Richard Manuel’s Piano
I was told Johnny Lee’s recording studio housed Richard Manuel’s piano. Paul Barrere had suggested we make use of Johnny’s place to record our next project. Not that I needed any persuading--Johnny’s studio is legendary. It is a converted garage separated from his home in the back on a quiet street in Studio City. What gives the studio a feeling of comfort is not just the coziness of the place, it is the man himself.
Richie Hayward
We were all in anticipation of seeing Richie. It had been almost a year. We traveled up to Vancouver Island to play a concert, taking the next day off to visit with Richie and his wife Shauna at their home. Throughout that long year I had many conversations with Richie on the phone. There was not one time I didn’t hang up without crying.
The Fierce Terrain: A Friendship and Alliance
I will leave it to others to memorialize, to exalt into the heavens someone who wouldn’t have wanted it. Paul Barrere was my band mate, my friend, someone I leaned on and occasionally pushed away. We spent a good measure of our lives engaged in the art of making and playing music with a band that could have only been conjured in a dream. But it was all too real.
Ward Guthrie: Life's Intervals
I have been playing piano for 66 years. I have only owned two pianos in my life. One of them, a 5’ 4” Henry F. Miller baby grand, is not quite within shouting distance but close, just up the road from where I live in Montana. The other, a Yamaha 7’ grand is, from where I’m sitting here typing, so close I can touch it.
Camaraderie, Perseverance, Lives of Consequence: Dave Gray and Kerri Morgan
People with strength of purpose have always fascinated me. Battling the odds and obstacles through perseverance. Finding refuge--as well as strength in purpose--an essential plateau to regroup and reorganize one’s thoughts when the voices of doubt threaten to overturn any sense of progress, is an art in itself.
Honorable Resistance
We live in an age where increasingly we feel helpless to deal with the onslaught of minutiae barreling at us from all sides. The histrionics surrounding any given issue only adds to the malaise. This is precisely what the powers that be want: an overwhelmed, unresponsive, and distracted populace. For those who choose to stand up, the battles are endless, a war of attrition, yielding, in some cases, ephemeral results . . . two steps up, one step back, requiring sustained and focused resistance.
Cora Neumann: Immeasurable Impact
Life moves at an exponential speed for all of us these days. I was prepared to post this essay on Cora Neumann’s Montana Senate run when I happened to see on MSNBC that Montana Governor Steve Bullock was considering running for the United States Senate. On Monday, March 9, 2020, he made his Senate run official.
The Frontier of Forever
When I was fifteen I nearly lost my life. Remarkably, I also found my life. I was unhappy for many reasons, but chief among them was moving from Ventura, California to Santa Maria, approximately 100 miles north on the 101 Freeway. I had grown up in Ventura. All my friends were there. I was entering high school—in 1964 high school commenced at grade 10. My music teacher, Ruth Neuman, had recently passed away from a heart attack, another devastating blow. I was angry, confused, and cut adrift.
Joe Rocco
“It’s a good feeling thing. You know, peace and harmony and humor.”
Joe Rocco and I are sitting in the back of a forty eight foot trailer, which holds all of Little Feat’s gear for touring. I’m asking him about the shrine he has set up and what its purpose is.
Gabe Ford
The news was devastating. Richie Hayward’s health was in severe jeopardy. He would need time off for tests. The process could take a year or more, no one was sure. Originally he was slated to continue touring until the end of the year. But that was not to be.