Category: Artist Highlights

It has been fun getting to know John Gehrke over the last year-plus. His thought-provoking lyrics, sense of humor, and willingness to try something new in front of everyone add so much value to our community.

Meet John

What do you do during the day?

I am honored to introduce Sonam. She has such a fresh sound, bursting with creativity and mind-expanding harmonic complexity. I have truly enjoyed seeing her process as she develops songs and steps out on a limb to share them with the world.

Meet Sonam

What do you do during the day?
After highschool I did a year of a BA in Creative Writing. After that I completed two years of a Music Technology/Audio Engineering program, which I just finished a few weeks ago! Throughout these last three years I've been working as an Arts Editor/Journalist at a student newspaper called the Other Press. Now that I've graduated I'm currently job hunting for a second job.

I have immensely enjoyed getting to know Rado over the last few months. Not gonna lie, I'm a little biased because we share a love for blues, soul, and funk, which clearly influences his compositions. I appreciate his willingness to give us a peek into his process—the way he teases out a juicy chord or harmony and massages it into a song is super inspiring!

Meet Rado

It brings me great joy to highlight Jeff. Jeff is a 100 Days of Songwriting veteran. It's been fun watching his music, performing, and producing skills develop and expand over the last couple of years. I want to share a quote from him that I feel sums up his attitude and truly illuminates the spirit of our community: "We're all on different parts of the path, but we're all on the path." I couldn't have said it better. We are all here to do our work and encourage our fellow travelers. Thanks for being a leader in that way, Jeff!

Meet Jeff

What do you do during the day?

I'm retired 🙂 I was in retail sales for 16 years before that.

Do you have any guilty pleasures in music?

There are moments where I really like Sinatra 🙂 (and a lot of the swing/ big bands from the 40's & 50's...) and the Tin Pan Alley writers too the Gerswhin's, Johnny Mercer et al... Good quality music. Our folks had some great music to listen to.

"It has been a joy and honor getting to witness Kirsty’s process and participation in our community. Her ability to be vulnerable and share unfinished snippets of work in one breath, and in the next share a final product with full instrumentation, tasteful arrangement and if we’re lucky an epic shredding guitar solo. Her encouragement and sense of humor is always on-point." - Rigel

What do you do during the day?

I work in financial services, although not the "big fat bonus" kind unfortunately

It is my joy to introduce Devin. When he first started showing up at our meetings, he was ZOOMing in from Guatemala, doing music full-time. The way his songwriting has evolved over this past year illuminates how dedicated he is.

What do you do during the day?

I’ve recently relocated back to the US after living abroad for some years. So right now, songwriting and music is what I’m continuing to work on while looking towards what and where the next step is.

I am so glad to highlight this fine fellow. Clark has been with our community for a few seasons now. Besides being super supportive to his fellow songwriters, sharing his unique process and wonderful music, he holds a special place in my heart. Clark gave me a nudge at a crucial juncture in the life of this community.

Last year I was struggling with our platform. I spent way too much time chasing down tech issues and worrying about crashing the website. I wanted to build a community. Clark suggested I look into the Mighty Networks platform. After researching it, I begun the monumental process of moving our community to a new platform. I am so grateful I did. Now, I get to focus on building an infrastructure that nurtures humanity—more events, workshops, discussion topics, collaborations, to name a few. It's also freed me up to focus more on my songwriting. Thank you, Clark! This community would not be what it is today without you, my friend.

Meet Clark

Clark is from Bozeman, MT, United States

What do you do during the day?

I just finished grad school in November and am currently seeking employment as a nonprofit program evaluation consultant.

Within three seconds of meeting Louis, I knew we would be in each other's lives somehow in the future. We first met at the 2019 CD Baby DIY conference in Austin, Texas. I discovered that we share a vision for supporting and lifting up fellow musicians. He provides a performance space called tinystageconcerts.com. Check it out if you are in the Charlotte, NC area. After about a year of slow-drip invitation, I finally talked him into doing a hundred days with us. This fall, he jumped in with fingers and pen blazing. Both his output and encouragement were incredible. It is truly a pleasure having this genuine and kind-hearted soul part of our community.

Meet Louis

What do you do during the day?

I am a copier technician/network specialist for an office equipment company.

It's been a delight getting to know Joe. He has spent a lifetime cultivating his creative side, and it's fascinating to watch him turn a spark of an idea into a song. He has consistently contributed original work and has been a great encourager of others. I am thrilled that Joe found our community!

Meet Joe

What do you do during the day?

Well I’ve been a pirate, a poet, a teacher, a designer, a director, a playwright, and a bartender and now I’m retired. Or repurposed. When there is no epidemic I am a pirate for kids at a local bookstore, playing original sea shanties.

I met Robin at the CD Baby DIY conference last year in my hometown Austin, Texas. At the time, she was starting her senior year at Berklee School of Music in Boston. I was fascinated by the fact that she took classes from Pat Pattison, who I have developed a songwriting man-crush on over the last few years. Robin is a joy and inspiration and is a fountain of songwriting information and general music nerdery. It is a real gift having her part of our community.

Meet Robin