1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:06,139 ♪ Opening theme music ♪ 2 00:00:14,414 --> 00:00:18,651 Hello, and welcome to this episode of ArtAbly in Conversation. 3 00:00:18,651 --> 00:00:20,820 My name is Diane Kolin. 4 00:00:21,221 --> 00:00:26,459 This series presents artists, academics, and project leaders who dedicate their 5 00:00:26,493 --> 00:00:32,232 time and energy to a better accessibility for people with disabilities in the arts. 6 00:00:32,265 --> 00:00:37,670 You can find more of these conversations on our website, artsably.com, 7 00:00:37,670 --> 00:00:42,542 which is spelled A-R-T-S-A-B-L-Y dot com. 8 00:00:43,710 --> 00:00:48,848 ♪ Theme music ♪ 9 00:00:55,955 --> 00:00:59,759 Today, ArtsAbly is in conversation with Charlie Mosbrook, 10 00:00:59,759 --> 00:01:05,198 a singer, songwriter, and a music educator living in Cleveland, in Ohio. 11 00:01:05,231 --> 00:01:09,235 You can find the resources mentioned by Charlie Mosbrook during this episode 12 00:01:09,235 --> 00:01:12,705 on ArtsAbly's website in the blog section. 13 00:01:13,706 --> 00:01:18,845 ♪ Charlie Mosbrook plays Remember who you are ♪ 14 00:01:21,414 --> 00:01:24,517 Remember who we are as we 15 00:01:24,517 --> 00:01:27,320 come from near and far. 16 00:01:27,887 --> 00:01:33,159 Women marching in the streets of bent-need athletes. 17 00:01:33,693 --> 00:01:37,530 We are refugees and dreamers. 18 00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:43,670 The immigrants you blame, we will come from near and far. 19 00:01:43,703 --> 00:01:47,574 Remember who we are. 20 00:01:49,075 --> 00:01:51,511 Remember who we are. 21 00:01:52,178 --> 00:01:55,148 We carry open scars. 22 00:01:55,615 --> 00:02:01,187 Forward in our wheelchairs, you cannot disregard. 23 00:02:01,187 --> 00:02:04,457 As we block the halls of Congress. 24 00:02:04,757 --> 00:02:07,694 for the fear of a graveyard. 25 00:02:07,694 --> 00:02:11,631 We will come from near and far. 26 00:02:11,631 --> 00:02:15,935 Remember who we are. 27 00:02:19,205 --> 00:02:22,242 And stood up to the Klansmen 28 00:02:22,242 --> 00:02:25,478 and the Nazis, just the same. 29 00:02:26,145 --> 00:02:31,918 And to a tone-deaf president for whom the victim shares the blame 30 00:02:31,918 --> 00:02:35,688 for a deadly act of terror, 31 00:02:35,688 --> 00:02:41,294 to him it's just a game, and we will come from near and far. 32 00:02:41,928 --> 00:02:46,599 Remember who we are. 33 00:02:49,903 --> 00:02:53,106 We are scientists and teachers 34 00:02:53,106 --> 00:02:57,310 and reporters on TV. 35 00:02:57,343 --> 00:03:02,315 Investigators, lawyers, the facts are plain to see. 36 00:03:02,949 --> 00:03:09,589 And the evidence is obvious, don't look the other way. 37 00:03:09,589 --> 00:03:12,292 We will come from near and far, 38 00:03:12,292 --> 00:03:17,530 oh remember who we are. 39 00:03:31,678 --> 00:03:35,014 And we know that all lives matters, 40 00:03:35,014 --> 00:03:38,084 but it doesn't seem that way 41 00:03:38,084 --> 00:03:44,223 When the consequence of living is dying every day. 42 00:03:44,223 --> 00:03:50,396 If the motto of your force is self-service and neglect 43 00:03:50,863 --> 00:03:53,967 we will come from near and far 44 00:03:53,967 --> 00:03:57,637 oh remember who we are. 45 00:03:59,339 --> 00:04:05,245 Schools are filled with children, to live with different rules. 46 00:04:05,745 --> 00:04:11,251 Drills and lockdowns put in place can't save them from these fools. 47 00:04:11,284 --> 00:04:17,991 As you pander to the worst in us, friends are laid to waste 48 00:04:18,257 --> 00:04:24,998 We will come from near and far, oh, remember who we are. 49 00:04:26,132 --> 00:04:30,136 We will come from near and far, 50 00:04:30,136 --> 00:04:34,274 remember who we are. 51 00:04:47,787 --> 00:04:52,925 ♪ End of the music video ♪ 52 00:04:53,593 --> 00:04:57,030 Welcome to this new episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation. 53 00:04:57,030 --> 00:05:01,100 Today, I am with Charlie Mosbrook, who is a singer, songwriter, 54 00:05:01,100 --> 00:05:06,572 and a music educator living in Cleveland, Ohio. Welcome, Charlie. 55 00:05:06,572 --> 00:05:08,975 Hey, Diane. Good to be here. 56 00:05:08,975 --> 00:05:10,743 Thank you for being here. 57 00:05:10,777 --> 00:05:11,611 Sure. 58 00:05:11,644 --> 00:05:16,182 Okay, so let's talk about your rich career 59 00:05:16,215 --> 00:05:19,419 because you have a long career in music. 60 00:05:19,419 --> 00:05:26,059 I wanted to start by asking you if you could give a bit of background, tell me who you are... 61 00:05:26,192 --> 00:05:27,894 Well, I am Charlie Mossbrook. 62 00:05:27,894 --> 00:05:31,064 I am in Cleveland, Ohio, 63 00:05:31,097 --> 00:05:33,866 and I'm a singer-songwriter. 64 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:37,336 I've been at this for over 30 years now. 65 00:05:37,336 --> 00:05:43,743 As a musician living with a disability, 66 00:05:43,776 --> 00:05:46,646 I've been at this about 14 years, 67 00:05:46,679 --> 00:05:53,219 which is a different world for me, but I've made the most of it. 68 00:05:53,219 --> 00:05:58,891 In some ways, it's has been a better fit for me than previously. 69 00:05:59,959 --> 00:06:04,630 When did you start your musical journey? 70 00:06:05,598 --> 00:06:10,870 I'm guessing I was probably a toddler and I was taking spoons 71 00:06:10,903 --> 00:06:13,039 and pounding on my high chair. 72 00:06:13,072 --> 00:06:20,580 Then in about the fourth or fifth grade, maybe, I started playing drums 73 00:06:20,580 --> 00:06:26,519 in the school and took drum instruction for about four years as well 74 00:06:26,519 --> 00:06:30,957 as being in the choir. 75 00:06:30,990 --> 00:06:33,993 Then I started listening to some... 76 00:06:34,026 --> 00:06:40,399 Well, I'd always listened to songwriters and such, but I was a poet, and 77 00:06:40,399 --> 00:06:46,372 I discovered that I could write songs, and the guitar was a good tool for that. 78 00:06:46,406 --> 00:06:50,977 I think I switched to bass briefly from the drums and then thought 79 00:06:51,010 --> 00:06:57,583 the guitar was more suitable for me because it became a drum. 80 00:06:57,583 --> 00:07:03,890 The acoustic guitar is drum-like in the approach, and for songwriting, 81 00:07:03,890 --> 00:07:07,059 it just made a whole heck of a lot more sense. 82 00:07:07,059 --> 00:07:13,399 I got into it that way, and I think I just 83 00:07:13,399 --> 00:07:16,002 had a foolish belief in myself and just 84 00:07:16,035 --> 00:07:20,706 started going forward and writing songs and trying to play them for people. 85 00:07:20,740 --> 00:07:23,042 I think I thought I was great. 86 00:07:23,042 --> 00:07:26,579 I don't know how good I was, but I was passionate and persistent. 87 00:07:26,579 --> 00:07:33,452 That carried me a long way to really being a little more accomplished. 88 00:07:33,486 --> 00:07:40,092 I did a lot of street music for a while, and that helped me to develop my skills. 89 00:07:40,126 --> 00:07:43,896 Did you do music studies or were you studying something completely different 90 00:07:43,930 --> 00:07:48,401 than just doing- In school, I took the drum lessons. 91 00:07:48,434 --> 00:07:53,906 More recently, I've been studying Piedmont Blues styles 92 00:07:53,906 --> 00:07:58,411 with with a guy who's very good at that in this area. 93 00:07:59,979 --> 00:08:03,883 I've excelled quite a bit, actually, much more recently than I think I 94 00:08:03,883 --> 00:08:06,419 have over any other period of my life. 95 00:08:06,419 --> 00:08:09,922 But more or less, I just find the right people to spend time with 96 00:08:09,922 --> 00:08:13,459 and watch their fingers and ask questions from time to time. 97 00:08:13,459 --> 00:08:19,298 I did study audio engineering, so I have that background and did a good internship 98 00:08:19,298 --> 00:08:24,036 with a good record label here in northeast Ohio. 99 00:08:24,070 --> 00:08:30,476 That was most of my music study was actually in recording, more so the music. 100 00:08:30,509 --> 00:08:35,615 But I've always been a self-motivator. 101 00:08:35,648 --> 00:08:41,320 When it was time to learn how to play the instrument, I figured it out on my own. 102 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:46,826 When it was time to do whatever I needed to do, I just studied whatever 103 00:08:46,859 --> 00:08:48,995 I could and then went with it. 104 00:08:49,028 --> 00:08:53,966 Every once in a while, I got lucky and found a good mentor who could help me out a little bit. 105 00:08:54,634 --> 00:09:00,339 Studying sound engineering, it might have helped you when you were 106 00:09:00,339 --> 00:09:03,442 working on your own productions, right? 107 00:09:03,476 --> 00:09:10,616 Yeah, it helped me to better organize what I was doing and to just think about 108 00:09:10,616 --> 00:09:13,152 how things worked a little better. 109 00:09:13,185 --> 00:09:17,290 At the time I was studying, though, it was early 2000s. 110 00:09:17,323 --> 00:09:24,597 All of our instructors were well-versed in more of the analog world, 111 00:09:25,398 --> 00:09:28,200 and everything now is software-based. 112 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,904 My desk is very clean as opposed to what I had in mind when I 113 00:09:31,938 --> 00:09:34,640 started building my recording setup. 114 00:09:34,674 --> 00:09:39,078 Now it's really, how much can I keep in the box? 115 00:09:39,111 --> 00:09:45,418 While I am attracted to new shiny things like most people in music are, 116 00:09:45,418 --> 00:09:49,555 for most people, I think, that's just the consumer, at least in the US, 117 00:09:49,555 --> 00:09:53,159 I don't know about on the other side of the lakes, but 118 00:09:53,192 --> 00:09:57,797 we are driven to be consumers, and we are horse-fed every 119 00:09:57,830 --> 00:09:59,999 shiny new object that comes our way. 120 00:10:00,032 --> 00:10:03,336 There are a couple of little shiny objects sitting in front of me 121 00:10:03,336 --> 00:10:05,271 other than the software. 122 00:10:05,304 --> 00:10:07,473 I think it's the same over there. 123 00:10:11,344 --> 00:10:15,114 I know that you were performing. 124 00:10:15,147 --> 00:10:19,785 In the '90s and 2000s, you were performing a lot 125 00:10:19,819 --> 00:10:22,288 in a lot of different places, actually, right? 126 00:10:22,321 --> 00:10:23,389 Yeah. 127 00:10:23,422 --> 00:10:25,591 Well, I I spent a lot of years. 128 00:10:25,625 --> 00:10:30,763 When I was younger, I would go play open mics as most songwriters would. 129 00:10:30,796 --> 00:10:33,833 I came back to Cleveland and started working 130 00:10:33,833 --> 00:10:35,835 in a coffee shop I had previously worked in. 131 00:10:35,868 --> 00:10:41,207 The owner said, What can we do to make Monday night more profitable? 132 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,743 I said, Let's do an open mic. He said, Do it. 133 00:10:43,743 --> 00:10:47,647 I had no idea what I was doing, but I grabbed a couple of friends 134 00:10:47,647 --> 00:10:49,782 and said, Let's figure this out. 135 00:10:49,782 --> 00:10:55,554 That was very successful for about 14 years before the coffee shop. 136 00:10:55,588 --> 00:11:00,159 We lived in the coffee shop, actually, and moved to another coffee shop. 137 00:11:00,192 --> 00:11:04,296 Another 10 years added to that. 138 00:11:04,296 --> 00:11:07,767 But during that time, I ran. 139 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:12,471 There were years where I was running probably four open mics a week and then 140 00:11:12,505 --> 00:11:15,975 running around on weekends doing three or four different shows. 141 00:11:16,008 --> 00:11:18,310 So very, very busy. 142 00:11:18,911 --> 00:11:24,617 I don't maintain that schedule anymore as far as shows go. 143 00:11:24,617 --> 00:11:27,586 Though when I do a show today, I get paid a lot better than I 144 00:11:27,620 --> 00:11:30,222 used to at that time in my life. 145 00:11:30,222 --> 00:11:33,859 Were you performing mostly your compositions or were you 146 00:11:33,893 --> 00:11:36,996 performing artists you liked? 147 00:11:37,029 --> 00:11:39,999 These days, I prefer a house concert 148 00:11:39,999 --> 00:11:44,703 or some venue, more like 149 00:11:44,737 --> 00:11:48,074 a concert presentation or a festival. 150 00:11:48,107 --> 00:11:53,879 I don't really like playing bars or coffee shops very much anymore because oftentimes, 151 00:11:53,879 --> 00:11:58,617 they put me in an awkward position where I find 152 00:11:58,617 --> 00:12:01,721 people who have had maybe too much drink 153 00:12:01,754 --> 00:12:06,425 are tripping over me, and I don't want to have to spend the time 154 00:12:06,459 --> 00:12:10,496 defending myself or my instrument or my chair. 155 00:12:10,696 --> 00:12:12,698 So I just find that 156 00:12:13,732 --> 00:12:17,303 If I'm not going to have fun doing the gig because I'm spending time 157 00:12:17,303 --> 00:12:23,275 trying to protect myself, my instruments or my chair, I tend not to go back. 158 00:12:23,309 --> 00:12:27,480 It just seems too much work, and I want to focus on the music. 159 00:12:27,513 --> 00:12:33,919 I look for concert presentation opportunities. 160 00:12:34,420 --> 00:12:37,723 It's really artist-wise, it's your own music, right? 161 00:12:37,723 --> 00:12:43,963 Or are you also doing- Well, I really started off with the idea 162 00:12:43,963 --> 00:12:46,899 that I was a songwriter and I would be doing my own music. 163 00:12:46,932 --> 00:12:53,239 I also got really interested in Woody Guthrie's music and wanted to 164 00:12:53,272 --> 00:12:55,241 carry that a little bit. 165 00:12:55,241 --> 00:12:58,477 I played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a big... 166 00:12:58,511 --> 00:13:02,381 They did a big program on Woody Guthrie, and they had a couple of us come in 167 00:13:02,414 --> 00:13:05,451 and sing a bunch of his songs. 168 00:13:05,484 --> 00:13:12,224 But today, because of my teaching, and 169 00:13:12,224 --> 00:13:18,564 I work so much with the traditional songs 170 00:13:18,597 --> 00:13:22,434 just on my own or through teaching that I usually include some of that. 171 00:13:22,468 --> 00:13:23,536 I think it's important. 172 00:13:23,569 --> 00:13:28,541 I think the traditional music for folk music, if you're doing original folk music, 173 00:13:29,708 --> 00:13:34,046 for myself, it's informed heavily by traditional music. 174 00:13:34,079 --> 00:13:36,882 To help people better understand where the music 175 00:13:36,882 --> 00:13:40,820 I'm playing today comes from, I like to... 176 00:13:40,820 --> 00:13:43,556 There's some inclusion to the past. 177 00:13:43,589 --> 00:13:47,326 I think it's important for people to know who Elizabeth Cotten or Woody Guthrie or 178 00:13:47,359 --> 00:13:53,999 Mississippi John Hurt are and where those songs come from and how that tradition 179 00:13:54,033 --> 00:13:58,103 It's all part of the same story. 180 00:13:58,103 --> 00:14:02,374 I do tend to do some of other people's music, but yeah, 181 00:14:02,408 --> 00:14:03,943 primarily I'm a songwriter. 182 00:14:06,011 --> 00:14:08,080 Is that what I answered your question? 183 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,883 Yes, it did. 184 00:14:11,417 --> 00:14:15,487 Once - you had an accident, right? 185 00:14:15,521 --> 00:14:16,388 Not really. They caught... 186 00:14:16,422 --> 00:14:21,560 Well, it was degenerative disk disorder 187 00:14:21,794 --> 00:14:25,431 is what they put on all the forms. 188 00:14:25,698 --> 00:14:31,103 The disks between five and six of the cervical part of my spine 189 00:14:31,103 --> 00:14:35,074 started to break down and they started bouncing against the spine. 190 00:14:35,107 --> 00:14:37,643 They went in and they cleaned it up. 191 00:14:37,710 --> 00:14:40,980 Nobody could really tell me how they broke down. 192 00:14:40,980 --> 00:14:45,150 I have some suspicions based on my lifestyle and some goofy things 193 00:14:45,184 --> 00:14:48,254 that I may have done, but I couldn't nail it down. 194 00:14:48,287 --> 00:14:52,691 I remember being in the physical therapy in it my first night. 195 00:14:52,725 --> 00:14:56,562 I was going to be in there for a while trying to figure out some basics. 196 00:14:56,595 --> 00:14:58,297 How do you put your pants on 197 00:14:58,297 --> 00:15:01,767 and how do you get in and out of a car and blah, blah, blah. 198 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:06,605 I remember the question going round and round and round. 199 00:15:06,639 --> 00:15:09,642 All of a sudden, I put the brakes on. I said, Stop. 200 00:15:09,675 --> 00:15:12,244 You're going to think about this your whole life and it's going to make you crazy. 201 00:15:12,244 --> 00:15:15,914 It doesn't really matter how or what happened. 202 00:15:16,148 --> 00:15:18,317 The goal here is to move forward. 203 00:15:18,317 --> 00:15:21,120 That's basically become my mantra. 204 00:15:21,153 --> 00:15:23,822 Move forward, just keep moving forward. 205 00:15:23,822 --> 00:15:29,561 Except when I have to back out of places, that's pretty good. 206 00:15:29,862 --> 00:15:32,965 Moving forward in music, what did it mean? 207 00:15:32,998 --> 00:15:37,369 You had your career and your journey, and now 208 00:15:37,403 --> 00:15:41,173 you were in this new situation sitting. 209 00:15:41,206 --> 00:15:43,108 Yeah. I had to rethink everything. 210 00:15:43,142 --> 00:15:48,914 Just the way I perform, I would stand. 211 00:15:48,947 --> 00:15:54,653 There's a guitar that's on a strap around my shoulder, and I can move it 212 00:15:54,687 --> 00:15:58,991 so I can get up the neck with this hand. I can do... 213 00:15:59,024 --> 00:16:01,126 All of a sudden, it's sitting on my lap. 214 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,762 Just that had to change a little bit. 215 00:16:03,796 --> 00:16:07,299 The way I do a lot more finger picking these days 216 00:16:07,333 --> 00:16:12,438 than strumming across across the neck because it's just more comfortable. 217 00:16:12,871 --> 00:16:16,975 I had to rethink how I play. 218 00:16:17,009 --> 00:16:22,214 Plus, these two fingers on both hands, I get a lot of tingling, 219 00:16:22,247 --> 00:16:25,317 and they don't always land properly. 220 00:16:25,351 --> 00:16:28,687 These two, these are the workers. 221 00:16:28,721 --> 00:16:31,924 These get involved, but not as well. 222 00:16:31,957 --> 00:16:38,530 I needed to really rethink and retrain some of the muscle memory to make sure 223 00:16:38,564 --> 00:16:44,703 that, well, this needs to get to that string, and if it's there, do I feel it? 224 00:16:44,703 --> 00:16:46,672 Bad days, I don't feel it. 225 00:16:46,705 --> 00:16:50,409 On good days, it does what it needs to do. 226 00:16:50,409 --> 00:16:55,414 Bad days, there's definitely a little clunky action, and I try to 227 00:16:55,447 --> 00:16:59,485 ignore it and just move on through or adapt to that situation. 228 00:16:59,518 --> 00:17:05,991 Performing, because I stood, that obviously changed. 229 00:17:06,358 --> 00:17:13,699 But I had gear back in the '90s and through the early 2000s, 230 00:17:13,699 --> 00:17:19,671 I was rolling around with 50, 75-pound speakers and amplifiers that were 231 00:17:19,671 --> 00:17:25,844 200 pounds, it felt like, and so much gear. So probably the very first 232 00:17:25,844 --> 00:17:31,016 thing I did was to go on to one of these sales sites. 233 00:17:31,016 --> 00:17:33,485 I don't know if it's Craigslist or eBay or what. 234 00:17:33,519 --> 00:17:36,722 But I sold off all my gear and replaced it with things 235 00:17:36,722 --> 00:17:39,658 that I can physically pick up. 236 00:17:40,259 --> 00:17:44,730 So when I go out and do a small, 237 00:17:44,730 --> 00:17:49,401 like a farmer's market or a house concert, 238 00:17:49,435 --> 00:17:53,972 I have a little seven-pound all in one package that really sounds great. 239 00:17:53,972 --> 00:17:54,973 It's wonderful. 240 00:17:54,973 --> 00:17:58,377 When I travel across the country, I've got a little luggage thing on the front 241 00:17:58,410 --> 00:18:01,313 of the chair where I can put the guitar. 242 00:18:01,346 --> 00:18:03,115 I put my backpack back here. 243 00:18:03,148 --> 00:18:05,084 I put a smaller pack hanging from the chair. 244 00:18:05,117 --> 00:18:11,356 Then I have my little speaker sitting on my lap in between my torso and my guitar. 245 00:18:11,390 --> 00:18:14,059 And the country is mine. I can go wherever I want. 246 00:18:14,059 --> 00:18:16,328 Or I come into your country. 247 00:18:16,361 --> 00:18:18,931 I'll be in Montreal next February, I believe. 248 00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:20,933 Ah! 249 00:18:21,133 --> 00:18:24,236 As long as I can get across the border, I'll go there. 250 00:18:24,269 --> 00:18:30,909 I travel mostly by Amtrak if I can because it helps me to carry what I need. 251 00:18:30,909 --> 00:18:35,414 I can have it all with me in the seat. 252 00:18:35,414 --> 00:18:37,616 I can get to and from the restroom. 253 00:18:37,616 --> 00:18:41,186 When you travel Amtrak, it's a good idea to have a plan 254 00:18:41,220 --> 00:18:44,289 to have somebody pick you up. 255 00:18:44,323 --> 00:18:49,461 Everything's always taken care of, and I don't have to be as self-sufficient 256 00:18:49,495 --> 00:18:53,532 as I once was when I would 257 00:18:53,532 --> 00:19:00,072 drive around the country and do that. I've never started driving again either. 258 00:19:01,673 --> 00:19:04,877 I'm frankly afraid of it. 259 00:19:06,278 --> 00:19:12,251 It takes some time to adapt, to every situation. 260 00:19:12,251 --> 00:19:15,954 And this way works for me. 261 00:19:17,656 --> 00:19:20,492 But yeah, we adapt. 262 00:19:20,526 --> 00:19:23,595 Everything really did change. 263 00:19:23,595 --> 00:19:27,399 I I think also just as a musician 264 00:19:27,432 --> 00:19:29,735 or as a folk musician and doing 265 00:19:29,735 --> 00:19:33,138 topical songs and singing in favor 266 00:19:33,138 --> 00:19:39,878 of people's rights and humanity, and that being 267 00:19:39,912 --> 00:19:45,217 a middle class, white male, straight white male, 268 00:19:46,184 --> 00:19:51,089 my voice was only in observation for the most part. 269 00:19:51,123 --> 00:19:53,759 I didn't ever experience... 270 00:19:53,792 --> 00:19:59,798 You know, I experienced some moments of this isn't fair, but 271 00:19:59,798 --> 00:20:02,734 I live in privilege, and I know that I did. 272 00:20:03,435 --> 00:20:07,706 Being in a marginalized group as a disabled person, 273 00:20:07,739 --> 00:20:11,877 all of a sudden, my voice, my perspective changed quite a bit because 274 00:20:11,877 --> 00:20:16,348 now all of a sudden I understood what it was like to live in a world 275 00:20:16,381 --> 00:20:20,219 that was not built for me, 276 00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:24,656 that quietly excuses me or 277 00:20:24,656 --> 00:20:28,093 even undermines my ability to succeed. 278 00:20:28,126 --> 00:20:32,898 I'd never experienced that before, and now I understand that better. 279 00:20:32,898 --> 00:20:37,402 I don't let it happen, but I understand it better. 280 00:20:37,436 --> 00:20:41,673 I am - again, where I began was persistence, 281 00:20:41,673 --> 00:20:46,945 and persistence has always been a big part of that whole moving forward plan. 282 00:20:47,746 --> 00:20:54,119 With your work, you also work with a lot of voices. 283 00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:57,422 You want to, I think, 284 00:20:57,456 --> 00:21:01,226 be involved in these communities 285 00:21:01,259 --> 00:21:06,898 where there is a right to be 286 00:21:06,932 --> 00:21:10,736 and a right to be present and a right to... This is Advocacy Community. 287 00:21:10,769 --> 00:21:14,640 Can you talk about this advocacy work you're doing? 288 00:21:14,740 --> 00:21:18,443 I work with a group called Roots of American Music. 289 00:21:18,443 --> 00:21:22,748 It's an educational organization based here in Cleveland. 290 00:21:22,781 --> 00:21:25,284 We have I have a number of programs. 291 00:21:25,317 --> 00:21:31,590 One of them is called Stop the Hate, which is based around... 292 00:21:33,191 --> 00:21:36,595 Why am I blanking the word? 293 00:21:37,996 --> 00:21:43,335 Basically, we go into the schools and we do a songwriting workshop with students 294 00:21:43,368 --> 00:21:49,875 to write songs that hopefully answer the questions of 295 00:21:52,177 --> 00:21:57,849 giving people an opportunity to simply live, giving people an opportunity to 296 00:21:57,883 --> 00:22:04,456 excel, pushing back against the voices of hate. 297 00:22:05,657 --> 00:22:11,096 We'll write songs, it's as a class. One of the most... 298 00:22:11,096 --> 00:22:14,466 To me, we've run a number 299 00:22:14,499 --> 00:22:18,003 of awards with these songs, 300 00:22:18,003 --> 00:22:22,207 but one of the most important ones that I was involved with, I went into a school 301 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:23,742 in the Glenville neighborhood. 302 00:22:23,742 --> 00:22:29,081 Glenville is a neighborhood in Cleveland where Superman was born. 303 00:22:29,114 --> 00:22:31,583 The two young men who drew Superman. 304 00:22:31,583 --> 00:22:37,889 Their high school has produced quite a few very good NFL stars, 305 00:22:37,923 --> 00:22:41,693 but it's a very poor neighborhood. 306 00:22:43,895 --> 00:22:49,367 It's a neighborhood that has a lot of challenges in many ways. 307 00:22:49,401 --> 00:22:53,872 One of the big challenges is nutrition, and they don't have grocery stores. 308 00:22:53,905 --> 00:23:01,446 One of these food deserts where the kids don't have access to good food. 309 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:06,051 I went into the school and I said, What issues are really concerning you? 310 00:23:06,084 --> 00:23:07,319 What impacts you? 311 00:23:07,352 --> 00:23:11,523 Where do you see change in this community, in your world? 312 00:23:11,523 --> 00:23:15,460 They said, Food. We can't... 313 00:23:15,460 --> 00:23:17,863 So we wrote a song called Skittles. 314 00:23:17,863 --> 00:23:23,935 They said, We need better vittles, and all we have here is Skittles. 315 00:23:23,935 --> 00:23:25,570 Because that was their perception. 316 00:23:25,604 --> 00:23:27,272 They go, Where do you get food? 317 00:23:27,305 --> 00:23:29,508 At the gas station. 318 00:23:29,541 --> 00:23:35,914 We wrote this song, and the judges in the contest, in the songwriting 319 00:23:35,947 --> 00:23:40,819 contest, are oftentimes people with a lot of resources. 320 00:23:40,819 --> 00:23:46,558 My hope was that that song would reach the right ears and people would say, 321 00:23:46,558 --> 00:23:51,663 Yeah, these kids really do need food, and we need to do better as far 322 00:23:51,696 --> 00:23:56,034 as bringing nutritious food into different communities. 323 00:23:56,301 --> 00:24:01,006 Good groceries shouldn't just be available to very affluent neighborhoods, 324 00:24:01,039 --> 00:24:03,875 which that's the way the grocers work. 325 00:24:03,909 --> 00:24:08,713 I mean, any one of the big ones, they come in and they survey the area and they say, 326 00:24:08,713 --> 00:24:11,249 Is this profitable or is it not? 327 00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:17,222 That's not how we should look at the distribution of food or medicine 328 00:24:17,222 --> 00:24:21,092 or housing or anything like that. But that's where we're at right now. 329 00:24:22,294 --> 00:24:27,132 We use these opportunities to give the kids an opportunity to really 330 00:24:27,699 --> 00:24:31,470 think about changing the world and think about what parts of their world need 331 00:24:31,503 --> 00:24:33,805 to be changed and what could be better. 332 00:24:33,839 --> 00:24:37,476 In so doing, I learn a lot from them. 333 00:24:37,509 --> 00:24:42,214 Then we also teach a program called Blues is the Backbone. 334 00:24:42,247 --> 00:24:48,487 I look at that teaching American history through the lens of the blues. 335 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:50,989 We start in about 1850 336 00:24:51,022 --> 00:24:57,095 as slavery is at its peak, 337 00:24:57,128 --> 00:24:59,698 but there's a big fight going on. They need it. 338 00:24:59,698 --> 00:25:04,502 The underground railroad is a big part of the beginning of that story. 339 00:25:04,536 --> 00:25:08,139 Banjo is being played on a gourd. 340 00:25:08,139 --> 00:25:13,812 You can find videos of Rhiannon Giddens playing a Banjo like that. 341 00:25:13,845 --> 00:25:16,915 This year, we finished the class after eight weeks with Bruno Mars, 342 00:25:16,948 --> 00:25:23,221 and I was able to trace the lineage of American music from Bruno Mars back 343 00:25:23,221 --> 00:25:30,562 to an old Banjo made with a gourd, or as I would say to the kids, like a pumpkin. 344 00:25:30,595 --> 00:25:32,998 That made sense to them. 345 00:25:33,031 --> 00:25:34,432 That's fantastic. 346 00:25:34,466 --> 00:25:40,105 It's really important to make them understand that the music we play today 347 00:25:40,138 --> 00:25:44,676 have roots and that if you're able to play what you're playing today, 348 00:25:44,709 --> 00:25:48,146 that's because of all these musicians that were before us. 349 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:55,787 And I think it's important for the children to understand or adults to understand 350 00:25:55,820 --> 00:25:59,691 that they come from something, that they come from a huge history, 351 00:25:59,724 --> 00:26:05,964 that their roots of the history of the universe winds up in them. 352 00:26:05,997 --> 00:26:10,769 And then what they do today will impact what's ahead of them. 353 00:26:10,802 --> 00:26:14,973 To me, that's a very, very important lesson. 354 00:26:15,307 --> 00:26:18,910 In music, we can illustrate that. 355 00:26:19,144 --> 00:26:22,981 You're also a member of Folk Alliance International, right? 356 00:26:22,981 --> 00:26:27,552 Yeah, I'm currently on the board of trustees for Folk Alliance International. 357 00:26:27,586 --> 00:26:32,691 I was formerly the President of Folk Alliance Region Midwest, which serves 358 00:26:32,724 --> 00:26:35,794 the Midwest United States and Canada. 359 00:26:37,829 --> 00:26:42,400 I'm a first-year board member with Folk Alliance right now. 360 00:26:42,601 --> 00:26:43,435 That's fine. 361 00:26:43,468 --> 00:26:47,639 It's a great group of people that I'm serving with. 362 00:26:49,708 --> 00:26:54,613 We're serving a lot of needs, I think, within the music industry and for helping 363 00:26:54,646 --> 00:26:58,984 helping people in the folk music world to be able to establish them 364 00:26:59,017 --> 00:27:04,889 and have the tools available to them that traditionally go to the money makers. 365 00:27:04,923 --> 00:27:07,292 Anybody in folk music knows if you want to make a million dollars 366 00:27:07,325 --> 00:27:10,362 in folk music, start with two. 367 00:27:11,296 --> 00:27:16,701 So trying to find... 368 00:27:18,103 --> 00:27:23,875 find ways to help our community grow 369 00:27:23,908 --> 00:27:27,245 and to become stronger and to have those resources and tools and 370 00:27:27,278 --> 00:27:31,116 to know that they're not alone, that the musicians who are playing, 371 00:27:31,149 --> 00:27:34,252 and it's not just folk music, but anything that's not... 372 00:27:34,252 --> 00:27:39,090 I think as a young musician, to me, success in music was 373 00:27:39,090 --> 00:27:43,028 doing what Mick Jagger or Michael Jackson were doing. 374 00:27:43,061 --> 00:27:49,134 In truth, and I said this to somebody this morning, waking up and being able 375 00:27:49,134 --> 00:27:52,404 to put a guitar in my hand and making music, that's success. 376 00:27:52,437 --> 00:27:53,505 I get to do that every day. 377 00:27:53,538 --> 00:27:57,575 That's fun. I get to perform for kids, I get to perform for older people. 378 00:27:57,609 --> 00:28:00,078 I get to perform for people my age. 379 00:28:00,111 --> 00:28:03,782 I get to record, and I get to help other 380 00:28:03,815 --> 00:28:08,053 people to make their musical livelihood, 381 00:28:08,053 --> 00:28:12,090 something practical and sustainable. 382 00:28:12,090 --> 00:28:18,329 And to me, that's success in music, almost more so than... 383 00:28:18,363 --> 00:28:23,034 I'm not saying I would walk away from Mick Jagger's opportunities, 384 00:28:23,068 --> 00:28:27,338 but I like where I'm at today. It's pretty good. 385 00:28:27,338 --> 00:28:32,277 I wouldn't have imagined it as a teenager, but looking at it now, 386 00:28:32,277 --> 00:28:35,246 I'm like, This is cool. We're doing good stuff. 387 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:42,253 Is there a specific project that you might want to highlight? 388 00:28:42,654 --> 00:28:51,496 Currently, I've got a handful of songs that I'm working on right now. 389 00:28:51,496 --> 00:28:56,101 I just finished up a few streaming records. 390 00:28:56,134 --> 00:29:00,238 One was a collection of Grateful Dead songs 391 00:29:00,238 --> 00:29:06,144 performed as pure folk songs, single instruments. Each instrument - 392 00:29:06,644 --> 00:29:10,682 It's called Song Hunter, and it's a tribute to Robert Hunter. 393 00:29:10,715 --> 00:29:15,987 Each song, I'd highlight a specific instrument, such as Fire on the Mountain. 394 00:29:16,020 --> 00:29:20,191 I used a Mountain Dulcimer because it seemed to fit the song. 395 00:29:20,225 --> 00:29:24,362 Or Shiva Fool, I used an ukulele, and it really seemed to fit the song. 396 00:29:25,263 --> 00:29:27,298 I really just wanted to highlight the songwriting 397 00:29:27,298 --> 00:29:32,470 because people had said to me for years, What's so great about the Grateful Dead? 398 00:29:32,504 --> 00:29:34,239 They sound all the same. 399 00:29:34,239 --> 00:29:36,007 I'm like, Oh, listen to those songs. 400 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:40,044 It's not just a mind-numming jamming going on. 401 00:29:40,078 --> 00:29:41,646 It's wonderful songwriting. 402 00:29:41,679 --> 00:29:45,683 I also recently put out a streaming record 403 00:29:45,717 --> 00:29:48,953 called They Deserve Better, which was 404 00:29:48,987 --> 00:29:54,159 a collection of old songs of mine that I'd recorded previously that may have 405 00:29:54,159 --> 00:29:57,061 been recorded on a cassette four track or something like that. 406 00:29:57,095 --> 00:30:01,733 They weren't really presentable any longer. 407 00:30:01,766 --> 00:30:07,572 I went and reworked them and just had a lot of fun 408 00:30:07,605 --> 00:30:09,440 recording them and putting them. 409 00:30:09,474 --> 00:30:12,277 I think those two are the most recent ones that I've worked on 410 00:30:12,277 --> 00:30:14,746 that I feel really strongly about. 411 00:30:14,779 --> 00:30:18,082 The next one will be all new original music, 412 00:30:18,082 --> 00:30:20,752 and that's what I'm working on now. 413 00:30:20,785 --> 00:30:27,192 The new stuff is always the most difficult place for me is 414 00:30:27,192 --> 00:30:30,562 figuring out what do I want to say. 415 00:30:30,595 --> 00:30:32,063 What do I want to say? 416 00:30:32,931 --> 00:30:36,868 Once I have that in mind, all of a sudden, the floodgates open up and 417 00:30:36,868 --> 00:30:40,238 the lyrics start coming. I think they're coming right now. 418 00:30:40,238 --> 00:30:42,473 I think I know what I want to say. 419 00:30:42,507 --> 00:30:45,977 It's just capturing that. 420 00:30:46,945 --> 00:30:52,817 In what you want to say, maybe there is something that you could explore 421 00:30:52,817 --> 00:30:56,554 at a certain your life, which is about 422 00:30:56,588 --> 00:30:59,924 working in what I call disability arts 423 00:30:59,958 --> 00:31:05,930 for quite a long time now and learning and adapting. 424 00:31:05,964 --> 00:31:12,136 What it is for you to work in that environment where you have access needs, 425 00:31:12,170 --> 00:31:15,840 you need to have an accessible stage, and you need to have people who understand 426 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:19,043 that artists with disabilities exist? 427 00:31:19,077 --> 00:31:22,480 What is it for you to work in that environment? 428 00:31:22,513 --> 00:31:28,052 Well, I've always said to presenters, they'll look at me and say, 429 00:31:28,052 --> 00:31:30,521 Well, we're not sure if we can actually accommodate you. 430 00:31:30,555 --> 00:31:31,556 I said, You know what? 431 00:31:31,556 --> 00:31:35,760 If you tell me it's a stage, I will get on the roof if it's necessary. 432 00:31:35,793 --> 00:31:39,864 You let me answer that question. Never answer that question. 433 00:31:39,864 --> 00:31:46,537 The one thing that I've always encouraged music presenters whenever I'm sitting 434 00:31:46,571 --> 00:31:51,476 on a panel or anything like that is ask the artist what they need. 435 00:31:51,476 --> 00:31:57,315 Don't assume that I can't because you look at me and you say, Oh, he can't. 436 00:31:57,415 --> 00:32:04,322 I would say, revise that thinking and realize that I'm a lot more persistent 437 00:32:04,322 --> 00:32:08,760 and I have a lot of challenges from day to day that I have to figure out. 438 00:32:08,793 --> 00:32:12,363 I'll figure this one out, too, it is always my thought. 439 00:32:12,397 --> 00:32:18,069 I always hope that the music presenters give me an opportunity to tell them 440 00:32:18,069 --> 00:32:21,572 what I need and what I can and can't do rather than 441 00:32:21,572 --> 00:32:25,710 for them to quietly just write me off, assuming that I can't do it. 442 00:32:28,413 --> 00:32:31,149 I've dealt with all kinds of weird... 443 00:32:31,182 --> 00:32:36,854 I mean, like any performer who lives with disabilities, we deal with all kinds of 444 00:32:36,888 --> 00:32:42,260 strange stages and a ramp that was meant for kegs 445 00:32:42,260 --> 00:32:45,229 or not to bring a human being up 446 00:32:45,229 --> 00:32:50,601 that I feel like I'm going to tip over backwards if I try to go at that angle. 447 00:32:52,270 --> 00:32:56,074 There's always challenges, but for me, there's always a way. 448 00:32:56,107 --> 00:32:57,942 There's always a way, and it might look awkward. 449 00:32:57,976 --> 00:33:04,749 I try not to be on stage 450 00:33:04,749 --> 00:33:06,517 and make that the focal point. 451 00:33:06,517 --> 00:33:08,853 I want the music to be the focal point. 452 00:33:08,886 --> 00:33:12,824 I want to forget about those struggles as much as I want the audience 453 00:33:12,857 --> 00:33:14,892 to forget that it's happening. 454 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,663 But I also want them to be aware of the struggles, too. 455 00:33:18,663 --> 00:33:24,836 To me, there's a big part of performance 456 00:33:24,869 --> 00:33:28,239 as an artist with a disability 457 00:33:29,273 --> 00:33:31,509 where we're educating people. 458 00:33:31,542 --> 00:33:35,146 We are letting people know that we are more than capable. 459 00:33:35,179 --> 00:33:40,051 And we're letting people know that Yeah, there are some things 460 00:33:40,084 --> 00:33:44,555 that aren't that easy for us, but we are more than capable. 461 00:33:44,589 --> 00:33:51,028 So ultimately, when I'm on a stage, I want the audience to know that they're looking 462 00:33:51,062 --> 00:33:55,566 at people who shouldn't be written off, shouldn't be marginalized 463 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,604 in any way, that we will figure it out. 464 00:33:59,637 --> 00:34:03,541 Then working within an organization like Folk Alliance International 465 00:34:03,541 --> 00:34:09,447 or Folk Alliance Midwest or locally Folknet, we are always looking for ways 466 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:14,218 to even the playing field. 467 00:34:16,521 --> 00:34:19,857 I'm fortunate I get to go on site search committees to find where 468 00:34:19,891 --> 00:34:21,759 we're going to do our next conference. 469 00:34:21,793 --> 00:34:28,399 With that work, I had the to look at showers and say, why does your hotel 470 00:34:28,399 --> 00:34:34,972 put the wand 6 feet in the air on the other side of the tub from the bench, 471 00:34:35,006 --> 00:34:36,908 and then the soap is another 6 feet? 472 00:34:36,941 --> 00:34:39,811 It's like, why are you making it harder? 473 00:34:39,844 --> 00:34:42,480 This is supposed to be an accessible room. 474 00:34:42,513 --> 00:34:49,954 I have the ability to go into hotels with huge financial resources backing me 475 00:34:49,987 --> 00:34:55,760 and their desire to have those resources come into to their hotels 476 00:34:55,793 --> 00:34:59,530 and say, I don't think you're really serving everybody, and I think that 477 00:34:59,564 --> 00:35:07,972 we'd be more apt to come to you if you served all of our people. 478 00:35:09,140 --> 00:35:13,678 I find a lot of benefit in being able to work with nonprofits that are presenting 479 00:35:13,678 --> 00:35:19,217 these conferences because I think in that capacity, I have the ability 480 00:35:19,250 --> 00:35:22,353 to educate people about our needs. 481 00:35:22,386 --> 00:35:25,857 Then just being able to serve on panels 482 00:35:25,890 --> 00:35:30,561 and things like that, festival organizers 483 00:35:30,561 --> 00:35:33,865 in different venues, they come to our panels, they say, 484 00:35:33,865 --> 00:35:36,534 What do I need to do to become more accessible? 485 00:35:36,534 --> 00:35:41,539 I said, Well, when you... On your website, have a line 486 00:35:41,539 --> 00:35:44,842 where I can spell out my needs for you. 487 00:35:44,876 --> 00:35:50,548 We would love to be able to serve every single disabled person 488 00:35:51,349 --> 00:35:54,619 in the world, or person with a disability, I'm sorry. 489 00:35:54,619 --> 00:35:59,123 I always try to maintain that people come first. 490 00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:01,792 A person with a disability. 491 00:36:02,693 --> 00:36:07,732 But from my perspective, the most important thing we can do is to 492 00:36:07,732 --> 00:36:10,768 encourage people to ask, what are the needs? 493 00:36:10,801 --> 00:36:16,641 What will make this a more enjoyable event for people? 494 00:36:16,674 --> 00:36:21,779 I find that working in that capacity, I have the ability to make some change 495 00:36:21,779 --> 00:36:25,683 because I can be a part of that conversation and help to foster that 496 00:36:25,683 --> 00:36:28,252 and make sure that the conversation actually happens. 497 00:36:28,819 --> 00:36:33,925 I think before I got involved with Folk Alliance Midwest, 498 00:36:33,958 --> 00:36:35,893 that conversation didn't happen. 499 00:36:35,927 --> 00:36:42,133 Once I was involved, I was a workshop coordinator, so it became a workshop. 500 00:36:43,501 --> 00:36:47,104 Positioning ourselves, I think, is really important. 501 00:36:47,138 --> 00:36:50,274 If you want to change the world, you got to get in line and 502 00:36:50,308 --> 00:36:53,945 figure out how do I position myself to be a part of that change. 503 00:36:54,145 --> 00:36:59,750 We're both part of an organization called RAMPD, which is doing 504 00:36:59,750 --> 00:37:04,855 a fantastic work on that for the music, the musicians with disabilities. 505 00:37:04,855 --> 00:37:10,094 Really, they really try to get this conversation ongoing 506 00:37:10,127 --> 00:37:15,633 in a lot of different fields and in musical styles, too. 507 00:37:15,666 --> 00:37:17,635 I really, really appreciate that. 508 00:37:17,668 --> 00:37:23,841 There is a diversity in these group of musicians that RAMPD highlights 509 00:37:23,874 --> 00:37:27,478 which I really, really appreciate. 510 00:37:27,545 --> 00:37:31,349 Yeah, I'm fairly new to RAMPD. 511 00:37:31,349 --> 00:37:34,552 Oddly, I was very surprised the other day. 512 00:37:34,585 --> 00:37:38,356 I got an email saying I'd been nominated for vice president. 513 00:37:38,389 --> 00:37:42,760 So I guess I'm running for Vice President of RAMPD right now, 514 00:37:42,793 --> 00:37:47,531 but I really like the work that the organization is doing and 515 00:37:47,565 --> 00:37:52,770 really appreciate being able to be a part of it and being able to represent it and 516 00:37:52,803 --> 00:37:59,277 to use it as a resource learn about things that will help me to 517 00:37:59,744 --> 00:38:05,149 be a bigger changemaker within the other organizations that I'm involved with. 518 00:38:05,182 --> 00:38:11,389 There is an interesting work that they're doing with the professional RAMPD musicians, 519 00:38:11,389 --> 00:38:15,159 they're doing some meetings every month 520 00:38:15,192 --> 00:38:19,397 where they are presenting the latest 521 00:38:19,430 --> 00:38:22,300 activities or the latest collaborations, 522 00:38:22,333 --> 00:38:27,304 possibilities, also meeting other people from all across. 523 00:38:27,338 --> 00:38:32,843 It's mostly the United States, but we are several from Canada. 524 00:38:32,843 --> 00:38:38,516 There are several people from the UK, several people from Europe. 525 00:38:38,549 --> 00:38:41,786 Just to be able to chat a little bit and know what others 526 00:38:41,819 --> 00:38:45,022 are doing, that's already great. 527 00:38:45,022 --> 00:38:48,392 It's going so much further than that. 528 00:38:48,426 --> 00:38:54,498 But just that part with the conversation between us and how people are doing 529 00:38:54,498 --> 00:38:59,870 in their career and how they are able to connect with other 530 00:38:59,904 --> 00:39:03,441 organizations, that's fantastic. 531 00:39:04,342 --> 00:39:07,511 I have a last question for you. Okay. 532 00:39:07,545 --> 00:39:12,883 This is about - speaking of collaboration and meeting people, this is about 533 00:39:12,883 --> 00:39:17,288 collaborations and also inspirations. 534 00:39:17,321 --> 00:39:23,094 Are there people in your life who really counted or had an influence 535 00:39:23,127 --> 00:39:29,600 in the way, guided you, had an influence in the way your music journey progressed? 536 00:39:29,633 --> 00:39:33,904 Yeah, there are a lot. 537 00:39:34,271 --> 00:39:38,008 One musician that comes to mind is a woman named Avin Baird, 538 00:39:38,042 --> 00:39:43,414 who's a very accomplished finger picker and songwriter. 539 00:39:43,447 --> 00:39:45,282 She's really a fantastic musician. 540 00:39:45,316 --> 00:39:49,487 She's later in life now and recently had a heart attack, 541 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,056 which has limited her ability to sing. 542 00:39:52,089 --> 00:39:57,027 But when I was younger and when I was newly 543 00:39:57,595 --> 00:40:04,335 dealing with a spinal cord injury, she really helped to nurture my talents along 544 00:40:04,368 --> 00:40:09,573 and was a big part of that and making me, in a lot of ways, 545 00:40:09,573 --> 00:40:13,411 the songwriter and the player that I am today. 546 00:40:13,444 --> 00:40:18,149 More recently, I've been working with a songwriter or musician, a blues musician 547 00:40:18,182 --> 00:40:22,453 named Kevin Richards, who's been teaching me the Piedmont Blues styles 548 00:40:22,486 --> 00:40:24,855 and all kinds of other blues styles. 549 00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:31,028 When I was in school for recording, I worked with a... 550 00:40:31,028 --> 00:40:35,699 I had an internship with a group called Telarc International, 551 00:40:35,699 --> 00:40:40,037 which records, where they recorded Dizzy Gillespie 552 00:40:40,037 --> 00:40:42,673 or the Cleveland Orchestra or the Atlanta Symphony. 553 00:40:42,706 --> 00:40:47,578 They did these amazing recordings. 554 00:40:47,578 --> 00:40:51,048 I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, and I walked into the lobby, and there's a 555 00:40:51,048 --> 00:40:56,587 case of Grammys that I never even knew we had one in Cleveland. 556 00:40:56,620 --> 00:41:00,591 They had hundreds of them for these amazing recordings. 557 00:41:00,624 --> 00:41:03,294 Everybody was involved in that. 558 00:41:03,327 --> 00:41:09,800 It was really a big part of helping to shape the way I look at 559 00:41:09,834 --> 00:41:14,839 presenting music and what is important in the production of music. 560 00:41:14,872 --> 00:41:19,543 Probably most importantly would be early in life, my mother 561 00:41:19,577 --> 00:41:23,013 and my father were big music lovers. 562 00:41:23,047 --> 00:41:26,517 My mom play guitar for me and sing Jim Croce songs. 563 00:41:26,517 --> 00:41:29,920 My dad is a big jazz historian and would 564 00:41:29,954 --> 00:41:34,391 impress upon us all the great jazz music. 565 00:41:34,425 --> 00:41:38,562 We would go out and see classical music, and there was just always music around. 566 00:41:38,596 --> 00:41:43,901 That really set me up for my love of music 567 00:41:43,934 --> 00:41:46,103 and my love of the history of music 568 00:41:46,136 --> 00:41:49,006 and the traditions that were involved. 569 00:41:49,039 --> 00:41:53,277 Then now, later in life, I've been married for about seven years, and I've been 570 00:41:53,310 --> 00:41:55,079 with my wife about 14 years. 571 00:41:55,112 --> 00:41:58,582 She's been here with me through this whole journey as a person 572 00:41:58,616 --> 00:42:02,820 with a disability and supporting me. 573 00:42:03,787 --> 00:42:09,193 I was telling you a story before we started the interview about 574 00:42:09,226 --> 00:42:11,695 We were coming home from a baseball game, and I got caught in 575 00:42:11,695 --> 00:42:15,432 a big puddle that I couldn't see what was underneath it, and I got stuck. 576 00:42:15,466 --> 00:42:19,303 And she stood back and waited until I figured it out, and I did. 577 00:42:19,303 --> 00:42:23,774 And a lot of times that's what she will do, which I love, 578 00:42:23,774 --> 00:42:31,248 because until I'm really saying help, she knows who I am, and she's going to let me figure it out, 579 00:42:31,248 --> 00:42:36,453 because if she doesn't, then I don't figure it out, and she knows it. 580 00:42:37,354 --> 00:42:39,123 But she's always there to support me once. 581 00:42:39,156 --> 00:42:46,330 If I can't figure it out, she's going to climb in that puddle and pull me out. 582 00:42:46,363 --> 00:42:54,071 And she's always been right there with me, supporting every little thing I do. 583 00:42:54,104 --> 00:43:01,879 I think those are the primary people who have set me up to be who I am today. 584 00:43:02,146 --> 00:43:03,581 Well, thank you for the conversation. 585 00:43:03,614 --> 00:43:07,918 It was really nice chatting with you about your career 586 00:43:07,918 --> 00:43:10,921 and your journey as a musician. 587 00:43:10,955 --> 00:43:14,358 I wish you all the best with your projects. 588 00:43:14,391 --> 00:43:15,960 Are you touring again? 589 00:43:15,993 --> 00:43:19,296 You told me that you're going to Montreal. 590 00:43:20,297 --> 00:43:24,835 We'll be in Montreal for the Folk Alliance conference, and 591 00:43:24,868 --> 00:43:32,943 I'm going to be in Chicago in about two weeks at the Two Way Street Coffee House. 592 00:43:33,243 --> 00:43:39,483 I've got performances set up around the country here and there, sporadically. 593 00:43:39,516 --> 00:43:43,454 I haven't set up a tour since the pandemic. 594 00:43:43,921 --> 00:43:46,357 I almost did a couple of years ago. 595 00:43:46,357 --> 00:43:52,763 There was a great rail pass deal, and I put out feelers, and people weren't ready 596 00:43:52,763 --> 00:43:55,399 to come back to doing house concerts. 597 00:43:55,432 --> 00:43:59,336 When I tour, house concerts are really my first choice. 598 00:43:59,336 --> 00:44:03,107 I mean, obviously, if I could find a big venue of 500 seats, and they're 599 00:44:03,140 --> 00:44:05,476 going to fill those seats, I'm there. 600 00:44:05,509 --> 00:44:10,481 But house concerts are my bread and butter when I tour. 601 00:44:10,514 --> 00:44:14,018 We're getting close to that, but my teaching schedule has become so busy that 602 00:44:15,786 --> 00:44:17,321 I'm trying to manage it. 603 00:44:17,354 --> 00:44:20,057 I'm trying to shut up a couple 604 00:44:20,057 --> 00:44:24,161 of nonprofit organizations, so I have a little more time for it. 605 00:44:24,161 --> 00:44:29,199 Okay. Well, good luck with everything and enjoy. 606 00:44:29,233 --> 00:44:30,567 Well, thank you. 607 00:44:30,601 --> 00:44:36,573 Thank you for having me and spreading the word about how capable we all are. 608 00:44:37,741 --> 00:44:38,208 Yes. 609 00:44:38,242 --> 00:44:42,112 We're an important voice in the music world, so thank you. 610 00:44:42,146 --> 00:44:45,682 Well, have a fantastic day and talk soon. 611 00:44:45,716 --> 00:44:47,251 Okay. Thank you. 612 00:44:47,284 --> 00:44:48,752 Bye. Take care. 613 00:44:48,786 --> 00:44:49,787 Thank you. 614 00:44:50,054 --> 00:44:55,192 ♪ Closing theme music ♪