Michele Clark's Sunset Sessions, A New Alternative for the Independent Artist

The 15th annual Michele Clark’s Sunset Sessions was held on February 16^th-19^th, 2012 at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, Rancho Bernardo, CA. For those independent artists not yet discovered or for those former major label artists looking for a fresh start, Sunset Sessions is the place for you. Michele has brought industry movers and shakers to pair with Radio industry movers and shakers with a common goal of helping to break new artists. Sky Daniels, Program Director KCSN/Los Angeles said it best. "One of the great frustrations of the music business is the failure to eliminate 'silos', and bring all influential segments together to create an effective community. Sunset Sessions is bringing together opinion leaders from radio, Film and TV music supervisors, record labels and New Talent to share insight. It's most important goal is to remind all of us of our love for music. True artist development finds daylight every year at the Sunset Sessions."

Keynotes were conducted by Warner Brothers Music Group’s Co-president Livia Tortella and Cumulus Triple A KFOG/San Francisco’s director of programming Denise Constantine. Mr. Constantine was interviewed by industry legend Ben Fong Torres. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres (born Fong Kwok Seung), changed his surname to Torres and posed as a Filipino in order to emigrate to the United States. His family later adopted the hyphenated surname, Fong-Torres.  He is the brother of the late Shirley Fong-Torres. Ben was portrayed in the 2000 film Almost Famous by actor Terry Chen.  The fictional version of Fong-Torres was character William Miller’s editor at Rolling Stone.

In real life, Fong-Torres, who graduated from San Francisco State University in 1966 with a B.A. in radio-TV-film, was a writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone from almost the magazine's inception. He conducted interviews for Rolling Stone of entertainment figures including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, comedian Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt’s first cover story in 1975. He also profiled Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney and Rodney Dangerfield. A Fong-Torres interview with Ray Charles was awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. 

Fordham University’s Triple A WFUV/New York MD Rita Houston moderated the Music Meeting panel; All Media Guide Group founder and Lifetime Network’s music supervisor Marianne Goode and California State University Northridge’s Triple A KCSN/Los Angeles PD Sky Daniels co-moderated the music supervisors/radio round table town hall meeting. Industry icon Danny Goldberg moderated the Moguls of the New World Panel. They all did a fantastic job keeping the discussions positive and fluent. 

There were several outstanding acts that performed for us during the two day summit. Some of those acts were Jimmy Cliff, EVERLAST, Eve 6, BUSHWALLA, Tyrone Wells, Yuna, Sara Milonovich & DaisyCutter, The Villains, Brothers of Brazil, SLATR, Laura Bell Bundy, Rebecca Pidgeon, The Makepeace Brothers, Milow, Ariele Verninis, Arlan, Feiles, Laura Warshauer, The Dirt Drifters, Chris Shinn, Marit Larsen and the annual Warner Brothers Late Night Lounge. Reverend Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith of the Agape Media  International gave an inspirational speech on The Transformational Power of Music. Dr. Beckwith encourages listers to be aware of the soundtrack of their own lives. I applaud Michele and kristy for a job well done. I'm sure that Sunset Sessions 2013 will be bigger, better, and even more inspirational.

This years event was sponsored by ALL MEDIA MUSIC GROUP And KCSN.

For more, visit sunsetsessions.org.