“When American leadership boasts of exporting democracy,” a regal and majestic Jesse Jackson, wearing a three piece suit behind an ornate pulpit declared, “They do not talk of Jeffersonian democracy.” Any system that includes the enslavement of citizens with a […]
James Lee Burke, one of the world’s best novelists, wrote that “the most important battles are often fought in places no one has heard of.” In a paradoxical America that is increasingly fractured and fragmented, and yet productive of a […]
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that the “greatest gift is a portion of thyself.” All great artists submit part of themselves into their art, whether it is channeling the frequency of their spirit into song, emptying some part of their heart […]
Wassily Kandinsky, the great abstract painter, offered music as “the best teacher” for aspiring artists in his own book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. “With few exceptions,” he wrote, “music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted […]
Garth Brooks once told an interviewer that if a culture wants to consistently produce good music, its creative and financial infrastructure must place the songwriters first, the performers second, and the marketers responsible for selling the music, third. “Without the […]
Carlene Carter offered a critical distinction between the vitality of art and the vulgarity of pop entertainment during a recent interview that I conducted with her over the telephone. While reticent to issue a general condemnation of contemporary country music, […]
Aristotle explained that all religion is drama, and that all drama is the evocation of pity and terror through means of pity and terror. If the Athenian philosopher was alive to witness the jubilant mastery of musical possession that is […]
John Mellencamp is a bluesman troubadour warrior fighting against the decline of his culture, armed only with his creativity and story. His nearly 50-year recording career has offered an exhibition in his own self-discovery, offering the artistic and aesthetic enhancement of […]
Kenny Loggins took the stage with the quietest of entrances. He sat down in a stool, without any music accompanying him, and said hello to the audience. Looking considerably younger than his 69 years of age, he quickly made reference […]
“All of my other projects with other bands feel like great vacations, but there’s no place like home,” Richie Kotzen told me over the phone when we discussed the great diversity of his musical creativity. “Home is Richie Kotzen.” Kotzen, […]
