I won’t share personal messages, but this thought I just sent to Anthony Cameron AKA Anthony Red Rose, is an exception. This was my reply tonight. I have had this song that came to me on guitar in 2009 that was this African sounding hybrid. It was like an expression of a style that did not yet exist …
I got this video of the DJs in Tobago playing ‘Free Your Mind’ and giving me love along with Anthony Cameron, Sly Dunbar‘s, and last night’s award winning ASCAP composer Lenky Marsden, then I ran my 3rd 5k in 34:25 through Forest Park without losing too much breath. I stay ready. You know you ain’t in the White …
Studio time with Mell Dettmer includes a history lesson on the richest man in history, Mansu Musa of Mali. His wealth in today’s dollars was like…47 Trillion? His road trip to Mecca was inconceivable. Malian history is rich man. I am not going to disregard Dead White Men. Many did fine work. But there is a much …
I have a lot of nice things to say about the latest remake of A Star is Born. I can be a critic as well. But Bradley Cooper still has a better voice than Kristofferson. Kris is actually a terrible singer and a brilliant songwriter that makes Lou Reed sound like Otis Redding. But this …
On October 6 I took time out of my Saturday afternoon to join about 500 others in downtown Seattle to protest the recent appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. As everyone should know by now, Justice Kavanaugh was accused of attempted rape by the Palo Alto University professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Other …
So yeah…I am joining a band in Kingston, Jamaica called Reggae Powerhouse Band. They wanted to add a lead singer that could write, front a band like Mick Jagger, and just flip the script a bit. They asked me to shoot a phone video to announce to share, so here you go. They want me to …
I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it. The call is coming for me to go back to Jamaica to play some actual shows. I needed a better phone. The second trip I was balling on such a tight budget I had to bring this entry level Samsung, after rocking an …
David Rovics lives in East Portland. You can hear it in his music and commentary. He has recorded many songs in the course of his career but he recently started a podcast. This Week with David Rovics is a 5-minute (or so) chunk of music and commentary on history and current events, available for anyone …
Dinner with folks in Mays Pond. Read a few tales from this book, before this night cap of sweet port that tastes like Communion, and an episode of The Crown at present. The Scandinavians sure had a strange obsession with evil trolls murdering you on Christmas Eve. Christmas was their Halloween in terms of being …
Next Wednesday I am driving due North to Hambone Wilson‘s farm to start preproduction on my song ‘Winston’ that I wrote furiously on a break in the wake of The Neo Nazis marching on Charlottesville. Hambone has a pretty incredible vision of casting the song in light evoking the great Anti-Fascists, Pink Floyd. Roger Waters not …
Greg Roth is going to have a pretty nifty announcement about how I am going to be involved in his debut film. I am excited to do my part to help this beautiful story find its audience. There are a lot of great names there. Bubba Jones, Jason Tang, Michael A Wansley, and Andrew D.B. Joslyn. Great names involved in …
I have no photo of me in my brand new jeans because this sweeeeeet old lady that was helping me was being a sweet old lady and accidentally took a photo of herself. She apologized, but I told Elizabeth that this was a much cooler photo than a vainglorious photo of me saying, “Look at …
“Whitehorse” is a very personal song about youth, change, letting go. I lived in the Yukon for twenty years. Twenty. Years. I didn’t plan to stay so long. Like most people I met there, I went on a whim one summer and got drawn in. It is an intense, wild, gorgeous, scrappy place and I …
☆ Happy birthday to Eric Struthers. He’s one of New Orleans’ own livin’ and breathin’ true as blue guitar greats. If don’t catch him with Dr. John or playing with one of the Nevilles, you might want to catch him Nov 3rd at The SeaMonster Lounge. He’s flying up to play with The Staxx Brothers and few other artists …
I finally get to tell you that Band in Seattle is switching to KING 5! I had to keep that under wraps for a while. This is so big for that show. An NBC affiliate. Conrad Denke has put his heart and soul into that show, and working with him has been one of the experiences of my career in …
Walked through the living room, stopped myself. A commercial on TV. I thought, “Oh my god, they’ve finally made a biography of Neil Armstrong.” And as goofy as it sounds, I kinda got choked up. You gotta understand… I knew who Neil Armstrong was by the time I was four years old, I’m sure. It’s …
I visited some pear trees I planted seven years ago to find this first fruit on one tree. It was ripe and tasted amazing. Even small, good things can require an investment of years. Best wishes with your efforts. Keep working and expecting great things. – Paul Johnson
So many at this time of year “can’t wait for fall.” My wife loved autumn, for example. The crispness of the air, the decaying foliage’s bright colours. Apples and cinnamon. What fall really consists of, in these parts, is about three weeks of happy, bright pumpkin-time… followed by 5-6 months of drizzle, of ballbag-slapping cold …
https://youtu.be/hOmZXG19Ets The commercial above is inspired. Nothing more need be said. Queen is said to have been the most educated band in rock history. Every member had at least a college degree. Brian May got a PhD. Queen, the movie, is scheduled for release on November 2, 2018.
My friend Christina Davis Pierce is an avid reader and a history buff, she loaned me this great biography and I’ve been pondering it for some time. It’s called Commander In Chief by Eric Larrabee, came out in the late 1980s and is really a series of chapters on men who were involved in WWII, …
My son Kyle reminds me that much of our attitude is a choice. We can choose to be positive or negative. We can choose to be jealous or appreciative. Entering 2018 I decided that I would be a more grateful person, more appreciative of the people in my life, the experiences I have had, and …
The Minnesota State Fair is a gathering of all souls – the quintessential merging of country, suburban, and city folk – over the course of 12 days, ending on Labor Day. Affectionately known as the “Great Minnesota Get-Together”, it is situated on permanent grounds in St. Paul. My parents took the family to the State …
This is a beautiful poem.
This post apocalyptic Seattle smoke hellscape is deeply concerning and will have grave consequences. But healthwise I am fine. All my friends have headaches, bleeding sores, mutations, cholera. But I hit the sauna. I am both a Shark and a Jet. I am a hybrid. I will survive. But can we really survive the demise …
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Legendary American singer, songwriter and performer Don McLean recently helped raise funds for Teen Cancer America (TCA) and UCLA Health. At the Backyard Concert 2018, McLean joined Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Van Morrison and Roger Daltrey, as well as GRAMMY Award winner Ed Sheeran and others for a once-in-a-generation …
On the hot humid Saturday of August 18 I headed downtown to Seattle’s City Hall to join others protesting a white supremacy group calling themselves the Patriot Prayer group. As I wandered up and down the block I heard chants like, NO KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. Rows of police lined the street on …
My word, KEXP really scored when they hired Eva Walker as the new host of Audioasis. This woman is a mega talent and I absolutely adore her long view and careful study of history. It makes her music and performances hit so much harder than what a Hipster might do scratching the surface with same the chord …
I have so many wonderful things to say about Rick Beato and his Rick Beato – Everything Music series on youtube. This guy is everything about why some youtube creators are delivering even more valuable content than most television producers. He is hitting a real audience. His peers. Rick is talking about music news, theory, production, business and songwriting …
I like the world-shrinking impact that bleak overseas (I’m an American and a proud East Portlander) podcasts have on me. Hence my love affairs with a Norwegian/British (Death in Ice Valley) and an Australian (The Teacher’s Pet) podcast. American podcasts, produced by the likes of CNN, MSNBC or, for that matter, the Comedy Channel, all …
I know it sucks that THEY are coming for The Showbox. But the fate was sealed years ago when we all swallowed this pill of sh_t that it was OK to drive out the Soul of our city, starting with Black folks in the Central District that gave the world f_cking Jimi Hendrix and Quincy …