Captain Phil kicks off the new decade with Congressman John Hall (http://www.johnhallmusic.com/) in the 3:00 pm hour talking about the return of his classic song, "Wake Up" featured on Orleans II. We'll be discussing Johns time in Congress representing New York's 19th District, his career as a singer/songwriter in the band Orleans and his 2016 autobiography Still The One: A Rock'n'Roll Journey to Congress and Back.

Afterwards we'll hear from Nektar band members Derek "Mo" Moore and Ryche Chlanda as Nektar (https://nektarsmusic.com/) prepares to set out on their 2020 tour featuring local appearances at The New Jersey Proghouse on January 10th, Orion Studios on January 11th & 12th and New York City's Iridium on January 14th -16th!
(https://www.facebook.com/nektarRocks/)

All this and the best new Progressive Rock music on Captain Phil's Planet!
Derek Moore photo by Joel Barrios (https://www.norrsken.photography/)

John Hall (http://www.johnhallmusic.com/)

The Return of WAKE UP by Orleans
John Hall and Orleans are re-releasing an obscure album track, “Wake Up,” as a lyric video. Listen to it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uswijrBzE4g.
Co-written with Johanna Hall, “Wake Up” first appeared on the 1974 album, ORLEANS II. It features the original quartet: John on guitar, Larry Hoppen playing guitar and organ, Lance Hoppen on bass, and Wells Kelly on drums.
“Wake Up” is a call for action on environmental problems affecting our air, water and food, and every living thing including plants and animals. Although written in '74, it is painfully relevant today.
“Plastic is filling up our oceans, rivers and lakes,” John says; "Extremes are getting more extreme be they floods, droughts, cyclones or wildfires."
In addition to “Still The One" and "Dance With Me,” John and Johanna co-wrote “Half Moon” for Janis Joplin and “Miss Grace” for the Tymes. He is perhaps best known as the founder of the band Orleans, co-writing their biggest hits, Steve Wariner's #1 country hit "You Can Dream of Me," and also “Power,” which became the theme of the NO NUKES concerts in 1979. John Hall has long been a political and environmental activist, serving 10 years in elected office culminating with two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He returned to music in 2012 with Orleans, and this year performed with them across the country. He’s also continuing in his activism, and encouraging people to get involved with government and social causes.

Derek Moore and Nektar (https://nektarsmusic.com/)

Born in Goldthorpe in Yorkshire, England Mo was heavily integrated into the busy Sheffield music scene by 1964. Leaving for France with Judds mates and the famous George Gill, Mo re-met Ron Howden who he knew from Sheffield at a club in Nancy France. Ron immediately walked up to the band and asked to join. The drummers swapped bands that night and the powerhouse rhythm combination of Ron and Mo was born.
Together they have worked their way through music for over 55 years, they only have to look at each other and they are locked down.
Having played around the world, including the Panathinaikos stadium in Athens Greece, where they played for 60,000 people with the band “Prophets”. This gig was booked by Nico Papathanassiou, the brother of Vangelis a close friend of Mo and Ron.
Eventually meeting up with Mick in Furth setting the stage for the Nektar music and light theater in 1969. Not long after, the music and light theater grew along with Mo and Micks’ collaboration with Lyrics for most all of the Nektar classic catalog.
By the end of 1969, the guitarist for Prophecy left, so Mo sent a telegram to Roye in Sweden asking him to join the band. After their first gig, the name of the band was changed forever to Nektar.
Now Mo is back with the band and the dynamic duo of Ron and Mo are driving Nektar to new heights on “The Other Side”.

Ryche Chlanda (http://rychechlandaflyingdreams.com/)

Ryche is an accomplished guitarist, producer and composer. As founding member of one of America’s first progressive rock groups, Fireballet, he has proven himself to be an unsung hero in the progressive genre as a guitarist and songwriter. In 1978, he played with Nektar, collaborating with Mo, Ron and Taff on music that has now become part of their new album “The Other Side”.
Ryche spent 3 years touring the world with the well respected 70’s band, Renaissance. He is also an award-winning soundtrack composer. He has written the title track for the movie, “Key Exchange” and won an award for the independently produced movie “The Rising”.
As a producer, he has produced for various artists, as well as the self-titled “Ryche Chlanda and Flying Dreams” and “Searching for Something Somewhere” albums, both released under the Transglobal® Record Label Distributed though Sony’s The Orchard.