VOICE of the CITY to raise $500 for WESU's Winter Pledge Drive

It’s been almost six years since I joined WESU 88.1FM and began producing VOICE of the CITY airing Tuesday nights from 8-9PM. In those six years we at VOICE of the CITY, have produced over two hundred shows featuring hundreds of locally produced songs, live musicians, poets, artists, philosophers, writers, and free thinkers of every ilk. We feature local music and the local voice of the community. We have learned, grown, and we have been inspired! It brings us great joy to play local music, and feature local artists, as well as giving voice to the people silenced by nosy commercial radio. Our motto is, “Live and local… this ain’t no commercial radio!” 

As a nonprofit organization WESU 88.1FM provides a vital service to each and every one of us. JCherry Presents has pledged to raise $500 to help WESU reach their goal of $20,000 for this year’s pledge drive. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO DO IT! To put it bluntly, if every one of you reading this plea gave just $10, you would help us get there!  One thing I appreciate about this eclectic station is the diversity of programing, from Democracy Now to the Bauer Hour, Reasonably Catholic,  Conversations on Healthcare, Acoustic Blender, Wonderland, Homegrown, The Divide And Conquer News Report, and The Jive at Five, just to name a few shows! 

Here’s how you can help today. Hit the link to wesufm.orgWESU 88.1FM and hit donate now. Be sure to tell the station JCherry sent you so we can reach our goal of $500 from VOICE of the CITY listeners and featured guests! 

Please enjoy this little photomontage of our colorful guests throughout the years at WESU 88.1FM. Thank you for supporting local community radio! 

Live and local… this ain’t no commercial radio! 

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY …

airing on WESU 88.1FM Tuesdays from 8-9PM and Wednesdays from 7-8PM on CygnusRadio

We'll kick off tonight's show with Karen Stein producer and host of Imagine airing on WESU 88.1FM every 2nd and 4th Thursday from 6:30 to 8PM. Next up it's live with Carla Figueroa discussing creative and positive ways to be an active and awoken citizen. The Balkun Brothers LIVE in da house with a brand new album on the way, and a HOT new VIDEO!!

Karen Stein @ Anything Goes Open MIC

The Buttonwood Tree

Live and local, that's how we roll… this ain't no commercial radio!  

Visit us online and donate. www.wesufm.org We need to raise $20,000 because commercial free radio needs YOU to help support OPEN AIRWAYS! Give what you can every $$$ counts… no donation is too small. All together now we can raise this! 

Balkun Brothers live on VOICE of the CITY 

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY

Live with CherrySparks, Sympetalous, and River City Slim of the Mighty Soul Drivers! Airing Tuesday's from 8-9PM on WESU 88.1FM, and Wednesday's on CygnusRadio from 7-8PM. Live and local... This ain't no commercial radio!

JCherry & The Strawberries ROCK

Ladies Night Home Concerts

JCherry & Mr.Sparks

JCherry & The Strawberries! 

We had a lovely time playing music at the beautiful home of Sharon Bartlett Mann! Sharon booked us to play via Ladies Night Home Concerts! We enjoyed Sharon's home, her friends, and we are very thankful to Julie Clark Shubert for this unique opportunity. Ladies Night Home Concerts is a unique way to support female artists and have a great time doing it! You too can bring local music into your living room and have a fabulous party everyone will enjoy!

JCherry & Sharon Bartlett Mann

Find out more and visit  Ladies Night Home Concerts 

Julie Clark Shubert

Miss VOICE of the CITY last night on WESU?

Then catch it tonight on cygnus radio from 7-8PM!

 Someone You Can Xray

CYGNUSRADIO.COM

JCherry, Ira Sakolski, and Someone You Can Xray

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY airing on WESU 88.1FM Middletown from 8-9PM

LIVE with Ira Sakolsky of Riverway Studio. Ira is a producer, engineer, multitalented musician, actor, Grammy Award-winning composer, and so much more; a director, teacher, and the creator of the Essex Steam Train's Freight Night, and the ever popular, North Pole Express.  

Ira Sakolsky of Riverway Studio

Also live in the studio with Dana ‘DeeDawg’ Newman and Bryan Newman of the band, Someone You Can Xray. Playing groovy original tunes that make you want to shimmy, shake, rattle and roll! 

Someone You Can Xray 

Live and local… this ain't no commercial radio!! 

WESU 88.1FM 

streaming on CygnusRadio on Wednesday nights from 7-8PM

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY

airing on WESU 88.1FM Tuesday nights from 8-9PM, and Wednesday's from 7-8PM on CygnusRadio, live with Cameron Sutphin. Live and local this ain't no commercial radio! 

VOICE of the CITY live with Julia Autumn Ford airs tonight on CygnusRadio from 7-8PM

Julia Autumn Ford 

live on VOICE of the CITY

WESU 88.1FM 

 Julia Autumn Ford chose to write a song that saved her life, Don’t Give Up On Me from her EP “Julia Autumn Ford”. On the verge of suicide, and struggling with the weight of depression, she put down the knife and picked up her guitar. It wasn’t a conscious choice to pick up the guitar and write a song. Something in her shifted. “I was crying through the whole process of writing it. Then afterwards I was like, wow! I saw what I did, and realized that it could help me. If I got out of that using music, then I could get through anything,” she explained.

Julia has always loved music. She started writing songs when she was just two years old. “I didn’t really have much of a vocabulary then. So I made up my own words like prepedition. I’ve been writing small parts of songs forever. Don’t Give Up On Me was the first full song I wrote and finished,” she said. Her music is honest, real and from the heart. A fresh young voice with a lyrical soul full of wisdom. To listen to the full interview on VOICE of the CITY with JCherry that aired Tuesday on WESU 88.1FM, tune into CygnusRadio tonight from 7-8PM www.cygnusradio.com

Airing on Tuesdays from 8-9PM on WESU 88.1FM

and Wednesdays on CygnusRadio from 7-8PM

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY, airing on WESU 88.1FM Tuesdays from 8-9PM, live with Julia Autumn Ford

Julia Autumn Ford - Don't Give Up On Me [Live @ The Desultory Theatre]



Music has the power to heal, to touch, and to transform…

Photo by lsg original photography 

"I was 16, sitting in my room feeling entirely defeated and overwhelmed. The battle I was fighting with depression was at an extreme and I was sick of constantly letting not only everyone around me down, but also myself. In my mind there was no reason to live if I was contributing nothing but negativity; so I planned on ending my life. At the last second I put down the knife, picked up my guitar and wrote my first full song, "Don't Give Up on Me". I realized that I could say things I had trouble expressing through music, so music became my way of coping and ultimately healing. Your passion is your purpose, and I found my love for music is my passion when it became what I chose to live for."

~ Julia Autumn Ford

To find out more about Julia Autumn Ford, CLICK HERE 

Live and local… this ain't no commercial radio! 

Listen anytime from anywhere on WESU 88.1FM on the worldwide web. 

Click here for WESU 88.1FM 

VOICE of the CITY airs on CygnusRadio on Wednesday nights from 7-8PM 

Click here for CygnusRadio

JCherry interviews photographer Robert Marsala live on VOICE of the CITY, Tuesdays from 8-9PM on WESU 88.1FM, Wednesdays from 7-8PM on CygnusRadio

Back in the 80s while on a country ride with his wife Robert Marsala was attracted to an old building and pulled over. He always travels with a camera and just began shooting. Ever since then he's been on an exploration of structures that once bustled with life, but have been left behind as the world changes. "It took me. I am along for this ride," he chuckled as he explained his passion for this type of photography. It is no easy task to enter abandoned structures and Robert takes his work seriously. With an understanding of the chemical hazards, he dresses with protective gear, and remains alert to signs that a structure may not be safe. Marsala's photographs capture an eerie beauty that speaks of a past not that far behind us. Once active factories sit abandoned with spilled chemicals, chipping paint, and moldy walls. Asylums tall and empty with cavernous hallways, now peppered with graffiti, are transformed into art. The photographs are both historical reminders of our past and reminders that life continuously changes. That nature will consume what people leave behind and make it her own.

Visit Robert Marsala's Website 

CLICK HERE

For Robert's Blog

CLICK HERE

Marsala uses a digital camera with an infrared chip, "Visible light is what we all capture with cell phones, any type of camera, even film based cameras. Infrared photography has been around a lot of years. With the advent of digital chips, manufactures were able develop chips that are sensitive to the light that falls beyond the visible spectrum,"he explained. There are filters that you can remove which allow the photographer to capture any wave length of light that they desire. "I have a dedicated camera that shoots in the infrared spectrum," he explained. There is an element of surprise when shooting in infrared. The naked eye cannot see in the infrared spectrum, "I have an idea of what will be rendered when I go to process the images, but I will say more often than not there is something in addition to it, that I am always surprised by." For example there may not be a cloud in the sky that you can see with your naked eye, but on the infrared spectrum the sky is full of billowing little clouds. "Time wears on everything, and without intervention, nature slowly reclaims man-made structures and returns them to a state of disorder," Robert Marsala from his book of photography, In a Different Light, Photographs of Abandonment. There will be an opening reception for Marsala's work this Sunday at Gallery 53 in Meriden. For more information about the show CLICK HERE


To listen to the full interview tune into CygnusRadio tonight from 7-8PM by CLICKING HERE

Visit WESU 88.1FM anytime to listen to the show on our archives. CLICK HERE

Live and local… this ain't no commercial radio! 

Tonight on VOICE of the CITY

Airing on WESU 88.1FM on Tuesdays from 8-9PM, and Wednesdays from 7-8PM on CygnusRadio Live with photograph Robert C. Marsala, followed by the 'Street Report' from downtown Middletown. Live and local... This ain't no commercial radio! 

Follow the link to learn more about photographer Robert C. Marsala. 

http://featuredemagazine.com/2014/09/01/robert-marsala-in-a-different-light

"Anything Goes" Open Mic @ The Buttonwood Tree, Middletown CT

Portland Music Harvest Festival

On Sunday, October 5, at YMCA Camp Ingersoll from 12-6PM, it’s the first annual Portland Music Harvest Festival. Featuring five local bands, The Alex, Randomizer, The Terry Rand Band, JCherry & The Strawberries, gigglejuice and SuperTrance. There will be vendors and food by Higher Grounds Coffee House. The festival is being produced by; Portland residents Jennifer Shafer Wood and her husband Timothy Sparks also known as JCherry Presents.

Wood and Sparks live in the rural section of Portland. One day while hiking they came across the amphitheater being constructed at YMCA Camp Ingersoll. “I was happily surprised last year when we saw the camp building an amphitheater! I immediately reached out to the YMCA and connected with the camp director Tony Sharillo about having a local music festival on the campgrounds. We are thrilled to be able to bring the a collection of great local music to Portland!” explained Wood. Wood and Sparks produce, The Annual Middletown Music Festival that takes place the second Sunday in August and is now heading into its forth consecutive year. They also produce VOICE of the CITY a live radio show featuring local arts and music, airing on WESU 88.1FM on Tuesday nights from 8-9PM. 

This is a family friendly event and is alcohol and tobacco free. There is plenty of space to lounge and picnic on the beautiful campgrounds. There is $10 suggested donation. With each donation you can enter the drawing and win free CDs from the performing artists.

Radiant Yoga is back at The 3rd Annual Middletown Music Festival!

 Last year at The 2nd Annual Middletown Music Festival, fun was had with yoga and music!

Radiant Yoga!! 

Erin McGuire is an experienced yoga teacher. Her expertise and eloquent instruction make yoga accessible to everyone! Erin takes yoga out of the classroom and brings yoga into the community. She combines yoga with live music in her classes, as well as teaching yoga classes on the beautiful trails of CT. For more information visit her online: Radiant Yoga 

"I've been sharing yoga as Radiant Yoga in CT for 9 years. Yoga is connection to everyone and everything. To truly live that connection we practice yoga off of our mats. We practice breathing deeply when we're anxious, we stand tall even when we're having a hard time and we move freely when there is music in the air. You don't have to be in a yoga class. That's how we practice remembering our own radiance in every moment of life. Then we look around and realize that everything and everyone else is just as Radiant. That is the main teaching of Radiant Yoga." Erin McGuire

Tonight on Voice of the CITY, airing Tuesdays on WESU 88.1FM from 8-9 PM, and Wednesdays on Cygnus Radio from 7-8 PM, a preview of The 3rd Annual Middletown Music Festival!!

Featuring the music of:

Hannah's Field

The Michael Cleary Band

gigglejuice

Randomizer

The Ebin-Rose Trio

J-Cherry & The Strawberries

PonyBird

Lauren Agnelli & Ravens In The Woods

Poetry by SYMPETALOUS

J-Cherry & The Strawberries at The 3rd Annual Middletown Music Festival! Sunday, August 10, from 12-8PM at Middlesex Community College Cedar Grove, 100 Training Hill Rd, Middletown, CT.

"Tree", from the album "In The Belly Of The Beast" by J-Cherry & The Strawberries.

What folks are saying about, "In The Belly Of The Beast”,

“Fantastic vibe and wicked good vocals here..really diggin that
cacophony of guitars, horns and groove in "on and poppin"..such a
mesmeric, rowdy joint...tasty playlist!!” Mike White Presents

“Wonderful sound! Enjoyed your terrific vocals and instrumental
skill! You have a great unique sound! I wish you much success!” --Slam Horse

“Fantastically creative and original sound. Cheers!” Agony In
The Garden

Live and local… this is GREAT music!! 

Tim Sparks, Steve Far, J-Cherry, Kevin Day and Rich Hatfield of J-Cherry and the Strawberries will release their first album, “In the Belly of the Beast” Saturday at The Buttonwood Tree on 605 Main Street in Middletown.Catherine Avalone - The Middletown Press

By Special to the Press

POSTED: 07/11/14, 1:54 PM EDT |

0 COMMENTS

MIDDLETOWN >> What has been five years in the making will be debuted this weekend as blues and roots rock group J-Cherry and The Strawberries will release its locally recorded album, “In the Belly of the Beast,” at The Buttonwood Tree performing center.

The first album from the Portland-based band is part poetry, blues and roots rock with songs that take a critical look at life, politics and today’s world. “Lies,” “Dirty Water,” the “Dog’s On Prozac” and “The Illuminati,” are just a few titles on this 13-track disc recorded before a live audience with Michael Arafeh of Middletown’s Coffeehouse Recording Studio.

A local artist with a passion for music, lead singer Jennifer Shafer Wood, otherwise known as J-Cherry, started the project five years ago while looking for a place to produce an open mic. J-Cherry was inspired by a similar coffeehouse-style music event in Hartford.

“I wanted to recreate a ‘Love Jones’ atmosphere closer to home,” Shafer Wood recalls. “The open mics I attended locally were either poetry or music; there was nothing with a combination.”

So she approached Anne-Marie Cannata, the Buttonwood Tree’s artistic director, about producing an open mic and soon Anything Goes Open Mic Mondays were born. These weekly drop-in sessions continue today with a crew of hosts to keep it going weekly.

Shafer Wood and Tim Sparks host the event on the first Monday of the month. They also produce the weekly radio talk show, “Voice of the City,” airing on WESU 88.1-FM in Middletown, Tuesdays from 8 to 9 p.m., and streaming on Cygnus Radio on Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m.

It was at open mic that Shafer Wood met her husband and band mate Tim Sparks, as well as band mates, Sympetalous, poet and percussionist; and singer/songwriter on bass and guitar Steve Far.

Sparks, singer/songwriter on rhythm guitar, vocals and harmonica, brought in lead guitarist Rich Hatfield and the group started practicing once a week and playing gigs.

“We just enjoyed making music together,” Shafer Wood recalls “We decided it was time to record an album. Some of the songs were written or inspired by our experience at the Buttonwood Tree. ‘On and PopPin’ was inspired by being in downtown Middletown at The Buttonwood watching all the people stroll in or by on a summer evening.”

“The Rhythm Is In The Kiss” is a song inspired by an individual band members met at The Buttonwood Tree had hit a rough patch in life, “clinging to the bottle, unaware of another way to handle life,” Shafer Wood explained. “This record is a colorful collaboration of poetry and music.”

This singer/songwriter, visual artist and radio host says she’s thankful for places like the Buttonwood Tree that open their doors to aspiring artists and provide a platform for the budding artist to share.

“In all honesty this album would not have been possible without The Buttonwood Tree,” Shafer Wood says. “It gives me great joy to officially release our record on the stage where it all started!”

The album release concert takes place Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. at The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St. For information, seehwww.buttonwood.org, email thebuttonwoodtree@gmail.com or cal 860-347-4957. Tickets are $10.