Viewing: songs - View all posts

Downtown Redding Art: One Year Ago Today

"Artists are Second Responders" - love that idea, and through the magic of the internet, I watched it play out over the last pandemic year: Writers offering encouragement and humor, songwriters sharing online concerts and artists of all kinds helping…

Read more

See How We Heal

This song started on a Whiskeytown Hike - I marveled at the healing that magically happened throughout the park after the devastating Carr Fire of 2018.

 

 

 

 

Our local community is facing some tough times…

Read more

Common Ground

No, he wasn’t talking about 2020, but Thomas Paine's words are fitting: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” And their relationships. AND their patience with their fellow humans. 

There is no shortage of divisive topics these days…

Read more

Pandemic Art and Shasta Strong

Pandemic art - it's a way to pass these troubled times, a means of offering a small measure of comfort. It's also how I talk myself down from the ledge -  I like to say the things I need to…

Read more

The Whiskeytown Wind

 

An antique bottle embedded in cement....A concrete angel with a broken wing...

 

A plastic giraffe surrounded by seashells....

 

...just a small sampling of the inventive memorabilia decorating the graves at the Whiskeytown Cemetery…

Read more

Yo! You!

Given that my Shelter-in-Place Comfort Music is "Sea Shanties," things were  bound to get weird. Those old sing-along tunes were work songs for the sailors and the rhythm and the rhymes got them  through the tough jobs with a sense…

Read more

Please, pretty please

The most frustrating aspect of this pandemic has been the sheer helplessness - it seems that the ONLY action I can take is to worry. So I do. Endlessly.

But there's good news coming out of Japan and…

Read more

Viral Inspiration

During the quarantine and lockdown that has been in effect for the last few weeks, I’ve watched lots of solo live streams, read posts from musicians who dearly miss their musical comrades, and watched as months of gigs for hard-working…

Read more

Together We

I joined a peaceful protest last month. I didn’t know any of the other marchers, so I was on my own until a young woman stepped in beside me, put out her hand and introduced herself. We walked through the…

Read more

The Songs Written in the Wind

From the musical I'm writing - Tied 2 the Tracks.

Once upon a time, Leo McIntyre was a superstar songwriter who toured the world with his beloved guitar, “Rosie.” After suffering a stroke, Mac realizes that  those days are…

Read more

The Rosewood Guitar

 

In Act II of the musical I'm writing, "Tied 2 the Tracks," country music legend Leo MacIntyre suffers a devastating stroke that leaves him unable to play his beloved Rosewood guitar.  He's angry, frustrated and, at…

Read more

In the Belly of a Buzzard

Because I never wanted a conventional send-off....And really, why should doves get ALL the songs?

Doing my part to make  Buzzard Ballads a thing.

 

Beautiful Scars

“I think she misses her people.” 

Those were the profound words of a friend. It was a few months after the Carr Fire and she was talking about Whiskeytown Lake. I had lamented that I’d been unable to visit…

Read more

Fancy Mood

It started with a cow.  A plain black cow in a neighbor’s pasture who ended up getting a Spring makeover when I painted her picture in bright, joyful pinks and blues and yellows. I called the painting “Fancy Mood.” 

Read more

Art in the City: Wonders of Whiskeytown

 

 

For many years, I've organized a North State Songwriter Showcase at Redding City Hall for the quarterly Artist Receptions. The two mediums seem quite complementary: Original music pairs perfectly with visual art created right here in…

Read more

The Turf o' Tullamore 2.0

I wrote The Turf o' Tullamore a few years ago, but I recently revisited it to correct ONE, small grammatical error. And I ended up rewriting the whole darn thing. The best-laid schemes o' mice, an' men,  an' songwriters, I…

Read more

The Cultural Cruise and Whiskeytown Blue #2

After Whiskeytown Park burned, I spent a lot of time with my watercolors and my memories, trying — with varying degrees of success — to process the loss and create pictures that capture the beauty and the joyful spirit of…

Read more

Whiskeytown Blue

Whiskeytown Park is one of my favorite places on this planet - just minutes from downtown Redding, it has been my escape, my peaceful place to run, hike and explore. We moved to Shasta County a little more than 20…

Read more

The Redding Song Video

 

A little more than a year ago a group of people gathered at Redding's Old City Hall in hopes of getting a California Cultural District designation for Redding. It was a long shot, there were a lot of…

Read more

The Pub That I Love

I'm now six months alcohol-free -- so it's  time to have some Fun with Songwriting.

Honestly, the ONLY thing I miss about drinking is the convivial atmosphere at our local tap house. I felt bad about leaving the…

Read more

What Would Woody Guthrie Do?

Who's telling the story? That's the first question I consider when I begin writing a new song. For this tune, the storyteller is a business owner -- a business owner who is frustrated, angry and disappointed by the homeless situation…

Read more

The Ballad of Lester and Wilbur

 

 

Lester and Wilbur just appeared one day - in south Redding just east of I5. Two giant bighorn sheep - they brightened up the morning commute and it turns out they were created by artist Joel Stockdill…

Read more

The Other California

We raised our three children in rural Northern California and since they grew up, all three of them have lived abroad.

When they tell people:  "Yes, I'm from California, but..." they find it's not easy to explain Shasta County. It's…Read more