Three Song Stories – Details, episodes & analysis

Phonte Coleman is best known as a founding member of hip-hop group Little Brother, and as one of the co‑hosts of the podcast Questlove Supreme with Questlove. 

In the late 90s, Phonte met Thomas “Big Pooh” Jones and Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and they started making music together as the hip-hop collective, Justus League and released their first album The Listening in 2003. They changed their name to Little Brother and signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released The Minstrel Show in 2005. They left Atlantic not long after and then released Getback in 2007 and Leftback in 2010, but then disbanded. 

Phonte and Big Pooh reunited in 2018 at the Art of Cool Festival and started working on the album May the Lord Watch which came out the following year. There’s a documentary called May the Lord Watch you can find online that tells their story, from founding to breakup to reunion. Their final tour which is underway now.

Phonte is also co-founder of the Grammy-nominated group The Foreign Exchange with Dutch producer Nicolay. They’ve put out six studio albums and several singles. 

SONG 1: “Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins from the 1972 album of the same name. 

https://youtu.be/vCByeJsq65M?si=e6yfkujwMOUfo5iz

SONG 2: “Word Play” by A Tribe Called Quest off their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes and Life.

https://youtu.be/LfWtkay3lEo?si=VnnVZE9s5eCZEx-p

SONG 3: Natalie Cole's “La Costa” released in 1977 on her album Thankful.

https://youtu.be/E1ckb_LDGnA?si=gqZpULJymfyKuCru

Joe Harley makes music under his moniker Hotel Life, which signed to 9 Lives Records in 2023. He began playing guitar in the Fort Myers bar scene in 1993 with a number of bands including Potato Gun and Strip Club Moms. Potato Gun played the official grand opening of FGCU in 1997.

Joe moved to St Pete in 2000 to be in an original rock band there and then moved back to Matlacha in 2002 where he got back into the local bar music scene and became a highly decorated saltwater fly fishing guide until Hurricane Ian disrupted and ended that for him in 2022.

He still lives on Matlacha and writing songs and playing solo acoustic gigs around the region.

SONG 1: "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell...it's the title track to his 1975 album...it was originally written and recorded by Larry Weiss the year before. https://youtu.be/6P7Sx2L0fVU?si=oVtzQW05JVk9cSLd

SONG 2: Cake's version of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 "I Will Survive" off their 1996 album Fashion Nugget. https://youtu.be/3VFOEa8K-6Q?si=4Be9P7PD3z7Gf6aT

SONG 3: "Sundowner" by Kevin Morby from the album of the same name released in 2020. https://youtu.be/OnwdbXwU4YE?si=kgjGe_heUIqTpwa_

Mickela Mallozzi is host and Executive Producer of Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi, a PBS travel series that showcases the diversity of dance from around the world

Mickela is a professional dancer and trained musician who had a dream in 2010 about travelling the world with a camera while dancing in the lives of everyday people. Since dreaming that dream she’s collected four Emmy Awards for the show in six seasons, with Season Seven set to release in May.

Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi airs Saturdays at 3:30 pm on WGCU TV, and also on WGCU Create. Check your local listings.

SONG 1: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston from her self-titled album Whitney released in 1987.

https://youtu.be/eH3giaIzONA?si=M2hvtneWRLI4qEPP

SONG 2: Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op 71 – Miniature Overture Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker orchestra.

https://youtu.be/Us6YGiWbsbw?si=0lhzOJHOzUzDspEX

SONG 3: Nu te fermare - by Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino released in 2012 on the album Pizzica Indiavolata.

https://youtu.be/E-IfNJyxA8w?si=QlEdS9TFlnlQXkJo

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Scott Carter is Co-creator and Executive Producer Love & Respect with Killer Mike on PBS, and was a writer for Politically Incorrect hosted by Bill Maher on Comedy Central, and then writer and producer for Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO for its first 16 seasons.

Scott’s podcast Ye Gods! with Scott Carter launched in February of 2023. On it, he discusses personal faith and ethics with a diverse group of interfaith and non-faith celebrity guests to uncover what we believe and what we don’t. 

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Dr. Jonathan Harrison obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Leicester in the UK in 2006 and then migrated to Florida that same year. He has taught as an adjunct instructor since 2012 at FGCU, Florida Southwestern State University, and Hodges University. Jonathan has written extensively about segregation in Fort Myers and contributed to the WGCU documentary With a Made Up Mind, which explores the history of voter suppression in Southwest Florida.

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James Priestner is the frontman of the Canadian band Rare Americans. They’ve released four albums and an EP and their songs, each paired with narrative-driven animated video, have garnered them a Billboard 100 album, a JUNO award for their most listened to track to date, “Brittle Bones Nicky,” more than 500 million streams, and more than 875K YouTube subscribers. 

The band just released the first installment of their most ambitious project to date, “Searching For Strawberries: The Story Of Jongo Bongo.” It’s one-part 33-minute-long fully animated musical feature and one-part good old fashioned album that together create an immersive listening and viewing experience.

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David Oquendo worked in business and retail management more than a decade, and decided decided to turn his passion for film and television in his actual job. Since then, has worked on productions for CMT, PBS, Oxygen, the Travel Channel, and the El Rey Networks, and is now at the helm of WGCU’s video productions for TV and web.

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Bob Kealing is a journalist who spent most of his three decade long career at WESH-TV in Orlando. He’s won four Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award, and has appeared on Dateline NBC, the Today Show, CBS This Morning, and has appeared as a guest on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, NBC and C-SPAN.

The author of four non-fiction books, Bob’s research led to the establishment of the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, a literary landmark in the National Register of Historic Places, and Gram ‘cosmic cowboy’ Parsons Derry Down, a Florida Heritage site honoring the pioneering country rock musician in his birthplace, Winter Haven.

His latest book is Good Day Sunshine: How the Beatles Rocked Florida

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John Donvan has been host and moderator of Open to Debate (recently changed from Intelligence Squared US) since 2008. John is also an author and four-time Emmy Award winning journalist who during his career reported for ABC, CNN, and PBS, including multi-year postings in Moscow, London, Jerusalem, and Amman, and he spent one term as chief White House correspondent for ABC News. His 2016 book, "In a Different Key: The Story of Autism" was a New York Times bestseller and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist - there is also a PBS documentary of the same name based on it.

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Tim Morrison is a lifelong musician and singer, but he says he still took the safe path and made sure to go to college. A Journalism degree later and a move to New York City led him to a unique career and life that wound up in anti-counterfeiting in the fashion world. 

Deaths in the family lead to a move to Naples in 2005 and a return to music. His self-written/performed/engineered/produced/promoted/laptop album ended up with his song “Weight” featured on All Songs Considered - Second Stage and an interview on Gulf Coast Live - Arts Edition, back before it was Gulf Coast Life. 

Tim ended up working at the Naples Zoo, the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center, and right here in public media at WGCU.

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