There are problems in this world. We know. We’ve lived through the flood - metaphorically and literally. We’re trying to find ways to be kind and helpful. Our music isn’t about pointing out these problems - it’s trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel. And that light is JOY. We all want to feel joyful and excited and hopeful and we want to laugh-out-loud and dance and connect with the friends around us.

“Us musicians spreading love gotta stick together #loveispunk”
-The Loverfaces band

I don’t believe in the old way and I don’t believe in the new way. I don’t believe in yesterday’s cruelties and I certainly don’t believe in today’s cruelties. I’ve done enough yelling to believe in introspection and kindness and working with a group of friends to create something beautiful.

Going on the road at the end of January. Time for some adventures and misadventures.

All I know is that music quiets the chattering voice in my head, it makes me dance, it makes me laugh out loud, it makes my heart race, it makes me sweat, it makes me feel heartbreak.

Happy New Year. Old Irish saying: may you always be the naughty kid in the classroom. Whenever the teacher steps out to talk with the principal or parent stand on your desk and put on a show for the rest of the class.

And we rocked out in a small room in a small home on a dirt road in the Swannanoa Mountains. Does it matter? In the scale of things? Not really. But it was a wonderful night making up songs that made us smile and move and shout and laugh.

Right is the new wrong. I have a terrible time remembering lyrics. But if I can remember the first line I can get through a song. So I write the first line of songs on my hands. This is a photo from the morning after our last show…

Playing with a band is trying to push at the boundaries of reality. We’re trying to create something more than the some of the parts, the individuals in the band. When we get together we’re trying to create a larger energy force than is the sum of each individual life force. We’re small quiet people when we are alone - but when we are together we are 100 feet tall and dancing in the sky.

These wonderful people spend hours, days, weeks, months, years working on songs with me, playing shows with me, trying to make the most beautiful music with me. Thank you.

On Tuesday night someone called us “feel-good punks.” It makes me smile to be called punks. We have a cajon and fiddle and sometimes a keyboard and we write pop songs. We talk about hooks and melody and making our songs accessible. But if punk is DIY and anti-establishment then - yeah - we want you to smile and be happy and have a fun night - and that is so f*cking subversive.

I lived on St Marks Place in the East Village in the early 90s. I was trying to be an artist/writer. I was on the periphery periphery periphery of that world. @thaliazedek was in the middle of that world. If you listen to Dark City Kings our lyrics reference the mountains and the Lower East Side. Come out to @slygrog tonight. There will be mountain artists. There will be New York City artists. There will be young artists. There will be artists who have been working the fields for many years, planting and reaping. It is all beautiful. Everyone is aiming at their best idea of beauty. We are all just trying to figure this out.

This life is not about staying home and going to bed early. This life is about maximizing joy.

We live in the mountains because we want a harder life, we want adventure, we want to be closer to beauty and closer to the wild. We live in the mountains to form our gang and act like clans and work together to make this world a little better. We live in the mountains because we are trying…

This is the time of the year when the veil between the spirit world and our world is the thinnest. Ghosts walk the streets and there’s an extra bit of magic in the air. I feel it this year.

Maybe the Year of Kings was all about doors opening - playing at the Orange Peel, recording with Kevin Moloney, getting some nice music press. Maybe the Year of Queens is about not taking this for granted. I tell you this: when the world is turned upside down then every practice is precious and every song we write together is precious and every show is precious and every friendship is precious.

There’s blue in the mountains this morning - and a blue to the clouds in the shade.

There’s a blue to the steam of my coffee - and blue to the bird calls made.

There’s a blue to the smoke in the chimney - lonely and lingering without you.

There’s a blue to the breakfast being eaten - and my breath is turning blue.

And then the color fades without you.

We will have power and then sewage and water in the next week or two. There will be a public event to mark this flood. And then there will be music. There will be a lot of music this Fall and Winter and into 2025 - maybe even more music. Music from us, to us, and for us. It will be a very powerful time. It will be drunken and emotional and happy and sad and quiet and expressive and brave and defiant.

We have a very dear friend who recorded Sinead O’Connor’s first two albums. She was 20 years old and pregnant. I’m pretty sure she understood the gravity of her situation. And she responded with creating music of timeless beauty. Our friend helped her. How do we try to use our lives to create such beauty?

Bringing the drama.