"Music’s impact on anything, is to connect us to the essential nature of ourselves; our freedom; our unique sovereignty as Human Beings. True love, is the ultimate ‘revolutionary’ act/choice. Unconditional love."

Brandon Ross: Global Music Roots

Brandon Ross is an American avant-jazz guitarist, composer, band leader, vocalist, and…

"If you put something of a high enough quality out into the world, there WILL be people out there with whom it resonates. That can lead to a wonderfully symbiotic relationship with people and places you would never have otherwise encountered."

District 97: Expect The Unexpected

Chicago prog rock band District 97 will be releasing a new live album…

"Believe in yourself and pursue music and not fame."

Joe Macre: American Garage Dream

Joe Macre is best known as the original bassist for the progressive rock band “Crack The Sky”, whose debut was voted album of the year in Rolling Stone Magazine and is still included in the top 50 progressive rock albums of all time. The new release from Joe…

"Regarding my music and social implications… one track on Joy Machine is called "The Longing Song”, which is about the children we locked up in detention centers on the Mexican border. But it's set in the future, and the children are all grown up...and how lost and troubled they have become, and how we are also in fact lost, for letting such a thing occur. Nels Cline of Wilco is a guest on this track. It's really powerful."…

"Music unites people of all races, genders, religions… and I want my music to give people whatever they need when they put on my record, If they want to dance, I want them to dance, If they want to cry and let their feelings out I want them to do that. I want it to be whatever they need it to be for them at that moment."

Casey Hensley: Speaks to People's Soul…

"There is a wonderful quote from the great writer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emmerson, who said “In the woods we return to reason and faith”. For me there are no more truer words. Being in nature as much as I am provides a balance in my life."

Chuck Leavell: The Trees & The Music Man

Chuck Leavell, whose piano…

"The blues is a type of music that is able to communicate with people and that excites in a very simple and direct way. Especially after this difficult moment, the blues and music in general will help people to rediscover the joy of being together, being close and getting excited. I think blues is perfect for this. There is clearly also a more social interpretation of blues music. A music of struggle and revenge. Personally, it allows me never to forget the…

"I wanted to make people realize that, under the skin, we are all the same: "If you prick me do, I not bleed?". The blues springs from human experience: that experience is common to us all, black or white. It is an expression of hope and I hope it helps to end racial prejudice."

Dave Thomas: The Blues Spirituality

Dave Thomas is the…

"Music, especially if we are to consider music without lyrics, does not have a political agenda, does not speak to race or class nor is restricted by language.  In that sense it communicates the human experience in the most profound way, connects us together as one species, and in that commonality, proves that we all want the same basic things for ourselves. We need to operate from that sensibility."…

"I believe music has the power to uplift the spirit and that’s the energy I want to impart. There is a little part toward the end of the title song “Sundial” that everybody I’ve played it for smiles when they hear it. It’s a combination of the background vocals swelling up against the major chord and the lead vocal… I live for that!"

Carl Verheyen: The Joy of Music…

"Know yourself. Yes. It's the same thing. Be yourself, knowing yourself, ultimately. And then what is that? What does that mean? You know that, and you think it is simple. Well, it is not that simple, but it's the most powerful and potent, that's what we're here to do, to be absolutely ourselves. And by being ourselves, we come to know the world."

Joy Harjo: Muscogee…

"The blues can mean pretty much anything in real life - you know, normally it's about somebody's lost loved one or somebody's lost love, or tragedies within themselves, or no work, no money. Then they turn to drinking and drugs and they write the blues, that's the blues within themselves. They say that the blues had a baby and they called it rock 'n roll, which is very true: rock 'n roll was born out of the blues from the Mississippi all the way to Chicago.…

"People to understand each other and not be at each other’s throat all the time, that we can find common ground, that we don’t have to be constantly at war with each other, that we don’t have to be concerned with how somebody else lives, that everyone’s different – I’d love to see that. Let’s give each other some room."

Charlie Daniels: The Southern Legend…