Cathryn Beeks

Cathyrn Beeks first earned local notice in JunkQueen, the Gandhi Method, and her own band The Ordeal, as well as for launching her series of Listen Local band showcases around town and taking a turn hosting radio’s Homegrown series. She also helped operate a vintage clothing store geared toward musicians, and her Lunch Ladies project was designed to provide live acoustic entertainment and catered meals for mid-day events. Beeks is currently finishing a new volume of her Listen Local Cooks book series, first launched in 2006 with a paperback cookbook featuring recipes from San Diego musicians along with a CD containing songs by participants. “Volume two contains 30 songs and 74 pages of recipes,” says Beeks, “and this time we also included food related art, poems, stories, and photographs from our local creative community. Among the notable chefs was Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin, who donated his song ‘Eat Some Food,’ along with his recipe for Ginger Snaps.” Listen Local Cooks Volume Three, due in mid-November, will be offered as a digital version with more music and recipes, illustrated by Beeks’ husband Jon Edwards, and available free to participants and subscribers of Listen Local Radio.

Lyrical Groove

“We infuse a potent message with social consciousness and a spiritual awareness that sings to your humanity and moves your soul,” according to the Lyrical Groove, which combines spoken word and live instrumentation. The band took home a trophy for Best Hip-Hop at the 2013 San Diego Music Awards, which anointed their Spoken Soul full-length Best Hip-Hop Album the following year. Even before the pandemic put an end to live performances, the individual members and contributors were already turning up in a number of other projects. Kendrick Dial and Jonnae Thompson have hosted the Spoken Soul Radio Show, a soul edition of San Diego music produced in collaboration with Listen Local SD. They also produced a music video for “Wake Up,” inspired by the movie Get Out. Singer Brisa L. Johnson, an alum of Point Nazarene University and Mesa College, has a new solo single currently streaming online, “Ode to the Petty,” with an accompanying video directed by Yellow Nguyen.

Ed Kornhauser

Jazz pianist Ed Kornhauser grew up in Escondido, later attending SDSU and earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Music in Jazz Studies. Ensembles he has performed with include retro funk quartet Juice Box, Soft Limits with Charlie Weller, and the Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio, and he also frequently backs area vocalists such as Amelia Browning, Jonathan Karrant, and Whitney Shay. The longtime staff accompanist at Unity Way Church in Vista will debut a new album of original music via livestream on November 8. “I’ve called the record The Short Years,” he tells the Reader. “It’s something I heard a while back, that the days are long but the years are short. Time flies and all that. This year alone has been a whirlwind. We have to appreciate the time we have, the moments we share together, and the things we do.” Guest players include Dylan Hermansen (sax), Mackenzie Leighton (bass), Kevin Higuchi (drums), and Robert Dove will be joining the livestream on sax. “This is my first album as a leader. It’s all my original tunes under my own steam. I tried to put together a mix of vibes and moods I like, and give it a decent flow. For whatever reason, I’ve been continuously putting this off for years, so consequently I’m quite excited about it.”

Tori Roze Hot Mess

In high school, Tori Roze fronted the local band Carne Askata before leaving to attend Boston Conservatory for a year. After doing a semester in London and taking music and theater classes at the Old Globe, she eventually graduated with a degree in theater from UC Santa Cruz. She played her first show with her rock ’n’ soul band the Hot Mess in 2008. In addition to her regular Costume Karaoke livestreams, a new Tori Roze and the Hot Mess (and Friends) single drops this week, a cover of “Ghost Town” by The Specials, but with a COVID-19 pandemic twist themed for Halloween. Recorded at the contributors’ respective homes and sporting additional lyrics by Roze, the track was mixed and mastered by Rolling Stones producer Alan Sanderson at local Pacific Beat Recording Studios. Roze is also featured in a new collaborative single by Cottonwood, Arizona songwriter Kizmet, “Bullet In a Gun,” also recorded remotely. “Kizmet wrote the music as well as her vocal parts back in March and April and I added my vocal parts in August,” says Roze. An atmospheric black and white video is streaming online. “I shot my portion of the music video in University Heights, my community, and Kizmet recorded her portion of the video at her house in Arizona.”

Black Market

“In addition to original music, we play covers by Tom Waits, Wayne Walker, Hank Williams Sr., Leadbelly, Dead Weather, Social Distortion, and many more,” according to Scottie “Mad Dog” Blinn, co-founder of Black Market III. Blinn’s tenure as frontman for the Mississippi Mudsharks included multiple nods from the San Diego Music Awards, and a run of CDs that reached the top ten on several European blues charts. Among those he has performed, recorded, and shared stages with are Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Stray Cat Brian Setzer, Willie Nelson, Buddy Guy, George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars, Dr. John, and Dick Dale. Blinn and his Black Market co-founder Roxy Coverdale recently dropped The Let It Be Project, created in their mobile Grease Punk Studio and featuring musician contributions from around the world, and they also released a single and video covering Tom Petty’s “Swingin.” “Right now,” says Blinn, “we’re working on our fourth music video of the year. For this one, we’re planning an ambitious mini-movie to be released on Halloween…then it’s back into the studio to finish the new CD for Rip Cat Records by the end of the year.”