Three Song Stories

Latest Episodes:

Episode 385 - Zach Smith LIVE at Ceremony Brewing Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

Zach Smith is the owner and operator of Ceremony Brewing in Bonita Springs. After nearly a decade of teaching in Collier County Public Schools, Zach's passion for the hospitality industry led him to open Ceremony Brewing in in 2021.

Growing up, Zach often felt like an outsider. He was raised by a single, working-class dad and they didn’t have the luxuries that people often associate with Naples. And then when he got into punk and metal as a kid that just made him feel even more disconnected from the local culture. The Brewery was created to be the kind of place he wishes had existed when he was younger: a space where people like him could feel safe, seen, and accepted.

We sat down with Zach on stage at Ceremony Brewing in front of a live audience…

SONG 1: “Bad Habit” by The Offspring off their 1994 album Smash. 3:43

https://youtu.be/EVSPyMdzMh8?si=_2iSDWNoPOjUDz18

SONG 2: “Nerdy” by Poison the Well released in 1999 on their album The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation. 2:41

https://youtu.be/IGaqD_Etja0?si=SkuwpZG6YUTiyJPI

SONG 3: “The Boy Who Swallowed the World” by AFI from their 1999 All Hallows EP. 3:05

https://youtu.be/yFA7c7uK5Ks?si=CUos9fU0QO809owV

Episode 384 - John Greene Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

John Greene is a three-time leukemia survivor, who has channeled his grit into fundraising and advocacy for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, walking alongside others on the long road of recovery. Outside of work, he chases mountain trails, grilling the perfect steak, spending just enough time in the pool, watching Philly sports, and finding the next Phish jam — sometimes from the stage with his San Francisco-based Phish tribute band called Chum.

SONG 1: Pink Floyd's “Welcome to the Machine” from the 1975 album Wish You Were Here.

https://youtu.be/lt-udg9zQSE?si=OaHq4lk8J04ZnSXW

SONG 2: “Mojave Plan” by Tangerine Dream from their 1982 album White Eagle.

https://youtu.be/R3RoDTfCTw0?si=G3qGJCHZaGI0efVZ

SONG 3: “First Tube” by Phish Live at the Gorge in George Washington on September 10, 1999:

https://relisten.net/phish/1999/09/10/first-tube-19634?source=162781

Episode 383 - Clarke Blacker Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

Clarke is a musician and artist whose improvised and mostly unstructured guitar pieces built up from multiple improvised layers create a dreamlike, atmospheric soup of sound. His first solo album "Hear Us Through the Hole in Thin Air" came out in 2020. His next "A Theory of Color," is in the final stages of production now.

In 1981 he put together a band that would go on to be notorious in the Texas punk scene called Stick Men With Ray Guns. They were close friends with members of the Butthole Surfers, and often shared the stage, until the Surfers began to tour nationally. They broke up in 1981.
SONG 1: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan released in 1964 on the album of the same name. https://youtu.be/9ywYohqoM60?si=75piKwcE--89DcQ_
SONG 2: “God Save the Queen” by the (Scottish?) Sex Pistols on the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols released in 1977. https://youtu.be/1W6AxgqGdhM?si=9H8xv-YN_k23oBpP
SONG 3: “Evening Star” by Fripp & Eno...it's the title track off their 1975 album. https://youtu.be/kFDPPl9yZvQ?si=NMa3oJCwQM0JzYdu

Episode 382 - Lance Wissinger Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

Lance Wissinger is a speaker, entrepreneur, and political strategist whose life took a turn in 2003 when a car accident with him behind the wheel led to a five-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter.

While incarcerated, he founded successful programs that empowered fellow inmates through business planning, public speaking, and personal growth. He went on to become an advocate for justice reform when he joined the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition’s successful effort to get Amendment 4 passed in 2018, restoring voting rights to more than 1.4 million Floridians with felony convictions.

These days he’s CEO of Lancer Aerial, it’s a drone-based environmental and surveying company, and he is Director of Political Operations at Hennessy Strategies

SONG 1: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears from their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair.

https://youtu.be/znDgBy2mHbc?si=U0tSKuPFsuMCnHdq

SONG 2: “If You’re Going Through Hell” by Rodney Atkins...it's the title track of his 2006 album of the same name.

https://youtu.be/wYZ8paLOifw?si=3XxrMUJ-k19wJoyH

SONG 3: “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers recorded and released in 1977 on his album Menagerie.

https://youtu.be/QCgeitX5xg0?si=rowzMtuNvCLjDCrc

Episode 381 - Dan Mangan Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Dan Mangan is a Vancouver, BC-based musician. Dan has played Jimmy Kimmel Live, Glastonbury, and sold out Massey Hall, as well as scored soundtracks for television and feature film. He is also a co-founder of Side Door, a marketplace platform connecting artists with alternative venue spaces for in-person & online shows.

Dan has won 2 JUNO Awards and is thrice Polaris Music Prize-nominated for his work, and has released at least 7 albums and EPs. His latest album, Natural Light, which just hit the world, emerged after he and his longtime bandmates Jason Haberman, Mike O’Brien and Don Kerr secluded themselves deep in the woods of southern Ontario for a week intending to workshop some songs and possibly do some writing.

SONG 1: “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor from her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

https://youtu.be/Ouf9-bOqJVk?si=Z3YOnoosZ9VPJIcn

SONG 2: “No Surprises” by Radiohead from their album OK Computer released in 1997

https://youtu.be/u5CVsCnxyXg?si=oh1zP41Yk5nZAU_w

SONG 3: “Float On” by Modest Mouse from their 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News

https://youtu.be/88XhEqgmRhM?si=hKa_85bbJGsNpNvK

Episode 380 - Phonte Coleman Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

Phonte Coleman is best known as a founding member of hip-hop group Little Brother, and as one of the co‑hosts of the podcast Questlove Supreme with Questlove.

In the late 90s, Phonte met Thomas “Big Pooh” Jones and Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and they started making music together as the hip-hop collective, Justus League and released their first album The Listening in 2003. They changed their name to Little Brother and signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released The Minstrel Show in 2005. They left Atlantic not long after and then released Getback in 2007 and Leftback in 2010, but then disbanded.

Phonte and Big Pooh reunited in 2018 at the Art of Cool Festival and started working on the album May the Lord Watch which came out the following year. There’s a documentary called May the Lord Watch you can find online that tells their story, from founding to breakup to reunion. Their final tour which is underway now.

Phonte is also co-founder of the Grammy-nominated group The Foreign Exchange with Dutch producer Nicolay. They’ve put out six studio albums and several singles.

SONG 1: “Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins from the 1972 album of the same name.

https://youtu.be/vCByeJsq65M?si=e6yfkujwMOUfo5iz

SONG 2: “Word Play” by A Tribe Called Quest off their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes and Life.

https://youtu.be/LfWtkay3lEo?si=VnnVZE9s5eCZEx-p

SONG 3: Natalie Cole's “La Costa” released in 1977 on her album Thankful.

https://youtu.be/E1ckb_LDGnA?si=gqZpULJymfyKuCru

Episode 379 - Joe Harley Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

Joe Harley makes music under his moniker Hotel Life, which signed to 9 Lives Records in 2023. He began playing guitar in the Fort Myers bar scene in 1993 with a number of bands including Potato Gun and Strip Club Moms. Potato Gun played the official grand opening of FGCU in 1997.

Joe moved to St Pete in 2000 to be in an original rock band there and then moved back to Matlacha in 2002 where he got back into the local bar music scene and became a highly decorated saltwater fly fishing guide until Hurricane Ian disrupted and ended that for him in 2022.

He still lives on Matlacha and writing songs and playing solo acoustic gigs around the region.

SONG 1: "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell...it's the title track to his 1975 album...it was originally written and recorded by Larry Weiss the year before. https://youtu.be/6P7Sx2L0fVU?si=oVtzQW05JVk9cSLd

SONG 2: Cake's version of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 "I Will Survive" off their 1996 album Fashion Nugget. https://youtu.be/3VFOEa8K-6Q?si=4Be9P7PD3z7Gf6aT

SONG 3: "Sundowner" by Kevin Morby from the album of the same name released in 2020. https://youtu.be/OnwdbXwU4YE?si=kgjGe_heUIqTpwa_

Episode 378 - Petar Kodzas Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

Petar Kodzas was born in what’s now Serbia but was, at the time, Yugoslavia.

During college, Petar toured and recorded as a lutenist with an early music ensemble; he played over 100 shows at the professional musical theatre, sat in jazz sessions, and performed throughout the former Yugoslavia as a musical ambassador for the international organization Jeunesses Musicales.

Petar was also Senior Instructor in Guitar for the Eastman Community Music School from 1997 to 2017, and since then he’s been performing mostly on his laptop keyboard in his administrative role as an Associate Dean and Director of the Eastman Community Music School.

SONG 1: La Camorra, Movement I: Soledad; Composer: Astor Piazzolla;

Performers: Astor Piazzolla with Quinteto Nuevo Tango https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-h-TRKJrsE

SONG 2: Ave Maria, gratia plena…virgo serena; Composer: Josquin des Prez; Performers: The Hilliard Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O16_dwmKpjo

SONG 3: Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 (1976) Movement II; Composer: Henryk Górecki; Performers: Zofia KIlanowicz (Soprano) Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit, Conductor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLXliq-WP0

Episode 377 - Jameson Yingling May 26, 2025

Show notes

Jameson Yingling is a filmmaker, philosopher, and social entrepreneur who's work focuses on existentialism, phenomenology of aging and death, postcolonialism, and ecological interdependence. He is an FGCU and Teach For America alum, and he was a founding partner of the Bonita Springs media company Sugarshack.

Right now Jameson is spending time as a guest lecturer at FGCU helping to lead what’s called the Rock of Ages initiative alongside Drs. Maria Roca and Tom Felke. He is the founder of the creative studio Existential Co.

SONG 1: How Lucky by Kurt Vile off his 2020 EP Speed, Sound, Lonely KV. (duet with John Prine) https://youtu.be/TNDmIrh1Cwo?si=E4IG_IDbUTtSeVAa

SONG 2: Bear Witness by Dawes released in 2013 on the album Stories Don't End. https://youtu.be/uhHS9zk_1HQ?si=bij96_8HX9M4TuOw

SONG 3: Cry for Me (live) by the California Honeydrops from their album Honeydrops live released in 2012. https://youtu.be/k-8O70Ba6_c?si=R8ASi2hF2jbymhbG

A conversation on Gulf Coast Life about the Rock of Ages program created by Florida Gulf Coast University’s Roots of Compassion and Kindness Center. https://www.wgcu.org/show/gulf-coast-life/2025-04-16/fgcu-rock-of-ages-initiative-builds-intergenerational-bridges-through-visual-storytelling

Episode 376 - Desmond Meade May 19, 2025

Show notes

Desmond Meade is a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow; a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and having been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. He's also’s author of the 2020 book “Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens.”

Desmond is President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition -- the organization that led the successful effort to restore voting rights to some 1.4 million former felons in FL. The amendment passed with nearly 65% support.

Desmond was born in St. Croix but grew up in Miami, and after a time in the Army, he found himself addicted and homeless in Miami. He served time in jail for felony drug possession, and after a fight with his brother was convicted of aggravated battery, also a felony. Then, in 2001, he was convicted of possession of a firearm as a felon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. An appeals court reversed that conviction and he was released, but still a convicted felon with no right to vote in the Sunshine State.

Desmond graduated from Miami-Dade College in 2010 while living in a homeless shelter, enrolled in the FIU College of Law, graduating in 2013, joining the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition while in law school.ppearances on CNN, MSNBC, 60 Minutes, and Fox TV demonstrates his ability to appeal to and inspire people from all walks of life.

SONG 1: "Lose Yourself" by Eminem from the soundtrack to the 2002 movie 8 Mile. https://youtu.be/xFYQQPAOz7Y?si=RFYS3pPTCqZAnVOT

SONG 2: "We Are the World" - the charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones. https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=jPzSQ23ydm5wl6yN

SONG 3: "Freedom" by King Blackman ft Ronnie VOP, Desmond Meade.
https://youtu.be/95Nc4JF_NpE?si=JcXPdk3muIVwnt2T

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