A detailed description of my music writing background — A Team or Single Person? Despite the royal “we” I use sometimes If Ever Your Listening (IEYL) is a solo venture. All the content is original and written by me. For the longest time I was the only one who published it as well. Even though it is just me and I could have made…

Check Out This Catchy Playlist When You’re Looking For New Tunes — Happy August! One of the harsh about working remotely lately is this eye twitch I’m developing. I look at screens for so many hours a day that my right eye lid begins to twitch if I keep them focused on the laptops for too long. It’s definitely time to be…

The transportation of the live circuit to online media — The places where listeners are picking up on new music scenes is changing. More people are finding their favorite new songs on playlists rather than at local pubs. In turn, the internet has made it harder for local musicians to rely solely on touring for building a buzz. …

The road to peace is long, and the fork in Vark’s road was change — IEYL’s April 2022 Album of The Month: The Parts I Dread by Pictoria Vark Background Pictoria Vark ( born Victoria Park) story begins in northern New Jersey. Growing up in Demarest, she began taking piano lessons at the age of four. Her skill for creating songs started soon after. Motivated by her beloved stuffed animals, a young Vark made songs about them. She developed her…

Check Out This Catchy Playlist When You’re Looking For New Tunes — How Goes It! Welcome back to another installment of the On That Note series. Here I unload a few songs currently on my playlist. I hope you find some of them good enough to add to yours this week! Being the summer, it is prime time for vacation. I have…

A History of Waka Music — Under The Sokoto Caliphate Many ethnic groups and kingdoms have occupied the land presently known as Nigeria. The cultural roots of Waka lies in the musical traditions of two groups; The Hausa and the Yoruba. While Waka is primarily understood as a Yoruba musical genre, several elements were borrowed from Hausa music. Before we…

Check Out This Catchy Playlist When You’re Looking For New Tunes — Good Day All! I hope you’ve been doing well and accomplishing your goals. The past week in D.C. was a huge hill to conquer for me, and now it’s complete. The students had a blast and I even got a chance to chat with the Thai Ambassador to the United…

A Review of Ruston Kelly’s Album, Shape & Destroy — Background Ruston Kelly is from a musical family. In the 1960s his dad used to play steel guitar in the east Texas folk scene. His sister also sings and eventually became an actress. Growing up, there were guitars and other instruments laying around the house like old newspapers. It was only…

Check Out This Catchy Playlist When You’re Looking For New Tunes — Welcome Back! When I first received my master’s degree, the first thing that struck me was its size. The actual degree is massive! It’s funny because some schools have such small degrees, like some of my siblings, while mine are just unfairly over-sized. I waited for the moment to graduate…