About Me
I was born in Vancouver, Canada, back when you could hear Artie Shaw and the Dorsey Brothers and Glen Miller on the radio. . . . . . AM radio!I remember the first time I heard Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Rusty Draper, Lonny Donegan, Julie London, The Big Bopper, Jackie Wilson, Ricky Nelson, Los Indios Tabajaras, Carlos Santana, Tony Bennett, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Joe Pass, Bill Evans and Mickey Newberry.My Influences? All of the above. And
Life, Love, Joy, Pain. Moving. My sons. Single parenting for 16 years. Everyone who ever loved me, some just for a moment - some only until they got to know me. Everyone who couldn't love me - especially the ones who let me know.
Burning bridges. The road - more than anything, the road. 100 addresses in 40 years - no lie! The Rocky Mountains. Rankin Inlet and The Arctic Circle and Corpus Christi and the Gulf of Mexico. Buffalo, Green Bay, Detroit and Chicago in the great snow of '72. 1100 miles in 22 hours from Port Alberni to Fort Nelson B.C. alone in the middle of the winter of '77- set up and play 6 hours a night for 3 weeks. Who says Hell doesn't freeze? 50+ below zero outside - 4 walls and one TV channel, off the air at 11:00 PM.The Riverboat, The Retinal Circus, Rohan's Rock Pile. The Commodore and the Grouse Nest and the Cement City Cowboys and hangin' with Hoyt Axton. Hosting "Country Road" and interviewing Townes Van Zandt and Doc Watson and so many more. Yellowknife N.W.T. The Windermere Valley and Fairmont Hot Springs. The pig roast 20 miles north of Grand Forks, with next day complaints from townies that the music was too loud!The Pacific Ocean - always.'80: Bud's Good Eats and the other half of NightHawk. Mulvaney. Point Roberts. Fat Willie's Cafe and the Cannery. Jeff George (RIP) and Tom Parriott (RIP). Bob Carpenter and Gypsy Boy and BJ Hall and the Sunshine Coast.Another run - two of us in this particular shard of memory; dazed and exhausted, falling in love, 58 non-stop hours of driving from Port Townsend all the crazy way to Dallas. Cresting a hill on Route 66 and dropping softly east into the indescribable beauty of a Tucumcari Sunrise. What if we'd never turned south?Monahans. Lubbock. Signs that read "Do Not Flail Pecan Trees On Right Of Way". Pinky's and Coldwater Country and pickin' after hours with George Thorogood at the old Stubbs Bar-B-Q before Mister Stubbs moved to Austin. Sunday afternoons sitting in with Henry Lester and the Original Drugstore Cowboys.'84: Wyoming and the Tetons, and a fireplace in the old ranch house outside of Big Horn; just me and Lefty - half Cocker/half Springer and the best dog that ever lived on this planet. I named him for Lefty Frizzell. Fourth of July gig with my pal Pesha at the King Ranch near Sheridan, when the cowboys set the roof on fire with bottle rockets.'88: Ancient riders comin' hard up the canyon between Raton and Taos as we held each other and the kids in the bright light of a September afternoon and heard the leather creak and the spurs jingle, felt the earth shake and smelled the horses. And knew without knowing, that time and space had somehow collapsed on themselves, and that our escape from "normal" was now complete in this beautiful and eerie place. Hindsight being 20/20, we probably should have stayed in Boulder!The sublime Michael Hearne & New Mexico Rain.Dave Rann (RIP). Selo Black Crow sharing Alpines in the sweat lodge because a dog had pissed on the sacred pipe. Pickin' with Tres Cajones; Steve Gavula preachin' the gospel of CF Martin on the ski hills 'til they had to two step just to save their souls.Austin and Kerrville. Big Bill Moss. Rex Foster. John Ims and West Texas Wind. Chuck Pyle and The Other Side of the Hill. Barton Springs and Jerry Jeff and Charlie Dunn. Swimming in the Pedernales with Steve Fromholz on the car stereo singing I'd Have To Be Crazy. Oh the Hill Country!And Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, California.San Diego and Jose Lobo and the Twisted Whiskers, and feeling the need to start acting like a grown up. Scary!Motorcycles, and the wind in my face. Being alone and/or eccentric was always easier on two wheels with nobody on the planet but me and God - and me only a pebble or a couple of revs away from leaving.And through it all the songs and the music.Of Johnny Mercer and Bob Wills and Hoagy Charmichael. Of Gene Vincent, Nancy Wilson, Etta James, Sam Cook. Of Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee and Johnny and the magic of Sun Records in the 50s, Motown in the 60s and Muscle Shoals in the 70s. Of the story tellers: Dylan. Paxton. Holly. Kristofferson. Ian Tyson. Fred Neil. Neil Young. Danny O'Keefe. Joni Mitchell. John Prine. Steve Goodman. Jesse Winchester. Tom T. Hall. Mel Tillis. Bobby Bare. Roger Miller. Harlan Howard. Carly Simon. Carol King. Sweet Baby James and Jackson Brown and Doctor My Eyes.Of Otis Redding and Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn.Of CREAM - Jack & Ginger & Eric - LIVE and UNBELIEVABLE!Of Jimi and Janis (me backstage), and Tina Turner and Jose Feliciano and Smokey & the Miracles and Commander Cody and Ray Charles and James Brown - All LIVE and UNBELIEVABLE! Peggy Lee and Brooke Benton and Solomon Burke and Lefty and Waylon and Merle in small BYOB clubs.Of Boz Scaggs. Elvin Bishop. B.B. and Albert and Freddie King. Rosanne Cash and Kathy Mattea and Juice Newton and Karen Brooks. Billy Joe Shaver. Guy Clark. Rodney Crowell. Hank Cochrane. Butch Hancock. Joe Ely. Terry Allen. Lyle Lovett. Willie Nelson. Con Hunley. Sanger D. Shafer. Dean Dillon. Jimmy Buffet. Stephen Bishop. Bobby Braddock. John Hartford. Murray McLauchlan. Bruce Cockburn. Gene McLellan. David Whiffen. Willie P. Bennett. Sheri Ulrich. Papa Bear. Valdy. Cameron Molloy. Danny Mac.Of writers like Mike Reid, Alan Shamblin, Beth Nielson Chapman, Rivers Rutherford, Big Al Anderson and my supremely gifted pal Ray Sisk.Of pretty much anybody who ever sat at a piano or picked up a guitar and sang a story that healed an old wound, or touched me in a new way, or brought feeling to some part of me that I didn't know existed.Of every sacred soul whose path has ever crossed mine. Their songs and stories have formed my life, and their lives continue to form my songs and stories.Thanks for stopping by! Be well, live joyfully and think peace.Jesse
