Creating World Music in Strange Times

Mike Hovancsek

Creative people had to find ways to adapt back in those dark days of the covid shutdowns. How do you keep yourself from going mad? How do you hold the creative community aloft when you can’t even be in the same room with each other?

Pour Some SugarCane On Me: Timothy Koehler; a Musical Odyssey

Cameron Mack

There are few musicians who embody the spirit and soul of Kent’s music scene quite like my good friend Timothy Koehler. His ongoing story is one of passion, creativity, and a deep love for music that transcends generations.

Cover art by Mike Hovancsek. Black and white bubble abstract digital art

A Walk Across The Day: A gifted musician’s august traverse

J.C. Richardson

For those that have followed the indelible career of multi-cultural musician, Kent’s very own Mike Hovancsek, we surely anticipate listening to something entrenched in the unknown, and possibly the insecure, as if dropped off into secluded, crepuscular woods and challenged to find our own way through.

Cleveland based Indie folk-hop duo the Baker’s Basement

A Video Tapestry of Silhouetted Memories

Adam Grindler

Cleveland based Indie folk-hop duo the Baker’s Basement unveils a video tapestry of silhouetted human figures and obscured memories in the spirit of their newest single “Words I Need to Say.” The music video, created by members Kate Dedinsky and Adam Grindler, harnesses the joy and anguish of revisiting episodes and relationships of one’s past, all presented on a single backlit stage of silhouetted human figures and obscured motion.

Saxophone musician Bobby Selvaggio standing in front of glass building in Akron, Ohio.

Bobby Selvaggio - Life in Jazz

One of my earliest memories is being with my mother and two brothers driving to a performance my dad, Pete Selvaggio, was doing. When we got there, I just remember meeting this older musician and not understanding who this person was or any of the historical significance of that. At the time, my dad was finishing up being out on the road with the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, and I believe this was one of the last gigs he was doing with the band before Guy Lombardo passed.

Laurie Caner of Hey Mavis and Leandra Drumm look at illustrations by Leandra

Silver Ribbon Dream

Jeff St. Clair

MYSTERY, MUSIC, AND MAGIC were the ingredients of the first Light Up Lantern Festival in Akron. That’s where Hey Mavis singer and songwriter Laurie Michelle Caner first met Leandra Drumm, who organized the seminal celebration of the arts in 2009. Caner became enamored with Drumm’s whimsical style which infused the event, while Drumm fell in love with the band’s free-flowing folk sound.