For those of you who are new to this podcast (or as a friendly reminder), I'm Mike Bankhead, bass player and songwriter from Dayton, Ohio.  I'm an indie musician, not a journalist.  My two esteemed guests on this episode are journalists.  Juliet Fromholt is Music Director at WYSO, which is an NPR affiliate in Southwest Ohio.  She hosts two music shows on the station, Alpha Rhythms and Kaleidoscope.  Taylor Ruckle is a freelance music journalist whose work has appeared in FLOOD Magazine and Under the Radar…

…it's the most fun instrument to play with other people…

I still read music blogs, and that's a good thing because that's how I first discovered fellow bass player and songwriter Pictoria Vark, whose given name is Victoria Park.  In early 2023, I discovered that she was going on tour with Maneka (hopefully a future episode), and I couldn't pass up the chance to see two indie artists I was into at the same time.  Their tour was limited to the Northeast United States.  I cashed in some frequent flyer miles…