Today I received a message from good friend, blues musician and fellow podcaster Mark Kerr that another fellow podcaster Les Lewellyn has died. Although I never had the opportunity to meet Les personally, his absence will certainly be felt. Les Lewellyn, Mark Kerr and myself produce music podcasts that are carried by Kansas City Online Radio (KCOR) and as such I feel that in some small way was part of his extended family.

Here is a copy of the message that Mark Kerr left this morning on Myspace

Hello friends and fans,

It deeply saddens me to inform all of you, that my best friend Les Lewellyn, passed away in his sleep Tuesday March 11, 2008.

Les was the DJ for the #1 online blues radio show called “The Road Rash Blues Show.
Les also had other online radio shows such as,

1. The Hot Sheet Mon Show - #1 Rock Radio Show online.
2. Chill Pill Show
3. Pirate Radio Hard Rock Show
4. Pirate Radio Soft Rock Show
5. Road Rash Blues Show - #1 Blues Radio Show online
6. No Mans Land - All female artists
7. The Eclectic Podcast
8. Instrumental Madness

Les touched many lives through his shows.
He marketed, featured and promoted indie bands and artists of all genres’.
That otherwise, may have never been given a chance to have their music aired.

I don’t know of another person that was behind the indie movement more than Les.
And he did it all for free.
Les’s fan-base was absolutely enormous.
And well deserved !

Les was a good man with a big heart and beautiful soul.

Les played a big role in the marketing of my music, the building of my website, and the launching of the #2 online blues-rock radio show, “Mark Kerr’s Blues Nation.”
Knowing that I would become his competition, he did these things for me anyway.
He undoubtedly was a great friend.

I miss talking to him online and on the phone so much, that I can’t put it into words.

Les’s brother Bob, is going to keep his website up and running.
And I will be taking over The Road Rash Blues Show, by permission of Les’s family.
It will be more than a honor for me to do this for my best friend.

Les, you will be missed by the thousands of people that you touched on a daily basis.
And aside from your family, I will miss you most of all.
I will never forget you.

You can visit Les’s site here

I’m a big fan of many of the social networking sites out there today. I have a presence on Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and many more. A lot of people complain about Myspace saying that the user interface is not as pretty or “Web 2.0″ as the others. However if you’re involved in the independent music scene (either as an artist or promoter), having a Myspace page is a necessity.

I established a presence on Facebook a while back and have slowly been building my network of friends and contacts. One thing that bothers me about Facebook is the increasing and overwhelming number of application plug-ins that keep being created. Lately almost every interaction with people requires me to “join” some new application.

I’ve been to Facebook pages where the owner has added what surely seems to be every single “latest and greatest” plug-in. In the beginning they had a relatively short profile page. Now I have to scroll down through an endless stream of widgets, lists, plants, drinks, stuffed animals, etc. Some are so packed with this stuff that I am starting to miss the old days of static HTML pages for websites.

The result of all this Facebook clutter has forced me to reject or ignore a lot of those requests, even from those who I consider close and special friends. Call me an old fart, but I still think using plain old messages and those features that are part of the core Facebook profile works just fine for me.

Although the most recent shows have been transferred to the new website, you can still find all of our previous content on the old site. Please check out all the great content from our past shows by clicking HERE.