Working Gal Rock and Roll Poet: 07_25

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Lisa Torem on the Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show

Live on YouTube is my interview with Chicago's Lisa Torem, author of five books on Billy Joel, Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos, including co-writes with Ava Cherry and Jim Peterick. She's also a music journalist, songwriter, public speaker. A big topic in our interview is resilience.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Charu Suri on The Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show

Charu Suri, who is playing Carnegie Hall for the fifth time, is the guest on my Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show. We talk about the calming magic of ragas, family, travel, and kindness. Her concert is July 25. Lots of special guests, and she'll be sharing a new album, "Shayan" for our healing. https://youtu.be/3e3fxA_B3-k?si=WGDdvAjZ5N3Bz_ZK

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Peppy Castro on the Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show

Peppy Castro (Blues Magoos, Balance, Alessi, Hair, Barnaby Bye, and that's just the 1960s through the '80s) and I philosophize about inclusion, competition, Greenwich Village, friendship, entrepreneurialism, and enthusiasm on the Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show, now live!

We also worked with Jay and the Americans at the same time!

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My book is called THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION, which is a title I've played with throughout my entire adult life. It's based on The Music Explosion who rocked with a favorite song, "A Little Bit Of Soul." It's optimistic, and self-empowering, which is a quality I love in art... Three things have been constant in my life—- writing, music, and animals. Likewise, I've adapted the words to Frank Sinatra’s hit, “That’s Life.” I sing, “I’ve been a poet, a pauper, a publicist…. up and down…..” My poetry book, The Leighton Explosion (Soul Asylum, Canada) shows my range of emotion and different interests, especially rock music. My publisher Ken Cowle says I “made him laugh.” Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who writes the book’s foreword, praises my “lilt” and “personality” in an encouraging note. While I usually work as a music publicist with musicians including Jethro Tull, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius, Sharon Katz & The Peace Train, and Michael Veitch, I've also made money from my poetry. This includes the Grammy-nominated album, Healthy Food for Thought: Good Enough to Eat, (Audio & Video Labs) with me reading my poem “Feed Your Parents Well.” My poems have been published in The Indie Collaborative’s “Holiday Program,” “The Literary Parrot Anthology,” “Elephant Journal,” “BOG GOB,” “Powerline,” “the Aquarian,” and “Nickel.” I've performed live at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Peter Max’s Studio. Some of my plays have been performed live—one by the Poets Repertory Theatre of Long Island and another by the San Antonio Living River Church, and at New York City’s Howl Fest. My other books are Paws For Thought: How to Understand What Your Cat is Thinking (Rockwell Books, UK), Using Your Art & the Media to Comfort People (Free To Run Books, West Hills, CA), and the self-published e-book, Get the Gig (Common Sense Career Consulting). I recently started producing pop music singles, which can be heard at soundcloud.com/leightonmedia/sets/anneleightonsongs.