Music

Laurie Childers lives out a stunning world of art and activism in Corvalis, Oregon. She performs both solo and with her band, the River Rocks, and her activism takes a number of forms, including her work as chair of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Beautiful music from a beautiful spirit.

Matt Watroba has been deeply immersed in folk music since 9th grade, including hosting the Folks Like Us show on WDET in Detroit and Folk Alley on WKSU at Kent State University, for a combined 26 years or so. With more than 3 decades performing, Matt is a master of the folk music genre, both as a performer and as a leader of group singing.

Mike Plaisted lives out multiple passions, in part through his work as a lawyer performing a vital role in the lives of his clients, especially with folks in Drug Court, but also through his performing music, something that deeply feeds Mike. He's a member of the Milwaukee Musicians Co-op, and performs regularly on Riverwest Radio.

Patrick Landeza is passionate about the music of his Hawaiian roots, though he's Berkeley, CA, born & raised, and a special man. He was awarded the Musician of the Heart award as part of the Listen for Life concert for peace at Carnegie Hall, and he's the first mainland artist to win the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Slack Key Album of the Year, Hawaii's equivalent of the Grammy. Catch him on the radio regularly with hisAloha Everywhere program.

A.L. Williams leads Milwaukee's One Lane Bridge and broadcasts his music Friday night ever 5 weeks on Riverwest Radio. Enjoy some creative themes, diverse music styles, and stanch advocacy of cooperative local music.

The Milwaukee Musicians Co-op is celebrating 34 years of upholding one-another as of 3/12/2016, at the 19th Street Coffeehouse. We talk to 5 long-time Co-op members to explore some of the soul of the group: One Lane Bridge/A.L. Williams, Rick Kokan, Mike Plaisted, Friar Otto/Michael Hoppe, Mud River Lee

Evalyn Parry mixes music, spoken word, with writing, directing and performing theater. With beautiful vocals, wide-ranging thoughts and creativity, and lots of engaging attitude, Evalyn makes magic, including her musical theater production, Spin, concerning the early feminist movement & biking.

Steve Carlson doesn't really think that PleasantVille is all that pleasant and he associates Christmas with A Hell of a Time, so this is a world view with some spice in it. With country roots and under a folk canopy, Steve makes beautiful music filled with lots of social commentary.

Frank Florin began with hard rock music, but along the way he found his spiritual and musical appetite filled exclusively by the Hindu devotional practice called kirtan. Frank now passes on his love for this special music through performances with the group called Temple of Light kirtan.

Micah Sommersmith has a real range to the music he's involved in. Part of his work is as a church music director, but he's also the kind of creative, quirky, musician you'd expect of someone who has played piano, trumpet, euphonium, guitar, and accordion, and who'd write a Song about Glass. He mixes deep and playful, and profound and surprisingly profound, lyrics.