Tag Archives: music

New Single: Mexico (The Sun’s On Our Right)

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Dear friends and fans, we have FINALLY released a new recording, ‘Mexico (The Sun’s On Our Right)’, and you can download it here:

Mexico (The Sun’s On Our Right) MP3

It features many of our favourite singer-songwriters, musicians, and fans from around Seattle (and much farther), including: Wyatt Olney, Tobias The Owl, Wonder, Tekla Waterfield, Jim Marcotte, David Johnson, Brad Yaeger, Rachel Cunha, Paul Jenkins, Dave Pollon, Erika Garrett, Abby London, Stacy Liane Powell, Kate Bradley, Arnaud Hugonie, Travys Starr, and a couple of other mystery voices.

I hope you dig it, I think it’s a nice mellow song for when you just want to tune out. Thank you for listening and sharing!

>> Get your copy here <<

Love,

SJ

This Week In Live Music Feb 16-22

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I have some fun shows this week around Puget Sound:

Friday Feb 20 in Bremerton WA at Mobster Mike’s with Cory Lee, 8PM.

Saturday Feb 21 in Everett WA at Flight’s Pub with Wyatt Olney, Brad Yaeger and the Night Terrors, and DedElectric. 9PM, we’re on first so get there early!

AND

Sunday Feb 22 in Ballard, Seattle, at Hattie’s Hat with Judd Wasserman, Randy Parsons, and Aaron A. Semer.

See you soon!

SJ

Pilgrim’s Progress

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You wake up in the morning and you look at your mind with some despair and you wonder what kind of damage the demons caused while you slept. Something in there has been torn apart, and you know you’re going to find out what it was. Then you regret sleeping because when you are awake some of the demons stay away, they are at least cautious of your resilience because they haven’t yet taken you down. But then you realise your hubris, those demons are just patient, letting you destroy yourself, and they know the longer it takes, the more complete your destruction.

And you get up and you march your way through the day and people ask you how you are and you don’t dare tell them the truth because the demons are listening in, better than the CIA or KGB, and if they heard you admit their victories they would be even more encouraged and emboldened. So you lie and smile and hope the person who asked you is an angel and can read your mind and see the war inside you and they will seclude you away and remove your poisons and heal your wounds and rejuvenate you and calm and guide you with a soft voice until your soul is beautiful and peaceful and worthy of being loved. And if not that person, maybe the next.

You can only distract yourself for so long with a job that doesn’t really benefit anybody, or with buying a new pair of shoes, or watching television, or whatever. Modern alienation. But then in records, in songs, in music, you hear other voices from people who feel the same way you do, and you share it with your friends, and in some melodic magic we are all connected, and we can see it each other’s eyes, and we feel good, and we feel hope.

And if through that path, through music, we start thinking and saying “we” more than “I” or “you”, the demons have less room inside of us, their voices become quieter. And besides, it’s much harder to hear them over Ray Charles singing “I’ve Got A Woman” or Stevie Wonder singing “We Can Work It Out”. I’m not saying music will save our souls, but maybe it helps keep them together until we get all the rest of life sorted out.

Love,

SJ

What Am I Listening To?

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I think sometimes people figure because I’m a musician that I must be hip to what’s new in music. I’m not. I don’t listen to the radio much, I don’t read any music blogs, and I don’t subscribe to any podcasts. I don’t know anything.

I’m still absorbing the music of Eddie Cochrane, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Stax and Motown, singer-songwriters from the 60s and 70s, and tons of other stuff, but nothing much new.

Of course there are exceptions, Radiohead and Arcade Fire are often playing in my iTunes. But Black Keys, MGMT, TV On The Radio, and all the rest hardly get a note in edgewise. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’m sure they’re brilliant. I’m just stuck listening to classics. I think maybe soon I’ll feel that I’ve absorbed the old music enough and switch into listening to some new bands, I’ll come back here and ask for recommendations when I do.

But for now Nina Simone is singing To Love Somebody on the stereo, and damn it just feels good.

Love,

SJ

PS. I also love a bunch of bands that aren’t cool at all, and I couldn’t care less what people might say about them. You can erase Phil Collins, Chicago, Elton John AND Billy Joel from my iPod, but I’ll be able to sing their songs from memory until the day I die.