Musical Guests

Joel Thomas Hynes

Leave a comment

Joel Thomas Hynes is a multidisciplinary artist from Calvert, Newfoundland.

Hynes is currently based out of Toronto and is in the midst of releasing an album of original music and developing a feature film to direct.

He is the author of numerous acclaimed books, including Down to the Dirt (adapted to screen in 2008), Right Away Monday, Straight Razor Days, God Help Thee: A Manifesto and Say Nothing Saw Wood (which was recently adapted, by Hynes, to the big screen under the title Cast No Shadow and won numerous awards including four Canadian Screen Award Nominations).

His most recent novel We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night was longlisted for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize and won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction.

JTH has also written and directed a couple of award winning short films – Little Man and Clipper Gold and wrote and directed several shorts during a recent residency at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

Hynes has also been working as an actor for almost twenty years and continues to perform lead and principles roles in both television and film, including shows such as Orphan Black, Frontier, Mary Kills People, Republic of Doyle, Eye Witness, Book of Negroes, Hatching Matching and Dispatching and films such as Hunting Pignut, Cast No Shadow, Crackie, Down to the Dirt, and First Round Down.

Hynes is the creator, an executive producer and lead actor for the new CBC comedy series Little Dog, due for broadcast March 1st, 2018.

Joel Thomas Hynes on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S07.E11 – February 18, 2018

Follow Joel Thomas Hynes
facebooksoundcloudtwitterReverbNation
Musical Guests

Marwan Mograbi

Leave a comment

Marwan Mograbi is a Virtuoso Percussionist/ Drummer, African Storyteller, Educator and Dramatist. Born in Accra, Ghana. Marwan grew up in the traditional Ga and Ashanti cultures, where his love for music and his development as a drummer began.

“Hand drumming is my speciality but I play flutes and other instruments as well. My desire to drum started at a very young age. I always loved to sing and would hum or tap rhythms unconsciously. I have never stopped playing the drums ever since I first touched one.”

Other Drumming styles from West Africa have also played a huge role in his transformation and growth as a drummer.

Marwan graduated from the School of Performing Arts in Ghana and worked at the National Theater of Ghana as an Actor and musician. In Germany he created Tabasamu (a non-profit organization for African cultural performances). Over the years he has taught drumming and African music to hundreds of people – young and old, in Africa, Europe and the United States. Marwan has performed on numerous stages. The foundation and primary influences of his music are drawn from traditional Ghanaian and African folk music, even though other cultural traits are visible in his work.

Main Photo: Yoji Abe / Bacchanal

Marwan Mograbi on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S09.E06 with Afrikasa – October 14, 2018
Radio Venice S05.E11 – May 21, 2017
Radio Venice #12 – December 6, 2015

Follow Marwan Mograbi
facebookInstagram
Musical Guests

Kara Grainger

Leave a comment

Kara Grainger’s music career began in a small suburban town of Sydney Australia and since then has taken her on an incredible journey throughout the globe. Combining tasteful blues and slide guitar, soulful vocals and a heartfelt approach to songwriting, Kara’s truly unique sound will leave you uplifted, inspired and always wanting more.

At the age of 16 Kara joined with her brother Mitch Grainger to form the band “Papa Lips”. The band toured consistently throughout Australia and produced two studio albums that received national airplay.

The band was heavily influenced by the sounds of Stax recording in Memphis, and by the funky style of blues and soul that derived from New Orleans.

“But the highlight of the opening set will be Aussie soul slinger Kara Grainger who is known for her groove-rooted sound and mean slide guitar; her sultry vocal melting hearts and minds, a true delight to see”.
– Zaki Zufri, Insing.com

In 2008 Kara signed to Australian label “Craving Records” and was invited to the US by producer David Kalish where she recorded her debut solo album. The recording entitled “Grand and Green River” received critical acclaim and remained in the top 30 of the Americana Charts for 38 straight weeks.

Since then Kara has made two further albums whilst residing in the US. In 2011 “LA Blues” was recorded live at Studio City Sound. The cd paid tribute to some of Kara’s earliest blues inspirations and in 2013 kara recorded and released”Shiver and Sigh” through Los Angeles record label “Eclecto Groove.” The album was produced by Grammy award-winning producer David Z with some of LA’s finest musicians, including Mike Finnigan, Hutch Hutchinson, James Gadson and Kirk Fletcher among others.

Recently Kara was invited to play in Northeast India by the Himalayan Blues Foundation. Her performance at the “18 Degrees Cultural Festival” introduced the local community in Shillong to roots and blues music for the very first time.

She has travelled to Indonesia several times to perform at the Jakarta International Blues Festival, performing together with her US band and also as a special guest with “The Jakarta all Women Blues Review”.

In 2011 she toured Japan with “The Swampers and Donnie Fritts”, the infamous house Rhythm section for “Fame Recordings” in Muscle Shoals…She has taken her band to Switzerland where she performed at the “Sierre Blues Festival” as well as “Lucerne”. The band has also toured in Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Spain.

In 2015 Kara performed at the “Beautiful Swamp Festival” in Calais France and also to sell out crowds on her debut tour of the Uk. One of the highlights was performing at “Ronnie Scotts”, Londons premier blues and jazz venue.

In the US Kara has performed at several festivals such as “The Portland Waterfront Blues Festival”, “Blues from the Top” in Colorado and “Austin City Limits”. She has also opened the show for many extraordinary acts such as Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal and Jonny Lang, to name a few.

Kara Grainger on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S07.E09 – February 4, 2018

Follow Kara Grainger
websitefacebooksoundcloudInstagramtwitter

Musical Guests

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton

Leave a comment

Although still in his 20s, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920’s and making them wish they could stay there for good. Blind Boy Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists that you have not heard of. Yet. And time is getting short, fast.

Jerron performed to a sold-out audience at the Lead Belly Tribute at Carnegie Hall on February 4, 2016 along with Buddy Guy, Eric Burdon, Edgar Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and other stars. It is no exaggeration to say that Paxton made a huge impression. In the two years since his incredible performance at that star-studded show in one of the world’s great concert houses, Paxton’s own star has been rising fast. He opened for Buddy Guy at B.B. Kings in NYC; for Robert Cray at the Reading PA Blues Festival, and performed at numerous other festivals including: Woodford Folk Festival & Byron Bay Blues Festival in Australia; Calgary Folk Festival in Canada; Jewel City Jam in Huntington WV; Freihofers Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs FL; Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-The Hudson NY; Fayetteville Roots Festival in Fayetteville AR: Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK., Harvest Time Rhythm & Blues Festival in Ireland; and headlined the 2017 Brooklyn Folk Festival.

Jerron Paxton is a two-time participant in the Keeping The Blues Alive Cruise and is the new Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival & Workshop at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA.

Paxton was featured on CNN’s Great Big Story and appeared in the multi award-winning music documentary AMERICAN EPIC produced by Robert Redford, Jack White & T-Bone Burnett. In October and November 2018 Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton will be touring the U.S. with the musicians from this groundbreaking AMERICAN EPIC SESSIONS music documentary.

This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. He’s a world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character that has been on the cover of Living Blues Magazine and the Village Voice, and has been interviewed on FOX News. Paxton’s sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and “Blind” Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is “virtually the only music-maker of his generation — playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements — to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and ’30s.”

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S07.E08 – January 28, 2018

This is box title
websitefacebookyoutubetwitter
Musical Guests

Elona Planman and Joe DiLeo

Leave a comment

Elona Planman from Sweden writes sharp, clever, socially critical songs about our time. With guitar and harmonica, she is constantly in search of the truth, the adventure and the stories of life. She got an art grant to go to the United States to collaborate with the American Songwriter David Rovics.

On tour through the US two months ago, she found a new band member in San Francisco, the great musician Joe DiLeo. They will now take over the world together, shadow by shadow.

Elona Planman and Joe DiLeo on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S07.E07 – January 21, 2018

Follow Elona Planman
websitefacebookyoutubesoundcloud

… live with love from Venice (and beyond!)