NHT Blog

As seen in the accompanying photo, last Thursday night I attended a members only event for the Florida chapter of the Recording Academy.  It took place in Miami, the same city that had hosted a similar event – albeit more Christmas-themed – five months earlier.

On this occasion in the United States every year, people (are supposed to) stop to honor those who lost their lives serving our country.  My guess is that when the “holiday” first started, there was probably an overwhelming emphasis on literally being in remembrance of those folks who we lost in combat.

As the years have gone on, sure, banks close and so does the post office, but people seem to otherwise think of it as, “the unofficial start of summer” and they go buy hot dogs and macaroni salad and/or plan a day at the beach.

Following up on the success of “Cover Girl” (approximately 318 thousand streams to-date on Spotify), Aubryanna’s new release, “Safe,” is poised to see a similar trajectory.

Out only ten days but already at over 9,500 streams, the single from the independent Pop and R&B singer-songwriter based between South Jersey and Philadelphia has a lot of the elements a track needs if it’s going to successfully withstand the pressure to follow up a song that has done as well as its predecessor.

The day after tomorrow will mark the release of Episode 639 of my “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.  I have never missed a week once since launching the show on February 17, 2014.  Wednesday’s will also be the 1,070th episode hosted in my podcasting career.  (I have a second show that has been delivered on time, every Monday since February 1, 2019.)

Yes, consistency is key.  I’ve written about it before as have countless others.

I often think back to my interview way back on Episode 188 of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast when the guest was Charlie Midnight.  (The accompanying photo shows us recording that conversation.)  He is a multi-Grammy™, Emmy™, and Golden Globe™ award winning and nominated songwriter and producer and has worked with some of the biggest names in the business.

This coming Thursday (April 30) is International Jazz Day.  So, it’s fitting that the guest on the latest episode of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast is Chris Standring, one of the most prolific and successful artists on the contemporary urban jazz scene.

We have all heard it before: “You are a brand.” It is one of those phrases that gets tossed around so often it starts to feel meaningless, like something people say just because it sounds good. But the reality is, it is not just a trendy line—it is how people actually experience you in the real world.

A little over a week ago my brother asked me how I listen to music these days.  He immediately followed it up by asking if there is anyone (singular or plural) who has caught my ear to the point of maybe spurring me to dive into their catalog, learn more about them, and so on.

I don’t want to get sidetracked here by venturing into the answers that I was giving him to those questions that he posed.  But suffice it to say, if the song “No More Saving You” by Zy Smoke had come across my screen sooner, I’m sure I would’ve mentioned that in our conversation.

You’ve heard that expression, right?  It shows up a lot on social media.  Someone let me know if I’m wrong and it has been around a long time, but I feel like it’s maybe more of a 21st century thing.  “It costs nothing to be nice to someone.”

But let’s take that a step further.

There are so many expressions that people throw around, almost without sincerity, that messages and intent almost seem watered down.  Sadly.

Notice how many times people will use the expression, “Thoughts and prayers” when someone is going through something difficult.  If you haven’t been through it yourself, you don’t realize that even if you honestly are thinking about and praying for that person, that saying has gotten over saturated at this point.