Eric  Ramsey

Innit, though? Who do we believe? One side says one thing, the other side says the contrary, BOTH sides present as a bunch of entitled richy-riches looking out for their own interests. Does it feel to you as if the well-being of the few is deemed more important than the wishes - hell, the NEEDS - of the many?

If the MAGA movement has done one thing, it has pointed out that we are not, decidedly, the greatest country on the planet. What we are, and have always been, are a racist, misogynistic, fearful…

My calendar tells me that today is Columbus Day. It also says that it's Indigenous Peoples' Day. How's that for a steaming pile of Anglo-Saxon irony?

When I was a kid I remember being excited about the tale of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the "new world", and then the subsequent story of the first Thanksgiving. It wasn't until I became the nominal adult that I claim to be that I realized just what Columbus' arrival meant. 

You see, as a school kid I believed what I was taught in class. Math…

Not so great for the creator. Matter of fact: streaming services have made it virtually impossible for artists - creators of the content streaming services provide to their subscribers - to earn a living. Many of us have written, blogged, spoken and testified to the inequities inherent in the current music distribution paradigm. Until the consumers, the subscribers, YOU, perhaps, and your friends value the role of the creators of the content you consume, there will be little incentive to change. 

It would…

It's an odd dichotomy we songwriters find ourselves confronted with: the desire to share our original creations with an engaged, listening audience and the reality that for most audiences, in most venues (bars, coffeehouses, patios, etc), music is little more than background ambience. And our songs are so much more than background filler, right? I mean, RIGHT?? Well, to us they are, anyway. 

So what's the rub? Well, musicians (especially those earning their living that way) need to play. To get paid for…

New tunes coming soon....

Heat rises in the dusty field 
Toil in the rows 
Pray for strength, pray for yield 
Sweat and grief and tears and woe 
Lackluster moon in a bloody sky  
Rain don’t follow the plow 

Some say the devil owns this land 
Many sow his bitter seed 
See here the workings of his hand 
Many hungry mouths to feed   
Lackluster moon in a bloody sky  
Rain don’t follow the plow 

False rain falls from the sky 
Carrion crows take to wing 
Not from heaven do they fly 
Baleful tidings do they bring 
…

For the past several years I've been primarily a solo artist. This has its benefits, for sure: rehearse when and where you want; play exactly what you want in the manner you want; change keys, time signatures and words at your whim; not have to worry about your lack of solid time (a big one, this!). 

What's missing, though, is the magic that can be found in the communion and communication with another musical soul. And there's really nothing like it. When you can find the groove, when the heads and hearts…

We've all had shows like this: You're set up in the corner of a bar/brewery/coffee shop/arcade/auto dealership/art gallery sometimes near the restroom/kitchen/buffet line/information kiosk. Besides getting annoyed looks from the staff you're almost certain to be in someone's way at some point of the performance. Funny - you're as real, as corporeal as the patrons you've been hired to entertain, but, aside from the annoyed glances you've gotten, damned if you don't feel ... well ... invisible. 

It's OK…

To say we're in crisis here in our country would be an understatement. Never (in my lifetime) has there been such a spring tide of divisiveness, hatred, phobia and shame. The Greedheads and their pervasive influence on our collective psyches are succeeding in drawing us back into behaviors that hearken to an era most of us would call shameful if not downright evil. 

But wait - we're America. Nothing we ever do is evil, or spiteful, or mean, or ... wrong. We can explain. We can always trot out our founding…

Good question. I used to believe that everything I could touch, taste, feel, trip over or break was real. And although I never completely trusted any single source of information, there were some - to me - that were more credible than others.

Sigh.

These quaint beliefs were formed, of course, in those halcyon days before A.I., before virtual reality, before my awareness of the bully pulpit, before self-serving and politicized media outlets. So now, it seems, it's entirely possible to find one's self in a…

We all know them. Most of us are them: I'm talking about Independent Musicians - those unaffiliated with a label or a record company or a management team, etc. And while we (I) sometimes bemoan the lack of exposure and dearth of high-profile shows, there are in fact many benefits to being independent. 

Perhaps to me the single most important aspect of being independent is that I have complete control of my music. There's no one dictating what to write, what to record, where to play, where NOT to play. I…