Artbeat: February 2024

Posted on February 13, 2024 By Editor The Artbeat

Blue Label Music and Dreams

Tina Turner’s famous song asks, “What’s love got to do with it?”

According to Robert Lester Folsom, Darren Ronan and Laura Evans, love has everything to do with that passionate compulsion to create.

Ronan met Evans when he was hired to record Evans’ punk band, then they kept “running into each other around town.” That first creative interaction established a relationship based on mutual interests in music, literature and visual arts. The couple married in the Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas in 1995 and have shared their passion for the arts ever since.

Evans is now a well-known and established photographer, and Ronan is a musician who has been playing drums or guitar in various bands since he was 16 years old, in addition to establishing the Ronan School of Music.

Ronan said, “I love the freedom in teaching and playing music. It allows for creativity, fun and self-expression.”

Ronan’s cheerful disposition encourages a love of their craft in his students, and they perform at numerous events all over town. Ronan plays solo gigs with various bands, including SwingBone and the Robert Lester Folsom Band.

Singer/songwriter Robert Lester Folsom grew up listening to music that his parents played on the radio and loved the “amazing singing” in a little country church in Adel, Georgia, where he grew up. He took piano lessons as a child but switched to guitar after seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. He played, wrote music and lyrics, and ran off to Nashville before he finished high school. But he returned, finished school, formed a band called Abacus in 1978 and recorded the “Music and Dreams” album. After moving to Jacksonville, he played in a Christian rock band called Revolution Friday and recorded a CD. But nothing was going well for him artistically until he got an unexpected call.

“A fellow in L.A. wanted to release my album “Music and Dreams” on CD. Then a guy from New York wanted it on vinyl,” said Folsom.

In 2020, Folsom played a show in New York City and things progressed rapidly. His music was being used in movies, TV shows and commercials.

“Suddenly, my music from way back was getting attention,” he said.

With Ronan on drums, the band played the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in October 2023, and the audience was singing along.

“It was a surreal experience. I felt like my desire to be recognized as an artist had finally been achieved – even if it took over 40 years! My wife, Sheila, was there and my daughters,” said Folsom.

Evans, who, in addition to her own professional work, does posters, CD covers and promotions for her husband’s shows, photographed the celebratory event.