#129 Blake Althen, musician and podcast guru

Lionel Cole is an amazing Grammy nominated musician, with the music business being part of his life as the son of Freddy Cole and nephew of Nat King Cole. He toured with Mariah Carey and has played with many famous musicians. Lionel became good friends with Jefferson Glassie recently through their mutual friend Tara Gorman, who met Lionel years ago through Up With People. Lionel is a brilliant music shaman and eloquent spiritual guru.

Natalie Glassie is a ballet dancer, who is also Jefferson Glassie's niece, they talk about the essential role of music in dance.

Marshall Thomas and Jefferson Glassie met at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music camp at Wooten Woods and engaged in some interesting discussions about the connection of music and plant medicines, which they discuss further in this podcast.

With special guest:

Marshall Thomas

Jefferson Glassie met Melani at the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India; they had a lot of synchronicities! Melani is into the book When the Drummers Were Women, knew Biko Casini and Rising Appalachia, works on indigenous peoples issues, and ended up singing with Jefferson for his 70th Birthday celebration in Rishikesh. She also is a founding member of the Council of Music Shamans.

With special guest:

Melani GG

Tara Divina left her job in the music business to become a musician and also a coach for musicians, artists, and others to help them find their core message. She and Jefferson talked about her views of music and life, her vedic astrology work, and the role of shamanism in her mystical coaching practice. For more information, please visit www.taradivina.com

Brian Festa is an accomplished musician but also focuses on helping musicians with their musical, personal, and professional lives. He describes many of the holistic aspects that musicians can learn about and focus on to improve their practices and also his vision for retreat centers built around musicians and their needs. Please check out www.musicianmedicine.com.

Rudy Colombini has been a singer and musician all his life, and has been the lead singer for the Unauthorized Rolling Stones among many other performance roles. He is also the Founder of Music City San Francisco, a multifaceted music and arts performance and community space. www.musiccitysf.org. It mission is provide a self-sustaining music-focused hub in the heart of San Francisco that music fans, performance artists, and professional musicians can discover diverse, music-centric experiences that inspire, educate, and entertain.

Rudy is also a very spiritual musician who leads study of A Course in Miracles and has been guided by many synchronous experiences in his life, including meeting John Lennon on the streets of San Francisco.

This is the first video version of the Planetary Gig Talk podcast, appropriately, with podcast guru and musician Blake Althen. Blake was responsible for helping host Jefferson Glassie set up the Planetary Gig Talk podcast and Paula Bellenoit with Human Factor distributes the shows. Blake talked about the basics of podcasting and options for musicians who might want to get started with their own podcasts.

Verdell Primeaux is a two-time Grammy award winning vocalist in Native American Music. He was brought up with music in his family; he is a third generation recording artist. He met his musical brother Johnny Mike in 1986 and they launched a successful career with 30 records as Primeaux and Mike. Their music was inspired by and performed in connection with the Native American Church, which Verdell talks about in this podcast. Verdell says the music can bridge divisions, including ethic gaps and religion.

“This music has a universal outreach, it has a purpose.” He says, for the Native Americans, music and everything they do is a prayer, and for prayer to be most powerful, it should be in the form of a song. Verdell says, “Now is the time to bring people together,” with books, movies, songs, about the spirit and power of music. He says, “Everyone is blessed with their own voice.”