(Earthwise music series thru August, various parks and facilities)
Featuring Dan Bern, Rob Syrett, Or Barakat, Tivon Pennicott, Jeremy Corren, Savannah Harris, Matt The Electrician, MC Lars, Aleta Hayes, Ben Goldberg, Scott Amendola, Todd Sickafoose, Wayne Horvitz, Sara Schoenbeck, Gaye Adegbalola, Will Bernard and Freelance Subversives, The Waybacks, James Nash, Warren Hood, Marley’s Ghost, Mike Phelan, Ed Littlefield, Jr., Lisa Mezzacappa, Sifter, Rob Ewing, Beth Schenck, Jordan Glenn, Evri Kwon, Sony Holland, Jerry Holland, DaShawn Hickman, Wendy Hickman, Charlie Hunter, Jeremiah Lockwood, more to come, lord willing and the crick don’t rise.
I would not claim that any particular show influences any other, unless the artists are playing back-to-back or sitting in with each other. And, like Jim Adams description of creativity as similar to river rafting, where you alternate between doing nothing and being as regular as the winning eight at Head of the Charles, there is a combination of methodology and randomness to booking, to a series, or season.
The titles are only that I found a Stevie Wonder collection at the library surplus I listened with fresh ears to some old favorites; I love telling the Lew Welch story to people — Dan Bern suggests Lew is still with us and maybe faked his own death; Every Day is Earth Day when you do your shows in public plazas a mile away from a $35m showcase. But I will be the first to admit that the environment for most species has gotten worse not better in the years 1994 to 2021 overlapping with Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto.
Come say hi.
Not sure this helps:
Hotter than July, this series of shows represents our most astonishing effort in recent years, propelled by a reggae/regal/regional beat and a potent lyrical message. Earthwise adds new wonder and dimension to an illustrious career.
I saw myself
a ring of bone
in the clear stream
of all of it
and vowed,
always to be open to it
that all of it
might flow through
and then heard
“ring of bone” where
ring is what a
bell does
The New World was such a blinding opportunity to Europeans, and lay there so temptingly, like an unlocked treasure house with the watchman sleeping, that nobody thought of limits, nobody thought of preservation, until generations of living in America and ‘breaking’ its wilderness had taught us to know it, and knowing it had taught us to question what we were doing to it. (Wallace Stegner, on Earth Day)
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 