The New Bonnie Raitt Album
I am delighted that Bonnie Raitt has finally announced the upcoming release of her first studio album in seven years, “Slipstream.” The project, releasing on her own newly-formed Redwing...
Journal
Album release show: ‘Reverie’ in its entirety
My new album, “Reverie,” will release on October 11, and as such, I have been invited to perform that very evening at the historic Largo/Coronet Theatre in West Hollywood;...
Reverie: a raw and raucous and messy affair
Dear friends of the fourth estate. I thought it might be a good idea to bring news and announce my intentions to you directly, since time is short and...
Flesh And Blood, This World And The Next: Solomon Burke’s Funeral
I got up early this morning, put on a black suit and drove through a pissy rain, past the airport, to Gardena in south Los Angeles for Solomon Burke’s...
THE DEATH OF WILLIE MITCHELL
These are dark and death filled days we are inhabiting. As optimistic as I feel about the new year ahead—and I do, for reasons I can’t exactly account for,...
PRODUCING LEGENDS
Mose Allison, Harry Belafonte, and a poem from France It would seem that, even here in Southern California, autumn is upon us. It may reach 74 degrees today, but...
Notes on ‘Blood From Stars’
Dear friends, Greetings from Bay City, Michigan: The Land That Time Forgot. I spent yesterday, the release day of “Blood From Stars,” in the company of my wife’s 98-year-old...
FUNERAL MARCH
The Martin Luther King Parade, Los Angeles, 2005 My family and I spent several hours yesterday at the corner of St. Andrews Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. We...
GOING DOWN SLOW – A Remembrance of Ray Charles
In 1967 I was six years old and my family moved from Charlotte to Atlanta, leaving behind all kinfolk and everything I knew to be familiar. In our new...
GEEK LOVE: LORNE GREEN
In 1966, as a 5-year-old living in Atlanta, I loved songs without thinking about them as a matter of any choice. I listened to them the way I ate...