Artist's Statement...

You may have noticed that I haven't updated my website in two years. There have been periods in my life where I've felt like there was not a whole hell of a lot to say to anyone, and this last two years was one such period. Plus, there have been a couple of upheavals in my personal life and I was busy with the business of getting through this day to get to the next. Lately, though, I've been constantly reminded of a question posed to John Lennon - I think it was in the Playboy interview done just before he was murdered. The question was, "What do you think the lesson of the sixties was?". He could have answered, "All you need is love", or "Work for peace", or any number of things that the average shmo would like to hear. Instead, being Lennon, his answer was surprising, and it hit the nail right on the head. His answer was, "Learn to swim". Lennon was basically saying, "Learn the difference - don't be led around like a sheep - think for yourself, seek out the facts - THE TRUE FACTS - and make intelligent decisions accordingly". Never in my lifetime have I ever seen people so deaf to such a simple, elegant, and profound statement. In the last ten years or so I have witnessed a breathtaking celebration of ignorance. I have witnessed a campaign of misinformation, disinformation, informaton twisting, religious dogma disguised as information, and the rise of the religion of THE BIG LIE (Hitler said, "tell a lie often enough, and it will become the truth"). I have seen the American people give up their hard-earned liberties and constitutionally guaranteed rights in the name of patriotism. I have seen the American people presented with a choice between a rich-kid know-nothing asleep-at-the-wheel nincompoop and his war-profiteering sidekick (or should I say puppeteer?) and a legitimate war veteran that could intelligently speak on any subject - AND THEY CHOSE THE NINCOMPOOP! And to top it all off, Jane Fonda comes out in an interview with Lesley Stahl and says that she was an idiot for going to North Vietnam. Uh, Jane, I can see that being photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun might have been a lapse of good taste on your part - you could apologise for that as momentary bad judgement. But you say that you were wrong to take a trip that was designed to show the North Vietnamese and the world that the people of the United States are not always perfectly aligned with the government of the United States when it is prosecuting an illegal war. You say that you were wrong to take a trip that protested a war that was an insane adherence to death and destruction for immoral reasons. And you do this in a time when the government of the United States is prosecuting a war that is an insane adherence to death and destruction for immoral reasons. To that I say, "Jane, you ignorant slut!" Maybe you've been too rich and too pampered for too long - are you selling out what was probably the most courageous thing you've done in your life just to promote a book? Or maybe you have a lot of money in oil stock? Maybe I should say, "Jane, you shameless whore!" Or maybe you've buckled under the pressure of a conformist climate not to say anything against Big Brother. In that case maybe I should say, "Jane, you gutless wonder!" Okay. My rant is over. Next month, I'll be discussing how the only TV I watch to get the news is "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" - he seems to be the only one telling the truth out there in the five bazillion channels of 1984 TV sewage. Oh yeah, and for everyone who asks me when the next CD is coming, my New Year's resolution is to finish it by the end of 2005, so I'll be concentrating all my energies toward that goal. Hey, the first one took 30 years, so what's the rush? The business news this month is that CD Baby is now accepting credit card/ debit card orders for "Songs From Down The Hall" through a new telephone number: 1-800-BUY-MY-CD. Also in the news, we have updated the photo page to include some pics of me with Chalee Tennison (Asylum Records/Dreamworks Records). Soon, you'll see some pictures of me performing with Bat McGrath. I think I might have whittled it down from three thousand to a few really good photos. Bat has released his "Back In Love Again" CD on which I contributed bass, vocals, acoustic guitar, and Hammond organ on "That's All I Need To Know". Thanks for the Hammond credit, Bat - this time without a hint of sarcasm. I was pleased to find out that "Songs From Down The Hall" sold out on CD Baby (don't worry, I've sent them a restock). It was great to see "Out Of Stock" on my CD Baby page. Oh, and there are some new reviews on my "reviews" page... see ya next month!