Monthly Archives

June 2022

Alannah McCready

By Music No Comments

In This Episode:

  • Her new EP “Back to Me”
  • How she chooses songs
  • Writing the songs on her newest EP
  • Is she dating Will?
  • The steamy video for “Can I Call?”
  • When it’s too late for a booty call
  • How this EP was healing
  • What was a wake-up call
  • The difference between Alannah McCready today and Alannah McCready 10 years ago
  • How she ended up in a toxic relationship
  • The journey from Hockey to Country Music
  • Leather pants
  • Her dream collaboration
  • Hockey and Dierks Bentley

Quotations:

“I just wanted it to be a very concise group of songs that covered everything of who I am as an artist right now in my career, and just have something for every listener.” ~Alannah McCready

“I feel like when writing with someone who knows you really well, rather than just being in a co-write with people who don’t know you, I feel like he was able to push me and be like, ‘What would you really say?'” ~Alannah McCready

“It’s a good thing I went through all of that because it allows me to have experiences and shared experiences that I can now write about and as a better songwriter than I was then.” ~Alannah McCready

“I really do feel like I finally know who I am as a person, as an artist, as you know, just an adult in general.” ~Alannah McCready

“Now I’m at a place where I’ve had to cut some people out of my life who were in my life for a very long time.” ~Alannah McCready

“When there are feelings involved and love involved, it’s easy to make excuses for people who don’t necessarily deserve them.” ~Alannah McCready

“It’s and it’s all a crap shoot, especially TikTok.” ~Alannah McCready

” ~Alannah McCready

Guest’s Bio:

Alannah McCready has made a lifelong habit out of pouring her heart and soul into every task she puts her mind to. 

Growing up in Minnesota and getting her first pair of skates at the age of three, it was inevitable that McCready was going to become a hockey star. “It’s called the state of hockey for a reason,” she notes.  The Minneapolis native discovered her expertise as a hockey goalie at skating camp at the age of 10 when she stopped all but two shots from entering the net, proudly telling her father, “I think I might be good at that.” But it was her mother who imprinted her with a love of country music that she grew up on in Oklahoma, the young McCready learning how to sing by watching the techniques of Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride. “These individuals exemplified who I wanted to be, and that’s when I knew what I wanted to do,” McCready praises of the country icons. In between rounds on the ice, McCready spent her childhood days offering free concerts to her family, her mother often finding her four-year-old daughter in the bathroom at weddings entertaining the guests. “Everything was a song. When I was talking, I would just start singing what I was talking,” McCready describes of making every moment a musical one, a habit she admittedly has yet to break. 

But McCready was just as sharp vocally as she was on the ice. Throughout her youth, McCready maintained her skills in both music and hockey, going so far as to overload her schedule in high school to accommodate both passions, her days starting at 5 a.m. for goalie training, followed by school, team practice, homework, and bed – repeat. The ambitious student would even go such lengths as singing all of her parts at a choral concert to get credit for choir class before jetting off to a hockey game that same night. “I was the only person in middle school and high school who was in choir and played a sport. Everyone thought it was so weird. Everyone always did one or the other and I refused to just pick one,” McCready recalls. “I would sing the National Anthem in my equipment before games and then skate to the net and play.”

After high school, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was part of two NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championships. On top of her intense schedule on the ice, McCready was also balancing a hefty workload as a sociology and communications major, which taught her the value of a strict schedule and time management, McCready crediting her athletic background for providing her with an unwavering steadfastness toward her dreams. “I think having to be disciplined at an early age when you’re playing a sport and being pushed and tested like that, carries over,” she observes. “An athletic mentality is something that only athletes really have. Now I’m finding being an independent artist and a singer-songwriter, you have to have the same mindset and the same work ethic because just like in sports and music, no one’s going to want it more for you than you have to.” 

After graduating from college, McCready headed to New York and launched a career in sports public relations for a sports management company, running the daily lives of nearly 20 NFL players. But as much as the job came naturally to the multi-faceted talent, music remained heavy on her heart until one day she had an epiphany that it was now or never to pursue music professionally. “It’s that looming fear of ‘if I don’t do this for myself, I’m never going to reach these goals. No one’s going to pick me up and put me there,’” McCready realized at the time. “’If I don’t give everything to my music now, I might not ever, so I just need to do it.’” With a sense of urgency in place, McCready made the leap and turned her attention to music full-time. She soon headed south, devoting several months to recording her first album Love Hangover in Nashville, which came in the aftermath of years of tumultuous relationships that left her feeling hungover. During one of the recording sessions, McCready arrived at a crossroads, asking publisher Dan Hodges point-blank if he believed she had what it took to be an artist. “I sat down with him. I’m like ‘I need you to be really honest with me. Do you think that I should be doing this for a living? I think I should, but I don’t want to be biased. I really want you to be honest with me and frank with me, do you think that this is something that I could be successful at as a career because it’s what I want.’ He’s like ‘yeah, I think so.’ I’m like ‘ok, done deal.’ I’ve had my foot to the pedal to the metal since then and I started doing music full-time from that point forward,” McCready recalls of the life-changing moment.

Love Hangover and follow-up album Ricochet Heart set McCready on the path that’s led her to her upcoming EP. “Since it’s been three years since Ricochet Heart, I’ve been through more things and I know more about myself, and I think that’s why I’m so excited about the new music because I think both of those albums culminated into exactly what I wanted to do and didn’t want to do in my music anymore. I was in a different headspace when I was writing these and more of a comfortability in who I am and what I want to say in my music,” she explains of the process for the upcoming project that embodies “a lot of feeling.” “I think it’s the most relatable project I’ve ever done.” She sets this tone with the lead single “Something Like That,” an easy-listening, pop-country bop where McCready lays down some unfiltered truths in the first few lines, divulging that she’s been cheated on three times and didn’t recognize her self-worth. But she’s since shed the innocence of the past, finding strength in her mistakes and knowing now that what she truly needs is a nurturing and loving partner. “I think a lot of people are afraid to be okay with the simple things,” she ponders. “I feel like it gets to a point where the song ended up, ‘I want these simple things from someone that shouldn’t be that difficult to give to someone that you’re supposed to care about, and if you can’t give me something like that, then I don’t have time for it.’”

The five-song project continues to dive deep below the surface as McCready relays the feeling of having her life flash before her eyes on the morning she turned 30 in the tear-inducing “On My Own,” to offering her perspective on the modern world of online dating in the cautionary “Take it Slow.” She rounds out the EP with the girl-power anthem “Back to Me” while empathizing with couples who have to communicate long-distance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the tender-hearted “Can I Call.” “This new music, I feel like I’m finally in the lane that I should be in,” McCready says of the album that took a decade to be ready for and allows her to feel “completely confident and solid in knowing that this is my lane I want to be in and this is how I want to sound and how I want people to see me as an artist.” 

McCready also views the EP as claiming space in the country music landscape while also offering a source of healing – an element she hopes translates to those who experience it. “I think that music is the most healing thing on earth and I think that the majority of people use music as an emotional healing pathway. Music has healed me so much and writing all three of my projects has healed me in some way or helped me through something just by getting them out and singing it. Writing and singing these things helped me process things in my life, so I just hope that it’s relatable,” she expresses. “I think country music is ready for me at this point. I feel like I’ve been ready for it for a while, but I feel like now we’re moving to a space where it’s finally ready for me.”

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://www.alannahmccready.com/

Dylan White

By Author, Comedian, Fun, Movies, Sci-Fi No Comments

You know how big of an audiobook fan I am, and I know many of y’all are, too. So, I had to bring Dylan White on my podcast! He’s an author, actor, comedian, and even played the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin musical! Plus, I’m sure you’ve heard his voice on national commercials.

We talked about a variety of things, including Will Smith and aliens. This conversation was so interesting, it flew by! If you’re a fan of Sci-Fi, be sure to listen!

Also in this episode:

  • Being an odd kid
  • Knowing your audience
  • How he came up with the idea for his first book The Orion Abduction.
  • The art of narration (where he would project his voice from to change the sound for each character)
  • Why he didn’t watch the version of Aladdin with Will Smith in it
  • Aliens
  • His writing process
  • Having a teenage girl’s insight
  • The biggest secret skill a man can use when arguing with a woman
  • The technicality of comedy
  • Offending people during comedy shows
  • Looking at the universe from our limited perspective

Quotations:

“I wasn’t like a normal kid.” ~Dylan White

“You gotta know your audience.” ~Dylan White

“The technicality of comedy; you wanna get more laughs per minute or per set as you can. And if it takes you too long to get to your next punch or your next laugh line, you’ll lose an audience.” ~Dylan White

“I didn’t see it [Will Smith’s Aladdin].” ~Dylan White

“I’ve always been fascinated with aliens and UFOs and abductions.” ~Dylan White

“What if we’re the weird ones [instead of aliens]” ~Dylan White

Bio:

After over 10 years of playing the Genie in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at Disney California Adventure, Dylan is “out of the blue”—but only in terms of the costume and makeup. Dylan has been on the standup scene for quite some time and uses his snarky Gen-X sensibility to share his unique perspective on divorce, dating after fifty, depression, and everything in between. He is also a successful author and voiceover artist so be sure to follow him on his social media. But not on the street. That’s creepy.

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://www.dylanwhite.com/

Instagram username
@itsdylanwhite

Amazon page

Luke Jerod Kummer

By Author, True Crime No Comments

If you like true crime podcasts, be sure to download this episode!

Author Luke Jerrod Kummer uncovered new evidence about the real-life case that captivated New York during the Gilded Age–Jack the Ripper. In this episode, he shares the new evidence that’s completely shifting the thoughts on who committed the murder. It’s mind-blowing!

Also in this episode:

  • Choosing between being a professional harmonica player or a writer
  • Problems with the investigation
  • How stuff gets lost in history
  • The conviction of the wrong person
  • Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes’ power
  • How “Frenchie’s” lack of English hurt him
  • Being tortured yet never giving a confession
  • The key that was withheld
  • The research behind his book Takers Mad
  • Discovering new evidence
  • The man who turned in the key
  • Why he chose to make this an audio-only book
  • How he chose the narrator

Quotations:

“Be enthusiastic and try new things.” ~Luke Jerod Kummer

“Why did he have this key and withhold it while he knew there was an innocent person lingering in prison?” ~ Luke Jerod Kummer

“The important thing to note is that despite everything that happened [torture] to Ameer Ben Ali, he never confessed. He never confessed to the crime.” ~ Luke Jerod Kummer

“I think there are great rewards for going out and still looking for the remaining things that have not been digitized.” ~ Luke Jerod Kummer

Bio:

Luke Jerod Kummer is a writer and an editor. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington PostNew Republic, the WashingtonianBloomberg Businessweek, and the Village Voice. In 2015, he was honored to edit Shanoor Seervai’s bestselling nonfiction Kindle Single, Daughters of the Red Light, the story of a Wall Street Journal reporter’s return to India and her struggle to chronicle the lives of women and children in Mumbai’s red-light district. Kummer’s 2019 historical novel, The Blue Period, depicts the tragic events that led a young Pablo Picasso to paint somber portraits in nocturnal shades before Cubism turned the artist into a celebrity. Booklist called it “lush biographical fiction,” and the story was featured in American Way, Literary Hub, The Millions, Full Stop magazine, and Marie Claire Greece. Takers Mad, Kummer’s new Audible Original, picks up the trail of a real-life murder that transfixed New York during the Gilded Age.

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://www.lukejerodkummer.com/

Instagram username
@ljkummer

“Irish Dave”

By Author, Comedian, Fun, Travel No Comments

Comedian “Irish Dave” joins Gary Scott Thomas this week to share hilarious stories about being an Irish comedian in America like how he accidentally put some tourists on top of a Tiger Shark.

Also in this episode:

  • Why he thinks it’s weird that Americans introduce themselves with what they do
  • How Ireland differs from America
  • How America still uses a term that’s technically a racial slur
  • Going for the laugh no matter what
  • How he got into comedy
  • His thoughts on English people
  • His strong stance on peanut butter and America’s obsession with it
  • Why there are no Irish restaurants 
  • How he and his buddies tricked their neighbor into calling the police on himself
  • Waking up wrapped up in an Italian flag
  • Working on a whale-watching boat

Quotations:

“The whole country [Ireland] is just magically funny.” ~Dave Nihill

“If I can make fun of someone I will.” ~Dave Nihill

“I only ever got into up comedy because I was trying to get over a fear of public speaking.” ~Dave Nihill

“You can get away with not knowing about whales, but when you’re trolling people in the water with sharks of any variety, you should probably should know about them.” ~Dave Nihill

“We get very busy in March when everybody cares about Irish people for one month. And then after the year, it’s not quite as hectic.” ~Dave Nihill

Bio:

David is the author of the best-selling book Do You Talk Funny? and the Founder of FunnyBizz Conference. His work has been featured in Inc., Lifehacker, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Irish Independent, TV3, Newstalk, TED, and The Irish Times.

“One of the best speaking coaches out there” according to Forbes.com, David’s program with over 34,000 students has been featured by Prezi as one of the best training courses for presenters. His book remains one of the highest-rated in the world on the (usually not so wildly exciting) topic of public speaking and his content has been read by over one million people.

A sought-after international business speaker, David also performs standup comedy and was the winner of the prestigious 43rd annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition. As a storyteller, he finished runner up in NPR’s the Moth’s largest US storytelling competition. As a lecturer, he has taught at Stanford Graduate Business School, UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, and University College Dublin. (Told you this was random). 

A graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School he calls San Francisco home when immigration officials permit. David was named on the Irish America 100 List, which recognizes the accomplishments of the best and the brightest Irish-American and Irish-born leaders, and the Top 30 Global Guru’s List for communications professionals.

A big fan of travel and languages David has lived and worked in 12 countries and visited 74 and counting.

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://davidnihill.com/

Instagram username
@davidnihill