Sounds of Encouragement
Melissa Slocum and Friends
Recent Episodes
Artist Gurm was born in India, grew up in China and currently resides in Thailand. Having grown up and been schooled in an international environment, immersed throughout in a multi-cultural atmosphere, she has always been fascinated with the unique cultural elements and stories from all over the world. After following art as a passion since her middle school days, she honed her skills by doing a Masters in Visual Arts (Studio Art) in Hong Kong. She works in the medium of drawing, painting and mixed media, and also enjoys writing and vlogging. She has had several solo exhibitions in China and has gained recognition of her art globally. Gurm’s artistic inspiration comes from everyday life. She is interested in creating works that represent the familiar world around us. By looking beyond the obvious, Gurm reconstructs the everyday environment around us into something artistically unique, which allows the audience to discover beauty in unusual places.
For Gurm, art is not only a way to express herself, but also a therapeutic path of self-discovery. She likes to think that she has not found art, but rather art has found her. She perceives art as a medium to radiate bliss and peace of mind, and to bring life to the present moment. Gurm wants people to look at her artworks and experience the same feeling she has while creating them – freedom, satisfaction, and a journey of self-reflection.
See and Learn about Gurm's art at https://gurmsart.com
Top 5 Songs of Encouragement
1) "Imagine" by John Lennon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugrAo8wEPiI
2) "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtC1W-6hwIU
3) "Firework" by Katy Perry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw
4) "This is Me" from the Greatest Showman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjxugyZCfuw
5) "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y66j_BUCBMY
Lauren Best lives where the Pottawatomi River meets Georgian Bay, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (now known as Owen Sound, Ontario). She is an interdisciplinary creative with a multifaceted community arts practice interweaving her work as a poet, musician, and composer/creator.
Lauren left her small Ontario town as a young singer-songwriter keyboardist and returned to become Poet Laureate Emeritus (Owen Sound, 2017-2019). Lauren is included alongside other Poets Laureate Emeritus in the City of Windsor’s South Shore Collections series, A Manor of Words: Poetry at the Manor 10th Anniversary Anthology (Black Moss Press, 2022). Her poems are published in Spike: Poems in the Time of Pestilence (Cannon Creek Press, 2021).
Lauren’s 2010 chapbook Resound Re:Sound is a collection of lyrics written in Owen Sound between 2004-2008. Lauren’s music has been heard coast to coast since her debut album release in 2011, and she’s collaborated across genres and art forms with work in music, poetry, theatre, film and digital media.
During more than a decade of community engaged arts, Lauren has partnered across sectors spanning education, cognitive neuroscience research, healthcare, social service, and cultural organizations. In 2022 she teamed up with Seattle-baed saxophonist Steve Treseler to create the Infinite Improvisation Podcast.
Lauren’s new performance pieces combine poetry from her first full-length poetry book Just Leaves (2023), set within a soundscape of keyboard and vocal improvisation paired with lyric melodies.
You can learn more about Lauren and order her book, Just leaves at www.laurenbest.com
You can also collaborate with Lauren by checking out https://bestpracticearts.com/index.html
Tune in for Part II to hear Lauren's Top 5 Songs of Encouragement and MUCH MORE!
Lauren Best lives where the Pottawatomi River meets Georgian Bay, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (now known as Owen Sound, Ontario). She is an interdisciplinary creative with a multifaceted community arts practice interweaving her work as a poet, musician, and composer/creator.
Lauren left her small Ontario town as a young singer-songwriter keyboardist and returned to become Poet Laureate Emeritus (Owen Sound, 2017-2019). Lauren is included alongside other Poets Laureate Emeritus in the City of Windsor’s South Shore Collections series, A Manor of Words: Poetry at the Manor 10th Anniversary Anthology (Black Moss Press, 2022). Her poems are published in Spike: Poems in the Time of Pestilence (Cannon Creek Press, 2021).
Lauren’s 2010 chapbook Resound Re:Sound is a collection of lyrics written in Owen Sound between 2004-2008. Lauren’s music has been heard coast to coast since her debut album release in 2011, and she’s collaborated across genres and art forms with work in music, poetry, theatre, film and digital media.
During more than a decade of community engaged arts, Lauren has partnered across sectors spanning education, cognitive neuroscience research, healthcare, social service, and cultural organizations. In 2022 she teamed up with Seattle-baed saxophonist Steve Treseler to create the Infinite Improvisation Podcast.
Lauren’s new performance pieces combine poetry from her first full-length poetry book Just Leaves (2023), set within a soundscape of keyboard and vocal improvisation paired with lyric melodies.
You can find Lauren on socials and at https://laurenbest.com or at https://bestpracticearts.com/index.html
Lauren's Top 5 Songs of Encouragement:
1) This Joy by The Resistance Revival Chorus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TbDPwA09Bc&t=15s
2) Soy Yo by Bomba Estereo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxWxXncl53U&t=48s
3) Fool for Waiting by Dan Mangan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4sCAl1qzY
or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjDQ_OzLt8
4) Mississippi Nuthin' by Shovels & Rope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMKxTjo21bI&t=21s
5) Don't Quit on Me by Richard Laviolette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBDEsGcj8g&t=95s
Chris Rugowski is the man, or chicken as he is known to many, behind Chicken or The Egg Photography. He is a photojournalist who captures your authentic story. As of 2023, he’s been in photography for about a decade, and in that time has gone from hobbyist with an iphone doing a full time job in software engineering (i.e. living in the matrix) to breaking free of the matrix to become a full time freelancer living the photography, music and journalism life.
His main focus of photography is events, music and street lifestyle. His unique vision and ability to capture life and scenes has led to work with high profile music festivals such as Rock Fest and Mile of Music, both of which get 100,000+ in attendance. He has worked with Tough Mudder, and is a staple photographer for the Downtown areas of Green Bay, WI.
He is a recording artist, with his band Age of Fable (progressive rock) and solo project The Finest Faux (acoustic rock). Age of Fable has had radio play from the Midwest all the way to Australia, with multiple singles being released from their concept album Modes of Persuasion, which focused on the concepts of Pathos, Ethos, Logos. You can find Age of Fable on any of the streaming platforms.
He writes for The Business News covering all types of business news from small startups to companies with worldwide presence. Musically, he writes for MyGlobalMind a metal and rock publication. He photographs and reviews concerts, and writes album reviews.
Top 5 Songs of Encouragement
1) Sunshine by Atmosphere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AckhnLpwceM
2) Lose Yourself by Eminem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YuAzR2XVAM
3) Look What Happened by Less Than Jake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTpAF8PSj-4
4) Disenchantment by Meshuggah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0jlf9MICv4
5) Pardon Me by Incubus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxgHjhc0t3Y
Bonus Track
Fire Fighters by Age of Fable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap2lmnE1GqU
Pam Asberry, M.M., has over forty years of professional experience as a music educator, adjudicator, performer, recording artist, speaker, author, composer and arranger. A BMI artist, she has released nine solo piano albums to date and her music can be heard on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Sirius XM, and elsewhere. Described as “a new age solo pianist of uncommon melodic grace, insight and heartfelt intuitiveness” (Jonathan Widran, The JW Vibe), Pam Asberry is an award-winning performing artist and composer who combines contemporary, new age and classical sounds to create music that is alternately melodic and graceful, dramatic and powerful, peaceful and hypnotic. Classically trained from the age of seven, she completed a master’s degree in piano performance and piano pedagogy and maintains a private teaching studio in Lawrenceville, Georgia, offering both virtual and in-person lessons in piano, clarinet, music theory, and composition. She has played concerts across the United States and abroad and her twin passions are sharing her music and the stories behind them with listeners around the world and inspiring others, especially young people, to find their own joy in music making.
Follow Pam on Social media and find out more at
https://pamasberry.com
Top 5 Songs of Encouragement
1) All Will Be Well by the Gabe Dixon Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2-3ooX_XkQ
2) After the Storm by Mumford & Sons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqUsAHTUPTU&list=RDYqUsAHTUPTU&start_radio=1
3) The Wall by Kansas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKY_Bh53YDE
4) The Wexford Carol with Yo-Yo Ma & Alison Krauss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxDZjg_Igoc
5) Metamorphosis by Pam Asberry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9i49zPO96o
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