If you see Chris Neville on stage, you know you’re in good hands. You're at a party.
The music is going to be smokin’. You will be transported. And you will laugh!
The kind of laughing you did when life…
Read more
Ron Lazzeretti: The Heart of a True Collaborator
You remember the story of how Robin and I started going to FitzGeralds, right? How he lured me there and I went reluctantly, with the promise of meeting this one wonderful musical couple?
One thing led to another, and between…
Read more
Dag Juhlin: The next one, that's the one.
Dag Juhlin: the man, the myth, the legend. I snuck out of my house to see him play at the West End in The Slugs. When my mom found out, she grounded me for weeks. I snuck out the next…
Read more
Will Duncan: The Legendary FitzGerald's
FitzGerald’s is much more than a legendary venue that, under the leadership of Bill FitzGerald and the watchful eye of Kate FitzGerald, was the first to present artists like Clifton Chenier, Marcia Ball, Pat McLaughlin. It’s fans are legion, it’s…
Read more
Rising, illuminated
When you get together with friends, and start talking, the line blurs between collaboration and life, doesn't it? If you've got the right friends, and if you're reading this blog I am quite sure that you do, chances are excellent…
Read more
The next right step
All collaboration begins with a willingness to hear and know what you want to create. Willingness is the soil that allows an idea to germinate in your consciousness.
Maybe the idea got there through conscious cultivation, maybe through benign neglect…
Read more
Sam Frazier: It's a Beautiful Thing
I am lucky enough to be in a couple of songwriter groups, one based in Chicago and one with people from all over the US. The internet-based group is called The Tunesmiths, and I just spent September collaborating with two…
Read more
The BUILD Meditation: 10/2, 7 am, Live via Zoom
March 2020. It was a tumultuous time. We were running on adrenaline.
When you’re presented with a cresting wave, you either get out of its way, or face it.
There is no way to get out of the way of…
Read more
"You gonna have to," said the little voice.
"I'm just going to ask him again."
"Jenny!!!"
My husband Robin Bienemann hardly ever uses exclamation points in his speaking voice.
But there he was, and there they were, telling me to not ask this artist who had turned me…
Read more