These weeks, beyond the dramatics of the proposed border wall, Brazil inaugurated a president of even worse impulses, a man publicly nostalgic for the days recent in his country’s memory when one could simply torture the opposition. These are our discontents. Read more
Category: Writings
Failed States
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Here is “Failed States,” a new song of piano, talking drum and Gordon Withers’ cello we’ve just finished at Magpie Cage. The song’s story and double entendre refer to collapse in our societies and our relationships to each other. Read more.
All of Whom I Love
Here is “All of Whom I Love,” a song I wrote in Hanoi, Viet Nam and have just recorded with Eamonn Aiken at The Bastille Studio in Arlington, Virginia. Kate Rears provides a cello quintet. I play nylon and steel string guitars, bass and percussion, including a West African talking drum, which changes pitch with pressure. We opted for an acoustic arrangement to fit the song’s character and lyrical geography.
No One Gets Free
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The Elan School taught uncommon insight. But like many institutions of its kind, Elan was frequently accused of abuse. “No One Gets Free” is a new song about resilience and growth. Listen and read more.
‘Til We Follow that North Star
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“’North Star” is a brief acoustic song about finding our place; a community or purpose. Though that kind of certainty often is an illusion. The goal is merely to search. To undertake our journey, despite hardship and indignities, as completely as … Continue reading
The Hard Path to Peace
“All That’s Left” after the inauguration
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Here is a new song called “All That’s Left” we’ve just finished recording at the Magpie Cage. It is about working through our conceits and expressing anger, if needed, in order to dream better things. Until love is all that’s left. I … Continue reading
On the solstice
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Today is the solstice; shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, longest in the south. In Washington we are celebrating our festivals of lights. I am beginning again a practice of sharing music and ideas. Here for starters is … Continue reading
Aloha TPP
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Several years’ work has brought us finally to the island of Maui. Twelve nations have sent ministers and delegations here to attempt to conclude negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The U.S. government, pressed by business lobbies and their election spending, will ask … Continue reading
A Sierra Leonean School of Hope
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Families crouch around piles of small stones in the dusty hills of Adonkia, outside the West African city of Freetown. Each pile has been broken down from boulders lodged in the hills, which laborers extracted and cracked using fire and … Continue reading