I’m an acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter as well as ringleader and Chief Instigator of the Emerald City Jug Band and its far more more pop-oriented offshoot, The Rootsters, itself an outgrowth of the now defunct Teeth, Hair & Eyeballs.
As a solo, I play “Roots, Blues & Ballads,” an eclectic collection of traditional and pop tunes from ragtime to rap (OK, folk rap) and influenced by world beats. My material includes whatever comes to mind, from sappy love songs to weird dreamscapes to (leftie) political rants. For much of my career I immersed myself in finger-style blues and folk music, but for the last decade or so my tunes have had a way of coming out however they want – jazz, rock, reggae, country, or whatever; the song tells me what it needs. (And here I thought I was in complete control!) My ambition is to evoke feelings, start you thinking, and make you laugh — sometimes within the same song.
My instruments are a flat-top steel guitar, a cut-away Dobro, and a homemade traveling electric guitar that fits into a suitcase or backpack and doubles as a lap steel. My specialty is the bottleneck slide guitar, and Delta blues is what I love to play on it. (I led the Bottleneck Slide Guitar Workshop at the Northwest Folklife Festival from 1990 until 2014.) Occasionally I’ll pick up a mandolin to add flavor to a song, and in the jug band I’m starting to get pretty good at playing jug on some tunes. Hey – who else do you know playing funk jug? (Please pronounce those last two words clearly and slowly.)
Check out The RooTsters’ latest album “Merge”! My anti-war CD, “Rant – Journey – Anthem” and my first, “Long Way Home,” are still available.
