Big Blend Radio is celebrating 18 Years of Podcasting! Join us for this 2nd show of three days of celebrating this birthday milestone with mother-daughter hosts Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith who travel full-time on their Love your Parks Tour while hosting the shows and publishing the digital series of Big Blend Magazines. Hear where and what our guests were up to when they were 18 years old...and, what music they were listening to.

WHAT MUSIC WERE YOU LISTENING TO AT 18? Let us know in the comments, and we'll add it to our special (and growing) playlist on Spotify which you can listen to here: https://tinyurl.com/bdc3d99d

FEATURED MUSICAL GUESTS: - Pierre Bensusan - Acclaimed acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist, and composer. More: https://www.pierrebensusan.com/ - Lisa Sniderman - Singer, songwriter and playwright. More: https://www.aoedemuse.com/

SPECIAL MESSAGES FROM MUSICAL FRIENDS: - Joey Stuckey - Award-winning blind guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer, producer, and the official music ambassador for his home town of Macon, Georgia. More: https://www.joeystuckey.com/ - Nicki Kris - Singer, songwriter, and podcaster. More: https://www.nickikris.com/

This episode of Big Blend Radio's 1st Friday "Toast to The Parks & Arts" Show features Tanya Ortega, photographer and founder of the National Parks Arts Foundation (NPAF).

Hear about the organization's unique month-long artist residencies in locations like Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida, and Hawai'i Volcano National Park. Plus, this year's opportunities for park destinations and artists of all genres to be part of their programming.

NPAF is a non-profit offering unique Artist-in-Residence Programs, Museum In-Loan Programs, and Workshops inspired by our National Parks, National Monuments, and World Heritage Sites. NPAF has supported over 300 programs, over 120 artists, and been the conduit for over a million dollars in artwork donations.

Watch for Big Blend Radio's NPAF Retrospective, a digital publication featuring 8 years of podcast interviews with artists and park representatives! Keep up with us by getting our newsletter at https://nationalparktraveling.com/listing/join-our-newsletter/

Learn more: https://www.nationalparksartsfoundation.org/

Celebrate National Read a New Book Month with this episode of Big Blend Radio with acclaimed author Leonce Gaiter who discusses his writing and latest book, “A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom."

For readers who like their fiction in the grand, old-school tradition comes a jazzy, genre-bending historical fiction/memoir featuring a compelling Black protagonist who presents a fascinating take on 'the Black anti-hero.' "A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom" (Legba Books) paints a vivid, wildly entertaining portrait of Jessie Vincent Grandier, the striving African American middle class that shaped him in the 1960s, and a Black man navigating white worlds through the Reagan 80s. More at https://www.leoncegaiter.com/