Now Hear This Entertainment

Bruce Wawrzyniak

Now Hear This Entertainment features interviews with guests who are having success in the entertainment business, with the content presented in a way that not only entertains fans of that guest and fans of good music interviews in general, but in a manner that educates musicians, singers, songwriters – entertainers who want to learn from those who are being interviewed each week by Bruce Wawrzyniak, president of Now Hear This, Inc. The guests come from a wide array of genres and locales. read less

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NHTE 562 Twinnie

NHTE 562 Twinnie

British country-pop sensation who just released a new album less than two weeks ago. The launch of that project came just six days after having performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. She has already released three music videos for songs from her new album and her official YouTube channel overall has a combined total of more than 1.6 million video views. She has live shows on five consecutive days coming up at the end of November in the UK and had also performed in Nashville in September in conjunction with AmericanaFest. She is also a member of CMT’s 2024 “Next Women of Country” class AND is the co-founder of an initiative aimed at promoting mental health and well-being in the music industry. Before rising to country stardom, she performed as a backing singer and dancer for Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. Plus, she has done acting work, including alongside household names like Glenn Close and Christian Slater in film and stage.

Episodes

NHTE 562 Twinnie

NHTE 562 Twinnie

British country-pop sensation who just released a new album less than two weeks ago. The launch of that project came just six days after having performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. She has already released three music videos for songs from her new album and her official YouTube channel overall has a combined total of more than 1.6 million video views. She has live shows on five consecutive days coming up at the end of November in the UK and had also performed in Nashville in September in conjunction with AmericanaFest. She is also a member of CMT’s 2024 “Next Women of Country” class AND is the co-founder of an initiative aimed at promoting mental health and well-being in the music industry. Before rising to country stardom, she performed as a backing singer and dancer for Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. Plus, she has done acting work, including alongside household names like Glenn Close and Christian Slater in film and stage.

NHTE 561 Archie Beatz

NHTE 561 Archie Beatz

A composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, recording & mix engineer, and YouTube personality. Currently based in northern California, he is a voting member of the Recording Academy and has composed music for T-Mobile, Covergirl, and even an NBA star. Plus, as lead composer, he scored an original series on the Zeus Network. He has partnered with a handful of audio brands on his YouTube channel, which is approaching a combined total of ten million video views. He also talks during this interview about a new recording project of his own that he has coming out in Spring 2025.

NHTE 560 Vail Johnson

NHTE 560 Vail Johnson

Singer, songwriter, bass player, and producer who has recorded and performed with numerous household names in music. He has worked in over 85 countries and is currently working on a new album. His music has been heard in film, television, radio, and albums, and he has lived in Los Angeles, been a part of numerous bands, and toured internationally, playing every major jazz festival around the world. Based in Nashville, he teaches a masterclass, while also still going out and performing a one-man show, and, his official YouTube channel has amassed a combined total of almost three-quarters-of-a-million combined video views. Among the countless celebrities he has performed with are Kenny G, Stevie Nicks, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Michael Bolton, James Ingram, Steve Perry, Christopher Cross, Peabo Bryson, and more.

NHTE 559 Elles Bailey

NHTE 559 Elles Bailey

UK-based award-winning recording artist who just released a single at the start of this month after having put out her latest album, her fourth studio album, in early August. In late September she started a tour that goes through early December and includes shows throughout the UK as well as in the Netherlands and will conclude in Ireland. Tickets have just gone on sale for her spring tour that will see her perform next March and April in the UK and Germany. Her music has had success on Blues, Americana, Independent, and Album charts in addition to the awards that she has won.

NHTE 558 Doak Turner

NHTE 558 Doak Turner

A songwriter and author who lived in Nashville for 15 years before moving to his current location. His book, “A Crazy Journey (And Finding My True Identity),” came out last December and captures his 40-plus years in various facets of the music industry and sports and entertainment, plus other areas of life, meeting and working with some of the most famous people. He wrote a country Christian song that went to No. 1 after he moved out of Nashville, where he had hosted 120 events for songwriters and the music industry at his home, 112 consecutive months from 2003-2012. He has had over a dozen songs recorded for artists' projects, including on Sirius XM and RFD TV.

NHTE 557 Carlyle Griffin

NHTE 557 Carlyle Griffin

Recorded on-location at the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival with this Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who two years ago this month won the Josie Music Award for Folk/Americana Single of the Year. Last year she signed with SmashFarm Management and performed in December 2023 as part of an event that featured Ashley McBryde and Thompson Square, among others. In addition to northwest Florida, she has been on the road of late, including eleven shows in South Carolina in August as well as having played in May down at the Key West Songwriters Festival. She released a single early this year and has another new song on the way.

NHTE 556 Robert LaRoche

NHTE 556 Robert LaRoche

Massachusetts-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who began performing professionally at the age of just 15 years old. He is a co-founder of the band The Sighs, who were signed to Virgin Records and toured with such artists as The Gin Blossoms and The Spin Doctors. As a solo artist, last year he released a ten-song album, which he did with an Oscar-winning songwriter and producer. At the time of this episode’s release, he will be performing as part of a five-week tour all throughout Germany, after having performed in August in Los Angeles.

NHTE 555 Thompson Square

NHTE 555 Thompson Square

A husband-wife duo that needs no introduction, thanks to having exploded onto the scene with the second single in 2010 from their self-titled debut album going multi-platinum. The Grammy-nominated duo has toured the world; won multiple ACM, ACA, CMA, and CMT awards; appeared on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, NBC’s TODAY Show, and CBS This Morning, as well as numerous primetime TV specials and awards shows. Plus, they have earned No. 1 records in three countries. They are performing in the Florida panhandle this coming Sunday, October 6th, for the grand finale of the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival.

NHTE 554 J Michael Harter

NHTE 554 J Michael Harter

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who has a brand new twelve-song album in the works. In 2024 he is celebrating 25 years since his move to Nashville, and he recently started a new record label and publishing company. He was the Texas Country Music Association’s 2021 Country Songwriter of the Year and has toured with Alan Jackson, Clint Black, and Dwight Yoakam and his top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of more than three quarters of a million streams. Back at the start of his career, his debut single spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, which was the first Top 40 hit for Broken Bow Records.

NHTE 553 Alexis Marrero

NHTE 553 Alexis Marrero

Cleveland, Ohio-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who has released two singles so far this year, the latest being in mid-July, one week before performing at the famous Whisky-A-Go-Go in Hollywood, also performing at The Viper Room and the House of Blues while she was out west. She was also in Nashville in early June, performing in conjunction with CMA Fest. She will be back in both Hollywood and Nashville before this year is over and she will have one more song release this year in addition to having a music video coming out. Presently her YouTube channel has a combined total of more than 1.6 million video views, and her top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of close to three hundred thousand streams.

NHTE 552 Austin Forman

NHTE 552 Austin Forman

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who has released four singles in 2024, the most recent of which came out on June 28th. Just over four years ago he had a song that went viral and landed him national attention, and present day he has 880 thousand followers on TikTok, where he has had multiple videos get one or more million views, plus a combined total of 2.7 million video views on his official YouTube channel, approximately 950 thousand streams on his top five songs on Spotify alone, and more than 45 thousand monthly listeners on that platform. Based in the Florida panhandle, he will be performing in three weeks at the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival.

NHTE 551 Eric Hirshberg

NHTE 551 Eric Hirshberg

Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who has a new album coming out next week Friday, September 13th. He has been written about in the likes of PEOPLE Magazine and American Songwriter as well as interviewed on MSNBC. He has collaborated with GRAMMY nominee Aloe Blacc and he has also done a song featuring Dave Koz. The videos on his official YouTube channel have a combined total of more than 2.5 million views and a single that he released this past February has over 144 thousand streams on Spotify. He is a former CEO of Activision and Deutsch LA, where he led record-breaking launches for major franchises like Call of Duty and was named one of the 50 Most Creative People in Business by AdAge.

NHTE 550 Radhika Vekaria

NHTE 550 Radhika Vekaria

Los Angeles-based award-winning artist who has a new album that features two GRAMMY winners and two GRAMMY nominees coming out on August 30th. In just over two weeks she will be performing at Sages and Sciences with Deepak Chopra at Harvard, and at the end of next month at The Clive Davis Theater at the GRAMMY Museum. She has previously collaborated with the likes of Prince, Enrique Iglesias, and GRAMMY-nominated producer George Landress, among others. She has performed in Europe as well as here in the U.S. at South By Southwest. Her top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of over 2.6 million streams.

NHTE 549 Arwen Lewis

NHTE 549 Arwen Lewis

A singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist who released a new single in April. Based in the greater Los Angeles area, she has been reviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine and she has been in Music Connection magazine as well. She comes from very notable entertainment lineage, and she even hosts her own self-titled show with significant distribution. While she performs in and around the greater Los Angeles area – including notable venues such as The Viper Room and Hotel Café – she has even played in the music hotbed of Austin, Texas. She recently appeared in her first TV commercial and has close ties to a past guest from this show. She talks about live recordings currently being worked on as well as a Christmas collab she’s a part of.

NHTE 548 Rob McNelley

NHTE 548 Rob McNelley

Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who just released a new single less than two weeks ago, following another that he had put out at the end of June, which was co-produced with a GRAMMY Award-winning producer, all in the lead up to the release of an EP. He is a four-time winner of the ACM’s “Guitarist of the Year” Award and been nominated for the CMA’s “Musician of the Year.” He is not only Bob Seger’s lead guitarist but has worked with a long list of hitmakers, from Lainey Wilson to Luke Combs to Carrie Underwood to Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Jr., Lady Antebellum, and more. In 2025 he will hit 30 years of being in Nashville, where he gained recognition as a session guitarist, putting an emphasis this year on establishing himself as a solo artist.

NHTE 547 Jenna LaMaster

NHTE 547 Jenna LaMaster

Recorded on-location in Alabama at the 4th Lake Martin Songwriters Festival, this Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player has a new single coming out soon. She has written for and had major label cuts with other artists, and in 2020 signed her first publishing deal. At the end of this month she will open for Terri Clark at the Ryman Auditorium and in September and October she will open for Ian Munsick in Colorado, New Mexico, and Idaho. She has even performed at the legendary Bluebird Café in Nashville.

NHTE 546 Regan Stewart

NHTE 546 Regan Stewart

An interview recorded on-location in Alabama at the 4th Lake Martin Songwriters Festival, this guest is a Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who just put out a seven-song release less than three weeks ago. She has been featured by Rolling Stone, NPR, CMT, and more, and her music has gotten over 650 thousand streams on all platforms AND been featured on Spotify and Apple Music playlists. So far this year she had three songs featured in the film, “God’s Country Song” AND had a music video debut on CMT. She has performed at notable venues, including the famous Bluebird Café up in Music City.

NHTE 545 Matt Rogers

NHTE 545 Matt Rogers

Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player, and CMA Member who has a new single coming out next week Friday, August 2nd. He has opened for some of country music’s hottest names, including Chris Stapleton, Walker Hayes, Jake Owen, Cole Swindell, Brothers Osborne, and more. Presently he is doing exactly that, playing live, with upcoming dates from Tennessee to Georgia to both Carolinas and even over in Denmark, plus the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival in the Florida panhandle, followed by a date in Alabama. His top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of over one million streams, and similarly, he has a combined total of over 1.1 million video views on his official YouTube channel. Send your questions or comments about this episode via https://featuredup.com/nhte

NHTE 544 Dan Miraldi

NHTE 544 Dan Miraldi

New York City-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who released a new album last month. Over the past 15 years he has created an extensive body of work totaling eight full-length albums and eight EPs in his solo catalog alone. His music has been featured on SiriusXM and last year two of his songs were featured in the movie “Sid is Dead.” Along the way he has also not only been reviewed by Huff Post, but, his on-stage journey includes performances in England, Denmark, across the U.S., and, sharing a bill with acts ranging from Wang Chung to Nelly to Beatles offspring James McCartney, and more. He is also a two-time finalist in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Send your questions or comments about this episode via https://featuredup.com/nhte

NHTE 543 Marcos Lopez-Iglesias

NHTE 543 Marcos Lopez-Iglesias

A singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music director, and record producer who is releasing a full-length album at the end of summer and a video for the title track, featuring work by a GRAMMY-winning mix engineer who is also working on another album being recorded, which is likely to be a double album in 2025. He has performed internationally and with some very notable names in music. Through Gold Record Productions he has produced four artists with a singer that he is in a duo with. Together they did a music video that has over 100 thousand views on YouTube. Send your questions or comments about this episode via https://featuredup.com/nhte