307 | Tia McGraff - An Amazing Singer & Songwriter

Unknown Speaker  0:03  
Welcome to positive talk radio our goal is simple to explore evolving ideas one conversation at a time so stay with us right now we present oh everybody I'm glad you're here we've got a heck of a show for you and we've got a young lady by the name of Tia McGrath and she is a singer songwriter and it sounds like this

Unknown Speaker  0:35  
you can shout out your demons you can face your addictions you can say you believe in all the profits protection build a home all the good things you bought it was down if you don't do it with love to carry keep spinning around when you can go through the motions you can dive in headfirst you can drag your body and wall clench your be looking down last don't do it with me it's John Smith when it comes down to strong enough to care it's John Brown with

Unknown Speaker  3:57  
and that is T. McGrath. And the name of the song is with love. And I want to thank you for for making that song. As a matter of fact that Michael Stover who is a music producer and publisher of note, he sent me that song and he and your bio. And I knew the moment I heard the song I had to have yawn.

Unknown Speaker  4:20  
Oh, Kevin, thank you so much. Thank you. It's a real joy and blessing to be here today. Talking positive. We're gonna talk because of things. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  4:29  
Well, and I gotta tell you with love. Yes. Now there's another another band that you may have heard of, that had a song that went worldwide at one point it was called All You Need Is Love. Yeah. And that is they were of course the Beatles and that was that was I grew up in those days and I am fascinated with people who can do what you can do and are putting out a positive message all at the same time.

Unknown Speaker  4:59  
Well Thank you for that Kevin because my husband taught me and I, we started writing positive inspirational music when you know it wasn't cool to do so. And you know it was a small small narrow road that we've been on traveling but we've we haven't given up and so we're really excited and just grateful for all the wonderful things that are happening right now with our album with our music that people were meeting artists songwriters, people like Michael Stover who you mentioned who's just jumped on board and helping us get the get our song a message out there.

Unknown Speaker  5:37  
Where you've done well with it, you've done well with it now. You're a singer songwriter. Are you also a musician? Did you play some of the instruments on

Unknown Speaker  5:45  
it? I played I love really the guitar playing to Tommy my husband on the air and Kevin Tischer. From from LA from California and Kevin and Tommy did most of the all the instrumentals on there and most of the backgrounds I think I played a little bit of a keyboard. Maybe a guitar thing here or there but not you know, I did the vocals, the lead vocals and background vocals, some

Unknown Speaker  6:10  
you know, you know who you sound like to me. Are you Are you familiar with Leann Grimes her rhymes?

Unknown Speaker  6:18  
Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  6:22  
She She did a song called Let's dance. Yeah, yeah, that was one of my favorite songs of all time. Ever that for her.

Unknown Speaker  6:31  
That was Oh, thank you for that. She's Wow. That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker  6:36  
And so though, how did you get started with the husband come first or did the musical career come first?

Unknown Speaker  6:43  
I am the musical career. I I'm a small town girl from Ontario, Canada, living up here on Lake Erie. And about an hour and a half from Toronto. And so I I grew up listening to like Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, you know, and Marie. When I was about 1819, I went into the Canadian Open Country singing contest, and ended up winning the female open category. And from that, I received some free recording time at night at a studio in Niagara Falls. I want some money and I went bought myself a guitar and taught myself three chords. That's all you need. And in some truth, right. wrote a song. And so went into the studio recorded this song and it was just all very serendipitous. You know, I just I just like, oh, yeah, and next thing I know, I'm getting airplay on Canadian radio. And I get a call from CBC TV to go to go down to Toronto and be on a TV show with Johnny Cash and June Carter. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And it was crazy. And I got there and and so Johnny and June were the most beautiful, most humble people you'd ever want to meet. And we did the rehearsal for the show in the morning. And then we all got to take a break and come back and do the show in front of a studio audience. And during the break, Johnny says, Would you like to come in and meet June and he took me into her dressing room. And she was sitting there with little slippers on curlers in her hair and and he introduced me to her and it was just it was just amazing. And I never forgot that they were just wonderful, wonderful people.

Unknown Speaker  8:44  
Isn't it amazing how that you can just go from from a small town girl in the in Normandy and by Lake Erie and all of a sudden you're you're talking to the man him demanding black? Oh, yeah. And, and now how long ago was this was he was when he was still performing and doing really well or was this later on? This was during

Unknown Speaker  9:07  
their comeback. This is many years ago. So they were just on their way coming back. And it led to it led to a lot of other things like a lot of doors opening for me. It was about I think 10 years later that maybe I moved to Nashville. And in that period of time I met worked with people like Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner overdrive.

Unknown Speaker  9:36  
Hey, I'm a big fan. Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker  9:38  
Well, and he's got ties to Seattle. I know. And and so I went out to Vancouver and did a lot of work with Randy. And people like Dan Hill, you know, sometimes when we touch on that, yeah, yes. And Eddie Schwartz wrote hit me with the best shot for you know, Pat Benatar and so I was really blessed doors just opened, you know, and it was it was all just wonderful. My dad was managing me at the time and, and it was really cool. And then I started taking some trips to Nashville and fell in love with Nashville, and moved down there, and 1999 and moved there and met Tommy, that's when I met Tommy, my husband. And he had moved there from LA and had a songwriting deal in hand, a full staff writers deal. And we met through his publisher and started writing songs together. And the rest is history.

Unknown Speaker  10:37  
Because his story is, you know, I am so lucky, because I get to interview some really interesting people. Are you familiar with a gentleman by the name of Ron or Ted Perlman?

Unknown Speaker  10:53  
Um, no, sorry.

Unknown Speaker  10:55  
Oh, that's okay. He's He's a producer. And he's produced for people like Bob Dylan and, and Whitney Houston, and lots of others. And he's got a young duo that are out there called Sisters, J. And they came on the show a couple weeks ago, and then we had a great time with them. And it's great to talk to people like you who have done it, and you've done some really good things, some really fun stuff.

Unknown Speaker  11:23  
You thank you. And we, yeah, we're independent, too. You know, we're independent artists we've got in songwriters. And Tommy and I are just so lucky that we met, you know, we met in Nashville and started traveling the world together. And prior to COVID pandemic took prior to 2018 we, you know, we were making a lot of friends and family around the world and sharing our music, and our positive inspirational messages. So, so we've been really, really, you know, really lucky to do this really blessed. And so, you know, we're just happy that we can pick up kind of where we left off now after the pandemic and hopefully get things rolling again, it's a different world, you know, than it was before.

Unknown Speaker  12:09  
Oh, it is and and in music is a is a real different place than it was before. Yeah. Are you planning on going on the road again,

Unknown Speaker  12:18  
we're starting in. We're doing some local concerts right now to introduce the album, and some benefit fundraisers. And then we are going to Chicago in October, to be a part of the farm, which is the Folk Alliance regional Midwest. And that's the conference where we get to showcase for folk DJs and venues, and then we're heading to Nashville. And I've been nominated for Josie award. And we're going to see some friends down there and hopefully do a couple rounds or two. So

Unknown Speaker  12:52  
that's, that's awesome. By the way, you have a friend who's wandering around behind you,

Unknown Speaker  12:56  
yes, Savannah May, that's our cattle occur and that we've got a husky somewhere here too. So

Unknown Speaker  13:05  
just wandering around with and looking for some action or something. So it's great fun, congratulations on your success. And I also love the fact that you what decided you to take a positive approach to really work on creating positive music. I,

Unknown Speaker  13:25  
I don't think it was so much a decision as it was a you just have to, for all the artists out there, you have to be really true to yourself, you know. And when I started out, I was trying to rate rock songs and you know, cool rock songs and pop songs and whatever and, and actually had people telling me your songs are too nice, they're too positive, you know, you need to dirty them up a bit. And, and I'm like, Well, I you know, and I would try and then I would just hate the song, you know, I'd go, Oh my God, I don't want anyone to hear this. So when Tommy and I, when we started writing together in Nashville when his publisher introduced us, the first song we ever wrote, or one of the first songs we wrote was called outside of the circle. And it was just that because I stormed into my writing session one day with him. And I said, If I hear one more time that I can't say this in Nashville that I can't write this in Nashville, I'm going to screen and I just want to be different. I want to be outside of the circle and just saying, you know, what I want to be what I want to be saying. And Tommy says, Well, I think we need to write that. So we wrote the song. And it was the title track of the first album that we ever recorded together. And was actually the first album that launched us out onto the road. And I remember we were we were in Savannah, Georgia playing and we had people that had had we listened to the song and they already had actions to choreograph to it so. So I knew we were onto something, you know, and I thought this is beautiful. And we had some pretty amazing stories to stories of people, like we have a song called Hope is everything. And we had played it in Colorado. And it was about six months later a year later, was just right during the recession time. And I was feeling pretty down one day, and I said, Tommy, that's it, you know what, I'm gonna you go, you go do your thing today. And when you get home, I'm going to start looking for a job because I don't think this is working out. And I went in and turn on my emails. And I received an email from from a man who had been at our concert in Colorado. And he said, I want to share this story with you. He said, I bought your CD. And he said, things have been going really bad for me in my life, I lost my job. I've been, you know, drinking, hitting the bottle falling apart. And he said, I was taking my daughter to school, my 12 year old daughter. And he said, I, at that moment, I realized she needed more. She didn't deserve this. And he said, I was going to drop her off and come home and end it all. And he said, on the way to school, my daughter says, Dad, can we put in a CD, and he thought she was gonna say Taylor Swift or something. And he said, Sure. And she put in our city. And he said, I dropped her off. And just as she's getting out the door and waving goodbye, and he says, I'm going to go home, and I'm going to end it. Your song, hope is everything. clicked in and start playing. And he said, I knew at that moment, he said, it was like, God, use your song to say to me, don't give up. And he said, I went home, and it changed my life around, turn it around. And he says, I just have to let you know that. So Kevin, when you say, you know, it was a decision for us to do this, it was kind of like we had to do it. And then when we got affirmations like that, it was like, well, we can't do anything else, you know, we just have to keep on this road.

Unknown Speaker  17:24  
That's a beautiful story, by the way. And the cool thing is, is you don't have any idea to hear how many lives you will change and people that you'll never meet, because of the music that you're putting together because of the hope that you're giving, because of the love that you're sharing. And it's vital. It's in our society today, it's absolutely vital, that we have something positive coming out of the radio and come because I truly believe that the universe sets it up so that when we, especially through music, when you need to hear a song that speaks to your soul, it will show up for you. And did

Unknown Speaker  18:05  
absolutely, as a songwriter, I believe I've always believed that, that songs are gifts to us as songwriters. And, you know, our job is to be open to receive it and, and be the messenger for the song. And through our own our own voice, right. You could write a song with love that's going to be entirely different than our song with love, and, but they're both positive, wonderful, beautiful messages that will reach the right audience will reach the person that's supposed to hurt hear at that particular time. And so we just have to keep believing that and I know that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that we've touched people around the world that we have no idea. And so that's what keeps us going on those days that are just, you know, kind of more challenging now, because people aren't buying music like they did. And it's harder to know how to keep going financially and everything but, but we have to keep going we have to keep our music alive.

Unknown Speaker  19:10  
This is a every time I have a musician or singer songwriter on this is a public announcement or public service announcement that I that I have to make. And that is T is right. The music industry has changed. And it's not like you put together a song I mean in the in the 60s and 70s There were guys that were one hit wonders that are still making money from the songs that they did in the back way back then. Absolutely. There's one guy that did a song in the 60s that became a war anthem and and he said that song Bobby my house and Bobby my second house. But then those days are gone. Unfortunate.

Unknown Speaker  19:50  
Yeah, yeah. And and so we just, you know, we when we were recording this album was love to um A lot of the songs were chosen, we chose them from from demos we had of songs we'd written before the pandemic, or Nashville or whatever some were written during the pandemic. But when we, when we looked up with Kevin again, and we recorded it basically over the internet, right, we would record it here in our studio and send it to Kevin, and he would add some beautiful bells and whistles and layers and send them back and blah, blah, blah. But we wanted to, we also wanted to take this a step further and make these film and TV pitches as well, because we're hearing so much beautiful music, and that's being placed and what a great venue there, you know, for people, here's some positive inspirational music, in some of the TV shows and commercials, etc.

Unknown Speaker  20:54  
So I would implore you, if you are going to go to Spotify, or any of the other outlets, and you're going to find, you're going to find Tia MoGraph and I implore you, please download the song, and pay for it. So that she can get paid a little bit of money, because if you just stream it, they get virtually none. It's like if like point zero, somebody told me one time was like point 02 cents or something like that. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  21:24  
And you know, the thing, Kevin, the people, and, you know, I don't I had an aunt one time say to me, Well, we we stream our TV for free, we get our TV for free. And I'm like, Well, no, you kind of pay for you know, but anyway, um, it's not just the, it's not just that you're getting the music for free, it's that it's not just that we've put this out there, but it's all the, like we pay musicians, it's the, the studio time that you're paying for that we pay for to put this, put it together, manufacturing all of it promotion. And also, when you think about it, the years and years and years and years of of experience and, you know, like moving to Nashville was was expensive to do that. And, and in a lot of ways, you know, a lot of sacrifices went into that move for both Tommy and me. So when you buy music, or when you just download it, you are buying that artists life, all the years and years and years of guitar lessons, vocal lessons, the the struggles, the in, you know, the bills that we have to pay still to keep the lights on to keep the studio lights on. So it is it's just a small fraction, you know, of of, say buying a coffee, even you know, is more expensive, right? So,

Unknown Speaker  22:47  
yep, there's a matter of fact, if you want to go to Tia MoGraph, that's m cgraff.com. You can find out all about her and you can Oh, look at that there's a buy button right there, you could buy it from her. And then she can actually make a little bit of money from that. And that would be that would be awesome for you to do because I firmly believe that what you have is it is truly a gift from the beyond. It's a gift from the other side. And and I know that for a fact because I listened to in the past I've listened to a lot of songs by Sir Paul McCartney. And the Gospel according to Paul, as I call it, is, you know he, he woke up with yesterday in his head. Yeah. And he didn't have any he walked around for two weeks to ask him people. Do you know the song? Have you ever heard this song? I think but and turned out that nobody had and it was a gift that was given to him. And it was it was yesterday. And that song has been covered almost 3000 times by different.

Unknown Speaker  23:53  
Yeah. I'll tell you a cool story. So we have a friend Henry Priestman, who is Liverpool lad. And a wonderful, wonderful songwriter, musician, artist. He was in a group in England called the Christians. And they were a big, big pop group. And now Henry is doing his solo, his solo artists thing. And so he has a little cottage up on the north shore of more of Rey, which is northern Wales. And so Tom and I were up there riding with Henry. And we looked out and there's this little little island off the coast there. Actually, Kate and William lived up in angles. Okay. Yeah. And so we saw this little island and we said, hen, what is that a little island out there? And he says, I call that pop Island and we said, Why do you call it pop Island hand? And he said, because that's where the Beatles have hidden all the scrolls to their great unwritten songs. So that night we wrote a song called all of us. And so we like to say we had a Canadian and American and in a in a Brit. And we wrote this song called all of us. And we, we brought it home. And we taught me and I recorded it. And next thing you know, it's out in the universe, and I get this call from Australia. And it was a TV producer, and he had found the song on the internet. He was looking for songs called all of us to use in a TV commercial to promote diversity in Australia. And so we did the whole sync license everything. And it was really bizarre, and it was just so beautiful. And then he calls back and he says, Hey, we're, this was in 2010. World Youth Day, is in Sydney this year. And we're looking for a song to put up on the big video Tron when the Pope's in town and everything. Can we use your version of it? And I said, Absolutely. So there you go. And that little song began, you know, up in Bovary and near pop island, so to speak.

Unknown Speaker  26:05  
You you operate under the same philosophy that I do, which is right now, in the podcasting world. I like the music world in many ways. There are a billion podcasts, or at least a million of us out there trying to try to do a podcast now mine is unique in that I try and really do a, a positive motivational show and to have, by the way, Matthew Stapley says, Hello, and, Matthew, you're gonna have to I need to book you again. Hi, Matthew. Hey, and

Unknown Speaker  26:39  
I made something in the little chat down here. This will be fun. Yeah, you can

Unknown Speaker  26:43  
think Matthew Hello. Yeah, that's it. Well, that's a private chat.

Unknown Speaker  26:49  
I'll put it on the comments. Comments, put

Unknown Speaker  26:53  
it on comments. Okay. Let me go back to the

Unknown Speaker  26:58  
thing. Do this, right.

Unknown Speaker  27:04  
I think do the work for you? No,

Unknown Speaker  27:08  
no, let me see.

Unknown Speaker  27:10  
Well, it should it should wait. Oh, these Matthew says, Yes. I love that. I don't know. I don't know if you can do it. That? I don't know.

Unknown Speaker  27:24  
I don't think so. But we can read them. We can read them. Hi, Matthew.

Unknown Speaker  27:28  
Yeah, Matthew is Do you know who he is? Matthew, he's telling me he's a he's Canadian. He's, they call him the Canadian psychic. Because he's a, he's up in your neck of the woods. And he is a wonderful, psychic medium. And he talks to people about about where they're going in their lives. And he does just a phenomenal job doing like, Gosh, he's been on my radio show a bunch of time. Speaking of which, I also want to invite you on to the other show that I do, which is called surprisingly enough positive talk radio. But it's on KK and w 11:50am. And Seattle

Unknown Speaker  28:14  
would love that. Absolutely. Count me. And we

Unknown Speaker  28:17  
would and we've featured your music and we talk about your life and what your what you're doing and and stuff like that. Because you are. He says, ah you are the type of individual that we are going to conquer the planet with. Amen. That's right. Because and Matthew is the same thing. He's a he's a very positive individual. And he works really hard to be who he is and that you do the same thing. I'm trying to do the same thing. And the way that it works for me is I put these podcasts up. And then I say, okay, universe, it's out there, you fix it. That's right. That's right. Whoever needs to listen to this, I want you to make sure that they get the chance to listen.

Unknown Speaker  29:00  
Yeah, that's exactly right. That's right.

Unknown Speaker  29:03  
So you do you do some incredible stuff. And it's I'm just, I'm so pleased to have you here. It's it's, it's just awesome. And we've got first of all, tell me how with Love came to be was that? Did you did you guys write that during the pandemic and put it there? What was the intent behind the song?

Unknown Speaker  29:24  
We wrote this with Kevin Fisher. And Tommy and I had we had flown into California this was prior to the pandemic. And

Unknown Speaker  29:37  
that's at least after breakfast is a he's a stand up guy after breakfast, but if he's hungry, he's no good. I think that's a lot of us.

Unknown Speaker  29:49  
Um, what does he have for breakfast as Matthew what he has let me see if we can.

Unknown Speaker  29:54  
Yeah, he can hear you so you can we can talk to him. We'll see. We'll see when he So what are you having for breakfast? Genuine man? Well, what did you have for breakfast?

Unknown Speaker  30:05  
Bacon and eggs?

Unknown Speaker  30:08  
Yeah, I'll bet I'll bet these granola. That's a good guess. That's it. That's a good guess.

Unknown Speaker  30:19  
Oh, very, very, very nice. So. So that's, that's, that's awesome. So, so I need to get a hold of him. And I will so that he can come back on the show. And I would love. I love to have you on. Anytime you want to come on? Oh, yeah,

Unknown Speaker  30:37  
definitely. So So with love. Yeah. So we had Tommy and I had flown into California, to write with Kevin Fisher. And Kevin Fisher, you guys got to you should have Kevin on your show. He's amazing. And you should look him up. He's just brilliant, and wonderful human being. And so we we got together, we wrote three songs in like two days. And in that, and when we landed in California, we actually had received a call that Tommy's mom had just passed from cancer. I'm sorry. And, yeah. And so at first, we, you know, felt we were making family arrangements to get to Colorado, to be with the family, and canceled concerts and everything else. And Kevin was really understanding and he said, Look, if you guys want to cancel, we said, You know what she would want us to do this, his mom was just a beautiful little lady. And I said, she would want us to do this writing session. So we went in, and we had all this hanging on us. But she was such a beautiful light that it was almost like her spirit was in the room with us, guiding us. And you know, and so we wrote these songs, go your own way with love. And we came home. And this was one of the songs that that during the pandemic, we lit we listened to revisited, so to speak, and I went, Man, this is beautiful, Tommy, what a message, you know, and sometimes we write songs, and it takes a while for them to grow into the universe, I think, for the universe, to be ready to receive them. And I think these two songs that go your own way in with love or two of those songs, and so we made it the title track, Tommy just said, This album is gonna be called with love, because that's what it is. So the world keeps spinning around the sun with love.

Unknown Speaker  32:40  
And that is the title track album cover. It's a it's a it's a great cover. And if you look right there and says, This is her website, again, go to Team MoGraph. And it says, by me, by me right here. Go, go, go do that. Because I gotta tell you, I don't want you to stop what you're doing. Because what you're doing is important, and it's easy to stop when it's when you feel like you've got to go to work, and in a nine to fiver in order to make ends meet. And that's just, it's a crime. It really is because you guys, the talent that you bring to the table, the thoughts that you bring are so important to our to our world to humanity right now. And it always has been but it really is important right now that you can't stop. I'm not gonna let you stop.

Unknown Speaker  33:34  
Well, thank you and you know, art art artists, you know, are so important. I mean, it's you know, in all forms is so important and I'm I've always believed that we should be championing artists to you know, not not be the starving artists thing but but just you know more like how can we support our local artists How can we get them you know, because art art just inspires it helps us grow it helps children in school you know, become become better human beings and and and find themselves are in my book, Jake, the road Dogg. My message is find the song in your heart. And that's what it's about. For me. It's it's helping people find a song in their heart and tell their story. Because I believe that every child, every adult has a story, their own story to tell their own song to sing.

Unknown Speaker  34:34  
Oh, yeah. And so you are. Let me get this straight now. You are a singer songwriter. You are a musician. You are an author. You're also a podcaster. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker  34:46  
Yes, taught well during the pandemic. So Tommy said we're one of the 5 million podcasters out there. Tommy told me I've been saying we need to start a podcast show and I'm like, well Listen podcast show. So anyway, I said, Well, I would like to do something that is positive and pa pa ws positive. And we'll tie in our passion for songwriting and our songs on the road. And our stories on the road. And rescue dogs rescue animals so we call it songs and tales T AI LS Jake's place songs and tales. And so when we're when we have time, we jump into the studio and do another episode and, and we're, we're really enjoy. It's a lot of fun, isn't it all the people you get to meet and

Unknown Speaker  35:39  
it is I gotta tell you, I've I've had the time of my life in the law for the last 20 years, I've got to meet some really phenomenal individuals. And I've had the opportunity to be able to touch a lot of people's lives. It really is. It to me, it's almost sacred what we're doing.

Unknown Speaker  35:59  
Takes one to know, one, Kevin,

Unknown Speaker  36:03  
because I let me take a quick story. And I've told this before, so if you've heard this story before, just hang with me, I but I want to tell to you. I did when I started in 2003. I did positive talk radio on KK and W in Seattle, two hours a day, five days a week. And, and so 10 hours a week of broadcasting. I did it for 11 months, because it was expensive. I had to buy the by the time and stuff. So I did it for 11 months, and then I ran out of money and couldn't do it anymore. Because the stadium is studio set. And you've probably had this conversation with somebody at one time. You also $10,000. And I said, Well, that's too bad because I don't have to. Okay, well, you're gonna have to go out there. And so that day, and I said, Can I have one more show? And they said, Yes, I'll give you one more show. And I which I thought was darn magnanimous. And bang staminas. I thought that was great. And so go on the air and half hour in, I tell everybody, I've got a major announcement to make. And, and nobody was expecting the fact that I was going to have to terminate the show. And when I allowed the phone lines filled up, and people started calling in hands and saying things like, I can't believe you're going off the air that I've got a pile of books here that I bought because of your show. And I've met these people and another girl said that Jerry armour who was a biochemist has helped me in my health tremendously. I were gonna miss you. But the one that affected me the most was a gal called up from Bainbridge Island, which is just in on the other a little bit west of me. And she said, I just wanted to let just wanted to tell you that we listened to your show every day. And I said, well, thank you. That's that's really touching. She said, No, you don't understand. I'm an Alzheimer's caregiver. And you're one of the last people that can reach her. Oh, so we talk, oh, we watch your show, or we listen to your show every day. Because apparently, I've got this rather unique laugh. And she said every time you laugh, she goes, there he goes again. Beautiful. And what that and thank you,

Unknown Speaker  38:18  
Savannah, Savannah, Grace. And,

Unknown Speaker  38:21  
and that taught me that the impact that we have, as human beings to another human being can be like it was like for you through your music for me through the radio and through podcasts. Or if you are, I was also a bus driver for 12 years. If you're a bus driver for 12 years, and you're smiling and you're saying hello to people in a positive way. We all have a positive impact that we can make.

Unknown Speaker  38:48  
That's exactly right. Exactly. Everything, we're doing everything, it doesn't matter if you're just going into the grocery store. You know, if you're a shopper in a grocery store, you can you can make someone's day positive, or you can you can totally ruin their day, you know, or or try to attempt to ruin it, you know, and, and so yeah, we've got to think about these things don't wait. We really

Unknown Speaker  39:13  
do and and it's really cool. And the I use the example of a a grocery store teller all the time because they're on their feet all day. And they may go through hours of having nobody smile at them during the course of their day, and they're still there every day. And if we can make if you can make somebody smile, if you can say something nice to somebody you can turn around their day, and there's an energetic thing that goes along with that.

Unknown Speaker  39:40  
Yeah, that's right. You know, are during the pandemic. We live in this little town. It's on, you know, on the bay on Lake Erie. And we have one of everything. We have one grocery store, one post office one, you know pharmacy, one thrift store And, and so we would go down to a little grocery store and get our get our groceries and they took such good care of us and the tellers there were so amazing the cashiers, and I, I thank them I said, You guys are our heroes like, here we are, you know, one point. I don't know if it was like that in Seattle, but at one point, we were not allowed to leave the house unless it was to go just for groceries necessities. And so we would walk down the street to the grocery store. And you know what, everyone's hiding behind the masks and everything you can't smile, but everyone was so friendly. And that year they actually the the grocery store owners actually gave us a gift a Christmas present. Or when they're cool and thanked us for we went in to get some groceries and they said here we've got something for you. And they they went back and I mean, it had our names on it and everything. It wasn't just a we're gonna give her the first 50 shoppers. It was tn Tommy, thank you for your patronage this year. And I was like, Well, you guys should be the ones getting gifts because you're the ones who kept us all going, you know, and kept food going when when the food shortages were happening and trucks couldn't get in. And you know, so. So it doesn't matter what you do. It's it's a gift and the calling and you can make you can make someone's life to so much better by by the joy and enthusiasm you put into what you're doing at the moment.

Unknown Speaker  41:33  
I like you you're a nice person. And the craft is is my guest today. And she is She's a phenomenal spirit. She's got great energy, she puts out great music, and we're gonna play another song. So stay with us right now because we're gonna play this song. But first I want to find out how night Hawk came to be. And it's an also an award winner.

Unknown Speaker  42:00  
Right? So the version that you're about to play is called Nighthawk revised. And we wrote this song, it was based on a true story. One day, again, I was questioning what's it all about Alfie and was kind of tired and looking for my voice searching for my voice where you know, the next direction and went outside and I found this wounded Nighthawk it was it was in the morning to like around nine o'clock in the morning, which was really bizarre because they're, they're night birds. Right? Nocturnal, and but she had been hit by a car, I guess. And so she was on the edge of our lawn. And I went and got a box and put her in the box. And she was still alive. And and I didn't really know what she was. I took a picture of her and put up on Facebook. And so look, we live near bird studies Canada. So it's a very beautiful area with a lot of a lot of birds, a lot of people that know a lot about birds. And so someone said to that's a night hawk. And so call such and such. So I called the vet that they suggested and she said we'll bring her in and I'll see if I can do something with her. And if her sternum is broken, then there's nothing we can do. So I took the burden and left her overnight. And this whole this whole healing process started by this connection with this bird. And by the time the vet called me a day later and said I took her to my farm and I set her free and she's she's survived. She's gone. She's She's free. She's flying. I literally wept, you know. And so we wrote the song Nighthawk and recorded it and put it on this album. And we made it very big if we have any Outlander fans watching we wanted to make it a big like Scottish Outlander film track. Bear McCrady track

Unknown Speaker  44:10  
it's a beautiful song I gotta tell you,

Unknown Speaker  44:12  
thank you. Thank you. It's very It means a lot to me the song

Unknown Speaker  44:17  
and what award did it win?

Unknown Speaker  44:19  
So we just won in September the 2022 Song of the Year in the Peace category at the Empower Music Awards in Kansas.

Unknown Speaker  44:30  
Congratulations. adulation sad. It's just awesome. So with that because we're going to run out of time here but with that I want to play this song because it is really a special song so stay with us everybody this is called Nighthawk.

Unknown Speaker  44:59  
Luck you Not from a heart place mercy on my soul feels like I'm caught in a wire cage the Twilight falls through my shadow conference and I die she's so free just yesterday I found you wound it on the ground your feathers good and lifting I heard you open your throat and fell to it broke my heart fell just like you

Unknown Speaker  47:03  
can get so broken we can find our way until we feel God watches over small things mercy lifted you I know you found your wings

Unknown Speaker  47:26  
With all right is tm a graph that is just beautiful

Unknown Speaker  48:35  
thank you Kevin.

Unknown Speaker  48:37  
gave me that but that that is epic. That's one of those then that was your intention? Well

Unknown Speaker  48:42  
yeah and but you know thanks to Kevin Fisher and Tommy who did the production on it and just brought brought the whole vision to reality you know with with the instrumentation

Unknown Speaker  48:54  
it takes a team hmm Yep. And you guys are you guys are just awful. I would love to have you and Tommy on together to

Unknown Speaker  49:04  
oh we would love that I'll get Tommy to put his hat on and get

Unknown Speaker  49:12  
cuz it because you get you guys you have got obviously you've got a lot of talent and and I would love for you to be wildly successful

Unknown Speaker  49:23  
well we're we're it's interesting, isn't it because as as you say that I have right in front of me on the fridge. I printed this out success is truly in the gift of grace and inspiring and changing a Life

Unknown Speaker  49:42  
couldn't agree with you more.

Unknown Speaker  49:43  
So it kind of ties in with we're talking about doesn't it success would be yes, lovely to have fame and you know, I've always envisioned having a song and a big you know Oscar winning a war Ward Movie. and all the trappings that go along with that. And but at this stage after what we've gone through in this world and seeing what, you know, potentially what's going on now, with pipelines that are being oil pipelines being, you know, everything going on, yep. I think what what you and I've just hit on today, you know, if we've touched one person today, if one person has listened to this, and, and they are feeling better because of our show than that successful,

Unknown Speaker  50:34  
I couldn't agree more. My job is to provide the best content I can, which is why you're here because you are really, really good. But then it's to allow other people to have it let it blossom as it's supposed to. I firmly believe that I put it out. And the other side, the they're responsible for it. This point on, but it's good, but it's going to be on YouTube, it's going to be on a podcast, we're going to do everything that we can to, to promote your work. And by the way, TM MoGraph is her name and you can go to to mograph.com and buy the album with love that just came out. And if that does have it does have a Nighthawk on it.

Unknown Speaker  51:22  
That's right with love and Nighthawk. And our song, go your own way, is on there. And that's, that's a lot of fun. And so it's good. And when you go to our store website, you'll also see you can buy my children's book, Jake, The Road Dog. It's got three songs in it crazy, beautiful, two wolves, which is based on the Cherokee legend. And we've got all kinds of stuff on there. And you can listen to our podcast show Jake's play songs and tales, as well.

Unknown Speaker  51:51  
Very cool. Well, you know, I would love to be on your podcast, but I don't play anything. So all I do is talk to people will

Unknown Speaker  51:58  
talk about positive inspiration. Absolutely, yeah, to do that. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker  52:05  
And I got to run, but I want to make sure that I give you a minute to tell our audiences listening now. Or those that will be listening later. Anything that you would like them to know.

Unknown Speaker  52:17  
I just want to say, everyone out there listening, you know, we've got some weather events going on right now with hurricanes all over the place. We've got the war in the Ukraine still going. Let's all just join together in a moment of thought. And if we put out a positive thought together, collective thought at this particular moment of healing and peace and protection. Let's just put that out into the universe and everyone. Just take care of yourselves and take care of those around you and keep those thoughts going into the universe.

Unknown Speaker  53:03  
And like I always end every show with Be kind to one another because each other's all we got. If you'll be so kind by the way, I just want to thank you. I'm not done with you. We're gonna have to do more. If you're okay with you. Yeah, I love.

Unknown Speaker  53:19  
I love this. I love this. Kevin, this is great. So stay right

Unknown Speaker  53:23  
there. And I will be right back. By the way. Again, go to Tia mograph.com and buy her book by the record to look at all of her stuff. It's beautiful. It really

Unknown Speaker  53:35  
thank you Matthew steeply for chiming in today. Thanks. Yes, indeed.

Unknown Speaker  53:39  
He's me. He's an awesome friend of the show. And it's great. That Canadian psychic is who that is. Oh, hold on. I'll be right back. Hey, thanks for enjoying this episode all the way to the end. Please give us a like and subscribe to this channel. This has been a production of positive talk radio dotnet please visit our website oddly named positive talk radio dotnet for more details about us and our mission, which is to provide great positive programming designed to inspire us all. I'm Kevin Macdonald really proud of these shows, and I truly hope that you'll like them and share them with friends and family. So on behalf of our entire team, remember Be kind to one another because each other's all we got to

Unknown Speaker  54:23  
do