Andrew

When I moved to the Bay Area eight (!!) years ago, I had no idea I would encounter such a thriving and inspiring music scene. There’s a lot of fake news about the lack of artists around here. Maybe it’s not the same as it once was, but nothing is. My experience has been that there are incredible musicians in every nook of this part of the world.  

One of the first such people I met was Andrew Laubacher. I mostly remember laughing a lot. Then we played music together and it felt so good and we laughed some more. He reminded me that it’s called “playing” music for a reason — I had lost touch with that.  Then he played on “North Star” and I loved working with him. 

He’s a drummer, by the way. Drums are a very loud instrument. As a singer/songcyclist who cares so much about his little word arrangements, I have a sometimes complicated relationship with drums. They’re so loud! But here’s the thing about Andrew’s greatness as a drummer: he is an exceptional musician. He listens. He not only serves the song, he lifts it up and makes it move. He makes it better. 

He came to the tracks on this album in a backward way. They were already fully tracked to a click or a computer drummer. I honestly do not know how he did what he did. The way he shaped and orchestrated the songs was so beautiful. He brought them to life, building dynamics and arrangements. Each song he touched was a revelation. And he is a consummate pro. He knocked out many tracks with minimal takes, one after another, crushing each one with metronomic precision. I just sat on the couch and enjoyed the show. During mixing, I kept discovering new nuances and groovy taste nuggets. I can’t wait for you to hear it. 

He is also a wonderful person. He is kind and good. These days, we probably need more wonderful people walking around than wonderful drummers. He just happens to be both. He is also a dad now (see hot pic with tiny baby) and he’s for hire: www.andrewdrums.com. He’s usually on the road with his band Con Brio so a pandemic gift is that he has time to drum on your songs! Get it touch — your recordings will blossom with soul and you will have so much playing. 

Tayloranne & Daniel

Tayloranne & Daniel (and Clover the dog) were residents and collaborators at the Sanctuary in an official capacity. They balanced their public duties and their private lives with grace, elegance, and the necessary boundaries. Sometimes I wouldn’t see them at all; sometimes they’d float by with a smile and continue on with their business. 

Daniel’s sage wisdom and casual guidance that really made this album what it is. He reminded me that recording is supposed to be fun and he helped me see it as not too precious. He instilled in the work the ethos of the hip hop mix tape: make a bunch of stuff, put it out there, and let it find whatever life it finds.

Tayloranne brought a consistent and encouraging energy that always seemed to show up at the same time as my inner critic. She shut him up right quick. Somehow, she makes things less stressful while still retaining a sense of importance, hard work, and urgency.

Clover the dog was with me for the entire recording process. Mostly, she laid in the sun. Once in awhile, she’d move to a different place and her collar would chime. Sometimes her timing was perfect and those bells became part of the album. 

Tayloranne & Daniel are also a theatrical folk duo called the Cowtown Serenaders and their beautiful new album is called “Dream Songs for the Endless Weekend.” It came out in the long ago on February 2nd, 2020. The last show I played in front of a live audience was their release show at The Lost Church in San Francisco on 2/20/20. 

Then: we took part in the ancient ritual of live performance together. We got to the space early, carried a bunch of stuff in there (including their magic trunk of puppets and scenery), hung out, played a show, exchanged many droplets with the audience, hugged all around, carried a bunch of stuff back to the car, and went home with that fulfilling buzz in our bodies and souls that all performers cherish.

Now: it’s September. The endless weekend continues. Their soothing and relaxed recording is the perfect antidote to the chaos raging outside and within: https://soundsofthesanctuary.bandcamp.com/album/dream-songs-for-the-endless-weekend.

Katie & Solomon

The Information Age (Part One) comes out this Friday, 9/4! In celebration, each day this week I’m going to share a loving social media post about the people who helped bring it into the world. Today is all about the powerhouse team of Katie & Solomon. I interviewed them for Audiode 37 so you can hear them in their own words there.

They bought a vast, old, cold building in Arcata, CA and turned it into a community arts center. They call it The Sanctuary. I have played there enough to know to bring my winter coat from Minnesota. It gets cold in there. Which is a wonderful counterpoint to the warmth that it generates.

How many lives have been enriched by the creation of such a place? How many projects have been born? All because Katie & Solomon created this sanctuary and continue to do the hard work of stewardship in their kind, patient, and sometimes surprisingly strict way.

One of the projects they made possible is my new album. They invited me to participate in their artist-in-residence program and the timing was perfect. I went up there and set up shop for a month at the end of the year. They were wonderful facilitators of creation. Each morning, I would get high on coffee and we’d talk until it was time to get going. I carried the energy of whatever we had discussed into my work. This album is fully born of that place and that time with those people. I felt free to create without judgement and it just kept flowing. That is the gift that they gave me -- the time and space to simply create. I will be forever grateful.

The most lasting impression from that experience is this: the act of creation itself is the central sacred duty of an artist. There are so many distractions. It is enough to somehow return to the childlike joy of bringing something new into the world. It’s real and it’s magic and it matters. In the spirit of what Katie & Solomon gave to me, I will rededicate myself to fostering this ethos of creativity in the world and encouraging it in other people. Let’s go for it. Let’s get to work. Let’s get a little weird. Let’s make a new world together, one project at a time. 

Sanctuary

I have released another single from the forthcoming new album. It is a song called “Sanctuary” and you can hear it on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and elsewhere.

I recorded this album when I was the artist in residence at The Sanctuary, a community arts center in Arcata, CA. It was a wonderful and inspiring experience. After I got my recording set-up situated and settled in to begin working, I suddenly realized something: in two decades of making albums, I had never set aside a month of time to only create. Every other recording had occurred over multiple months (and sometimes years) in tandem with my life. It was such a gift to have this vast literal and figurative space to just make music.

It was very fruitful. “The Information Age” eventually became 24 tracks long and will be released in two parts. I also made a 10 track album called “Collaboration” of songs that I wrote with other songwriters over the years. So: 34 tracks! This sanctuary clearly proved to be a place of refuge and safety where I could exist, create, and thrive.

One morning, after a communal breakfast, I sat down to write and I was overcome with emotion. First with gratitude, then with an immense sadness. I could not reconcile the abundance and kindness I was experiencing with news stories of caged children and separated families. This song came that morning in a flood of tears.

Information

In collaboration with this complicated holiday weekend, today I am releasing the first single and title track from the new album: “The Information Age.” It is available on Apple Music and Spotify and most other places you can freely stream music. I also made a video that is on YouTube and you better hurry up and watch it fast because I’m not sure how long it’s going to be able to stay up there.

Thank you for listening and watching. As I prepare to put out a bunch of new music in the coming months, I have been reflecting upon how essential it is for an artist to be heard and seen. I am very grateful for your ears and eyes. Without you, it really is all for naught.

It’s the information age. It’s information. More soon.

Memorial Day

I’m really going to have to stay on top of these blog posts if I want them to be timely. The evening after my last Monday livestream show (for now), George Floyd was murdered in my home state of Minnesota by a police officer. I suppose it is fitting that “The Dead Still Speak” was one of the last songs I played that day. So they do. Memorial Day is forever changed in the United States.

I wonder what George Floyd was doing that afternoon in Minneapolis while I was playing my songs for people via the internet. He was alive, we know that much. He was breathing. And at some point he want to the grocery store to get some food. The innocuous simplicity of this act has been been lost in the chaos that ensued. He went to the grocery store and he was murdered. Twenty dollars.

I have not watched the video. I have seen enough of those videos. There is a murder porn element to it that makes me uncomfortable. Why am I watching this? Why are we all watching this?

"Kueng held Mr. Floyd's back and Lane held his legs," the probable cause statement said. "Chauvin placed his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyd's head and neck. Mr. Floyd said, 'I can't breathe' multiple times and repeatedly said, 'Mama' and 'please,' as well. Chauvin and the other two officers stayed in their positions."

Floyd also says, "I'm through," and repeatedly cries out in anguish, the video shows.

"My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please. Please," he says.

He tells the witnesses, "They're going to kill me, man," and then to the officers, "Don't kill me." Thao stands between the witnesses and the officers holding down Floyd.

I consider myself a pacifist. The cycle of violence never ends unless someone ends it. Someone has to turn the other cheek. I wrote my friend a letter the week after 9/11 saying the correct move for the United States was to seize the moment and call for peace. To not respond with military force. As the great, late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone said: it would not be a sign of our power, but it would be a sign of our strength.

In the last week, however, I can feel that pacifism dimming. Is it naive? As long as men and women armed with military weaponry patrol the streets of this country, murdering and terrorizing American citizens, is peace is an option? If violence is the only language they understand, must they be met with violence? Unyielding, relentless violence?

Monday Residency // 5.25.20 Before We Fall Asleep / Caveman / The Girl Next Door / The Freefall (Cory Branan cover) / Never Should’ve Left / Grandpa / You Better Believe Somebody / The Dead Still Speak / I Love Austin / If I Go, I’m Goin’ / Monogamous / Are You Still In Love With The World? (Raina Rose cover) / The Ballad of Wallace Green & His Dog / Concerning the Lincoln and Douglas Debates or Love Found Lost / If You See Something, Say Something / Time (Tom Waits cover)

Income Tapestry

Making a living as an artist is weaving a complex and ever evolving tapestry of income. Back in the Bush administration, I paid my bills with money from iTunes downloads ($0.67 a download), CD sales, and whatever I made at shows. Now, Spotify pays $0.00318 per stream, many people (including myself) have no way to play a CD, and there are temporarily no shows. An ongoing and important discussion rages about these changes in the music business, income inequality in general, and late stage capitalism. Meanwhile, my job is making music and I have to buy groceries and pay rent. Adapt or die!

This online residency has been a source of joy and connection in a time of unrest. It has been so fun to rediscover old songs that I rarely play and to hear which songs are meaningful to you via requests. It also just feels wonderful to play and sing. It’s my favorite thing to do and it fills my soul with meaning and goodness.

These livestream shows have have also been a surprising source of income. They are free to all, but I have been accepting tips via Venmo and PayPal and people have been very supportive. That money goes directly to food and my landlord. Your tips turn into eggs which go into my tummy after I cook them. It's very intimate actually. 

That is something I love about this new phase of my music career. There is a direct relationship between you the listener and me the artist. I provide a good or service and you compensate me for that good or service. It feels good. Thank you. Really truly. Since this artist/patron relationship has become essential to making a life in the arts, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the people who make it possible. You are quite literally making my dreams come true. 

Next Monday (5/25) will be the final installment of the Monday Online Residency. Call it Season One of Videodes? My intention is to take a break to brainstorm ideas and create content for Season Two. I’m thinking the next round of weekly shows will happen on a different day and time. Maybe Sunday? Brunch shows? To be determined. Please feel free to send suggestions here.

Monday Online Residency // 5.18.20 At The End of the Year / The True Love Who Loved Me / All My Friends Are In The Valley / Handstands In The Sun / Endless Summer Stroll / Give Me What I Want / Franklin Street / Half Moon / Time Got Away / Stars & Bars / Like We Used To / Daylight Saving / Americans

Beauty

Check out this definition of music: “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.”

Nice try? Pretty close? It’s difficult to write about music.

The trickiest part of that definition is “beauty,” isn’t it? Who is to say what is beautiful? Some music is beautiful to some and repugnant to others.

I have made a lot of recordings in the last twenty years. I have learned the truth of this quote: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” I thought Abraham Lincoln said that, but apparently it was John Lydgate, a 15th century English monk whose day job involved writing poetry for Kings Henry IV through VI.

Some things don’t change. At least not in six hundred years.

This week for the online residency I had requests for two of the four songs on “It Doesn’t Matter Why It Is, It Doesn’t Matter If It’s Wrong,” so I decided to play the whole thing. It’s hard for me to have a favorite of the many albums I have made so far, but this one is very special to me. People have told me they love it, people have told me they hate it, and people have asked a lot of questions about it. The year I put it out, 2008, I had a big time meeting with a big time music manager in a big tall building in Hollywood. Among other things, he told me not to put out so many albums. I imagine he was trying to prevent releases like this one? He did not become my manager, I remained unmanaged, and this album was the result.

As I was playing it during the livestream, I felt many conflicting emotions. Since I know it makes people feel weird, I was conscious about that. It’s impossible to gauge or manage audience reaction in this strange new medium. There are some bad words and I was concerned about children so I hope I gave enough explicit lyrics warnings (I gave several). And I kept thinking “am I losing people?” and “do people hate this?” I looked up periodically and the same amount of people were tuned in, sometimes more (five fewer people like my Facebook page after this broadcast). And I must to tell you: I was mostly thinking “this kicks ass” and “I love this.” To me, those songs (and the way I produced them) are the perfect expression of how I thought and felt about the George W. Bush years. I did the best I could, I made the thing I wanted to make, and I stand by every choice.

If you don’t find it beautiful…isn’t that the beauty of music?

This album became the first in a series of quadrennial recordings that I release every presidential election year in the United States. Part IV is due this year sometime. The way things are looking, I think I’ll wait until November 4th to make it and see what comes out.

Monday Online Residency // 5.11.20 Rings on Ring Fingers / Too Many Ghosts / Disneyland / After Love After All / Super Duper / Pissin’ On Plants In The Suburbs / Charlie / Ned / The Ballad of Wallace Green and His Dog / Sanctuary / It Gets Bad, But It Gets Better

You can please some of the people some of the time…

Revision

“Reconsider and amend something, especially in the light of further evidence or to reflect a changed situation.” It has finally become clear to me that Freedom Tour 2020 as I envisioned and intended for it to occur is not going to happen in 2020. This is disappointing, frustrating, sad, and simply undeniable. In the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, it is both unsafe and irresponsible for me to take a 72 hour train trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles to St. Louis and to then bike 3,500 miles to the Pacific Ocean. It is also kind of dumb and makes little sense at this point. Most of the gigs have cancelled. Many of the states on the route have 14 day mandatory quarantine rules for people arriving from out of state.

The Lewis & Clark bicycle route I was planning to follow is part of Adventure Cycling’s extensive network. Their website offers the following guidance: “At this time, Adventure Cycling Association discourages cyclists from embarking on long-distance bike travel along the Adventure Cycling Route Network. We believe the bicycle travel community has a responsibility to avoid endangering the health of small communities and straining limited medical resources. Moreover, shelter-in-place and quarantine orders exist at many levels of government across our network, and availability of services is inconsistent and unpredictable.”

So…that’s that. Freedom Tour 2020 as originally conceived has been postponed to 2021. However, the intention of the expedition for this year remains and I am deliberating how best to execute it in the midst of this plot twist. This is very much a work in progress, but perhaps part of the function of this blog is to be a real time expression of thought processing as it occurs? I still want to go on some long bike camping trips this year. And I still want to engage with people outside of my bubble. It occurs to me that many of those people are fairly close to home. There are many so-called red counties and conservative people in my state of California. I can load up my bike at my front door and cycle to them without getting on a plane or a train. I can camp in state parks (when they reopen) and livestream shows from there. I will of course stay safe and keep informed of best practices as recommended by the governor and health professionals and remain open and flexible. In the meantime, I’m upgrading the brakes on my bike. I have the clip-in pedals and shoes now and I’m keeping in shape with long daily rides around the city. I have an online account with Breitbart and I’m engaging in discussions online. I’m revising and I’m ready.

I’m also open to suggestions! Please e-mail freedomtour2020@gmail.com and let me know if you have any brainstorms or inspiring thoughts.

Monday Online Residency // 5.4.20 The Score / She Shoots To Kill / Eulogy / When I Make My Home / Maybe / Losing Streak / Simple Heart / 52 Pick-Up / Every Car is a Person / Young Ones / I Gotta Get You Out / Changer (Anaïs Mitchell cover) / The Heart of the Matter (Don Henley cover) / Come and Take It / Looking for Trouble / Empty in the Heartland

Alone Together

It is an understatement to say this period of time contains ups and downs. The communal emotional roller coaster is really rockin’. I wrote a song with my friends Mike Wilson and Nigella Baur. The idea was that we would each write a verse and maybe other people would write their own verses and we’d all create a song together. I put the chorus and my verse on YouTube with the chords in the description. Then no one wrote their own verses and I had some more festival and gig cancellations and the future of the Freedom Tour (which will continue in some form!) became even more unclear and I rode the roller coaster down down down for a couple days.

THEN…I woke up one morning to an e-mail from Mike Dronkers asking if I would sing on this video he was putting together of our song. What?! I was blown away. Not only did he put so much work and time and energy into creating that video, but he enlisted a cavalcade of other artists who lent their time and energy to it! So suddenly the roller coaster was going up up up and I was feeling inspired and hopeful all over again.

And so it goes. I’m strapped in tight and trying to enjoy the ride. I hope you are too. Just remember: the the nature of a roller coaster is that it goes up and down. It never stays in one place for long. It’s best to not get too attached to any part of the ride.

I took a break from my music and Monday Online Residency #6 was Bruce Day. Bruce Springsteen. Bruce is my favorite. Bruce inspired me to become a songwriter. If it weren’t for discovering Bruce’s music during that magical summer between junior high and high school, I have no idea what I’d be doing. I was fifteen when that summer started. I was sixteen when it summer ended and well on my way to becoming a (very) serious Bruce Springsteen fan. I was so inspired that I started writing my own (very) terrible songs. So this show is a chronological exploration of Bruce’s entire career featuring songs from his debut album in 1973 through last year’s “Western Stars” album:

Bruce Online // 4.27.20 Growin’ Up / 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) / Thunder Road / Jungleland / Racing in the Street / The River / State Trooper / No Surrender / Bobby Jean / Tougher Than The Rest / Brilliant Disguise / If I Should Fall Behind / The Ghost of Tom Joad / My City of Ruins / Devils & Dust / Long Walk Home / Land of Hope and Dreams / American Skin (41 Shots) / Moonlight Motel

PS: Endless gratitude to my landlord for inviting me to do these live streams from his apartment, which has a better wireless connection and a beautiful real piano!

PPS: This is a picture of me at the Memphis Greyhound station in 2000 when I took a bus down from Chicago to see Bruce:

The Internet

I told myself I would contribute to this blog weekly. I failed to do so last week, which means I’m already off the hook on that commitment. I can blog whenever I want! Is blog a noun and a verb? What a powerful word. #blog

It’s striking how much has happened in my little world in the last two weeks, even though I’m either in my apartment or on a bike ride. Most of it is internal I guess. Thinking about how to put out the album now that it’s (almost) finished. Thinking about how to do the Freedom Tour now that there is a once-in-a-century global pandemic. Thinking about Joe Biden. Trying not to think about the other guy, but thinking about him anyway. Thinking about how it’s down to these two guys, really? Thinking about groceries. Thinking about coffee. Thinking about chocolate granola. Thinking about money. Thinking thinking thinking…

Thinking about the INTERNET. That’s mostly what I’ve been thinking about. The wireless reception has been increasingly intermittent around here, which is causing problems with the live online streaming shows. Those have become a consistent source of joy and income for me so they must go on. On Sunday evening (4.12) I was a guest on Robert Sarazin Blake’s weekly show and my internet signal was not cooperating. That’s the first time I’ve had that experience, which was unique and irritating. I played three songs and played my heart out (including a version of “Pirates Are Taking Over” that felt really nice) only to discover that I sounded trapped in a submarine, digitized and bad. Welcome to another new aspect of this online reality. At a live show, I have a pretty good idea of what I sound like to the audience.

That experience was disappointing and an ominous harbinger of the following day’s online residency livestream. Monday show #4 started where it has for all previous streams, on the “stage” I set up in my apartment. I wore my kimono to keep things interesting. I played “My Cousin’s Canoe” (a request from my old friend, the great Anthony da Costa) and then “Moonlight Motel” (a Bruce Springsteen cover), but the comments told me that my feed was “social distancing.” It feels bad to give musically and have no idea if or how it is being received so I decided to shut it down and perhaps push pause on the Monday shows until I could resolve the internet issue.

Then I started hearing from a number of people that they would be really disappointed if I stopped doing the shows, that they are meaningful experiences, that they have given this strange, unstructured time some semblance of routine and consistency — every Monday at 11am (Pacific), there I am on my little stool doing my thing. It seems good to be of service in my own small way. Isn’t that what all of us our seeking after our basic needs are met? Meaningful work? Connection? In a bizarre twist, we seem to be more connected during this time of quarantine than we were before.

So I changed out of my kimono, ran up the hill and onto the golf course — which is shut down during shelter in place (to prevent golfers from gathering?) — and got back on via a serviceable LTE connection:

Monday Online Residency // 4.13.20 Better Now / Praying for Time (George Michael cover) / All These Good Goodbyes / Americans / The American West / O Holy Night (Traditional) / The Heads of the State / That Golden Shore / Feet to the Fire / Radio Lite / Still I’m Not Still / The Meanest Man Alive

Go to 36:39 in the video for a fun interaction between me and the groundskeeper about how some golfers are still golfing and I am in the direct line of fire.

Following this experience, I continued thinking about the internet for several days. I rode all over San Francisco with my guitar, seeking a quiet place outside with consistent LTE reception. What I learned: cars are very loud and reception is best by roads so…yeah. Also, leaf blowers. Leaf blowers occur often and ruin everything. So I decided to keep it inside for now and roll the wireless dice. I did capture a video of Clay Pigeons — a beautiful Blaze Foley song John Prine used to cover that I learned from Danny Malone — near a tunnel in the park that provided lovely natural reverb, but immediately after I ended the video a leaf blower started up and ruined everything.

Before I started thinking about the internet all the time, I did an evening show hosted by The Rambling House, a venue in Columbus, Ohio. I played through my 2009 album “American in Love” and it was so wonderful to play through those songs. I love the story they tell in that order. It was also special to see in the comments how much that album means to people. Go to the last song to watch me weep as I sing “I’ve been dreaming of the apocalypse, I’ve been imagining that I am the only one who survives.” I didn’t remember that line or see it coming and it cut a little too close.

American in Love Online // 4.9.20 Concerning the Lincoln and Douglas Debates or Love Found Lost / The Score / End of Summer Cigarettes / Shimmering Shining / The Last of the Mohicans / An American in Love / Anybody Everybody / Screaming in Love / Yesterday Some Roses / Nowhere Fast / (Like Bon Jovi) I’m Running Away / The Meanest Man Alive

Inspired by that experience, I put a poll on Instagram asking which album I should play next, “The Hereafter” (2006) or “Backyards” (2011). Late Stage Bush Administration vibes defeated Mid-Great Recession vibes.

The Hereafter Online // 4.20.20 Everyone Looks Different / The Heads of the State / Give Me What I Want / Back Where I Was / My Cousin’s Canoe / The National Anthem / A Teenager in Love / Space Junk / Musical Chairs / Better Now / The 40th Century / The End / Take It Easy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) / Eulogy

What a joy to play through those songs in their original sequence and read the comments! It’s so nice to hear how that album has kept people company.

For a really fun moment in the video, go to 31:31 and listen to the surprise interaction with my downstairs neighbor. After weeks of getting a heavy dose of my brand of indie folk singer (and occasional shouter) songwriter, the bridge of “My Cousin’s Canoe” was apparently the last straw. I understand. I went down and mended fences after the show. He’s a nice guy. And our landlord generously offered a perfect solution: for the foreseeable future, I can stream my shows from his unit since he and his family are riding this out elsewhere. That means: a) stronger, more consistent internet signal and b) A REAL PIANO. Win win. So tune in next Monday 4.27 (and subsequent Mondays for a least a little bit longer) and check out the new digs. Next week is going to be an all Bruce Springsteen cover show! Please send any requests (or any thoughts/feelings at all) via social media messages or e-mail freedom tour at g mail dot com.

Sidetracked

On the livestream yesterday, my friend Bobby asked which of the songs I have written is my favorite. That’s nearly impossible to answer, but “Sidetracked” is special to me for a number of reasons. The lyrics are a painful and personal revelation, and I believe I wrote about it with honesty and the correct amount of triumph and indignation.

I have been enjoying these online concerts, but the inherent limitations of them struck me after I signed off yesterday. We have all been sidetracked here, haven’t we? Our attempts to carry on are admirable, but we are a social species. Screens and spotty wireless internet are not gonna cut it. The analog experience of sound waves bouncing around a room is irreplaceable. Vocal chords vibrating and ear drums responding. The bizarre and mysterious energy of other human beings, sharing a space, making noises and breathing together.

Perhaps I have also been in a bit of denial about how this global pandemic and economic crisis are going to affect Freedom Tour 2020. I thought my timing was fortuitous because I wasn’t planning to leave until the end of May, but cancellations have begun and it’s all very wait and see at the moment. I remain obstinate about this fact: I’m going on a long bike tour across the country this year, with or without gigs. And I will post about it here on my all new blog. #blog

Yesterday’s show is dedicated to my friend Janet, who took her own life last week in Arkansas. The person who told me put it this way: “I’m not sure why she decided it was time, but she has always had a hard time with this world and her life. She was a raging fire of a soul and chose her own path.” When I hear about a suicide, my first thought is that it must have been really bad. Janet must’ve been in a lot of pain to choose to end her journey in that way. I feel no judgement — only sadness and empathy. She got sidetracked and she didn’t make it through the detour.

But we are still here. We are earth, fire, water, and wind. We’ll always end and begin — over and over again. We’ll get through this, all together and all alone.

Monday Online Residency // 4.6.20 To Live Is To Fly (Townes Van Zandt cover) / Sidetracked / Hellbound, Bent, and Heaven-sent / Closer To There / Out in the Branches / Alone Together / The War On Cars / Back Where I Was / Eulogy / The National Anthem / At The End of the Year

Gratitude

Well, I have not succeeded in abandoning my phone at 5pm every evening…but I’m making progress. Since my last blog post (I started a blog), I have left it plugged in at my desk almost every night before dinner. Slow but sure progress. I can share with you that not bringing phone energy into the bedroom has been a very positive development.

The music making in this strange time continues. Last weekend, I was a part of two online festivals on Sunday — one based in Los Angeles and the other in Maine! The magic of the internet. First off was “Cover Your Friends,” an event that my friend Connor Garvey put together. The idea was to play songs written by friends. It was so fun and inspiring to learn and re-learn these beautiful songs by these exceptional artists I am fortunate to call friends:

“Cover Your Friends” // 3.29.20 Why Would I Lie? (Tyler Jordan cover) / Beggars & Mules (Danny Schmidt cover) / Ok Ok Ok (Robert Sarazin Blake cover) / Are You Still In Love With The World? (Raina Rose cover) / Skyway Drive-In (Shane Alexander cover)

Then it was onto “Shelter in Place Fest 2020,” an event that Joel Eckels and Clare Means put together from the Los Angeles songwriter community. Though I live in San Francisco now, I moved to Los Angeles during pre-9/11 2001 in my early twenties with a pile of dreams. It was quite moving for me to see and hear so many friends from those days play their songs again. I love indulging nostalgia and I was swimming in it:

“Social Distance Fest 2020” // 3.29.20 I Have Been Defeated / Musical Chairs / All My Friends Are In The Valley / The End / Rose Colored Sky

Monday was the 2nd installment of my online residency. I got some wonderful deep cut requests as the week progressed and wrote them down as they came in so the set was mostly those. It really is special for me to have people ask for old songs, play through them, and discover that I still know — and like — them. Please keep the requests coming (I already have a list developing for next week).

Monday Online Residency // 3.30.20 Mississippi (Bob Dylan cover) / Minnesota / Yin & Yang Collector / End of Summer Cigarettes / When I Make My Home / I Love Austin / Daylight Saving / The Greatest Ever / Teenager in Love / Stars & Bars / Crash the Party / Time To Be Here Now / I’m Awake Now

Word is that the San Francisco Shelter in Place order will be extended to May 1st so the Monday Online Residency will continue through April at least: 4/6, 4/13, 4/20, 4/27.

“Gratitude” may seem like a bizarre sentiment for this moment in time, but that is really the overwhelming feeling I am experiencing. I am grateful for this opportunity to play songs for you in a new and different way. These shows are free to all, but many people have taken advantage of the digital tip jars and I am deeply grateful for that as well. It is a uncertain financial moment for many, myself included.

Finally, the latest installment of Audiodes was released yesterday. This is a special one because it features special guest contributions from friends and listeners. Audiodes is a podcast-esque audio collage that I release sometimes monthly (I did the math and I have averaged 5.333 Audiodes per year since 2014). Patrons support Audiodes via Patreon and I am grateful for that piece of the patchwork income tapestry as well. Gratitude really is the theme this week, isn’t it? It is also the title of Audiode Thirty Three. Thank you for listening.

Sheltered in Place

“Blog” is a hilarious word. During The Great Recession, my friend Ricky in Los Angeles told me that it is short for “Weblog.” While that is far more elegant to my ear, I’m going to go with “Blog.”

The Freedom Tour is on! The current plan is still to leave St. Louis at the end of May, but I am open to amending that as events unfold. We are all taking a crash course in Improv this spring. Or, as the great Raina Rose says, “God laughs when we make plans.”

Whenever the tour does begin, I will be blogging daily. The idea is to have the majority of content related to the tour here on my website as opposed to on social media. Digital boundaries! Yesterday, I decided to plug my phone in and leave it at my desk every night at 5pm. It was wonderful. We lit candles and cooked dinner and read books and Twitter was not a part of the evening. So why does it feel so difficult to commit to that decision? Why do I feel compelled to add a caveat here: we’ll see how long it lasts…

An unforeseen result of this strange global plot twist has been an explosion of music. I have already played two online shows from my living room. It feels wonderful to sing for you and connect with you again. People from Germany, Norway, Sweden, and all over the United States were at the same show yesterday!

It started last weekend with an event called Pandemica Online that my friend Avi Vinocur (of the band Goodnight, Texas) put together. It was a joyous celebration and an incredible array of artists, mostly Bay Area affiliated, participated. Here is my setlist and a link to the video:

Pandemica Online Festival // 3.21.20 Poopy Poopy Poopy In My Butt (co-write with my niece Josie) / Praying for Time (George Michael cover) / Concerning the Lincoln and Douglas Debates or Love Found Lost / If You See Something, Say Something / The War on Cars

The first in a series of weekly online shows was yesterday. Every Monday at 11am Pacific (2pm Eastern/afternoon and evening in Europe), I will be steaming live on Facebook (www.facebook.com/johnelliottishere) and Instagram (@johnelliottgram). The videos will be saved on my Facebook page after the broadcast so you can watch whenever. I’ll be taking requests and playing covers and digging into my catalog for some deep cuts. I’ll post a link to each video and the setlist here on the blog. BLOG. Like this:

Monday Online Residency // 3.23.20 The American West / Feet to the Fire / The Heads of the State / I Think I Found a New Friend / Over a Year / Friends Back East / Grandpa / It’s Okay to be Alone / The Heart of the Matter (Don Henley cover) / The New Place / Daylight Saving / It Gets Bad, But It Gets Better

I started a blog. I hope you are all as well as you can be out there. I have been going on long, daily, socially distanced bike rides and they are saving my mental and physical health. Even if you haven’t ridden a bike since you were a kid, I urge you to consider it. It’s like flying. You can time travel and go back to junior high with none of the bad stuff.

Take care of yourself and each other. See you next Monday online at 11am Pacific.

(PS: For those who are not on social media — I understand. I’m also exploring the possibility of doing some shows on YouTube. I have been told I need to develop my YouTube channel. Is that true? “Need”?)