Southern gospel rocker, John Mark McMillan, is singing his heart out for audiences across the country. McMillan said he makes music for human beings and God to listen to.

Based out of North Carolina, McMillan has been playing guitar since he was a teenager. He admits that his original motive for playing was to impress girls. Some of his musical influences include Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Wilco. The singer/songwriter honed his skills in the fall of 2001 while strumming on his porch for hours on end.

Chad Hollister has opened for Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Tom Petty, and in the fall of 2009 he released Chad Hollister, his fourth CD. The self-titled disc was produced by Anthony J. Resta (Elton John, Collective Soul, Shawn Mullins).

Hollister’s musical style shines original with his percussive background. His personal lyrics are appreciative of a life on Mother Earth and his music is “pure sonic alchemy,” according to Resta.

In addition to opening for Dylan, Simon and Petty, Chad Hollister has shared the stage with Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule), every PHISH member, Merl Saunders and Dave Mattacks (Jethro Tull, Paul McCartney, Fairport Convention).

The indie musician is on the rise, with “Grow,” a song from his Chad Hollister disc, having gotten midway up New Music Weekly magazine’s AC/Hot AC chart soon after its release.

What do you get when you combine elements of trance, steeped in a generous underlayment of rhythm with a heat-infused saxophone that is masterfully caressed by one very bad cat? You get a pass on a very trippy vibe that some might say is Out of the Box.

Produced by Four 80 East (one of the hottest bands that has existed to defy all the rules), Out of the Box (Innervision Records) is the third solo release by saxophonist Jack Prybylski. Prybylski initially caught the ear of radio with his sophomore release, Window Shopping, by garnering national praise from critics for his smooth melodic style.

“Jacks instantly appealing music and strong sound make Window Shopping one of the best independent releases this year,” declared Smooth Jazz News.

Releases Dear Lover at Indie Music Stores

The indie artist talks about his latest release Dear Lover, the music industry and performs the title track. Ryan has released his album at a indie music store near you. Check out the list of stores here.

Gabe Hizer is a Nashville, TN-based singer-songwriter, originally from Long Island, NY. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, played in various rock and pop cover bands in the 70s, and more recently led a blues band for a couple of years. He is now performing as a solo artist, featuring his complex guitar arrangements, well-crafted songs, and wide vocal range.

He is clearly influenced by the singer-songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s, such as James Taylor (especially in his guitar parts), Joni Mitchell (especially his use of high falsetto notes), Jackson Browne, etc.

A born musician, Gabe Hizer was already playing the accordion at the age of 6, the ukulele by the time he was 8 and the guitar by age 9. Known for his amazing guitar skills and his ability to incorporate blues, jazz, soul and pop into his original songs, Gabe has come a long way since his ukulele-days.

It seems like the dawn of a bold new era for the music industry, especially if you’re an indie artist. Major labels are going down, and indies are on the rise, right? It sounds nice, but an article posted today by Fortune (which can be found these days on CNNmoney.com) claims that the indie boom is, in fact, the single greatest thing ever to happen to the majors. Why? Because all the money, and all the talent, is still flowing up.

Here’s How It Works:

For the last decade, major labels haven’t had the cash they once did to promote artists, which means 3 things:

• Fewer artists are being signed.
• Less marketing heft is being put behind musicians that do get signed.
• Bands that aren’t successful after the first single are dropped. Fast.

Contemporary Pianist/Composer, Ann Sweeten, (www.Annsweeten.com) has crafted a signature sound over the course of 8 chart-topping albums and 2 Italian compilation albums over the past 13 years. Often placed in the New Age genre, her style is decidedly unique, embracing not only the classical realm, but aspects of jazz, film scoring, and popular music. Sweeten’s music has aired and been reviewed across the world to wide critical acclaim. Her music is also played on Internet radio, DMX/Spafax Music, Muzak, Clear Channel, AOL Music/XM Audio Visions channel, XM Satellite, and Music Choice (Soundscapes).

Musical Achievements:

Overwhelmed with maintaining your MySpace page, blog, podcast, e-mail, website, tour updates and everything else online to promote yourself?

Twitter is an ingenious solution that will give your fans more of you and it takes less than 3 minutes a day to stay on top of everything without your computer!

I’m just back from summer vacation where I spent a relaxing 11 days in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest right after having attended Gnomedex07. At Gnomedex, I learned A LOT about Web 2.0, social networking and blogging and my next several editions of Sound Advice will focus on things I learned.

John Nolan, who is the frontman of Straylight Run, is currently taking his solo project on the road.

Nolan has hit the month long tour with Person L and Brian Bonz.

Tonight was the first show of tour with Person L and Brian Bonz and it was a lot of fun. Camille and I played a song with Brian Bonz and the Dot Hongs, and they played two songs with us. We’ll be working on doing some more collaborating with them and hopefully bringing Person L into the mix soon. Thanks to everyone who came out tonight, and many thanks to Person L (who was amazing this evening!) for taking us on this tour!

Indie Musician had his fans send in photos of them doing every day things and exploring their cities. The photos were they used for a video for a song of his new album, Dear Lover. Check out the final product.

Independent musician Matthew Ryan is releasing his latest album, Dear Lover, in digital format today. The CD is available at most digital music stores including: iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, The Nokia Store and more.

I had to make sure I put in the right CD when the intro to “City Life” blared out of the speakers. With an electronica vibe accompanying Ryan’s vocals, it gives a refreshing feel to a familiar voice. Ryan’s previous albums also included some songs with a hint of electronica sound, but “City Life” is a track that takes it to a new place.

Ryan keeps an upbeat tempo feel with the title track, “Dear Lover,” which begins with a heart felt vocal asking, “Tell me what want. Tell me what you want…,” over a simple distorted riff. This song proves to show how emotionally sound and powerful his vocals can be. There are very few artists in the rock genre whose vocals can outshine the instruments.

Independent musician Matthew Ryan has announced that he will be releasing a downloadable version of his latest album, Dear Lover, on Oct. 27th.

Ryan posted a bulletin on Myspace, which included a few lyrics from the album:

#9 The World Is… (Copyright PlasticViolin 2009): “I started out with wonder, With air on my teeth, Careful what you wish for, There’s something underneath. Because the world is held together, With lies and promises, And broken hearts, And brand new days, For you to start… all over again.”

David Packouz was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the third of nine children of pioneering ‘Internet Rabbi’ Kalman Packouz. While living in Jerusalem and Miami he became fascinated by science, studied chemistry and philosophy and practiced massage therapy and international business. Through his immersion in these diverse fields and while traveling to many places around the world, he was exposed to many different ideas, philosophies and ways of life.

He came to realize that although we are all unique in our own way, we are also incredibly similar in much more fundamental and important respects. So to understand each other, we must first understand ourselves.

This requires above all else, an open mind, honesty and empathy to see these same attributes in others. We are each a small Universe, or MicroCOSM, unto ourselves, yet we all comprise this greater MACROCOSM of human existence.