Three Song Stories

Latest Episodes:

Episode 404 - Jen Chapin Dec 08, 2025

Show notes

Jen Chapin was born and raised in New York in Huntington, Long Island - the daughter of Harry and Sandy Chapin. Over the years has produced a bunch of albums of her own music, including Open Wide, Linger, Ready, and Reckoning. She also put out a tribute album called ReVisions: Songs of Stevie Wonder. Recently she’s been performing with the J.Chapes Jazz Band which includes her husband, jazz bassist Stephan Crump.

Over the decades she’s served on the board of directors for WhyHunger, that’s the nonprofit co-founded by Harry Chapin in 1975.

Jen is also a high school history teacher in Brooklyn, New York

SONG 1: “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin from their 1973 album The Song Remains the Same.

https://youtu.be/H8bVaTW6UCU?si=H9gF8Qka2ENganiV

SONG 2: “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” by Stevie Wonder from his album Talking Book released in 1972. https://youtu.be/VfDZNwJ3jVU?si=o2U3ySrqE0XChFuY

SONG 3: “Teach Me Tonight” by Nancy Wilson released in 1960...it was the first song on her album Something Wonderful. https://youtu.be/OF7pxY9KXsg?si=Jk-U7tZQexcJdblt

Three Song Throwback - Richard Chin Quee Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

A return to the very first (Pilot) episode of Three Song Stories with Co-creator, producer, and sometimes host, Richard Chin Quee.

Richard is FM Station manager at WGCU where he and Mike Kiniry make Three Song Stories, and this episode was the prototype for our show, today.

Episode 403 - JANINE MELILLO Nov 24, 2025

Show notes

Janine is an artist who has worked on The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, and she did network work for shows including 20/20 and The View and things on PBS. She also produced a 4-hour watercolor course with renowned watercolor artist, Charles Reid.

A trip to Italy in high school illuminated her love for travel and experiencing other cultures. While living in Victoria, BC she entered the world of media production and video editing. She worked for the CBC and also became a specialist in editing dance videos for Quebec stars, where she once edited puppet music videos for Chicken Minute on The Learning Channel.

In the year after Hurricane Ian Janine decided to focus on her visual art and joined a community that supports artists, launched her website, arpeggioart.com, and began exhibiting at art fairs across Southwest Florida.

SONG 1: Kate & Anna McGarrigle's “Complainte Pour Ste Catherine” from the album Kate & Anna McGarrigle released in 1976. https://youtu.be/k-xR6s9zyWY?si=Mk6mELqfKB9gjM3l

SONG 2: Philip Glass's ‘Heroes’ Symphony No. 4 https://youtu.be/Hepf31JoBNo?si=EGlGjr2GpRtCPidA

SONG 3: “Days Gone By” by Eastern Sun & John Kelley released in 2009 on the album We Are One.

https://youtu.be/_I92aZAsyeM?si=THTkOu8E2PFEdrPI

Episode 402 - Nancy Cote Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

Nancy Cote is Executive Director of Beacon of HOPE Pine Island, where she leads transformative efforts to strengthen education, recovery, and community resilience across Bokeelia, Saint James City, and Matlacha. Originally from Mexico but raised in California, Nancy has developed a deep understanding of diverse life experiences—from immigrants to combat veterans—thanks to her personal journey and professional background.

SONG 1: “Oye Como Va Mi Ritmo” by Santana from his 1970 album Abraxas. https://youtu.be/J7ATTjg7tpE?si=A2xH8mzxlJ-O64Pz

SONG 2: “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel from their self-titled album released in 1972.

https://youtu.be/ln7Vn_WKkWU?si=lXDjs3PNYaz3eHRV

SONG 3: “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival released in 1969 on their fourth studio album, Willy and the Poor Boys. https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=57QPjliKr7dsO0w_

Episode 401 - Andrew Bennett Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Andrew Bennett was born and raised in North Carolina, and then during high school, his dad’s job brought the family to Utah, where he attended college at Brigham Young University. He’s a lawyer who has called Southwest Florida home for the past 15 years. He and his wife moved to Naples in 2010 so he could attend law school at Ave Maria School of Law. They have three fully-Floridian kids ages 9, 11, and 13. He mostly practices law as in-house counsel for healthcare companies.

SONG 1: "A Long December” by the Counting Crows released in 1996 on their album Recovering the Satellites. https://youtu.be/7YiFGBaHDBo?si=gjykb-69_jwysnxf

SONG 2: "Wouldn't it be Nice” by the Beach Boys from the 1966 album Pet Sounds.(1996 remaster) https://youtu.be/dmcNbsLCpBQ?si=Ou_hVP-5xWK4oemL

SONG 3: "Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival off their 1969 album Green River. (1985 remaster) https://youtu.be/tKJwvQfraY8?si=LReknICiJku2OFgQ

Episode 400 - Charles Monroe-Kane Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

Charles Monroe-Kane is a Peabody award-winning radio producer who spent 24 years as a senior producer and interviewer for the national public radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge which WGCU aired on Saturday mornings until about a month ago when it ended at least in part due to recent funding cuts across the public radio world.

His 2024 audio documentary, “The Spirit of Jim Thorpe,” was awarded first place by the Indigenous Journalists Association and in 2025 he produced the “Climate Narratives” audio documentary series in Greenland.

Charles’s 2016 book "Lithium Jesus: A Memoir of Mania" recounts many of his you could say far-out life stories: including being a teenage faith healer, world traveler, smuggler, liberation theologian, ladder-maker, squatter, halibut hanger, grifter, environmental warrior, and circus manager—all the while wrestling with schizophrenia and self-medication.

SONG 1: "Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)" by Tom Waits from his 1975 album Nighthawks at the Diner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlPN2vtn-0s

SONG 2: “Trucker Speed” by Fred Eaglesmith – it was released in 2012 on the album 6Volts. Live – The Fred Eaglesmith Travelling Steam Show on Sept. 30, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFr0CzZti2M

SONG 3: Massive Attack’s “Protection” ft. Tracey Thorn from the album of the same name released in 1994. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epgo8ixX6Wo

Episode 399 - Sheri Castle Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

Sheri Castle was the host and producer of the Emmy-winning PBS cooking show The Key Ingredient - for three seasons. She’s also an award-winning professional food writer, recipe developer, and cooking teacher known for melding stories, humor, and culinary expertise. Sheri has authored a tall stack of cookbooks and her writing and recipes appear in a long list of publications, including her role as featured monthly columnist of Our State and Contributing Editor for Southern Living.

In 2024, the Southern Foodways Alliance presented Sheri with their prestigious Keeper of the Flame Award given to a “foodways tradition bearer of note”. The SFA also named her one of 20 Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

SONG 1: "Sitting on Top of The World" by Doc Watson...this recording is from the box set Doc Watson Life's Work: A Retrospective released in 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ner4hbSTfkE

SONG 2: "Blackbird” by The Beatles from their album The Beatles that hit the world in 1968.

https://youtu.be/Man4Xw8Xypo?si=Daa_mqohN-FvC5Qt

SONG 3: “She Used to be Mine” by Sara Bareilles…she made it for her musical adaptation of the film The Waitress. She released it on her 2015 album What's Inside: Songs from Waitress…this version is her performing it with Rufus Wainwright at the Kennedy Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZ1nfuluz0

Episode 398 - Rob Kovacs Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

Rob Kovacs is a multi-award-winning video game composer, pianist, songwriter, and Twitch streamer who bridges the worlds of gaming and music. He’s known online as 88bit, and performs at major gaming events like PAX, MAGFest, and TwitchCon.

Rob made history in 2005 when he was a senior in college when he became the first person to perform Steve Reich’s Piano Phase solo on two pianos at once…one piano for each hand…the piece is designed to be performed by two pianists so four hands and two brains…with Reich on hand to watch the performance.

He’s been streaming on Twitch since around 2020 - mixing video game music, pop, rock, classical, and his own originals—while also teaching composition and songwriting at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio and performing with the contemporary classical group No Exit.

SONG 1: “Optimistic” by Radiohead from their album Kid A released in 2000.

https://youtu.be/1On-ZHfTWOo?si=0OxDu5NwHDB8Inhk

SONG 2: “Air Man’s Theme” from (the video game) Mega Man 2 - the soundtrack was composed by Takashi Tateishi with Manami Matsumae (Mega Man composer) for providing the foundation and co-composing a minor part of the melody for Air Man's stage.

https://youtu.be/IhK4D3ytYMc?si=zU5x4131zZY8O3_C

SONG 3: “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell (written by Jimmy Webb) from his 1968 album of the same name. Its B-side on the single was Fate of Man.

https://youtu.be/Q8P_xTBpAcY?si=3K0GMwaMLWVaDArl

Episode 397 - Jason Colannino Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

Jason Colannino is a singer-songwriter who was born and raised on the Jersey shore but has called Boynton Beach home since the early 90s.

Jason has recorded four albums of his original songs: Since 1969, Piece of the Sun, Lost in Vacation, and his most recent A Hawaiian Music Tribute, which is a collection of cover songs by Hawaiian songwriters because in recent years Jason added the ukulele to his act after a trip to Hawaii led him down that path - breaking the uke stereotype by covering songs from the likes of the Beatles, Frankie Valli, Queen, among others.

SONG 1: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young performing "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" at Woodstock in 1969 on Monday, August 18th 1969 at three o'clock in the morning. https://youtu.be/9lembnHGIfU?si=Pd4fDBcg-Le0ejJX

SONG 2: Simon and Garfunkel performing "The Sound of Silence"in Central Park in New York City on September 19th, 1981, on their live album The Concert in Central Park in 1982. https://youtu.be/yBg83_jHW4k?si=A06u6CdgZjMq8NnS

SONG 3: "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin off his 1974 album Verities & Balderdash. https://youtu.be/2SALgIAdxjg?si=lv-1P5AjG7Hpls75

Episode 396 - Gabe McCauley Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Gabe McCauley is an Emmy-winning writer, actor, director, and storyteller who says he is driven by a singular purpose: to shape the culture of tomorrow through the power of film.
As founder of lilDRAGON and Soul Feather Studios, Gabe has built a creative legacy across genres and formats, from network TV to indie film and the feature film Heaven Bound. He’s directed nine seasons of national television, including the acclaimed Joey & Rory Show and Reconnecting Roots, now in its fourth season on PBS which he is also host of.

SONG 1: "Let’s Go Crazy" by Prince off his 1984 album Purple Rain.

https://youtu.be/WGtCC7bUkIw?si=3T1T_8lJL3pqOIc3

SONG 2: "Conga!" by Gloria Estefan (Miami Sound Machine)...this was on her album Primitive Love released in 1985.

https://youtu.be/5SXX-pWzOY8?si=ld9RsOrIhIa1RCjY

SONG 3: "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by the Avett Brothers released in 2009 on their album I and Love and You.

https://youtu.be/jyfeOyglMtI?si=0Sr20Zv4W9dbO3WE