The DJ Rollie D Story

It's getting close to Prom season here in the Midwest, and soon guys and gals will be getting glammed up to go out to some restaurant or ski chalet.  Hearts will be broken, the punch may or may not be spiked, and the decorations will look amazing. For me, I've personally DJed more proms than I have attended.  Being front and center for multiple dances like that gives you an opportunity to see what works and what doesn't when it comes to music.  Back when I was still DJing proms, the crowd hits seemed to be anything from the newest rappers to the Top 40 hits of the time, which came from artists like Taylor Swift (Shake It Off), Mike Posner (I Took A Pill In Ibiza), DJ Coolsnake and Lil Jon (Turn Down For What), and even Maroon 5 (Animals or Sugar).  Listing off all these songs that were hot three to four years ago makes me feel old in comparison to my actual age.  The attendees would always run to the dance floor when any of these songs were played. ...

Passenger is many things musically.  It has been both a band and a solo act with a backing band, and it has also explored a few different genres of music from the quieter side of the folk to full on rock, and also some bold Americana.  Though it has only spawned one song to the major radio charts ("Let Her Go"),  Michael Rosenberg (as he's known in real life) has a lot to be proud of and has pulled in multiple listeners in many different ways through the ten studio albums he's released over the last twelve years as well as massive concerts with a backing band and even some street and subway busking.  There's enough fans for both sides of the music (acoustic and full backing track) that Passenger's 2018 album "Runaway" was recorded with both versions for each track.  How cool is that?  I could go on and on about "Let Her Go" for ages, but that's the song everyone has heard off All The Little Lights , and there's a total of twe...

Do you ever just take a second to let your creative spark fly?  I'm not talking about fully separated from surroundings day dreaming, but do you ever just sit down at the computer, the canvas, or in front of an instrument, and just let your ideas come to fruition in front of you?  Do your designs tend to fall flat on the paper, or are they everything you expected them to be, maybe even more?  Did you end up with a finished product that you didn't expect to have when you began? I am fully against the stifling of an individual's creativity.  I find that too often we tend to get stuck in the same rut doing the same things over and over again, almost as if our artwork is coming off the assembly line at a factory or if it's regular day to day process like at your job.  We've settled into a molded routine, and it's hard to break out from it and do something new fun and exciting.  As artists, musicians, authors, and even gamers, we must let our creative jui...

I was exposed to country music at a young age.  My late father would turn it on in the truck and there we'd be, listening to 99.9 Radio USA, hearing the voices of radio personalities such as Scott Hanson, Jessie B Hawkins, and Justin "The Big Deal" depending on what time of the day we were listening.  The music was always so new and fresh to me back then, about 2005-06, and there seemed to be a lot less artists and bands on the country radio spectrum than there are today.  Perhaps we were in a period of transition at that time? One of the bands that spoke to me a lot back then was the country group Rascal Flatts .  My mother always found them to be whiny, but through their songs such as "Mayberry", "Prayin For Daylight", and of course "Life Is A Highway" from the 2006 Disney smash hit Cars , they could turn their vocals into something amazing in my mind through the use of harmony and amazing syncopation and instrumenation.  In 2004 ...

Being a radio personality and a DJ, it's more or less an imperative that I listen to music on a daily basis to continue exploring and curating new music for the various things I use it for.  Some of the songs I find get listened to on an almost daily basis by me, and others may only be checked out every so often.  Others are used solely for my drumming practice and not much else, if anything past that.  And then there's that collection that I hear once or twice and decide never to listen to again.  It's a wide mix. But the problem I always have is trying to describe what my favorite type of music to listen to is to my friends and co-workers.  Listening across a wide variety of genres gives me this issue and I don't really have a favorite genre, though I do have a mixture of favorite sounds that make me ten times more likely to put a song on repeat for my personal collection.  It's a strange criteria for me, but after I describe it a little bit you may ...

It was a cold day in February, and I was at the bowling alley with my homies.  The bowling alley we're at uses Touch Tunes to pump out the tunes, and it's a win-win for both parties, because the person paying the money can subject everyone at the bowling alley to their favorite music, and the bowling alley will definitely profit from it. But on this night in February, someone chose to play a certain track, and it was instantaneously music to my ears.  They just had such a great sound, with tambourine and multiple guitars, and I think that's a little bit of sitar that we hear during the instrumental breaks, and then bongos to top it all off.  I had to pull out my phone and crack out Shazam to see what all the ruckus was, and man was I glad I did. Folk-rock band Lord Huron has been doing what they do for just over five years now.  They've released three albums and gone on the road several times to share their music with those who purchase tickets to their conc...

Israeli indie pop band Lola Marsh is relatively new to the music scene, having just released one album and an EP thus far.  Formed in Tel Aviv, their album released last year, Remember Roses has been spotted by me in several of the stations I've volunteered for.  The band has a nice sound to them, led by amazing vocals from lead vocalist Yael Shoshana Cohen and a warm diverse instrumentation to back her up.  They're really good at what they do, and I'm hoping they'll put out another album or two in the years to come. There's a song on the back end of Remember Roses that really speaks to me, enough that I recognized it as #4 on my Top 10 Songs of 2017 list last December.  In the song, Shoshana Cohen sings about an island in Southern Italy that "Looks like Louisana", where "A gentle breeze moves the white sheets on the terrace so tenderly", and it "Feels like the south, where time lasts forever".  These dreamy lyrics are put again...

I first discovered the music of Chance The Rapper back in August of 2016 during one of my first shows for KAXE/KBXE .  I saw that he did a track with rapper Kanye West  and also The Chicago Children's Choir , and instantly had to take a look and see what all the hype was.  Well, after playing the track All We Got , the lead-off track from his 2016 digital release Coloring Book , I decided it was time to check out another track from the album, as this one was wearing thin. It was February of 2017, so I was still pretty new to the whole radio thing, and didn't want to risk letting an expletive out over the airwaves during the morning hours, as I was on from 9am to Noon on this day.  So I looked through the album, and saw that I really only had a few choices.  There was D.R.A.M Sings Special , but that was only about two minutes long and I wasn't sure if I could take the risk of finding a new song and getting it ready in time.  There was also Bles...

Valentines' Day comes only once a year, and every year, it sends me into a state of pure elation.  I start feeling like I'm in absolute love with the world and want to get to know every single living person on the planet.  There's always the "Anthem Song Of The Season" that pumps me up and goes on constant repeat until March 1st hits and I can't stand it anymore so I move onto other music, and the sudden desire for things like Dove's annually released heart-shaped chocolates and heart pizzas, and of course GIANT chocolate chip cookies.  In one of the worst months of the Winter season, I always have an awkward smile on my face that doesn't really go away..... Love is always something I've tried to have as a feature, even in the toughest times of my life thus far. While it might not always be apparent, I try to be (assuming we have no disagreements or arguments/feuds) compassionate and welcoming to all who cross my path.  I also strive to be ...

2016 had ups and downs for me.  It was a year of personal growth that saw landmark events in my life as well as some letdowns that thankfully didn't stop me from where I am trying to get to down the road.  I also some personal spiritual growth and met lots of new people, which are two goals I've been adhering to since 2014. Below are some highlights from the past calendar year, including pictures and a brief description of why it was so special to me.  They are not ranked in order of importance, but rather just tossed out in order of the calendar year (January-December) January: Emily Larson Interview Article In November of 2015, Emily Larson made local headlines and history when she became the first female mayor of Duluth, MN.  There have been countless newspaper articles and blog posts written about her election and plans for her first few months to years in office, and I had the opportunity to write one myself.  To check it out, follow...