The Bordentown Porch Fest is This Saturday, May 2, 2026

There is much to fret about. The streets of Bordentown City will be bustling with fascinating live music to see and to hear as musicians gather on various porches around town sharing their unique talents with all the different people crowding the pavement, interested in indulging.

I gazed lovingly at a few of the acts in previous years and I can still yap about that monumental day excitedly as if the visually engaging live music performances happened in the beauty of yesterday’s sunset.

And here we are approaching the Bordentown Porchfest happening this weekend on Saturday, May 2^nd, 2026 and once again, scores of creatively charged musicians will gather on various porches around town, doing what they love to do most, which is music.

It brings a smirk to my face to say that I will also be performing at Bordentown’s Porchfest this year sharing a collection of both cover tunes and original songs. Meet me at 4 East union Street in Bordentown City, NJ at 2PM.

I am so looking forward to the vibrant day unfolding and hope to experience your joyful energy in the midst of it all. See you there!

But until then, check out a video taken from last year's Bordentown Porchfest here: https://youtube.com/shorts/_1DIip4HGIk?si=3o0WZ7MW9jqGH5wn

The Indie Music Show Airs Every Tuesday Evening at 9PM EST/ 8PM CST on mixlr.com/jnotemusic

 

What songwriter doesn’t have ribbons of desire for unique songs to burst into bloom? And what artist or musician doesn’t enjoy the aesthetic appeal of opportunities to have synergy with other creative beings?

I don’t know about you, but I love to hear a bass growling in a live setting. Don’t get me wrong; I guess it has become the thing to be plugged into the digital realm and to fulfill your genuine passion through a Zoom meeting every now and again, especially in these times but, there is nothing like when the melody flows and my gilded wings can unfold right there in the intimate setting of a live, innovative environment.

There is something special about putting your effort, originality and skill into the harmonious menu of a repertoire meant to be performed live. Is that just the way I think or is it a thought that other musicians and those who have a true cultural enjoyment of music thinks?

If perhaps we have the same way of thinking, after you experience the pulchritude of the stunning sunset this evening and you start to drown in the evening’s moonlight, I invite you to engage with NYC musician/songwriter, Stephanie Jeannot and cohost Chicago bassist/songwriter, John Mueller for the newest episode of THE INDIE MUSIC SHOW airing this evening at 9PM EST/ 8PM CST on http://mixlr.com/jnotemusic

What will you hear?  A shared thirst for all things music. We launch conversations about the practice of music, the study of music, the performance and recording of our music and some of the many artists that do music with some beautiful indie sounds sprinkled into the mix.

We dive headlong into it every Tuesday evening at 9PM EST/ 8PM CST and I hope that this blogpost might fan a flame of interest in you to take time out of your schedule this evening and log on to http://mixlr.com.jnotemusic to listen.

Until then, Peace.

100 Different Songs by 100 Different Artists and a Potpourri of Styles and Genres From All Around the Globe

The idea of finding 100 different songs, each from different artists was not an easy challenge; but I like challenges and so, I did it.

Music Choices

How do you know if you like an artist if you never listen to their music? And how do you know which song is your favorite from the artist if you only listen to one song?  


And how do you know that you will not enjoy the quality of sound just because it is not on vinyl? And how do you know if you will not enjoy a genre of music if you never give it a chance?

ION Profile LP Vinyl-to-MP3 Turntable

I know a good amount of indie artists and that made the challenge to finish this newly created playlist a little bit easier because I got a chance to finally and completely indulge in their sounds; some of them for the first time and that was a joy to hear. But then there were some artists that I had never heard of and just came across on some of the social media networks and it was like opening up another world into music and I just loved it. Took a while to get to 100 but finally; I did it! 

My Top 100

So here it is, my Top 100. The challenge got me into listening to more music that was not already in my music library which is my usual thing and that was cool because it forced me to break out of the force field of routine.  You can check it out on spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/user/22hsqdduuzk6igxvrtw5l6iiq/playlist/3FFUhnNn9IAK2x2YBBEHdg

If you are looking for some new sounds to check out, put this playlist on and just let it play out. You’ll hear 100 different songs by 100 different artists and a potpourri of different styles and genres from all around the globe.

Stage Fright Happens . . . Why Faith is a Singer's Most Important Weapon!

It takes baby steps of trust to get on to a stage and to leap forward with a song to share; especially for those who haven’t really performed in front of a crowd much.

I hear it a lot. Miss Stephanie, I’m shy. Miss Stephanie, I can’t sing louder on the stage; my voice might crack. Miss Stephanie, I don’t want to go on the stage by myself. Miss Stephanie I don't want to sing because the guy I like is sitting in the room.

You might not be swimming in agreement with all the things that could happen while you are on stage.  You could fall and embarrass yourself in front of a multitude of people. You could hit a bad note. You could forget your lyrics and melody. You could freeze and be so afraid that you shake the whole time, while you are singing. You could be moving around and your heel breaks. You could not open your mouth enough and fall flat. Your peers could be so displeased with your performance that they start gossiping about you and make you feel so inadequate that you decide you no longer want to do what you were called to do.

But then you could also thrive as you bring life to your music.  You could convey an idea that influences someone in the audience. And you can also be as hot as a blazing fire. You just never know!

It is completely normal to have stage fright. I would even go to the gamut of saying that it might be a little weird if from time to time, you do not experience it. But courage must endure.

Don’t complicate a simple live musical engagement chained to the prison of your doubts. The adventure is a bit more extraordinary when you make an honest effort with an element of self-trust.

Trust that you can do a good job. Trust that you have what it takes. Trust that you can give it your best shot. Trust that you can win and succeed.

Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. Every day is a learning experience. And if you are someone who has failed to learn new things in your daily lives, you probably are not really living.

To succeed at anything, you must take a chance. Don’t be so afraid of the gift that God gave you that you miss the opportunities to use it in the way that he created you to. Get on the stage, scan the crowd with excitement and don’t allow even a flicker of doubt to discourage you. Use your gossamer wings to take on the daunting task.

Give your audience your most focused attention and don’t let them know your fear. Have a semblance of power. Stay emotionally focused and bring that dramatic fire to them. Promote your cultural diversity as you were meant to; one tiny leap at a time. The first leap: venture out onto the stage and smile with confidence and say hello, my name is . . . You’ll find that it is not really that necessary to wall off your heart because the feeling of sharing your gift is immensely beautiful. Then the conversation will no longer be Miss Stephanie I can't but Miss Stephanie, I did. How exciting is that! 

The fact that you are standing on the shoulders of giants who came way before you might shift your mindset and put you in a more relaxed lifestyle. Every pro was a beginner. Every beginner has to start fresh from somewhere. Every fresh start builds up character. Draw on the decades of accumulated sounds, singers, musicians and music as a whole that you have been influenced by. Being who you are organically doesn’t require that much effort. Get on the stage and be the fabulousness that you are. 

Don’t let anything ever dilute your trust in God. He gave you your gift for a reason and that is an unwavering belief. Make sure you never let go of that truth and include him in everything to understand your role in this by and by; even into your performances. And even after the performances because faith is a great weapon to have in every situation. And knowing how emotionally based sharing your talent really is, you never know how as a person you might be affected by your own strength if you come to a point where your cup was less than full and you couldn't do what you always have been able to do without problems; especially as a singer since your body is your instrument. A cold, tiredness, and mental well-being can change everything. Faith can be the cure. You can have improvisational skills, know every chord backwards and forwards. You can know all the different possible harmonies you could use to make the song pretty. But if you do not have faith, you need to add that to your musical tool kit. 

Regardless if it is your first time or your hundred thousandth, you can still get stage fright so do not feel like you are alone in your experience. It still happens every now and then to almost everybody. The important thing is to take your fears head on and to do what you were designed to do with enthusiasm. You got this! 

Speaking of stage fright., it is crazy to think that even after all this time, sometimes I get those butterflies in my stomach, get on the stage and shake with fright as I start to vocalize into the mic. Such was the case one night at this beautiful venue in Novorossiysk, Russia. We drove from Kransodar to Novorossiysk and after 6 hours on the road, we made it; only for me to have about thirty minutes to compose myself before we had soundcheck and then the show. So I was nervous. And then I looked at all the unfamiliar faces and there came the shaking. SMH! 

Check out footage from that concert. It was a live performance of my original song "Wherever You Are" with the Sergey Koronev Project here:  https://youtu.be/MoW_UmKqUPo

All I can say is, thank God that my fear subsided!  

THANK YOU FOR CHECKING OUT MY BLOG POST! 

I is for Instrumental Voice

Most of the time, when people are speaking of musicians, they rarely consider a vocalist one. Why, because they don’t carry big amps and set up a physical instrument? I sis because they do not play a man-made stringed, wind, or percussive instrument that they have to load in the car and set-up hours before a musical engagement?

When a jazz event is being spoken of, it often says quartet, excluding the singer which if included would be a quintet.  So why isn’t the singer considered a musician when a singer actually is one?

The vocal cords are the only hand-made by God instrument on this earth. It is internal and is carried around inside of the human body.

The vocal cords are “a pair of folds of tissue that extend across the inside of the larynx and that produce the voice when air exhaled from the lungs causes them to tighten and vibrate” (Merriam Webster).  They are primarily responsible for voice production.

“The vocal cords are shorter and thinner in women and children, accounting in part for their higher-pitched voices” (Britannica). In men, the vocal cord is the size of a nickel and in woman, the vocal cord is the size of a dime.

The human voice is one of the most powerful instruments. It produces speech and enables communication. If you have a voice to speak, you have power to create change. If you have the ability to use your voice in other ways like singing, you have the ability to affect the ears of listeners with your word usage and the outpouring of emotion that you release when you free your voice.

It uses air to release sound, so like a horn, the human voice is a wind instrument. It can run scales in different keys of the solfege or other musical scales like a piano, so it can also be considered a stringed instrument. And there are times when the human voice makes you feel all warm and tingly inside, producing that thump that drives your heartbeat, which can make the human voice percussive.

Now here is a big difference between a physical instrument and the vocals. If dust falls in between each key of a piano or one of the keys go out of tune, you either spray it with dust remover or get it retuned and it is fine. Pull a string on a guitar or bass, and you simply unplug and restring it. Should a piece of dust get on the vocal chords, now you have limited usage of your voice because you now have an upper respiratory infection. Should you pull a string on your vocal cords, you may have to consult an ENT physician and consider surgery to remove nodes on your cords.

So though, the vocal cords might very well be inside of a human body, it is very much an instrument which makes a vocalist a musician. The human voice is the only instrument that God made by hand. It is the most powerful instrument in the world. And it is the one easiest to let a message out musically that can affect thought.  

Perhaps my song, “Breakthrough” which was originally written and produced by Stephanie Jeannot and Armand Collins, will affect your day positively. It is an inspirational tune and it was performed live at Resorts World Casinos in Queens, NY. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/B4fJ-8SswqQ

The River of Life Shared on an International Stage

Welcome on board to my world. In this life lies the landscape that has captured my imagination. I am a Taino work of art. I am the breathtaking Panoramic view of Kiskeya. The seas of the Caribbean gush through my pores. I shine the sun of Latin America each time I smile. America is embedded in my truth. Just by looking in the mirror, I can see the world in my infantile eyes.

I am not the brightest star that soars up into the sky. But I have climbed heights as tall as the Ural Mountains on this thoroughfare I call life and made a sense of home in God’s presence. 

I could unload my heart and tell you all the difficult challenges I have faced to arrive at this shining hour but all the unique experiences that have brought me to this point have somewhat softened my character. Based on that, I find no need to jump back into the -42-degrees Celsius waters of the past to define who I am.  

I am a bronze ballerina who has gone from city to city dancing under the night sky. I am an actress who has scrolled the frames in films like Audrey Tatou in Amelie. I have seen with my own eyes the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia from Sarah Palin’s window in Alaska.

I have indulged in the amenities at the Georgian wine festival. I have gained energy by breathing in the aroma of the Northern Dvina River. I have explored Suvar Plaza. I have worn the greens of Tatarstan in the Philharmonic theatre of the third largest city in Russia known as Kazan, while singing choruses with the most memorable of orchestras to have impacted my world. 

I have dined in the sun of Troitsky Avenue in Archangelsk. I have done incredible things I had never done before until today like, singing on world stages in my first ever music tour which was in Russia.

I have interacted with others in a foreign tongue to properly present myself. I have traveled far to perform simple tasks around the world that after I endured to the end, was encouraged to keep pressing on.

Life has been a journey which was met confidently. And to have become so immersed in things makes me truly see the vastness of God’s blessings. His hands have made a large exhibition of works worth exploring which can be best seen by changing landscapes and seeing the world from different points of view and not just your own jungle in which you dwell. My sole purpose in writing this is to share with you the great things my eyes have seen; and there is so much more to see. But to retrace my steps of what I have experienced,

I can honestly say that it has 

been wonderful.

I invite you to come to my river. The river of life shared on an international stage with a friend of mine, Tavis Minner and a wonderful band at the Ufa Jazz Club in Ufa, Russia. Together, we sung "Route 66" which is a song that is revered by many around the world. There was so much good music around me and thanks to my friend Anastasiya of the Skyways Band, I can share this video with you all who are willing to watch. It was the love of music shared by each musician that made the night so beautiful. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrafo-nFcB4

Thank you for reading my blog post! 

K is for Killing Sounds That I Listen to Most

MamaKat added as one of her writing prompts to list the top most played songs in my playlist and when I took a look at the tunes that made up this list, it made me think of all the musicians and singers that put these songs together, the many times I have listened to them and how I came to love the music and also wondered about the experiences that these artists lived to be able to put all of themselves into these tunes. What wonderful songs! 

My top ten are:

1.       Get Up by Amel Larrieux

·      I just love Amel Larrieux. Her voice is da bomb and I love listening to any song that she has sung; whether it is with Groove Theory or her solo stuff. She sings and I listen to the words she has written; awesome writer. She sings and I sing along and imitate her style. She sings and I exercise my voice. I love what she can do vocally and I like her music a lot.

2.       I’ve Got a Right to Sing the Blues by Billie Holliday

·       Awesome song and awesome spin on it. I like Billie’s style. She was such a unique singer and has a great voice. Out of all the songs I have heard jazz greats sing, she has a different way of putting it and it is really nice to the ears. This song is new to my playlist but somehow is there as number two in my top ten most played list on my ITunes

3.       Bye Bye Blackbird by Carmen McRae

·         I have loved this song for a long time and I love the way that Carmen sings it. I have heard a few different versions of this song but Carmen’s spin on it is my favorite. Great standard from 1926 by Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon. I love listening to it and I love singing it as a cover. Carmen’s way of expressing is really great. She is an excellent singer and I love her voice and the way that she carries any tune.

4.       Blue N Boogie by Dizzy Gillespie

·     Dizzy is one of my favorite jazz musicians of all time and I love everything that he plays. This song from 1944 is nice because it is jazz and funky at the same time. I like the rhythm. It is becoming weird to me though that most of the songs that are in my top 10 most played list were created decades before I was even born. But . . .

5.       Alone Together by Ella Fitzgerald

·         The director of the Medgar Evers Jazz Ensemble which I am a member of, was playing this song on his trumpet and I fell in love with it. I think since I heard him play it, I have listened to Ella’s version about 150 times. Great tune. Ella is just the quintessential singer and I love her vocal style.

6.       La Vie En Rose by Madeleine Peyroux

·         I love, love, love Madeleine Peyroux and I think this is one of my favorites not only because I appreciate her singing but because I am trying to learn the song and get a better grasp of French and she sings a great version of this song first rendered by Edith Piaf.

7.       He Looked Beyond My Faults by Vanessa Bell Armstrong

·         Vanessa Bell Armstrong has such a powerful gift. I used to hear a choir member sing this song at church and I always loved it but never knew that Vanessa Bell Armstrong sang a rendition of it until the other day when I was asked to sing it for a beautiful couple’s aunt who just recently passed away. Great song to listen to on any day however. Very encouraging and beautiful.  Such an inspiring tune and the way that Vanessa Bell Armstrong sings is refreshing.

  I Wish You Knew by Mariah Carey

·         I have always been a Mariah fan and I think I have every single album she has ever made and can sing every song on each and every one of them word for word. Her songs used to be about 90% of my repertory in the past. I think I have listened to her most over the course of my life.  I love her voice and her music and I love singing along with her material. This song is a great song. I love the way it progresses and the beautiful way that she expressed the lyrics. She is such a great songwriter.

           Bohemia After Dark by Clark Terry

·      Amazing tune. Clark Terry plays the life out of his horn. He is so very talented and this song offers such a beautiful listen.

Ooh by Stephanie Jeannot

·         This is a new song I recently penned and I have been listening to it over and over again because I like it and am trying to see if there is anywhere in the song where I can make improvements.  But when it is complete and up to standard, I cannot wait to share it.  

Keying in Something Different

Saturday night, June 14, 2014, was a new and exciting experience for me.

See! I'm a singer and often go out with a heart to share my talent. No different this Saturday that just passed. I was ready to sing and do my thing, but something amped me to bring my keys.

I was invited to sing at the Poetry in Motion Event  at the Box in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. I am loving the idea of discovering new venues in a Brooklyn, NY that provide and are open to entertainment of this sort.

Poetry in motion was hosted by Sir Miles High. With his gracious character and inviting appeal, he welcomed everybody in the place that night with humbling love.

Some of the artist that were scheduled to perform were Ras Osagyefo, Lady Moon and Jaydon, just to name a few. The show included a mixture of poetry and music and was awesome. The drummer was on fire and so was the crowd getting amped by the energy each performance came with.

When it comes to the keys, I use them basically to create new musical tracks or to practice singing scales and that's it. Yet this past weekend, I took out my keyboards, my stand and amp, set it up and when it was my turn to perform, I got behind it to play and sing.

How crazy. Wasn't bad. But good to know I can do it because I tried it and cannot wait to experience it once again. I keyed in something new into my life.