Winter Echoes

As the year comes to a close, a few musings on art and exciting news of things to come!

Dec 22, 2024

I have so much to tell you about in the new year. If you have been paying attention, I have been dropping some not so subtle hints of a new record I have been working on for quite some time. I am in the process of carefully pressing the vinyl, and I am doing it in a technically new and fascinating way through a very inspiring new production partner near me. The results thus far have been stunning. Again, I will share all of this in time. For now, I want to simply whisper in your ear that Lost Padres will be out next year, and it’s my finest work to date.

As this year of highs and lows, hopes and dreams, the bizarre and the mundane comes to a close, I am inspired to tell you about some artworks that helped me through. As time goes on the world seems to get stranger and stranger, I find myself leaning on art, film, music and literature as a salve and a blessing. No matter what happens, we will always have these things, at least that’s what I tell myself. Thank Jah for the local music shops, and the local bookstores— the places where I find these things, and will continue to do so…I hope.

We must do everything we can to keep these institutions above water. If you live in the Ojai Valley, I am talking about Barts books, Shop Summercamp, Talon, Noted, Grady’s Records, Earthtonics, Ali Golden, Duo Luto, Ride or Dye, Sam Roberts. If you live elsewhere, I know that you know who to shop from.

Anyway, here’s a few I loved, with some brief words. I love sharing.

Nina Simone’s Gum, Warren Ellis

The best book about living an inspiring life full of art I have ever read.

Wareika Hills, EPs

I don’t know much about this group other than it has some deep Rastafarian roots, but it sounds unlike any other Jamaican music I know of past or present, and at the same time, it scratches that deep soulful dub and roots itch.