Now Hear This Entertainment

Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic artist recording and performing under the artist name Tone Ranger. Last month he released a full-length handcrafted fantasy film paired with his most expansive and immersive album to date. The 14-song album had come out last August and he also released two singles in 2025. Since releasing his debut in 2018, he has not only performed at Burning Man, but – beyond his solo work – has scored for film and produces across genres ranging from indie folk to RandB. For his own artist project, he has put up big streaming numbers, with approximately 24 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, where he has over four million streams on his top five songs alone. He also talks about his studio, plus getting a couple songs licensed for a film that’s coming out this year.

He fronts the indie pop band Manuel The Band, a group that has earned rave reviews from the likes of Music Connection Magazine, Coachella Valley Weekly, and OC Weekly. They have a new song coming next month, having released four singles throughout 2025, and continued performing regularly throughout southern California, including the fabled Hotel Café in Hollywood – among numerous other venues and events – and they performed up in northern California at the Mountain Vibe Music Festival. The band has well over 57 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, where their top five songs alone have a combined total of more than a million-and-a-half streams.

Two-time GRAMMY-nominated composer and artist who is up for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album at the February 1st ceremony in Los Angeles for the 68th annual GRAMMY Awards. Her story includes having successfully transitioned from being a pop artist and along the way she and her music have been featured in People magazine, South By Southwest, ABC Family, FORBES, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Her first new age album hit number 1 on global Amazon, iTunes, and Bandcamp sales charts for weeks on end. She has even sung on stage with Sting and Pentatonix, and her Spotify profile has well over 43 thousand monthly listeners and her top five songs there have a combined total of more than 4.1 million streams.

Singer, songwriter, guitar and piano player who has been nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for her memoir, “Elvis, Rocky, & Me,” and next year it will come out on film as a documentary. She is perhaps best known as the lead vocalist on the Teddy Bears’ single, “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” which was written by her bandmate, the legendary producer Phil Spector. Her best-known contribution as a songwriter is co-writing the song “Gonna Fly Now” for the 1976 movie Rocky, for which she shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Also among her songwriting credits is the 1980 Billy Preston & Syreeta duet, “With You I’m Born Again,” which reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. She also wrote and performed songs for several films and has a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who is wrapping up a very busy year being out on the road, having performed in 2025 in 23 states, plus Mexico and Belize. Along the way she released a new single, back in July, and now she is making an album from 2020 available in vinyl format. Last year she was the Americana / Folk / Female Vocalist of the Year at the Josie Awards, which came two months after releasing a ten-song album. Her top five songs on Spotify alone are approaching a combined total of 135 thousand streams.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who, in early October, released his third single of 2025. His music has drawn praise from American Songwriter and his top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of more than 300 thousand streams. He has gained attention on YouTube as well, with more than one-and-a-half million combined video views on that platform. Plus, he has more than 235 thousand followers on TikTok. He comes from significant music lineage, being the son of GRAMMY-winning country artist Travis Tritt. He also talks here about plans for new music in 2026.

Nashville-based singer, songwriter, Americana Music Association “Instrumentalist of the Year,” and GRAMMY-nominated producer. He has gold records, and cuts on big albums from luminaries like Jimmy Buffett, Little Feat, Todd Snider, and Radney Foster. He is a member of Willie Sugarcapps, DADDY, and Emmylou Harris’ Red Dirt Boys. He works regularly with combat veterans and first responders as part of the Songwriting with Soldiers team, including having released a single with them back in May. He has more than ten thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, where his top five songs alone have a combined total of streams that is closing in on three quarters of a million.

Nashville-based singer/songwriter interviewed on-location in Alabama at the 41st Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival. Her song, “The Fool,” was recorded by Lee Ann Womack and reached number 1 on the country charts. She has had cuts by everyone from Sammy Kershaw to Billy Currington to Blake Shelton to Eric Church, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, and many others. She reached number 1 status two more times, with “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo” by Tracy Byrd and “Cleaning This Gun” by Rodney Atkins. Her song “Same Devil,” which was recorded by Brandy Clark (and features Brandi Carlisle) was nominated for 2022 GRAMMY Performance American Roots Performance of the Year, and her name is also on the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard duet album, “Django and Jimmie.”

Recording artist who just released a new single last Friday, which follows the release of another song seven weeks earlier. She is a busy performer, as evidenced by having done twenty shows last month alone. Highlights from the stage include having opened for the likes of Wynonna Judd, LeAnn Rimes, Diamond Rio, Maddie & Tae, and more, plus having done two international tours throughout Poland. She has been featured on national TV and radio, and is a Celebrity Ambassador for the Scott Foundation and the Red Note Foundation. Her top four songs on Spotify alone are approaching a combined total of one hundred thousand streams.

Pianist, composer, producer, and arranger who last month released three full Christmas albums and has a fourth coming next month in the form of an audiobook. Under the banner of Studio 55, he also offers music production services, songwriting workshops, and record label services for aspiring musicians. He is a Hammond and Steinway Certified Artist and has also founded a non-profit called The Lighthouse Project, which he talks about here. His top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of almost 6.7 million streams and he was previously a guest on this show two years ago on Episode 510.

GRAMMY-nominated and Juno Award-winning producer and composer with a diverse career spanning various genres. He has worked with renowned artists such as Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joel, Michael McDonald, Vince Gill, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, B.B. King, Gloria Estefan, Johnny Mathis, Dan Hill, and many more. In celebration of his 60th anniversary as a musician and nearly 50th anniversary in the music industry, he has just released a book titled, “Unplugged: Stories and Secrets from a Life Making Records, Scoring Film, and Working with the Legends of Music,” which is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and, of course, as an audiobook, with him doing the narration. His Disney album work as producer/artist in the children's music realm has reached sales of over three million units and he is Disney's most successful instrumental lullaby album artist. He was the guest on this show on both Episode 412 and 474.

Award-winning singer, songwriter, guitar player who released a new single at the beginning of this month. A song of hers that she released at the end of March is up for GRAMMY Consideration. She is a CMA member and has made multiple appearances at CMA Fest. She is based in Nashville, but earlier this month the Texas Sounds International Country Music Awards honored her with the title of Female Rising Star. She has performed at venues and events nationally and internationally, including a story she has about performing with Carrie Underwood. She has a combined social media following of approximately 100 thousand and her top five songs on Spotify alone have a combined total of approximately 300 thousand streams.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who has had over 175 of his songs cut with artists such as Garth Brooks, George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Hank Williams Jr., Randy Houser, Josh Turner, Reba McEntire, Lainey Wilson, and more. He is releasing his first music project as an artist in 20 years, but his songwriting hits include #1 songs by Jon Pardi and by Gary Allan, while also garnering a CMA nomination for Song of the Year with a Randy Houser single. He is based in Nashville where he is signed to Sony Music Publishing. And, he is also the founder of The Back to Back Foundation, a nonprofit established to meet the needs of families in three Kentucky counties, primarily during the holiday season. Next month he will be performing at the FloraBama as part of the 41st annual Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival.

Los Angeles-based engineer, producer, and writer who has worked with top companies such as Atlantic Records, Sony Music, Interscope, and Spotify, as well as household names such as John Mayer and Gwen Stefani. She has done everything from play drums as she approached her teen years to, more recently, giveaways, raffles, seminars/workshops, and live stream reviews, and even sold her sound kits, and offer her services to help set up home studios, and she even offers remote video consultations.

Los Angeles-based writer, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and an RIAA Certified Platinum Producer. He is also one half of a record label called The Undefeated. He wrote & produced Charli D'Amelio’s debut single, “If You Ask Me To,” which landed national commercials and charted on Billboard Airplay and produced Kyle’s RIAA Certified Platinum “To The Moon.” He has produced and written for several hot 100 artists as well as helping run the studio where this interview was recorded. In addition, in early 2018 Gibson recognized his prowess with guitars and selected him as one of its brand ambassadors, as well as signing a deal with Native Instruments as one of their “Artists on the Rise.”

An Emmy Award-winning vocalist and composer and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) affiliated composer and orchestrator who, seven weeks ago, released an album that was recorded live at Abbey Road Studio 2. This new project is up for GRAMMY consideration for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They have written more than a thousand works together for an enviable client list including BBC, HBO, Audio Network, ITV and Samuel Goldwin, among others. They have scored and composed for documentaries for film and TV, and their music has been used on every major network and streaming company around the globe. They most recently co-authored and mixed the score for Daughter Of The Bride with Academy award winner Marcia Gaye Harden and Aiden Quinn.

This interview was just recorded 13 days ago, and tragically, Brett James is now no longer with us, following a plane crash six days ago – exactly one week after he participated for this episode. He was a GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, guitar player, producer, and publisher who had written an astounding 27 number 1 songs. He had more than 800 of his songs recorded by some of the biggest artists in the world, with his songs having appeared on albums with combined sales of over 110 million copies. He was named ASCAP's country songwriter of the year in 2006 and 2010, and Music Row Magazine’s Songwriter of the Year in 2015. He received more than 40 ASCAP hit song awards in country, pop, Latin and Christian genres. In 2020 he was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. As a producer his credits included Taylor Swift, Jessica Simpson, Danielle Bradberry and Kip Moore. At the time of this interview, he had close to 19 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, where his top five songs alone had combined for more than six million streams, and his official YouTube channel had over a half-a-million combined video views.

A super special edition to celebrate the one thousandth episode hosted of Bruce Wawrzyniak’s podcasting career. In this special release, there are excerpts from all of the shows he has hosted over the years: Now Hear This Entertainment, Catholic Sports Radio, TASCAM Talkback, Capture Your Art, and the PBLA Podcast. Below are links for easy access to go hear any one or more of either the specific interviews featured here or just the podcast(s) in general. It took over eleven-and-a-half years to get to this point, but this is indeed a truly special milestone worth commemorating in this way.

Multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, guitar and bass player. Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn as well as multiple bluegrass artists have brought his original songs to number 1. In addition, he has seen continued songwriting success with songs recorded by such artists as Wynona Judd, Jake Owen, Lee Ann Womack, Dan Seals, Don Williams and many others including three songs recorded on Chris Stapleton’s multi-platinum selling album “Traveller.” One single won the ACM award for “Song of the Year.” The album received the ACM and CMA award for “Album of the Year” as well as a Grammy award for “Country Album of the Year.” As an artist, the International Bluegrass Music Association has awarded him Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Gospel Performance and Recorded Event of the Year multiple times for each category. He’s also been awarded Songwriter of the Year from the association. As a vocalist, he has recorded with various artists including, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton, and John Fogerty, among others.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player who has been nominated for two GRAMMY Awards, a Golden Globe, and numerous other awards. Plus, she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014. She has accumulated accolades as a songwriter for artists as diverse as Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, The Neville Brothers, Patty Loveless, George Strait, Bryan Adams and Faith Hill. Her song “Independence Day,” recorded by Martina McBride, won a CMA Song of the Year award in 1995. As an artist, she even performed at Farm Aid in 1996, got radio airplay on the BBC, and performed three times at Glastonbury. She has over 2.2 million combined video views on her official YouTube channel and on Spotify – where she has over 116 thousand monthly listeners – her top five songs alone have gotten over 14.3 million streams on that platform alone.