In Tune is the music journal that gives viewers a backstage pass to the local music scene by featuring the musicians and the emotions which motivate, inspire and evolve live music in Tucson and Southern Arizona. In Tune is hosted by Katherine Byrnes, a Tucson-based jazz vocalist and University of Arizona Music Program alum. Segments of the upcoming episode of In Tune include Calexico: A convergence of musical expressions, Leila Lopez: Folk Fusion With a Distinctive Voice, and Namoli Brennet: Transcending Musical Boundaries. Calexico, a band from Tucson, Arizona, has created a distinctive sound by bringing together many performers and musical styles. In this segment we see the band, with all the core members, performing some of the songs that have made fans across several continents. Leila Lopez has been exploring, discovering and broadening her musical mind since she was a small girl growing up in Tucson. She has found inspiration in a variety of instruments, including the drums, bass guitar, flutes, hand percussion, violin and mandolin. Leila currently works as an educator in a Waldorf school and she says that teaching provides her with a great deal of inspiration for her music. The music of Namoli Brennet is often labeled as folk. But if you listen closely you can tell that the lyrics and tone of her songs push beyond the boundaries of this catchall generic term. Brennet was born male, and transitioned to female. She says that without embarking on this transformative journey she would not have been able to write and perform music with any sort of creative substance. She may have had a few distractions in the process, but her roundabout path to becoming a singer songwriter and touring musician has been well served by her ongoing academic focus on music. In her home studio, where she’s currently fine tuning the mix of her upcoming CD, she moves fluidly between piano, guitar, mandolin, and bass.
