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Australian alt-pop singer-songwriter grentperez joined us live ahead of his L.A. tour stop with a special acoustic performance of “When The Day Is Done.”
His EP “When We Were Younger” will be released on June 2 on all music platforms.
Stay up to beat with grentperez by visiting his website or by following him on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
This segment aired on the KTLA 5 News at 1 on May 26, 2023, as part of our Music Fest Fridays series.
JAMES CITY — The music room at Laurel Lane Elementary School holds decades of memories for Cynthia Campbell.
On her desk sits old photobooks, capturing memories of former students and past recitals. Today, those students are all grown up.
“She just had a really big impact on my life,” said Anderson Lee, one of Campbell’s former students.
After 30 years, Campbell, who helped create the strings program at Williamsburg-James City County Schools, is retiring at the end of the school year. On May 16, friends and colleagues hosted a surprise retirement party for her at the Williamsburg Community Chapel, where string ensembles from Jamestown and Warhill high schools and the Williamsburg Youth Harp Society’s advanced players performed in her honor.
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Not only was Campbell Lee’s music teacher at Laurel Lane and her harp instructor, but they were also neighbors. Lee recently graduated from Radford University with a degree in music therapy and plays the harp at Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center.
Lee recalled how Campbell used to encourage students to practice, rewarding them with stickers when they mastered a song. Today, Lee still lives by Campbell’s methods: “It’s something that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life, because I think everybody deserves little motivations.”
Campbell grew up in Newport News. She started playing instruments when she was 7 years old and credits her mother for her love of music. Her mom didn’t have the opportunity to pursue music as a child and believed it was important that her daughters knew how to play instruments.
“I was very shy, and the music gave me something to feel special,” said Campbell.
Campbell learned to play the organ, the piano, the harp, the violin and the accordion. Although, she didn’t always want to practice, her mother was persistent and had her following a schedule of 30-minute sessions with each instrument.
“Music was my life,” said Campbell.
At one point, Campbell played four different instruments. She practiced for two hours every day, participated in her high school’s orchestra and visited her church after school to play the organ. Her mother’s encouragement, she said, “made me who I am today.”
After graduating high school at 16 years old, Campbell decided to turn her passion for music into a career by becoming a music teacher. Instilling enthusiasm for music at a young age “is where you plant the seeds,” she said.
She attended Bob Jones University in South Carolina and received a master’s in education from Western Kentucky University. Campbell taught at schools in Kentucky, Texas, South Carolina and Georgia before moving back to Virginia in 1993.
At 36 years old, Campbell began teaching at Rawls Byrd Elementary School, which is now Laurel Lane. There, she worked to help create the strings program.
Starting the strings program was not an easy job, said Genrose Lashinger, a former coordinator of music for WJCC Schools, but Campbell was strong and got it established.
In her second semester of teaching at Laurel Lane, Campbell began exploring whether students would be interested in a strings program. She originally hoped to find 12 children, but ended up with 19 violin students. In addition, the principal, J.D. Briggs, created a summer enrichment program where Campbell would teach violin.
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Parents would rent the instruments, but Briggs would also go out and find instruments for Campbell. Briggs once traveled to Richmond and brought her a bass.
With the string program’s growing success, they began developing a pilot program to be implemented across the school system. Initially, support for the program lagged, but after a school board member attended one of the teacher’s third grade violin classes, it passed by one vote.
The program was implemented for third grade at Laurel Lane and then adopted by other schools in the area.
Though Campbell plays many different instruments, her main passion is the harp, which she started playing in the seventh grade. Wanting to offer that same opportunity to her own students, Campbell asked Briggs to lease a harp and she began teaching 12 children on the one instrument.
Campbell and Briggs took the young harpists and string players to different places, such as conferences, the Williamsburg Inn and senior living homes to perform and promote their program and raise money for more instruments.
Campbell taught before, during and after school and held private lessons from her home for the performing group.
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Kathryn Harms’ love of harps began in 1999 in Campbell’s third grade class. Today, Harms has a master’s degree in harp performance and is a professional harpist. She teaches at a private studio and is the harp faculty member at Colorado State University. Harms still keeps in touch with Campbell, who she credits with having an “indelible impact” on her life.
Campbell always challenged her harp students to be the best they could be, Harms said.
“In music class, I remember when she split us up into groups and started an activity by having us tell each other ‘you are unique and valuable,’” said Harms. “She always made sure that everyone felt cherished.”
In 2006, with the support of parents, Campbell started the nonproft Williamsburg Youth Harp Society, which allowed her to offer harp lessons to the whole community. Instead of being limited to students at Laurel Lane, Campbell expanded lessons to include anyone from 8 to 18. They are currently housed in Williamsburg Baptist Church.
Campbell inspired hundreds of young children as a music teacher at Laurel Lane and within the youth harp society.
Sydney Harris, a former Laurel Lane student and one of Campbell’s harp students for 10 years, recalled a time when Campbell held an advanced ensemble rehearsal in her home. She baked cookies and played alongside the students, said Harris.
In high school, Harris helped teach beginner harp classes and said she gained a new appreciation for Campbell as an instructor. “She knew how to communicate music in a language that children could understand.”
Today, Harris attends Davidson College where she is a music major on the pre-med track.
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When asked what she loves most about teaching, Campbell said she loves seeing kids’ joy when they practice and finally master a piece.
“You don’t go into teaching for the money, you go in it for other rewards,” she said. “Rewards of seeing the smiles on their faces when they learn something new.”
Campbell will continue to teach harp to the Williamsburg Youth Harp Society after she retires. She intends to play the harp as long as she can and hopes to visit her grandchildren in Kentucky more often.
But until she leaves Laurel Lane, she’s soaking it all in.
“I will miss the children,” Campbell said. “They’re always coming here hugging me now because they know I’m leaving.”
Evelyn Davidson, evelyn.davidson@virginiamedia.com
Kartik Aaryan has finally finished the shooting of his upcoming film aka Satyaprem Ki Katha. After completing the shoot, he took to his social media handle to share some latest pics. Come check out
Kartik Aaryan is one of the finest and most admired young actors and performing artistes that we have in the Hindi entertainment industry. The actor has been a part of the entertainment space for many years. However, the kind of success and popularity that he’s managed to achieve in the past few years is at a different level altogether.
With every coming day the excitement among the audience to watch Sajid Nadiadwala and Namah Pictures’s ‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ is constantly rising. Having seen its intriguing teaser, the audience is fully drenched in the fever of this upcoming romantic musical love saga. Now, to give fire to the rising excitement of the audience, here comes a piece of good news that the film wrapped its final schedule earlier this morning with the entire team.
Check out the latest that’s happening at Kartik Aaryan’s end
The entire team of the film was present at the wrap-up along with the producer Sajid Nadiadwala and his wife Warda Khan with Co Producers Shareen Mantri Kedia, Kishor Arora, Director Sameer Vidwans along with writer Karan Sharma. As finally, the film has wrapped its final schedule, we can’t wait to see this pure love story in the theaters on 29th June 2023. Check out some of the best moments here –
Moreover, ‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ has been garnering immense love from the audience ever since the teaser was released. While the larger-than-life visuals have grabbed the eyeballs, its music is also something that is been loved by the masses. A few days back, ’Aaj Ke Baad’ song from the teaser, has seen a great demand coming from the fans due to which the makers have decided to release the song before the trailer of the film.
‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ also marks a massive collaboration between NGE and Namah Pictures. Interestingly, Sajid Nadiadwala and Shareen Mantri Kedia with Kishor Arora & director Sameer Vidwans won a National Award for their respective feature films. ‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ will be releasing in theatres on 29th June 2023.
Absolutely amazing and fantastic right? Well, let us know all your views in the comments section below and for more updates, stay tuned to IWMBuzz.com
About The Author
60 years ago, the Organization for African Unity (OAU) was formed in Ethiopia with 32 members. The founding Chairman was the founding father of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and the organization went on to attempt to bring recently-decolonized Africa into a body of capable and prosperous nation-states. In 2002, South African chairman Thabo Mbeki officially dispanded the OAU, calling for a new form of organization that could be used to defend Africans in numerous internal conflicts, and the African Union, which persists today, was formed thereafter. READ more… (2002)
The OAU was also dedicated to the eradication of all forms of colonialism and white minority rule as, when it was established, there were several states that had not yet won their independence or were white minority-ruled. South Africa and Angola were two such countries.
The OAU proposed two ways of ridding the continent of colonialism and white minority rule. First, it would defend the interests of independent countries and help to pursue the independence those of still-colonized ones. Secondly, it would remain neutral in terms of world affairs, preventing its members from being controlled once more by outside powers.
The OAU also aimed to stay neutral in terms of global politics, which would prevent them from being controlled once more by outside forces, a special danger with the Cold War. However the lack of enforceability limited the OAU’s power, and eventually the parties recognized that something more judicial was needed, hence the AU.
MORE Good News on this Day:
45 years ago today, the Chinese government announced the end of a decades-long ban on the works of William Shakespeare, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution—the most destructive socio-political movement in history. Despite Mao Zedong’s ban on the Bard, Shakespeare has been beloved by the Chinese ever since the late 19th century. His plays have been interpreted strictly as philosophy as well as drama, and reproductions of his stories under the backdrop of China have appeared, like Akira Kurasawa did for Samurai films, in Chinese martial arts cinema.
Zhu Shenghao (1912-1944) was a Shakespearian scholar in China, who, despite living his whole live in poverty and illness, translated 31 of Shakespeare’s works into Mandarin. His manuscripts were destroyed twice in the Sino-Japanese War. But he remade them all after arriving in Taiwan.
Shakespeare was always in a curious state of limbo following the communist takeover. On the one hand, Karl Marx revered Shakespeare, and so originally the Maoists disseminated his works throughout the country. But over time the belief that only a strong Chinese culture could counter malign foreign influences saw Mao ban the plays, which were said to be selling like fresh buns the morning before the ban was to be enacted.
This year, with cooperation and assistance from the Shakespeare Birth Trust of Stratford-upon-Avon, a 1:1 scale model of the house in which the bard was born, and the one where he probably died, will be finished in the city of Fuzhou which recently decided by government edict it was to be the Shakespearean heart of all China. (1971)
And, 46 years ago today, Star Wars, the film that heralded a new era of special effects for fantasy-adventure movies, was released. Created by George Lucas, the Star Wars franchise became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon through the merchandising of charismatic saga. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 7, including Best Original Score, by John Williams. Oscar nods included: Alec Guinness nominated for Actor in a Supporting Role, George Lucas for Director; other nominations for Makeup; Sound Editing; Screenplay; and Best Picture. The film won the award for: Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design, Film Editing, Sound (Mixing), Visual Effects, and a Special Achievement Award for its Alien, Creature and Robot Voices. (1977)
And, 88 years ago today, in the waning days of his career, a 40-year-old Babe Ruth had been dragging down his team with lousy fielding, sluggish running, and spotty hitting. This day, however, he hit three monster home runs in a single game. The next week he retired.
He proved himself the ‘Sultan of Swat‘ when he hit a ball so perfectly it soared over the mammoth right-field roof of Forbes Field, a feat no one else had ever achieved — a “prodigious drive” estimated at more than 500 feet. It was his last home run. It topped his lifetime tally at 714 and set a baseball record that stood for 39 years. (1935)
Also on this day, 70 years ago, the first public television station in the U.S. officially began broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston in Texas.
Established by Dr. John C. Schwarzwalder, a professor in the Radio-Television Department, it was the first station to broadcast under an educational non-profit license in the country. As an NET member station (National Educational Television), which eventually merged into PBS, the station offered televised college credit classes. Running 15 hours weekly, most courses aired at night to serve students who worked during the day. (1953)
88 years ago today, a black college athlete at Ohio State University set three world records and tied another in “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sports.” At the Big Ten Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens ran and jumped into track and field immortality by equaling the world record for the 100-yard dash, and breaking the records in the 220-yard sprint, the 220-yard low hurdles, and the long jump (with a length unmatched for a quarter century).
Owens, the Alabama native who became a four-time gold medalist the following year at the Olympic Games—beating Hitler’s best track stars in Berlin—is often ranked one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. WATCH a short clip to see why no one could duplicate his feat today… (1935)
And, this 1-minute clip, from the same documentary…
And, on this day in 1969, Midnight Cowboy premiered in theaters, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. It won a plethora of awards including Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (John Schlesinger), and Best Adapted Screenplay. The depressing plot centers around a Texan ‘cowboy’ who travels to New York City and ends up homeless with an ailing con man (Hoffman) teaching him the how to become a hustler.
(You might have heard a pedestrian call out in a Bronx accent if a car gets in their way, the now-famous expression from the movie, “Hey, I’m walkin’, here!”)
Midnight Cowboy, notable as the only X-rated film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar, is often listed in the top 100 greatest films of all time. Fred Neil’s theme song Everybody’s Talkin’ won a Grammy Award for vocalist Harry Nilsson. WATCH the trailer…
62 years ago today, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress his goal to initiate a project “to put a man on the Moon”—and return him safely to Earth—before the end of the decade.
NASA was ramped-up with funding to launch the Apollo program, and Kennedy’s goal was achieved months before the deadline, on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped down into the lunar dirt. Though the Democratic president never lived to see the historic moon landing, because he was assassinated two years later, Kennedy’s leadership and long-term vision changed NASA in fundamental, enduring ways.
WATCH his famous answer to ‘why go to the moon?’… (1961)
SHARE the Milestones, Memories, and Music…
An organisation representing the music industry has expressed concern about the shortage of hotel accommodation affecting attendance at concerts and events across Ireland.
The Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland (MEAI) said the situation has worsened due to the use of hotels and guesthouses to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees.
The association, which represents musicians, DJs, stage crew and others, said the cut in hotel availability means people wanting to attend concerts or other live entertainment events are unable to get accommodation.
Rebecca Cappuccini, a spokesperson for MEAI, said the lack of available accommodation was an increasing issue for the industry.
“We appreciate of course that asylum seekers and refugees have to be accommodated but it is having a knock-on effect on our members,” she said.
Escalating costs and limited availability of suitable accommodation options are creating barriers for music enthusiasts, she said, which is discouraging them from attending live performances and negatively impacting the music and entertainment industry.
“These challenges are deterring concertgoers and event attendees, resulting in reduced footfall, diminished revenues, and a potential long-term setback for the industry,” said Ms Cappuccini.
She added: “The escalating prices and scarcity of hotel accommodation in Ireland are discouraging music fans from attending concerts and events. We must ensure that access to live music and entertainment remains affordable and inclusive for everyone. The current situation hampers the industry’s revival and places a strain on the artistic community and the overall cultural landscape of Ireland.”
Earlier this year Fáilte Ireland said accommodation shortages and price spikes were damaging the tourism industry’s reputation “both nationally and internationally”.
The organisation said its chief executive Paul Kelly wrote to all registered accommodation providers last December asking them to consider the State’s “long-term value for money reputation when setting prices”.
“This message has since been repeated at various Fáilte Ireland industry events and again at the Irish Hotels Federation recent annual conference,” a spokeswoman for the agency told The Irish Times.
Tina Turner’s demise has left the world in a state of mourning and loss. The iconic musical artist, popularly addressed as the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll’ breathed her last on May 24, 2023, reportedly after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. Her official social media pages confirmed her death, as they wrote, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner”. In an illustrious career lasting over six decades, the late artist has blessed and entertained people with songs like What’s Love Got to Do With It, Private Dancer, Simply the Best, and Proud Mary among others.
Tina Turner’s death comes six months after she lost her youngest son Ronnie Turner, who passed away in December after battling colon cancer. He was 62. After his demise, Tina shared that his baby “left the world far too early. In sorrow, I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son.”
Apart from Ronnie, Tina Turner has 3 other children: Craig Raymond Turner, Ike Turner Jr., and Michael Turner. While Craig and Ronnie were her biological sons, she adopted her ex-husband Ike Turner’s two boys Turner Jr. and Michael.
Let us take a look at them in more detail.
Tina Turner was only 18 when she had her first son Craig Raymond Turner in 1958, from her relationship with Raymond Hill, who played the saxophone in Ike Turner’s band Kings of Rhythm. During his lifetime, Craig avoided being in the limelight. He worked as a real estate agent. Sadly, he died by suicide in July 2018 in his Studio City, California, home. He was 59. On July 19, 2018, Tina Turner held a ceremony to scatter her son’s ashes, she shared in a tweet.
“My saddest moment as a mother. I said my final goodbye to my son, Craig Raymond Turner when I gathered with family and friends to scatter his ashes off the coast of California. He was fifty-nine when he died so tragically, but he will always be my baby.”
Tina Turner
Ronald “Ronnie” Renelle Turner was the only son Ike Turner and Tina Turner had together, and is the youngest of Tina Turner’s four kids. He was born in October 1960 and is the youngest among the Turner siblings. According to IMDb, Ronnie shared screen space with his late mother in the 1993 film What’s Love Got To Do With It. He was married to singer Afida Turner. He passed away on December 8, 2018. His wife shared a statement on Instagram as she wrote, “My God, Ronnie Turner, a true angel, huge soul, highly spiritual, my husband, my best friend, my baby.”
Ike Turner had six children, however, Tina only adopted his two sons from his long-term relationship with Lorraine Taylor. The eldest of Tina Turner’s children, Ike Turner Jr., was born in 1958. Like his parents, he also began a career in music, and in 2006, he even won a Grammy in the Traditional Blues Album category for producing his father’s album Risin’ With The Blues. In a 2018 interview with DailyMail, Ike Turner Jr. shared that he had been estranged from Tina Turner for almost 2 decades.
“Tina raised me from the age of two. She’s the only mother I’ve ever known. I haven’t talked to my mother since God knows when – probably around 2000. I don’t think any of my brothers have talked to her in a long time either.”
Ike Turner Jr.
Michael Turner is the younger son whom Ike Turner had from his relationship with Lorraine Taylor. Out of all of Tina Turner’s four children, the least is known about him. However, a source told Fox News that Michael, along with his brothers Ike and Ronnie was ‘devastated’ to learn that they were left out of the 2021 HBOMax documentary Tina.
This is all about Tina Turner’s four children.
May her soul rest in peace.
ALSO READ: Miley Cyrus reveals that she might never tour again in a recent post; Says she is on ‘Endless summer vacation’
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — “Our America: Hidden Stories” is a six-part series that explores America’s history of slavery and its impact on society today.
One such story is that of De La Soul, the Long Island-born hip-hop group that spent years battling for control of their own music.
“You know my man is gone, you know the person I intended on celebrating all of this with. So this makes it bittersweet,” said Vincent Mason better known as DJ Maseo of De La Soul.
The loss of Dave Jolicoeur one-third of the influential group De La Soul left a hole in the hip-hop community and beyond.
But the rapper, also known as Trugoy the Dove, lives on through the group’s music which is now available on all streaming platforms for the first time.
A milestone moment that wouldn’t have been possible without Reservoir Media Management
“The music is some of the greatest hip-hop music ever recorded,” said Rell Lafargue President and Chief Operating Officer of Reservoir. “It’s culturally important and to have it missing from the streaming services was a big problem.”
Music executives got De La Soul’s catalog in 2021 when they bought Tommy Boy records.
The biggest hurdle was overcoming legal and copyright issues.
“There were a few samples that weren’t clear,” Lafargue said. “So we had to go in and really knock on a lot of doors.”
As part of the new deal, De La Soul owns the rights to their masters.
It was something that was just well deserved for the work,” Maseo said. “Work that we put in.”
And long overdue.
“We were only expected to sell a certain amount of records, and we superseded that,” Maseo said. “So, in being a part of a company you expect to get a raise at some point. You don’t expect to stay on the same pay scale.”
“When Tommy Boy folded we moved into the digital world,” Maseo said. “Records eventually stopped selling.”
One of hip hops advocates for independence is rapper Papoose also known as Shamele Mackie.
He now heads the hip-hop division at the music distribution company TuneCore where he scouts new talent and helps them become their own boss.
“TuneCore is the only place where you make 100% profit to yourself as an artist,” Papoose said. “(There’s) no one else who’s going to do that. The artist should be able to achieve that longevity and deserves to achieve that longevity.”
De La Soul has endured and their impact on the genre has been significant.
“Most rappers were wearing you know gold chains and rings and then they came along wearing kind of like hippie-ish kind of garb,” said Faith Newman the Executive VP of Catalog Development. “They didn’t sound like anybody else and they didn’t look like anybody else.”
“We earned our respect by being original, by being different, and by being good,” Maseo said.
Not only is De La Soul’s album available on streaming, but Reservoir will also be releasing records every few weeks.
“We did this for fans,” Lafargue said. “We did it for De La Soul. We do it for hip-hop.”
Catch the first episode of “Our America: Hidden Stories” Saturday at 2:00 p.m. on Channel 7 or wherever you stream ABC7NY.
We worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah Jones and her award-winning “1619 Project” to produce this series.
ALSO READ | Grandmaster Flash talks about the origins of hip-hop
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Blues singer Dylan Triplett’s world just shifted.
The Cahokia native took home the trophy for best emerging artist album at the Blues Music Association’s 44th Annual Blues Music Awards, held in May in Memphis, Tennessee.
He was honored for his 2022 debut album, “Who Is He?,” which was recorded over three days at Blue Lotus Studio in St. Louis. It was his first time recording in a studio.
The album was accompanied by a release concert at BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, where Triplett returns June 2 to celebrate his win. He also has a sold-out show June 1 at Joe’s Cafe & Art Gallery and a slot at the Confluence Festival June 3-4 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison.
“I cannot lie to you: It does feel different, and it feels good,” says Triplett, who moved last year to Nashville. “I feel like I’m ready for more in the long term. I’m ready for a lot more to happen — ready for the shift to happen.
“I’m ready for it all to start. This is just the beginning.”
While recording “Who Is He?,” Triplett says, he had no idea he had an award-winning album on his hands.
“Who Is He?” by Dylan Triplett
“I thought it would have a chance at something but not an award-winning chance,” he says. “It never really crossed my mind.”
Once the nominations were revealed, his hopes of winning weren’t high.
In the past, competitive situations didn’t land in his favor, such as when he competed a few years ago in the Blues Music Association’s Independent Blues Challenge.
“My soul was at peace with whatever happened because I was going to win regardless (in the long run) because I had the determination to keep pushing to get to the end,” he says.
Triplett says he didn’t really know his competition in his category: Yates McKendree, DaShawn Hickman, Jose Ramirez and Blue Moon Marquis.
“I figured, ‘I don’t know you, but if you’re in the category with me, you’ve got to be worth something,’” he says. “’You’ve got to have some kind of heat, and may the best man win.’”
Triplett had heard buzz that he could win, but he knew better than to get his hopes up.
In 2022, before the album release, he went to the awards to put his name out there, performing at showcases, handing out business cards, shaking hands and “kissing ass,” he says. “There’s a lot of that.”
This year, he not only attended as a nominee but as a performer with band members Bernard Terry (bass), Nick Savage (drums) and Ryan Marquez (organ and keyboards), all of St. Louis, along with Sean McDonald (bass) and Stephen Hull (lead guitar).
He says he was the only newcomer nominee with a performance slot. The group performed a 10-minute medley of songs from “Who Is He?” that included “Barnyard Blues,” “Junkyard Dog” and “I’ll Be There Waiting.”
“It went great,” Triplett says. “Everybody loved it so much. Everyone came up to see me afterward. They were so happy to see a young brother up there onstage doing what our ancestors were doing. That’s very empowering for a lot of people.”
His nervousness peaked as his category was announced by presenters Mathias Lattin and Frank Robinson. His band members crowded around him, spreading good vibes. He faced away from the stage in an attempt to calm himself.
The presenters joked that “the playa hater award goes to” before announcing Triplett.
“I turned around after I heard them call my name,” he says. “‘Oh, (crap), that’s me. This is happening.’ Everyone was jumping on me like I won a soccer game. My band was losing their damn mind.”
Dylan Triplett receives the trophy for best emerging artist album May 11, 2023, at the Blues Music Association’s 44th Annual Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tennessee.
He said he didn’t start processing the win until he heard one of his songs being played.
“They waited for me to walk up there,” he says. “I started crying. I was thinking about the hard work I’ve been putting in since I was 17 years old and all the ‘nos’ I’ve gotten doing music.
“This was the yes I’ve been waiting on, and I started breaking down. I’d been struggling with trying to get this yes — get this moment.”
Once Triplett leaned into the microphone to give his acceptance speech, what he had prepared went out the window. All he could muster were more tears.
“I thought I would go up there and be all put together, but I was a mess,” he says. “I could not focus on the speech. I just took it all in and took as many breaths as I needed.”
He eventually thanked God, his parents, the Blues Music Foundation and those who voted for him, his manager and his team, and Montez Coleman and Mike Finnigan, two musicians on the album who have since died. He only got to thank a third of the people he wanted to.
Dylan Triplett with his trophy for best emerging artist album from the Blues Music Association
“There was so much happening, and I was so flustered and took a lot of breaks,” Triplett says. “I just wanted to get down and cry in peace.”
Triplett has started work on a follow-up to “Who Is He?” He says he forgot in the moment to tease the song in his speech.
The song will be featured on the album and represents a “taste of what the album will bring and what the future of me looks like,” he says. “The passion behind the song is strong, and everyone can relate. I want to connect more with people and for them to see my vulnerable side a bit more.”
What Dylan Triplett • When 8 p.m. June 1 • Where Joe’s Cafe & Art Gallery, 6014 Kingsbury Avenue • How much Sold out • More info eventbrite.com
What Dylan Triplett• When 7 p.m. June 2 • Where BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 South Broadway • How much $25 • More info eventbrite.com
Angela G. Ticen graduates from Goshen College
GOSHEN – Angela G. Ticen, of Chalmers, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Goshen College this spring with a bachelor’s degree in Music and Secondary Education. Members of the Goshen College Class of 2023 were honored during the college’s 125th commencement ceremony on April 30. The Class of 2023 consists of 165 graduates who were awarded the following degrees: 115 Bachelor of Arts, 23 Bachelor of Science in Nursing, one Bachelor of Science, 12 Master of Science in Nursing as family nurse practitioners, five Master of Arts in Environmental Education, five Master of Business Administration and four Doctors of Nursing Practice.