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Troubled by all the tension and divisiveness? Here’s a humble offering in the form of a visualization/meditation that may help ease our stress.

It begins with holding ourselves and our surroundings in the highest light, and ends with love and gratitude. In between, it's short yet expansive, and kind of sweet.

Hope it helps.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

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I like products that are elevated by a higher mission and better-than-usual ingredients. That is definitely true of a line of canned cocktails made with fresh juice and no artificial sugar or preservatives. They've got a great taste and a kick too, with 12% alcohol by volume.

Created by siblings Alison and Steven Cravens, North Shore Crafted Cocktails launched in summer 2023 with the able assistance of their parents, Katie and Cliff Cravens, who own a gastropub in Hudson, Ohio.

I interviewed the younger Cravens a couple of months after the launch last year, but since this is the first full summer that their product line has been in a growing number of stores and even some restaurants, and because a cocktail on ice is such a perfect summer beverage for those who imbibe, I thought I'd revisit the interview.

I'm glad I did because it was great fun hearing again about their creative process and how much they learned and grew from it.

Right now, North Shore Crafted Cocktails come in two flavors and are sold only in Northeast Ohio and Columbus. The Cravens have plans to expand both the product line and the places where it's available. They're already looking into Florida and the East Coast, along with other parts of Ohio.

To find out more, you can go to the North Shore Crafted Cocktails website, which has a list of the places that sell four-packs of the Pomegranate Martini or the El Diablo Margatini canned cocktails.

And here's a link to an interview that aired Aug. 2, 2023 on the New Day Cleveland morning show on Fox 8. It's enjoyable, and the host gave the drinks a rave review.

Finally, here's a link to Lager & Vine, the restaurant owned by the Cravens family.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

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Seasonal musings on bluebirds, connection and happiness.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Send us a Text Message.

Tommy Smothers and his brother, Dick, started out as a serious musical act that morphed into one of 20th century’s most successful comedy teams.

In the '60s, they were the eponymous stars of the Sunday night TV variety show “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." In this clip from the show, Tommy performs yo-yo tricks following his brother's commands. And here's a video from 1988 when they played with the Boston Pops. Both are fun, and the comments are good too. Here's one of them: 'Tommy was a class act. The YoYo Man......"Mom always liked you best" and so much more. Thanks for all the laughs Tommy. Rest In Peace.'

The picture in the chapters, credited to CBS Television, is a 1967 cropped photo available on commons.wikimedia.org. It shows Tommy performing on the brothers' show. The photo does not include who he was performing with — his brother and their guest, Judy Collins.

Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded this tribute and the others in the series. He also writes a Song of the Day story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Send us a Text Message.

Laura Lynch was one of the four founders of the Dixie Chicks, now the Chicks. She sang and played the upright bass with the band for six years and then left the music business.

Lynch co-wrote and sang "Pink Toenails," which was released in 1992 on the group’s second studio album, "Little Ol' Cowgirl."

According to oldtimemusic.com, “Pink Toenails” was inspired by the personal experiences of the Dixie Chicks members, who wanted to shed light on the struggles people face in conforming to society's norms, and the importance of embracing one’s true self.

To hear the song, you can go to this video. There's a picture of the album cover of "Little Ol' Cowgirl" in this episode's chapters along with an image of the book "Laura Lynch Biography: Life and Legacy of an Iconic Musician and Founding Member of Dixie Chicks," by Shana B. Peter.

Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded this tribute and the others in the series. Sheldon also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Send us a Text Message.

Denny Laine helped form the Moody Blues and was the lead singer on their first hit, "Go Now," in 1964. Then, in 1971, he helped put together Wings, Paul McCartney’s first band after the Beatles broke up, and was with the group until it disbanded 10 years later.

This tribute to Laine is one of 44 short biographies of significant figures in the music industry who passed away in 2023.

Laine co-wrote “Mull of Kintyre” with McCartney in the early 1970s, but they didn’t record it until 1977. The single became Wings’ biggest hit in England. It sold more than 2 million copies and is the fourth best-selling single of all time in Great Britain.

You can watch Laine and McCartney singing the song with Linda McCartney in this video. Enjoy the beautiful scenery, the marching bagpipers, and the townspeople joining in on the fun.

The song was released around Christmas and remains a popular song to play around the holidays. Laine talks about it in this video.

And in this video, he sings "Go Now."

In this episode's chapters, you'll see an image of the cover of the Audible Audiobook "In Conversation with Denny Laine" by Geoffrey Giuliano. He and Laine wrote a book together on Paul McCartney in the 1990s.

Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded this tribute and the others in the series. Sheldon also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Send us a Text Message.

Shane MacGowan, the frontman and main songwriter for the Pogues, led a life of addiction. He co-founded the band in 1982, mixing punk rock with traditional Irish music. Nine years later, he was kicked out of the group because of his drug use and drinking but returned in 2001 and remained with the Pogues until they disbanded.

This tribute is one of 44 stories about significant figures in the music industry who died in 2023. After MacGowan's passing, Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, described him as "one of music's greatest lyricists."

MacGowan's "Fairytale of New York" has become one of the United Kingdom's most popular Christmastime songs. To hear it, and watch MacGowan and English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl act out the story, go to this video.

In this episode's chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Also in the chapters, you'll see the cover of "A Drink with Shane MacGowan," written by MacGowan and his wife, Irish journalist Victoria Mary Clarke. It's available in paperback on Amazon.

Speaking of tributes, Clarke wrote a moving one to MacGowan. Here's a link.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded the tribute in this episode and the others in the series. Sheldon also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Send us a Text Message.

New Orleans singer Jean Knight is best known for “Mr. Big Stuff,” which she sang with sass and attitude. It reached number one on Billboard’s R&B chart and number two on the Hot 100 chart in 1971.

This is one of 44 tributes to significant figures in the music industry who passed away in 2023.

Knight eventually went on to get a nursing degree, but she continued to reap the benefits of "Mr. Big Stuff." To watch her perform later on in life, you can go here. And please read some of the sweet comments, like this one: "Classy lady, will be sadly missed. This live version nailed it."

In the chapters, there's a press photo of Knight performing in 1971. It was distributed by Stax Records and is available on Wikimedia Commons. There are images of two of her album covers as well.

Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded Knight's story and the other tributes in the series. He also writes a Song of the Day story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.