to leave behind.”

The bare-bones outline of her personal story goes from Angola to another inner-city slum in Lisbon, Portugal, when she was 4. She speaks Portuguese because for a couple of centuries Angola was a Portuguese colony and it became a necessary language for the native peoples.

That move resulted from a bullet. One night when the shooting was particularly bad, her mother took her into her bed and in the morning found a spent bullet in Ana’s cot.

From Lisbon, her story goes to London at age 16. Ana herself initiated that move.

“It was October 2003. I went home one day and I told my mom I wanted to leave Portugal. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to achieve any of my goals. I didn’t know what my goals were, but I didn’t think I was going to become the person I needed to be there, and I didn’t know who I wanted to be, but I just felt limited.”

All the girls she knew in Lisbon, her friends, were “getting ready to get pregnant, and I wanted more.”

London at first was little better. Her parents were in poverty-level janitorial work, and family members helped, but housing was a constant concern. A year in they became homeless until her father persuaded a friend to take them in for a few months until they could save enough for rent.

She learned English, she completed her equivalent to A-levels, roughly comparable to American high school, and went to college, with the help of student loans, to study law and criminology. She didn’t know if she wanted to be a lawyer and took a year off — to work in a law firm.

“I didn’t enjoy working with lawyers, but at the end of that I had loads of friends that were lawyers. So, I decided to go to law school.”

She finished law school, going part time. She graduated, then worked for various companies, big and small, a year, two years at a time, and in a small business in the staffing industry, what is called in the United States job placement, she learned the operation and business side of that industry.

In 2020, when she founded Alium Consultancy, she fulfilled another lifelong desire — to own her own business.

Alium places people in positions in the health, data and technology industries with a focus on empowering success through diversity in the workforce.

She insists that she is nothing special.

“Coming from where I came from, if I can do it, anybody can do it. Seriously, I’m not particularly smart, and I found out in law school that I’m dyslexic. It was tough — ‘I need to pass this exam. Why is this subject not going in?’ — and so I think if I can do it, anyone can.”

“You don’t always have to know what your calling is. You just have to have the tenacity to search for it, grab what’s available and continue to search. You try this and you try that. Be willing to try new things. Be willing to spot an opportunity. Be alert to your environment, think about new ideas and be prepared to fail, because I failed a lot.”

Be relentless, she says. Listen to your instincts, keep looking for the thing you might enjoy “waking up to,” and be resilient.

“Life is tough. It is what it is. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Failure,” she says, “might not be your fault, but it is certainly your responsibility to keep going.”

She delivers her message in Great Britain, in Portugal and other places. She tells her story in schools and colleges and is on television as a guest invited to share her opinions on various subjects.

America is next, both for Alium Consultancy with its focus on filling positions and promoting diversity in the workforce, and as a speaker with an iniring story to tell.

“I can really demonstrate, like I said, that if I can do it, anyone can do it. I’ve got the credibility to back it up.”

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