| my music |
| some people say i sound like arlo guthrie... some say i sound like phil ochs. some say i sound like crap. the fact is, they're all right (excepting, i hope, the last.) my influences range from simon and garfunkel and phil ochs to flogging molly, the who, and miles davis. i like folk, blues, rock, jazz, celtic jigs, native american chants, and just about anything that i can snap my fingers to. the most common thing people tell me about my music is that they like how much energy i put into it. that's the key for me. my songs are tellings of truth, and as an activist and independent journalist i am passionate about telling the truth through words and music. i feel that over the past few years i haven't really developed any particular style. many of my early songs are simple, using basic open chords and not much variation. my more recent compositions involve complex melody lines, open tunings and various guitar trickery so that i don't bore myself while playing. the fact that i use a harmonica and acoustic guitar tends to somewhat limit my rocking capabilities, and yet many of my songs are certainly to heavy to be classified as "folk." i don't really care. to me, genres are like political parties: they're only there so that people don't have to be informed. people can just say, "i'm a democrat" and vote democrat, without even knowing the candidate. in the same way, folks can say "i don't like folk music" and toss my album in the trash without listening to it. those people aren't cool. you, however, are cool. well, by me anyway, which i'm pretty sure makes you not cool to the rest of the planet, but hey, we'll keep it between us. but i'm getting off track. this page is supposed to be about my music, i guess. it wouldn't be fair if i didn't tell you at least a little more about my music before you did that unthinkable thing and actually listened to some of it for yourself. many people call me a protest musician. certainly, social and political protest is a central theme in many of my songs, but it's not an obsession. i am a political activist deeply involved in the anti-war and social revolutionary movements, and naturally i write about political things, but i am also capable of writing about the other staples: love, non-love, how much middle school sucked, loneliness, and all those other good things. words were meant for people with nothing to say. |
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| My new album, "Songs of Solidarity" is now available for free download on Soundclick. |
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