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OutWest in the News
Recent Articles and Interviews ![]() Fast draws, easy laughs, good timesSaugus man, inspired by Westerns, becomes expert showman, trains the stars in the art of gunslingingBy Natalie Everett Signal Staff Writer neverett@the-signal.com 661-259-1234 x518 x517 June 17, 2010 Saugus resident Joey Dillon, 31, stood on Main Street on Wednesday night, dressed in black from his boots to his hat.
http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/30040/ __________________________________
Touching Hearts With Harmony
![]() Cookin' Up Great Music are Women on the Move Trio Trish Lester, Joan Enguita, Linda Geleris with OutWest co-owner Bobbi Bell By Michelle Sathe ![]() Assistant Features Editor msathe@the-signal.com Photos by Dan Watson 661-259-1234 x522 Posted: May 15, 2010 8:22 p.m. POSTED May 16, 2010 4:55 a.m. It starts with a few guitar chords, then the percussion moves in and is iced with layer upon layer of gorgeous harmony, as Joan Enguita, Trish Lester and Linda Geleris, also known as Women on the Move Trio, launch into the folksy tune "Walk a Mile." "We might not be the same, but we're not so different you and I, we only have this moment, to see eye to eye," Enguita sang in her clear, warm voice as Geleris strummed her mandolin and Lester kept the beat with a tambourine.Seeing eye-to-eye is just one of the band's messages. With songs ranging from tributes to American soldiers to ending domestic violence to taking a moment to reconnect with friends, the trio is making their mark in the music world with increased exposure on the internet and concert tours that have taken them as far as Portland, Oregon. The Women on the Move Trio will play at downtown Newhall's OutWest retail store 7 p.m. Saturday. "Trish came here during one of our Art Walk events and handed me a CD. I listened and it was fantastic," said OutWest owner Bobbi Bell. "Then I saw them at (U.S. Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon's, R-Santa Clarita) Women's Conference and I was amazed. The audience wept and laughed. Their music really touches hearts."Formed in 2007 after appearing on the Enguita-produced Women on the Move compilation CD "Beautiful" - which featured 15 female singer-songwriters performing their own music - the trio performs their own songs, with a few Joni Mitchell classics mixed in. "We're all individual artists who have been playing solo shows for years, but once we got acquainted and became available to work together, we realized we really liked the sound," said Lester. "It's so nice to have back-ups. I hate to perform alone anymore," Enguita said. All of the Women on the Move Trio discovered a passion for song as children, but followed very different paths to reach their musical destiny. Geleris called herself a songwriter at heart who started at 14 or 15 years old, but who didn't delve fully into her talent until after the birth of her third child, who is now 15. "I decided then to take the gifts that were given me and move forward with music, whatever that looked like," Geleris said. The Glendora resident started by pouring her feelings into song lyrics and arrangements, followed by networking with other musicians to learn the ins and outs of getting her work heard. During her first networking mission, she made friendships that ultimately led to her original song "Call Me Crazy" being featured in the 1997 Columbia Tri-Star film "Implicated." Since then, Geleris, a former high school teacher, has released two CDs, including her latest "If I Only Had a Minute," as well as founded a songwriters networking website called SongNet.com. Lester described herself as a mostly self-taught musician who started playing the piano at age 4. As a teenager she studied folk guitar from Bud Dashiell, half of the 1960s folk duo Bud & Travis, and at 22, began her performing career in front of hundreds of soldiers as part of a trio that played in Korea during her stint in the United States Army.Once she returned to civilian life, Lester's path changed course. "My mom told me, ‘Don't be a starving artist.' So I got a series of regular jobs, got married, and had kids," Lester said. "But the music was always with me." So much so that she gave up a three-decade career in public relations after several relatives died in the course of a year. "I was financially and emotionally drained. I thought, ‘Who am I?' I felt like God had put me here to be a musician," Lester said. She began collecting song lyrics, then learning the arrangements. Soon enough, Lester was writing original songs and put out her first CD "Plymouth Belvedere" in 2007. The title track was picked up for a National Public Radio "Car Talk" compilation album in 2009. Enguita grew up as a self-described military brat who first picked up a guitar when her family was stationed in Madrid, Spain. She settled on a 1-acre property in Lancaster in 1983 and worked as a Social Security employee until taking an early retirement in 2003, which allowed her to focus full-time on her music career. Songs from Enguita's 2005 "Two Suitcases" CD have aired nationally and in Europe, and she won a $2,500 prize in the "Music from Home" competition by Ritter Ranch. Enguita also created her own label, Red Coyote Records, and was the producer on the "Beautiful" CD, which has been an Editor's Pick at the independent music website CDBaby.com for more than two years. Women on the Move Trio is working on their debut CD, scheduled for release in late 2010 or early 2011. Works by each individual artist are available for purchase online through iTunes or ReverbNation.com, and their CDs are carried at retail locations like OutWest. It may not be the traditional method for musical stardom, i.e., a manager, a label and a recording contract, but that's just fine with these artists. "The way the business works today is absolutely in our favor. We have control of our work and can pick the cream of the crop of all our songs to showcase," Enguita said. Meanwhile, they are cutting their chops on the road, with performances as varied as McKeon's first Women's Conference held at the College of the Canyons campus on Feb. 13. The event had an audience in the hundreds. They also played to a battered women's shelter in Oregon in March. The band is committed to helping victims of domestic violence, inspired by the plight of Enguita's sister, who fled an abusive relationship with her two children. Enguita's "Heading to the Shore" was written in her honor. "We want to bring awareness to women that they can have a better life," she said. "I'm really proud of my sister, that she improved not just her own life, but the life of her kids." All three women play guitar in the band and take turns on percussion. Geleris recently learned the mandolin and the dulcimer, the latter in honor of Joni Mitchell, and has been viewing the artist playing the instrument on YouTube for direction."I watched Mitchell's hands, how she does her tuning on each song. It's really enabled me to improve," Geleris said. For some shows, they break out a big African drum, or djembe. "They're always something rhythmic going on," Lester said. "Yeah, we're really good at shaking," Geleris said with a laugh. Women on the Move Trio, 7 p.m. Saturday, $15 suggested donation, refreshments provided, OutWest, 24265 Main St., Newhall. (661) 255-7087. For more information on the band visit www.WomenontheMoveTrio.com or become a fan on www.ReverbNation.com/WomenontheMove. ![]() ___________________________________ Hometownstation.com KHTS 1220 AM Former Friends of John Boston Interview with John Boston on Radio, Monday, April 19 Guests Bobbi Jean Bell and Singer/Songwriter John Bergstrom http://hometownstation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20072:former-friends-of-john-boston-april-19-2010&catid=121:former-friends-of-john-boston&Itemid=211 _______________________________________________________ 'Gingerbread Cowboy' Finds Fans ![]() Janet Squires reads her children's book to eager listeners at the OutWest store in Newhall. By Michelle Sathe ![]() Assistant Features Editor msathe@the-signal.com Photos by Francisca Rivas 661-259-1234 x522 Posted: April 17, 2010 8:30 p.m. POSTED April 18, 2010 4:55 a.m. There's a stampede at the OutWest store in Newhall, but wild horses are nowhere to be found. Instead, four children are excitedly slapping their hands against their folded legs as Saugus author Janet Squires reads a particularly exciting passage from her popular book "The Gingerbread Cowboy." The Western take on the classic "Gingerbread Man" tale has sold more than 250,000 copies since it was published in 2006. Squires has read "The Gingerbread Cowboy" to thousands of children across the country, yet she's never lost her enthusiasm in bringing the characters on each page to life in front of young fans. She will read and sign the book at the Buckaroo Book Shop during the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Newhall on April 24 and 25. "If you're gonna do it, do it right, don't just read the words," Squires said. "Literacy is very important to me. I'm a writer and a reader. How can I not do everything in my power to help children find as much fun and joy in it as I do?" Born in Hollywood, Squires is the descendant of pioneers that traveled through Texas and New Mexico in a wagon train. Her grandmother cooked on a wood-burning stove until the day she died and Squires, who is part Cherokee Indian, can remember waking up in a cast-iron bed as her father chopped wood outside. "There was no getting away from it. The West was bred into my bones," Squires said. The Squires family gardened, milked goats, raised chickens and looked out for one another, as well as their neighbors. "Family, community, was all a part of it. Today, people get caught up in their day-to-day stuff. We forget to slow down and think about what's really important," Squires said. Squires put herself through college shoeing and grooming horses and earned a teaching degree from California State University, Northridge. She settled in Saugus with her husband Richard, a professor, more than 30 years ago. "We liked the wide open spaces," Squires said. She quit teaching to raise daughters Katherine and Caroline, now both teachers, and began freelance writing non-fiction articles in her spare time. Squires was initially inspired to do so after contacting a horse-related magazine editor about an article in which she had found many factual errors. Challenged by the editor to do a better job, Squires submitted a story, which was published by the magazine. As her children grew older and spent most of the day in school, Squires went back to work as a library media specialist in the Saugus Union School District, which she continues to do part-time. Surrounded by children's books, the seed for "The Gingerbread Cowboy" was planted in 1999. "The Gingerbread Man is an old folk tale that's been around for 150 years and has had about 1,000 different interpretations. There's a Cajun gingerbread man, a Hawaiian gingerbread man, but there hadn't been a Western one. I knew how to fix that," Squires said. Squires finished the 32-page book in 2001. Illustrated by Holly Berry, the book was published and released by Harper Collins in August, 2006. Targeted towards readers ages 4 to 8, "The Gingerbread Cowboy" was featured in 2006 and 2007 at the Autry National Center and also selected as the Arizona governor's "2007 First Grade Book," which placed a copy in the hands of every Arizona first grader. As a result of the latter, Squires toured the state with then governor Janet Napolitano, now the United States secretary of Homeland Security, and watched as she read "The Gingerbread Cowboy" aloud. "It was pretty cool. She (Napolitano) did a terrific job," Squires said. "I was thrilled." Four years after its release, the market for "The Gingerbread Cowboy" continues to grow. According to Squires, there are plans to release an English-Spanish version for special educational programs, as well as an audio version and a line of story cards based on the book. There's even interest from Japan and India. "What castles and knights are to Europe, Westerns are to America. It's really at the core of who we were," Squires said. "I think that's why the book has been so successful." Today, Squires is working on an adult-level novel called "The Boomtown Singers," set in 1887 Arizona, and a children's mystery series to feature a canine Sherlock Holmes-style detective team of Otis Stoutfellow, a pug, and La Bella Stella, an Italian greyhound. The four-legged protagonists are based on Squires' own rescued pug, Otis, and the many homeless dogs she has taken care as part of Animal Rescue Volunteers. The nonprofit organization has a network of foster families, including Squires and her daughter Caroline, that take in shelter animals, often hours before they are scheduled to be euthanized, and provide them with a temporary home until an adopter can be found. Cecelia, Squires' current foster, is a tiny black and tan mixed-breed puppy that weighed less than 2 pounds when she was rescued the day before Christmas. Now six pounds, thanks largely to Squires' bottle feeding the pup, the rambunctious Cecelia was a hit with the audience at OutWest. "I support Animal Rescue volunteers because these dogs are all in homes, living life the way a dog should live, with other dogs, cats, and kids, until they get their permanent home," Squires said. Squires' benevolence extends to children and their parents. She promotes literacy by coordinating a yearly book drive for low-income families, chairing young authors conferences, and teaching writing workshops for children, as well as speaking to parents groups. "I'm all about helping parents perfect their read aloud skills. That's what's going to help their kids become lifelong readers," Squires said. "By the fourth grade, children decide if they're going become readers by choice rather than only reading when they have to. It's not about selling books. If I can get one child's nose in a book, I'm good." Then there are the writers of the world. Squires feels a particular affinity for them and launched a blog, janetsquires.blogspot.com, to help would-be authors through the various processes to publication, as well as providing a virtual shoulder to lean or cry on. "Writing is a very solitary profession, just you and the computer screen or pen and paper. You create in a vacuum and write in a vacuum. Writers need a place to bounce ideas off other people and talk the story out," Squires said. "No one succeeds as a writer on their own." For more information on Janet Squires, visit www.janetsquires.com or http://janetsquires.blogspot.com. For more information on the Cowboy Poetry Festival, visit cowboyfestival.org. ![]() Janet Squires and her book The Gingerbread Cowboy which has sold more than 250,000 copies ________________________________________________________ Interview with Leon Worden SCV Newsmaker of the Week SCV TV, Channel 20, local access http://www.scvtv.com/html/notw268btv.html Invterview with Mike Fleming, Director of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival Bobbi Jean Bell, co-owner of OutWest ---------------------------- Seeing through Lozano’s lens
Profile: After a career in radio this DJ finds a new passion in photography
![]() Lozano, the former morning DJ on FM Power 106, sorts through prints of his photos available for sale at OutWest in Newhall. Photographs By Dan Watson (The Signal) By Michelle Sathe
Assistant Features Editor msathe@the-signal.com 661-259-1234 x522 Posted: March 14, 2010 12:19 a.m. POSTED March 14, 2010 4:55 a.m. A Haitian orphan. Spools of colorful thread. A kitschy '50s motel sign. All seemingly random subjects, but to Valencia fine arts photographer Frank Lozano, equally worthy of his attention. "I bring to life what I desire, which is passion, color and laughter. I love shape and contrast. I walk slow, not only to smell the roses, but to see what's beyond the roses," Lozano said. "There's beauty in everything." Lozano is the featured artist throughout March at OutWest Marketing, a gallery and retail store in Newhall. Dozens of his framed prints adorn the walls, ranging from weather vanes and dried flowers taken at the William S. Hart Museum in Newhall to colorful prints that capture Lozano's extensive travels to such exotic locales such as Haiti, Africa and Puerto Rico. "People are attracted to his work, how his eye picks up images. What I like is that Frank finds beauty in the mundane, in what we see every day, and turns it into art," said OutWest co-owner Bobbi Jean Bell. It's Lozano's first gallery appearance, the start of a fledgling new career. The former FM Power 106 morning disc jockey and current media director for Valencia's Grace Baptist Church has already been picked up as a featured artist at the Janice Hall Designs gallery in Palm Springs and his photos will soon grace the walls of The Horitzon Hotel, also in Palm Springs. The momentum is somewhat shocking to Lozano, who only started posting his photos on Facebook about five months ago to online acclaim - his many friends encouraged him to try his hand at a professional showing. "The fact that I get a chance to hold a camera and point it to a leaf outside of Subway in Stevenson Ranch, take the picture, then post it and have someone tell me, ‘That's so beautiful,' well, how amazing is that?" Lozano said. Lozano's innate enthusiasm and curiosity led him to his original career as a disc jockey. Born in Alice, Texas, Lozano and his family moved to Southern California when he was just 0 months old and eventually settled in Hacienda Heights. As a high school student, Lozano studied architecture and planned to be a graphic artist until he began listening to the radio during his part-time job. The thought of being a disc jockey appealed to him. "It sounded like so much fun. I mentioned the idea to my boss and he said, ‘Frank, you're 18, if it's something you want to do, do it. Live your life without regrets,'" Lozano recalled. He sent an audition cassette tape to KCWM in Victor, Texas, and to Lozano's surprise, he was hired. Admittedly not a country music fan, Lozano said he knew he had no business being on the station. "I'd say on air, ‘That was the new hit from Mel Tillis,' and inevitably someone would call in and say, ‘Son, I believe that was Merle Haggard.' It all sounded the same to me," he said. A year later, Lozano was in Fresno, where he stayed for two years, then moved to San Antonio for five years, where he was the host of several local television programs, including two dance shows. California continued to beckon, however, and Lozano found himself back in Los Angeles in 1988. That same year, he attended the Hollywood Christmas Parade with his mother and became transfixed by the float run by Power 106 or 105.9 FM, a popular hip-hop radio station. "I cried. My mother asked me what was wrong and I said, ‘I'll be at that station in six months," Lozano said. It only took three months before Lozano was offered the overnight shift on Sunday mornings from 2-6 a.m. That quickly earned him a spot hosting the midnight Friday night show. In 1989, Lozano was on the Power 106 float in the Hollywood Christmas Parade. Eventually, Lozano was given the plum "Morning Drive in Los Angeles" spot, which earned him a loyal fan base and the opportunity to hobnob with some of the music industry's top stars. In addition to radio, Lozano's career evolved to include numeral television appearances on "Good Day L.A.," "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Arsenio Hall Show." He moved to Valencia in 2002 from Toluca Lake. When his "Lozano on the Loose" reign on Power 106 ended in 2003, the same year he turned 40, Lozano dedicated himself to faith-based non-profit work for organizations such as Three Angels Children's Relief in Port Au Prince, Haiti. "I know what it's like to hang out with Snoop Dogg and have breakfast with Mariah Carey, but it's nowhere near as cool as seeing the faces of people I've helped out. That's what I love. That's the juice," Lozano said. After Lozano was informed that Three Angels didn't have a Web site, let alone a logo, he flew to the headquarters in Haiti and took photos and video, which led to creating the company's Web site and an informational documentary. What he saw haunts him to this day. "I remember this kid taking a tin cup and dipping it into a pothole and drinking the water from it. And this was before the earthquake," Lozano said, shaking his head. "People are so desperate for help." Lozano donated sales proceeds from his Haitian prints at a recent OutWest art event to Three Angels in January. Closer to home, Lozano volunteers with several local churches, using his graphic skills to design their marketing materials, and has mentored close to 15 teenagers over the last few decades, many of whom have gone on to become disc jockeys themselves. Making connections is important to Lozano, whether it's the people he volunteers with or the natives he meets while traveling the world. During a marketplace excursion from a cruise in the Panama Canal, Lozano noticed a woman who created patterned pots from local materials. He shot her holding one up against a dramatic red wall, her dark skin and weathered hands providing the striking contrast he covets. They struck up a conversation, with the artist asking Lozano about the food on the cruise. When her eyes widened at the description of bountiful fruits available to passengers throughout the day, Lozano headed back to the ship, filled a backpack full of produce and gave it to the woman, who covered her mouth in astonishment at the sight of his offering. "When I see that photo, I'm reminded of that interaction, that woman, the ship, the fruit. To someone else it's a simple picture, but to me, it's way more than that," Lozano said, tears forming in his eyes. "I've always wished that people could see what I see and now they can." View Frank Lozano's at OutWest Marketing through March, 24265 Main St., Newhall. (661) 255-7087. For more info, visit www.franklozano.com or befriend Lozano on Facebook __________________________________________________ |
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