They say that art is often borne from adversity. With his new album, Kingdom From, due for release April 20, John Schreiner demonstrates how even the most perilous period in one’s life can result in some of the most moving and compelling music imaginable.

“There are plenty of reasons to pursue music,” Schreiner notes. “But every real artist I’ve known insists they were writing to save their own life.”

That’s certainly true of Kingdom From. Written in the aftermath of Schreiner’s seven year bout with drug addiction. it was spawn from a debilitating period in his life that found him mourning the loss of friends and family members, struggling with stifled creativity and attempting to resolve the conflict between his personal demons and the need to maintain his equilibrium and responsibilities. It was, he says, a malaise marked by moral and emotional anguish.

Now well on his way to recovery, Schreiner maintains “the metaphor of the phoenix that’s risen from the ashes could not be more aptly applied.”

Written and recorded between February and August of last year, the album was initiated within a four day writing retreat at a cabin in Berkley Springs, West Virginia that was attended by John and his guitar playing brother Zach, bassist Jay Glaspy, and drummer Zach Miller. Half the material was co-written by Schreiner and his companions during the retreat, with the rest of the songs completed by Schreiner on his own before and after his Achilles transfer surgery last April. 

The album was subsequently recorded at Ivakota Studio in Washington D.C. and produced and engineered by Ivakota owner Ben Green.

With a sound that at times brings to mind the Rolling Stones, the Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr., Kings of Leon, and Royal Blood, the record documents Schreiner’s journey along his path to personal and professional recovery and redemption. “I found the strength to rise above the pain that had submerged my entire existence,” he reflects. “I found my voice, and with it, the possibilities that come from determining my own destiny.”

Songs such "Miss Marietta," "Coyote Beautiful" and "Uh Oh Love" -- the latter a number one hit on Reverbnation’s regional rock charts -- are celebratory in their stance, flush with drive and determination. 

A video for “Miss Marietta,” which will be released concurrently as the album’s first single, will go public on May 17.

“The album is bookended by a pair of tracks that encapsulate the respective start and end of an era in my life,” Schreiner explains. “The first song and the album’s namesake, "Kingdom From," captures the internal perspective that crystalized within me as I emerged from drug addiction in 2017. The tone of the lyrics is merciless and unyielding, but for me it’s very hopeful. In Jungian terms, it is me speaking to my shadow, knowing what I have come through by conquering the demons I needed to defeat to take control of my life. I’ve emerged confident of my own strengths and grateful for the victory I achieved, as well as the fact that I can now look forward to living the life I’ve ultimately chosen to build.” 

He notes that "Hiiiiiiigh,” the final song of the set, marks another pantheon reached late last year, that being the birth of his son, Valor. 

“The morning after my wife and I received confirmation that the pregnancy was healthy, I woke up with a deep and euphoric clarity...a  sense of joy and reward I felt about Val, juxtaposed with memories of the life I'd left just a year before he was conceived. It was overwhelming. I described the sensation of that moment as accurately as I could, and that's in fact where the song came from.” 

One of the most sought after musicians in the Washington D.C. area, Schreiner’s performed for members of the Senate and House of Representatives, several Fortune 500 companies, and in concert with such notables as Brian McKnight and Ed Sheeran. 

“With music, it really wasn’t like I had a choice,” Schreiner reflects. “I was compelled to pursue it, and knew that I would be a professional musician by the time my parents divorced when I was only nine.”  That decision led him to pick up the guitar at the tender age of 12.

With three earlier albums to his credit, he currently teaches and counsels upcoming young musicians at Contemporary Music Center in Washington. He also commits himself to serving the needs of the military community and supporting the causes that promote their welfare. 

Following the release of Kingdom From in April, Schreiner has a full slate of activities planned. He’ll be a featured panelist at this year’s Wammie Awards in Washington D.C. and perform at the East Coast Music Conference, the Leidos 50th Anniversary celebration, a sold-out event at Jammin’ Java and at MGM National Harbor, where he’ll open for Jethro Tull.

Ultimately, Schreiner hopes that the new album will inspire others. “I want people to feel empowered enough to regain control of their lives and to have the confidence to direct their habits and actions towards the accomplishing those things that lead to life’s true calling.” 

Kingdom From Track Listing

1. Kingdom From 

2. Pale Horse

3. Miss Marietta

4. Rolling Stoned 

5. Coyote Beautiful

6. Uh Oh Love

7. Sway 

8. Slow Sure

9. Hiiiiiiigh

Life comes with a fair share of regrets. Even a life well-lived brings hints of remorse and the feeling that if there was a way to do certain things over, then the choice would be to do it differently and avoid mistakes made in the past.

Naturally, that’s not possible. There’s no time machine that can transport us back in time and repair the mistakes and bad judgement that haunt us later on. Instead, we’re forced to live with present circumstance and somehow reconcile any missteps whatever way we can.

Richmond, Virginia singer/songwriter Jonathan Facka addresses the displacement and disappointment of one of the greatest heartaches of all -- that of lost love -- in a new video for his song “The Tree,” a track from his debut album Streetlight in the Woods, which he composed with additional contributions by Elliot Johnson, Anthony Farris and Dylan Johnson.

The video, directed and edited by Forrest Mason, will be officially released on May 16th, “Love a Tree Day." The plaintive-yet-passionate story the song inspired is set in a bleak and snowy landscape. It conveys  a tale about two people who failed to connect early on because they denied their feelings and submerged them due to lack of mutual awareness. The remorse it conveys is both painful and palatable.

“You disappeared a long time ago,” the narrator sings.

“Life has a funny way of taking us down a certain road.” 

Later, that sadness turns somber:

“And there you were,

Lying cold as ice,

I guess I never knew how you truly felt for me...”

The song is a serene and sublime metaphor for how people often unintentionally take separate paths in life, only to wonder why they chose to diverge later on. It questions what could have been, if only one person or the other had chosen to explore certain feelings that were repeatedly denied. The singer is forced to acknowledge that sadly, it’s too late to change what transpired.

As the song says, “There’s no such thing as time machines.”

“This song was designed to take the mind on a journey and paint the image of a fantasy world,” Facka has said of the song. “It’s symbolized by a tree that both of the individuals gravitated to in their youth. It represents missed opportunity, and also the fact that any chance of rekindling the relationship is dead, even if the idea is not forgotten.”

Ironically, “The Tree” was the last addition to the album overall. It was, Facka insists, the final piece of a puzzle. “I don’t know where this song came from exactly, but it helped me decide what direction I want to go in moving forward,” he reflects. “It echoes my desire to focus on imagery and storytelling.” Operating in a melancholy alt-folk noir,  Facka’s sound reflects the influence of current and contemporary singer/songwriters such as Gregory Alan Isakov, Passenger and Tallest Man on Earth.

Written in September 2017, the song took Facka three months to complete. He was joined on the session by Johnson, his cowriter, and singer Thalia Tymowski. “She was a perfect fit for the song,” he recalls. “I couldn’t imagine what this song would have become without her.”

Facka, a former stand-up comedian, originally integrated his songs into his stand-up routines as part of the process to make people laugh. Yet tragedy informs much of his music, having suffered the loss of his father at age 22 and several other unfortunate incidents along the way. As a result, music has become a salvation of sorts. “You can say things in lyrics that are best left unspoken in everyday life,” he maintains. “Authenticity is important, best shared by those that live the scenarios they sing about.”

Facka began performing his music at an open mic night in 2016, but, in fact, he’s been making music for the past 15 years. Classically-trained, he played clarinet in Virginia’s number one high-school honors band in an all-state competition. He later took up guitar because, he says, “clarinet doesn’t attract the chicks.” In short order, he attracted more than the opposite sex. He wrote his first song ten years ago, and now, with “The Tree,” he recently accumulated over a thousand plays on Spotify.

Ultimately, Facka’s journey of discovery has paid off. “I started writing songs for myself,” he reflects. “I wrote songs to cope with traumatic events that occurred in my late teens and early twenties. I was fortunate that I eventually found the courage I needed to share them with people.”

We, his listeners, are fortunate as well.

Whirling fiercely in the wake of wildfires, fear-induced headlines and a pandemic in its path was the too-real tornado that struck Nashville in March 2020. Admittedly shaken up by the storm, Folk-Americana singer/songwriter Calista Garcia snapped out of fear by turning to music… specifically, “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson. As howling winds have continued over the past year, Calista has kept her calm by tapping back into this feeling through renewed awareness of the beauty that remains. On nature walks by her house, for example, she has come to notice how the canopies of leaves wave hello as she walks by; it is from this tender place, she has created a musical world to reflect what she has witnessed. Lending her lyrics now to listeners, Calista Garcia’s “A Beautiful World” EP, out October 29th, 2021, provides refuge through the power of rose-colored perspective.

“I created ‘A Beautiful World’ to be an expression of radical optimism,” Calista shares. “Optimism, not because life is full of sunshine and rainbows, but rather in spite of how tough it can be... I think holding knowledge of the bad and still believing good can prevail is the bravest thing we can do.”

As she has accessed hope through songwriting, Calista has found herself writing the EP in solitude from safe places like the park benches nearby, her piano and the floor of her bedroom. Notably, the only co-write on the EP, “After You’re Gone,” came from a Zoom collaboration with Rachel Weisbart and Patrick Oberstaedt of the Gender Gnomes; speaking to the loss of family members during the pandemic, this song has already moved listeners to tears including composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa. Produced by Buddy Speir and Calista Garcia at 38 North Studio, “A Beautiful World” was engineered by Sean Russell (Damien & Stephen Marley, Allison Krauss, Bruno Mars), mixed by Grammy Award Winner Jim Scott of Plyrz Studios (The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Sting, Foo Fighters) and mastered by Grammy Award Winner Richard Dodd (Dixie Chicks, Tom Petty, Boz Scaggs). Featured musicians include Calista Garcia (vocals, acoustic, electric and resonator guitar, harmonica, Wirlitzer electric piano), Buddy Speir (acoustic & electric guitar, Wurliter electric piano, percussion), Harrison Finks (Hammond B3 organ, piano), Eric Scott (bass, backing vocals), Ben Tufts (drums, percussion), Denise Garcia (backing vocals) and Jim Scott (percussion).

Without question, Calista Garcia’s fiercely-hopeful disposition has continued to propel her music career forward. In spite of its challenges, 2021 has managed to be a hallmark year as Calista was recently nominated Chris Austin Songwriting Finalist at MerleFest, playing a summer of live shows alongside Bad Cameo and as a part of Show X’s tour with The Last Real Circus. Previous releases include her critically-acclaimed debut EP “Wild Woman” (2019) which was selected in the 2020 Independent Music Awards for “Best Roots/Country EP,” recognized by the International Music Awards (IAMA), International Songwriting Competition (ISC) and the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest (MASC). In addition, Calista Garcia’s extensive musical history includes her title as 2020’s National YoungArts Gold Winner in Voice/Singer-Songwriter, 2021 Alicia Key’s She is the Music Foundation Songwriting Fellow, 2020 Johnny Mercer Songwriting Project Fellow, 2017-18 Berklee Performance Showcase Winner, 2017 Bernard Ebbs Young Songwriter of the Year and two-time Grammy Foundation Young Songwriter Program Artist. As Calista continues to shine light onstage, tour plans continue with an upcoming show at The Birchmere alongside the renowned Rick Wakeman of “Yes” on October 24th, 2021. 

An emblem signifying growth and maturity for her as an artist, “A Beautiful World” has helped Calista to reflect on the world around us all and her place in it. With pure intentions to impart good on the world, she is humbled by how these songs have already served to hold her up this past year; she hopes they will do the same for others, too.

In Calista’s words, “My greatest wish is that this song helps you as a listener let go of your fears, and feel a little freer from your hangups. This really is a beautiful world we get to live in.”