Hartford Courant

Eric Danton is the music critic for The Hartford Courant, writing for both the paper's print edition and daily on The Courant.com's "Sound Check" blog. He also appears on FOX CT for a weekly "Sound Check" spot.

Originally from Littleton, Colorado, Danton has lived in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts since high school, when Pink Floyd was his jam. Hired straight out of college by The Courant in 1998 with the intention of being a political reporter, Danton instead began covering music, eventually becoming the Courant's music critic.

He covers every genre except for jazz and classical, while ignoring the particularly crazy comment posts on his blog. A guitarist and sometimes-vocalist himself, Danton performed with and wrote several songs for Hartford Courant supergroup "CQ and the Corrections". As a songwriter, his favorite creation is his three minute (non-creepy) pop tribute to Johnny Cash, the appropriately titled "Johnny Cash".

An unabashed 'American Idol' hater (though with a soft spot for Kelly Clarkson) but a proponent of vinyl, good song-writing, and local indie music, find out even more about Eric Danton by watching our interview.

Helen Ubiñas was born in New York and received her bachelor's degree from Boston University. She began her career in journalism in 1994 when she started with the Hartford Courant as a city desk reporter and has held a number of positions there since, including town reporter, features reporter, and lifestyles and specialties reporter. Since 2000, Ms. Ubiñas has been a Courant columnist.

Ms. Ubiñas has been awarded a number of honors and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. She is also a member of a Pulitzer Prize winning team for breaking news. In 2004, she was apart of a team that won the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for public service. In 2005, she was a finalist for her column writing for the National Headliner Award and the American Society of Newspaper Editors Award. She was also a finalist for the Howard Scripps Foundation National Journalism Award for commentaries in 2006. She also won first place for her column writing from the New England Associated Press News Executives Association.

Courtesy of http://knight.stanford.edu/fellows/2008/ubinas/