In this episode of Kites and Strings, we usher in Season 4 with Noah and Chloe Gose of the three-piece, Americana/folk band from Lincoln Nebraska, The Wildwoods.  We explore all sorts of things, and although we set out to explore what it was like to be married couple, writing music together, performing together, touring together and all that is involved in the business of making music and a band your way of earning a living, what adds to the interest there is that they have been together, doing all of those things since middle school.  Yes, Noah and Chloe, who are now married for 5 ..read more

This episode of Kites and Strings is pretty twisted. We interview Larry Moss, who the Washington Post has called the "best balloon artist in the world.  He has been featured on television shows around the world and recognized by Ripley's Believe It or Not, and has been in the Guinness Book of World Records multiple times.  In addition to the large sculptures that are several stories high and that use tens of thousands of balloons in each, he's also been recognized for his work replicating the art of masters, like Cezanne, Da Vinci, by Leonardo da Vinci,  Botticelli, and Grant Wo ..read more

In this episode we talk with Rachel Rose, an expressive arts educator who authored the book, Creating Stillness: Mindful Art Practices and Stories for Navigating Anxiety, Stress and Fear, published by North Atlantic Books.  We have a great discussion talking about what artmaking can do in the way of establishing mindfulness and to, well, navigate anxiety, fear and stress.  We discuss Rachel's thoughtful and informative book, which is chock-full of meaningful, skillfully written stories used as touchpoints amongst valuable lessons in art.  However, these lessons are not a how-to ..read more

This is a very special episode, as it is number 100 for Kites and Strings.  Can you believe it... 100 episodes!?  We're so thrilled about reaching this milestone and are really happy with our guest this week.  We really rose to the challenge of finding something interesting and worthy of our 100th episode.  Our guest on momentous episode person is Uncle Jack, from AskUncleJack fame on TikTok, and more recently, Instagram.  You see, Uncle Jack is in his 100th year, and he and his nephew Damon discuss that and share amazing stories from Uncle Jack's younger years and of ..read more

Such a fun interview today. We talk with Allegra Levy, a jazz singer from Manhattan who has been the recipient of so much positive press. She's a top 10 rising star jazz vocalist, who said to be able to "sing life back to you," she's been called the "new pin-up girl for cool, " and she's been called "exotic" and "far beyond the ordinary," by the likes of the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Downbeat Critics poll, the Midwest Record, and many more. She certainly lands in the category of sultry and smoky, but over the last year, she's jumped into writing and recording kids music. Yes, inspir ..read more

Today's episode features Harry Kappen, a Dutch musician who is finding balance in his work as an engaged music therapist working with teens and as a professional musician who consistently finds time to write, record and put out albums.  Steve and Catherine with Harry as we find and discuss several of the parallels that exist between art therapy and music therapy.  Of most note is the benefit of giving oneself permission to listen, to react, to improvise and to connect, whether it is around artmaking or making music together.  In addition to his work as a music therapist, we hear ..read more

In today's episode, Steve and Catherine talk with MB Bailey. He' s a full-on working musician from Homewood, just south of Chicago, where Steve lives.  We've meant to get MG on the show for a while, but he truly has been on and off tour zig zagging the country since the second things started to open up after the quarantine. We cover a great deal in this interview and really get a sense of how playing music, especially the way MG approaches that task, is about connecting and relating with people.  We also see how that played out in his teaching guitar to seemingly every teen that eve ..read more

Today's guest is punk rock pioneer, Jon Langford, a founding member of The Mekons, who were considered one the first wave punk bands from Britain.  We learn about Jon's melding folk and country music with punk music in The Mekons and several other side projects including The Waco Brothers, which he founded in Chicago after moving to the city in 1992.  We learn of how his music career was a surprise detour that materialized after The Mekons turned some record label heads while Jon and his at-school mates were simply having a blast thrashing about in the 1970's punk scene.  Betwee ..read more

In this episode Catherine and Steve talk with Heather Polk. She's a collage artist based out of Chicago who exhibits and is a featured artist with multiple collectives, such as The Get Gallery,  Spacey Studios and PxP Contemporary.   She's been featured in publications such as The New Yorker Magazine, The Washington Post and Cosmopolitan and she created www.artcuresall.com, which houses much of her amazing collage work, and outlines the idea that "Creativity Unleashed Rewards Every Soul"  or C.U.R.E.S.  Heather shares about research she's done and has experienced in r ..read more

In this episode of Kites and Strings, Steve and Catherine talk with author, Mary-Lou Weisman. She's a prize-winning journalist who has contributed too many articles to list in publications like the New York Times, Connecticut Weekly, Vogue, Newsweek, Newsday, and Woman's Day.  She's also a bestselling book author with five published books to date, and she teaches writing at the university level.  Mary-Lou's insights and utter joy for the art of writing comes to the fore in this interview as we learn about her creative process, and a few clever tricks that she uses to keep the ideas f ..read more