Peach has a grittiness, a raw energy and sheer lust for experience rarely seen in modern blues. Their sound reaches back to Big Mama Thornton and Janis with stunning vocals and rich brass, but with a 21st-century sensibility and velvety undertones that will blow you out of the water. Peach makes good use of the slide guitar, the B-3, the organ, and much more to give it’s audience a full dose of the blue experience.

Peach is lead by Peach, the band’s singer songwriter and plays guitar. She has tons of experience, playing and touring for years on end. Her right-hand man is Paulie Cerra, who is Peach’s music director and plays the sax as well. Peach and Paulie are accompanied by Maria Martinez on drums and percussion, Hardy Eason on B-3 and piano, Lynn Keller on bass, Joey Delgado on guitars, Lee Thornburg on trumpet and Gina Segall, Peach’s very young daughter, a musical prodigy who plays kickass blues percussion like she just returned from a midnight deal at the crossroads.

-Aya Peard’s latest project was a reunion of sorts for this group of very talented musicians. Singer/songwriter Aya Peard assembled Phremyl, even though the group hadn’t played together in over five years. Aya’s music is finding a wider and wider audience (including Nickelodeon’s South of Nowhere), yet it retains it’s intimate connection with the audience. Aya spreads her warm energy and mystical sounds to all those listening. Her songs are heart-felt, drawing from experiences of love and pain. The dreamy mood of her music will send you floating off to distant lands.

Andy Tubman creates music is beautiful, inspiring and heart-felt. With an impressive range, his style slips fluidly from late-night at the bar rock ballads where you can feel the heat from the amps to soft horns and melodious guitars deftly woven into lyrical fabric by Andy’s sweet voice. The sound created is unique, familiar and new, with echoes of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits as his voice trails off into gravelly tones after soaring lyrics that take you into hidden places in your own heart. Spectacular.

Adam Rudolph, born and raised in Chicago, received music degrees from Oberlin College and California Institute of the Arts. He is now an accomplished master percussionist and has been studying music and rhythms from around the globe. Adam plays everything from congas and djembe to tabla and the didgeridoo.

Having lived in such places as India and West Africa, Adam’s music possesses an international flavor. Blending the different sounds from his colorful past, Rudolph teamed up with Hamid Drake to create some music that warms the body and soul.

Baba Alade performed songs off his album Unified and One

Ellyn Maybe introduced us to a Poetry Rodeo. Many thanks to the incredible band and the rest of the poets!

This is Greil Marcus’ Brain on “Shuffle”

Excerpt from article:

MJ: What about something totally outside your genre?

GM: I like to think there’s no outside; that I can hear whatever has a claim to make, but if you’d asked me if I were interested in poetry set to music, I’d probably say no. When I heard Ellyn Maybe’s “City Streets” on KALX in Berkeley I had no idea what it was, just that I was transfixed. I called up the DJ, went to Amoeba Records, couldn’t find it, wrote away—and after listening to Maybe’s album Rodeo for the Sheepish (Hen House) half a dozen times, I had no idea who the people behind it were—a poet, and a musician/singer who sounds like many of himself, or for that matter her-himself. But there’s a pathos cut with self-lacerating humor that makes this the most surprising and painful music I’ve come across.

by  Michael C Ford

My initial thought was to decline an invitation to comment on these 49 spoken word tracks. As an associate producer at Hen House Studios, during the gestation period of this recorded document, there might have been some danger that the subjective nature of my prose would take on the PR complexion of a pinch  of low grade salt. That being said, however, as someone who studied the important facets of the creative process with Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen and, later, with the poet and translator Jack Hirschman at UCLA, I have better chance of identifying with what’s concerned the Robert Peters compendium of five decades of literary contributions than, perhaps, most anyone. And I/m really  talking about gifts which comprise his prolific catalogue, and how his many works have been assimilated into realms of the World Culture.

One has only to listen to Peters, on tracks like Father, Son, Cousin, Country-Western Band or Home-Made Saw-Rig. With a combination of rhapsody and lament he invites us to experience the  rural landscapes, as well as the interior terrain of the years of his Wisconsin youth. Then, as with cuts like  Memory Loss In A Parkinglot, we’re  hearing him go onward,  into an undeniable poetic maturity. It should be noted that executive producer Harlan Steinberger is responsible for the competently composed, engaging and thoroughly complimentary musical backdrop.

As a hyphenated American poet-playwright- essayist-critical analyst, Peters has been continuously, acknowledged as an author of evocative, imperious perceptions, generally,  involved with the whole of international literature.

Now, this 2009 set of aural genetic poetics, in their entirety, are every bit the perfect recorded companion to a Peters volume of print entitled Familial Love and other Misfortunes: certainly an indicative collection produced by Red Hen Press, in 1999, and still available via their website.

Since, 1974, I/ve been aware that Robert Peters, as an artist who, through his differentiable talent, possessing both an illustrative image mind and the sense of dynamics to interpret character lives in one-man performances of his staged  monologues, has proven time and time again all deserved accolades for the wide and “evocative” nature, on so many levels, down the long years of his transcendent career.

The voice on this CD/MP3 reminds one of how grateful so many of us should be that Peters has never allowed his dark, poetic vision to lose sight of his writer/s integrity. The scalpel he’s used to probe into the, occasionally, vile body of University-sanctioned poetry never got dull, Nor did he ever drop the sutures covering the wounds of warrior poets he, more than once, went out of his way to encourage and defend.

He accomplished his literary goals without chasing after tainted poetry prizes, so often achieved by too many of the mainstream clones beating drums for the Yuppie poets of distinction. It now, seems to be a perfect time, indeed, to put Robert Peters between your ears, harvesting your very own hay and evoking any necessary personal transportation container to oblivion.

“A new DVD released by Hen House Studios in Venice, California. Curated by Michael C Ford, the DVD is a feast of memories of poets, their friends and two members of the Rexroth family who also read from the works of Kenneth Rexroth. The passion and feelings of the poet are mirrored through the voices of the participants. Several of them gave credit to Kenneth as a personal mentor. His widow, Carol Tinker, and his daughter, Mariana Rexroth, a spark of fire off the old genius in her performance, was there. Michael C Ford did a marvelous job hosting this fast-moving, entertaining and engaging program. The program is a panorama of a passing scene of poets and memories that would have been lost had this wonderful high quality DVD not been produced. Our thanks to Hen House Studios and Michael C Ford for its production.

The DVD features Morgan Gibson, Kerry Tomlinson, Lewis MacAdams, Philomene Long, Eloise Klein Healy, Aram Saroyan, Bonnie Tamblyn, Sprague Grayden, Bob Brandts, James Cushing, Doren Robbins, Uri Hertz, Ruben Guevara, Carol Tinker, Brad Dourif, Mariana Rexroth and Michael C Ford.”

Look for Upcoming Programs of PoetsWest at KSER.

Excerpt from Victor D. Infante’s “Life After Slam” – “The recent revival of poets performing with musicians is an interesting trend,” says Brown, who performs with bassist Steve Lanning-Cafaro as The Duende Project. “I know that for The Duende Project, it’s the chance to find ways to present my work differently to an audience; being a musician myself, it gives me a chance to flex different muscles … even though I may not be playing an instrument myself in the duo. Audiences may find a new way into the work through the music; it’s also possible that those who don’t care for poetry just like the music. Whatever the reasons for it.”

For Ellyn Maybe, a Los Angeles poet whose first full-length book was published by Henry Rollins’ 2.13.61 Publishing, and who recently released a poetry CD, “Rodeo for the Sheepish,” with musical accompaniment, the addition of music to a reading is a serious artistic choice.

“I think performing with music can heighten different moods,” says Maybe, “inspire new phrasing and bring out different, more outgoing aspects of oneself. I reference music quite often in my work, so it’s fun to actually work with music. For audiences it can get interactive as sometimes people dance, sing along and shake the fruit shakers at the shows!”

And it’s not just the poets who see artistic value in the collaboration between art forms. It also adds dimensions for the musicians involved.

Raices, meaning roots in Spanish, was one of the largest groups that The Hen House has recorded to date. Consisting of 14 members, Raices is a full ensemble with a Latin flavor. This extensive cast of musicians was lead by Miles Perlich.

Miles not only produced and arranged the tracks, he played the congas, coro, percussion and a bit of spoken word as well. He was accompanied by Ravi Carman on flute, baritone and tenor saxophone, Merlo on bass, Adam Topol on drums, timbales and itotele, Dixi Ipina on quito, bongos, clave and percussion, Luke Alberti on keyboards, Mark Bagasao on tenor saxophone, Adam Rundquist on trombone, Allan Valladares on trumpet, and David Gaeta on cuica, agogo, chekere, bata drum, and percussion. Miles also featured special guests Bobby Matos on lead vocals, Trevy on coro, Juliete Flores on spoken word, and last but not least, Michael Sanchez with party noises. This is Latin music played with a respect and honor for tradition. As musicians and fans, this group understands and loves the music they play. This talented band was assembled for a one time only chance to record something truly special. Enjoy this unique opportunity.

Sharon Farber recruited a handful of wonderful musicians to record the music for a movie soundtrack. The Hen House was pleased to do its very first soundtrack recording. Sharon Farber conducted and played keyboards. She was accompanied by longtime friends, David Lockertz on bass, Roy Friedman on keyboards and David Kontesz on drums. Ivishai Cohen played trumpet, Milton Nelson played keyboards and John Sullivan played upright bass. This group of musicians created some beautiful music together. Look out for this project in a theater near you.

Shotgun No Challenge is a young band with a lot of talent. Still in high school, these guys find time to practice and record their music even with homework and curfews. In fact, the drummer had to leave the Hen House early one night because his mother wanted him home. Shotgun No Challenge is lead by Andy Chen who sings and plays guitar. Ken Sugihara provides vocals and guitar. While Daniel Ogier plays bass and Joe Herrera is on the drums. They all rock hard. The drums kick, the bass bumps and the guitars slash. It’s plain to see that these young men love playing music. Westchester, LA based Shotgun No Challenge’s slogan is “westside softcore established 2001.” This band plans on taking their music to the top. Their next stop is the Sunset Strip.

Formed in Riverside, California in the early 80s, The Skeletones have been entertaining crowds for almost twenty years now. Having played countless live shows,The Skeletones a well-known and well-respected band in Southern California. Their rise to “the top” is inevitable. They are that good. Catch them before the rest of the world does.

Swagger is a self-described pop-punk-emo-music band. The group consists of Daren on bass and lead vocals, Nick on guitar and lead vocals, Mark on the drums and Andy on guitar.

These teenage musicians find time to play and record their music while still in high school. Swagger has been together already four years now and they big plans for the future. This band is hungry and they’re just about ready for a record deal.

Swagger songs are about life experiences. You may laugh. You may cry. But you will always be nodding your head.

The Mynzeer is a very special group. It’s six members come from all over Los Angeles County. From Malibu to Redlands to Long Beach, this band travels many miles each week to play and rehearse. But these guys don’t mind because the music of The Mynzeer Ensemble is based on friendship, respect and expression. Self-described as “new-world music”, the group’s sound ranges from African to Indian to Jazz to Cuban and Western Classical.

The Mynzeer Ensemble is lead by Miles Shrewsbery on hand drums and percussion. J.P. Maramba accompanies him on acoustic bass, along with Brad Colton on hand drums and percussion, Patrick Richey on hand drums and percussion, Michael Birnbryer on tenor sax and flute and Matt Zebley on C horn and alto clarinet.

If you can imagine three guys jamming on hand drums, while two other guys blow melodic lines on horns and yet another guy playing thick bass notes, then you’ll have some idea of what The Mynzeer Ensemble sounds like. But to really understand, you’ll have to hear them play. So feed your curiosity and appetite for good music.

Trulio Disgracias, lead by Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, is an ever-changing, always evolving band from Los Angeles with more members than you can count on both hands.

This group of talented musicians comes together building their own parts, to create music that’s larger than life.

A truly modern big band, Trulio Disgracias mixes improvisation with rehearsed material that ultimately will inspire thought and dance in all their listeners.

“The Signature of All Things” serves as a passionate ode to the artist, documenting a magical night of tribute to the genius of Kenneth Rexroth on the 100th anniversary of his birth.  Held at Beyond Baroque, the notoriously avant-garde Literary Arts Center in Venice Beach, this standing-room-only celebration attracted an eclectic and eccentric roster of participants extolling Rexroth’s impact on an art form.

By turns exuberant and bitter-sweet, this film memorializes Rexroth with wild recitations and wry reminiscences from the assorted friends, family members, former students, writers, music archivists, performers and poets who knew him best.  This documentary expresses, in its unassuming artistry, a lasting impression of an American original.

Pre-order your copy with us today!

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Poetry readings have always been a blast for S.A. Griffin, but the tour that the venerable Los Angeles poet plans this spring may be his most explosive.

This time the author of such collections as “Unborn Again” and “One Long Naked Dance” will be packing his poems inside of a Cold War-era bomb and taking them on the road. The idea is to create the constructive from the destructive.

“I’m taking one of the most iconic images of destruction of the 20th century and turning it into something positive,” says the strapping Griffin, who at 6-foot-3 is nonetheless dwarfed by the gun-metal gray performance-art companion that rises more than 7 feet tall when tilted on end. He found the dummy bomb, which contains no explosives, on the Internet and bought it for $100.

His plan: bring the bomb to a city near you, dropping rhymes and free verse by the hundreds on audiences everywhere from Atlanta to Montana, Oregon to North Carolina and points in between. His aim is to get people to wake up to poetry.

“What I’m really doing here is like publishing poetry in a journal,” says Griffin, who is also coeditor of the 1999 journal “The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry,” a sprawling opus of 720 pages that contains the works of everyone from the beats’ Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso to modern-day writers like Luis J. Rodriguez and Jimmy Santiago Baca.

“But when you publish poetry in a journal, usually the only people who pay any attention to it are other poets,” adds Griffin, 55, a member of the so-called outlaw generation of American poets that followed Ginsberg, Corso and the other beats of the 1950s.

Oregon-based poet Scott Wannberg, who has sent along a submission inspired by the bomb, agrees it’s likely to get more attention than any of the work he’s had published in nine volumes over the years.

“What’s more devastating, a good poem or a good bomb?” Wannberg asks with a laugh.

Griffin has spent decades attempting to bring poetry to the masses, placing poems on the sides of buses, on billboards, in beer bottles. Several times he’s crisscrossed the country in a vintage Cadillac convertible with a loose-knit group of fellow poets called The Carma Bums, giving readings at coffee houses and small theaters around the country.

He plans to go on the road for five weeks beginning in April, making more than a dozen stops around the country, but with just the bomb in tow this time.

He has collected more than 100 poems so far, many penned especially for the tour. They range from Wannberg’s whimsical “Sorry About That Bomb Falling On Your Head” to Ellyn Maybe’s gentle anti-war lament, “Someday Our Peace Will Come” with these opening lines: “One day poetry dropped from the sky/and the animals grew iambic pentameter tails/and the people breathed in stars.”

“I think it’s inspired, a really beautiful idea to transform something like that into something poetic,” said Maybe, cited by Writers Digest as one of 10 poets of the millennium to watch.

Anyone, poet or otherwise, can send Griffin a poem and it will be included. He plans to take poems from the bomb and read them to people along the way.

All submissions must be delivered by snail mail, not computer — “I want to see that people made an effort” — and be no larger than 8½ by 11 inches.

Griffin isn’t sure what the Poetry Bomb Tour will cost him. He says he’s raised about $3,000 in contributions over the Internet so far, but spent $6,000 just for the 1995 Ford Econoline van he plans to travel with the bomb in. He may sell the van when he returns home.

“If I break even, I figure I’ll have come out ahead,” he says.

Over the years, Griffin has supplemented his poetic life with work as a character actor, appearing in scores of films and TV shows as everything from a cop to a drag queen. He was the hoodlum Arnold Schwarzenegger beat up in “Twins,” the Marine war hero whose wife Patrick Dempsey’s young Lothario romanced in “In the Mood” and one of the evil cowboys Clint Eastwood killed in “Pale Rider.”

The bomb’s previous owner, Robert Demott of Huntington Beach, acquired it nine years ago from a Hollywood movie prop house that was going out of business. For years he kept it in his front yard, in L.A.’s bohemian beach-front Venice neighborhood, just to shake up people.

Its provenance before the studio got hold of it isn’t known, but Demott likes to think it could have been stolen from a military base where dummy bombs are dropped for target practice. It appears to have been an old MK series “dumb bomb” that was popular with the U.S. military during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

By the time Griffin is done customizing it, the bomb won’t look all that deadly. He plans to paint it a flashy color (he hasn’t decided which one yet), pinstripe it like you would a classic car and install a portal with a window under its nose.

“If I get pulled over by the cops I want them to be able to stick their heads in there, look around and be able to see just what it is, an art object.”

Already, he has drawn some concerned reactions, particularly when people have ignored his instructions and mailed their poems to his post office box with the words “The Poetry Bomb” on the envelopes.

When he showed up to collect a stack of poems at the post office, an angry postal worker told him they “don’t like stuff with the word bomb on it.”

“After I told him what it was, he was cool with it,” Griffin said. “He laughed.”

Reviewer: JoSelle Vanderhooft

Of all the things I review for Pedestal, spoken word CDs are my favorite, both because of their rarity (few poets, after all, have the resources to put one together) and the ingenuity with which they blend visual art, music, and, of course, poetry read aloud. The best of these CDs blend all of these disparate elements to make something that is neither music nor poetry but which uses the common roots of each to create something bold, new, and frequently difficult to categorize, save for the term “performance.” Indeed, the successful spoken word poet is one who does not just read his or her work, but performs it as if it were a stand-up routine, a monologue, part of a “Happening,” or simply as something meant to live beyond the confines of the page.

Ellyn Maybe is a poet who knows how to do just that. Not only a strong poet on paper, she is also a consummate performer with a warm, full voice that is as friendly and inviting as it is delightfully quirky. Few poets—indeed, few performers of any stripe—have the personality, honesty and, yes, unabashed geekiness which Maybe displays in her readings of the ten poems on Rodeo for the Sheepish. Her voice is not only entrancing but unforgettable; indeed, I would very much like to hear her perform live someday.

Happily, Maybe’s poems are not only uniformly strong, but also lend themselves to being spoken so readily that they appear to have been written with performance in mind. Maybe begins the CD strongly with “All My Life I’ve Wanted a Great Love,” in which she enumerates ideal qualities for a lover that are just as unusual as her voice: “Someone who cries at least once a year,” and “Someone whose eyes are not remembered by color, but by every film he’s ever loved.” Maybe then caps this inventive lift with a line that is every bit as wistful as it is funny and ultimately heartbreaking: “Ever since junior high, I thought this person existed. Now I believe more in cows jumping over the moon.”

Maybe skillfully and wittily dissects the struggles and joys of her profession in “Being an Artist” and pays a touching, illuminating, and off-beat tribute to Sylvia Plath in a long poem named for her, and in which Maybe tackles not only the horror of Plath’s treatment at the hands of a sexist culture, but also the importance of her work to young artists, whom she still touches “through tin can lines we walk through.” But my favorite pieces on Rodeo for the Sheepish were the three in which Maybe speaks of women whom U.S. society frequently casts aside or overlooks because they are overweight (“Picasso”), quirky and intelligent (“There Were Two Girls Who Looked a Lot the Same”), or, as with the subject of “City Street,” just lonely, socially awkward, and perhaps depressive. While the poem is best read and listened to in its entirety, these stanzas are some good highlights (rendered in prose-poem format):

She dreams in psychedelic colors, fuschia and periwinkle. When she sleeps, the voices stop. Her voices are loud today. It’s the you’re not normal alto blended with the you’ll never find love baritone. This is her morning coffee. This is what wakes her up.

Today might be different. She whispers words of encouragement but because her ear is bruised from this lifetime, instead of hearing love she hears of and instead of hope it’s nope.

The girl looks at her finger. There was a diamond. She got it when she was 6. Her grandma said no matter what the world thought of her, she deserved beautiful things.

Someone shouted hey baby. It momentarily distracted her from the symphony of lonely conductors playing in her brain.

…

When asked where she’s going she says the library. Her friend smirks and says you need to get out more…books can’t give you an orgasm.

She responds you aren’t pressing right then. Books have a double life. Just like readers.

While I don’t want to spoil the experience for listeners, the poem does end with a sort of transformation for the subject which is at once moving and exhilarating. Suffice it to say, then, that this poem spoke directly to me as someone who has often felt alone and several steps behind the pacing and concerns of the world around me. I dare say the poem will resonate with several women who have felt the same—whom I assume to be the silent majority of women.

Maybe’s choice of subject matter is not the only thing that makes her poetry sing. She is also profoundly skilled with language. Note above the succinctness and muscle of her lines and her tight control over them (“Her grandma said no matter what the world thought of her, she deserved beautiful things.”). Note also that the poetry in this excerpt uses such tools as metaphor and simile sparingly. Instead, Maybe gives her poetry force through pithy dialogue (“Books have a double life. Just like readers.”) and through powerful, unexpected imagery (“the symphony of lonely conductors playing in her brain.”) This succinct quality makes her poetry ideal for speaking aloud and also beautifully conversational and down-to-earth, two qualities which also make it enormously accessible and relatable—not in the sense that Maybe “dumbs down” any of her subjects, but that she manages to tap into such truly universal feelings as social awkwardness and isolation.

For the most part, a spoken word CD is made or broken by its musical accompaniment. Here, Maybe is extremely fortunate to have found ideal partners in Harlan Steinberger (who also produced Rodeo for the Sheepish) and Tommy Jordan (who doubled as art director for the CD booklet’s striking black and white photographs). Steinberger and Jordan’s instrumentals—of saxophone, drums, guitar and amplifier, to name but a few— complement Maybe’s voice, underscoring rather than overwhelming her words in such a way as to bolster the poems’ themes and ambiances. The trombone, drum licks, and harp of “City Streets,” for example, give the poem an even more awkward and unusual feel, which helps evoke its strange, sad protagonist. The steel guitars in “Sylvia Plath” likewise evoke the sorrow of the poem, just as the electric guitar wails and drum beats in “Picasso” evoke a mood of sexiness, appropriate for a poem about the beauty of large women’s bodies. Interestingly, sometimes Jordan (who provides the tracks’ vocals) will sing a line from the poem during intervals between words or a refrain that, while extraneous to the text, nevertheless complements it well, as the refrain “City streets criss-cross inside me” does in “City Streets.” Together, poetry and music create a unique experience that neither could achieve by itself. While the most obvious name for this experience would be theater, for some reason I find it much closer to visual art, if only because the mental images evoked for me by the words and music of Rodeo for the Sheepish were so bright and vibrant.

Fans of spoken word CDs and lovers of slam poetry with a nerd-girl edge should seek this CD out as soon as they finish reading this review, as should anyone curious to see the highs to which this blended art form can aspire. I cannot recommend Rodeo for the Sheepish enough.

About.com Guide

(Hen House Studios, 2009) Ellyn Maybe got her moniker because she was too shy to commit when she signed up for the open mic list—“Ellyn,” she’d write, “maybe.” She’s an LA phenomenon, published by Henry Rollins, the lovechild of Gertrude Stein and Allen Ginsberg, a lyrical poet in hippie couture, a one-of-a-kind. Now, with Rodeo for the Sheepish, she shows she’s ready for Las Vegas. Brilliant settings by producer Harlan Steinberger, superlative vocal backtracks by Tommy Jordan—all of a sudden, she’s gone Motown and you can hear the sheer force of Poetry vs. Pop music in an arena the size of Radio City Poetry Hall. Humor, poignancy, universality, individuality—like all great artists, how she does it is a mystery, but Ellyn Maybe is for real.

Michael C Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan and is a Grammy/Pulitzer Prizepoet . His debut spoken word vinyl {on SST} LANGUAGE COMMANDO earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of Selected Poems EMERGENCY EXITS was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.

His last CD FIRE ESCAPES was bankrolled in 1995 by New Alliance: produced at Sonora by Michael Campagna who also composed and orchestrated most of the charts.

He concluded a recording project: a verbal rhapsody which pays an important tribute to both the art and the history of percussion; collaborating with DOORS cofounder John Densmore at the drum kit.

MCF has participated in keeping THE DOORS open by occasionally being in the company of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Since their milestone appearances at McCabe’s (1986-1989) they’ve been collaborating on several voice and piano recording dates, the most recent being a specially conceived track titled EXTREME UNCTION FOR JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON for Hen House Studios anthology Vol. 4.

Besides publishing music journalism, essays and assays on other aspects of American cultural history, he’s served as judge and panelist for literary arts organizations and publishers.

Michael C Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan and is a Grammy/Pulitzer Prizepoet . His debut spoken word vinyl on SST LANGUAGE COMMANDO earned a Grammy nomination in 1986.

His book of Selected Poems EMERGENCY EXITS was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.
His last CD FIRE ESCAPES was bankrolled in 1995 by New Alliance: produced at Sonora by Michael Campagna who also composed and orchestrated most of the charts.

He concluded a recording project: a verbal rhapsody which pays an important tribute to both the art and the history of percussion; collaborating with DOORS cofounder John Densmore at the drum kit.

MCF has participated in keeping THE DOORS open by occasionally being in the company of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Since their milestone appearances at McCabe’s (1986-1989) they’ve been collaborating on several voice and piano recording dates {the most recent being a specially conceived track titled EXTREME UNCTION FOR JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON for Hen House Studios anthology Vol. 4.

Besides publishing music journalism, essays and assays on other aspects of American cultural history, he’s served as judge and panelist for literary arts organizations and publishers.
Michael C Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan and is a Grammy/Pulitzer Prizepoet .

His debut spoken word vinyl on SST LANGUAGE COMMANDO earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of Selected Poems EMERGENCY EXITS was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.
His last CD FIRE ESCAPES was bankrolled in 1995 by New Alliance: produced at Sonora by Michael Campagna who also composed and orchestrated most of the charts.

He concluded a recording project: a verbal rhapsody which pays an important tribute to both the art and the history of percussion; collaborating with DOORS cofounder John Densmore at the drum kit.

MCF has participated in keeping THE DOORS open by occasionally being in the company of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Since their milestone appearances at McCabe’s (1986-1989) they’ve been collaborating on several voice and piano recording dates the most recent being a specially conceived track titled EXTREME UNCTION FOR JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON for Hen House Studios anthology Vol. 4.

Besides publishing music journalism, essays and assays on other aspects of American cultural history, he’s served as judge and panelist for literary arts organizations and publishers.

Poet Ellyn Maybe talks about her new album of spoken word fused with music.

I had never heard of Ellyn Maybe before a chance meeting in Los Angeles. Shame on me, considering her poetry pedigree is practically second to none. With her latest project, a spoken word/music album, Rodeo for the Sheepish, it is easy to see why she was named one of ten poets to watch in the new millennium by Writer’s Digest.

What’s particularly delightful about this album is that in addition to hearing her perform her poems, the album is also full of the vocal stylings of Tommy C. Jordan, of whose band Geggy Tah David Byrne once said:

“Geggy Tah are so post modern that they’ve come out the other side.”

We had a chat with both Ellyn and Tommy about making the album, inspiring social change through words, plus got a little insight into what both artists are working on next.

PG: What gave you the idea to do an album of spoken word set to music?

Ellyn Maybe: Since I reference music so often in my work it seems natural to do a spoken word/music album. This amazing opportunity came about when I reconnected with my cousin Harlan Steinberger who is wonderfully talented and he suggested we go in the studio and record a few poems with a click track and the album evolved very quickly.

We recorded everything at that first recording and then I went back after the music was finished and rerecorded some poems once I knew what the musical accompaniment was as that affected the reading.

We’re working on turning Rodeo for the Sheepish into a movie musical and hopefully a live stage show too. If anyone wants to create images for a track or a vignette for in between the songs they should please write me at ellynmaybe@aol.com.

We’re open to live action, animation, photography, painting, sketching, dance…

PG: How did working with Tommy C Jordan come about?

EM: Tommy has known Harlan a very long time and I loved what he brought with his vocals, hooks and how that shaped things. Tommy did the art direction for the CD and that turned out fabulous!

PG: Is there an underlying theme behind the album?

EM: Interestingly 5 of the 10 tracks are poems written while I was in Prague studying film at FAMU for two school years. There are definite things that go through my body of work. Love of music and the other arts, feeling a bit different that sort of thing, what’s going on in the emotional landscape.

PG: I had heard some mention that you went to Prague to study…

EM: I’d been getting more and more interested in learning about film and also heard such amazing things about Prague. I ended up getting the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship from the U.S. Department of Education which made the experience possible. I only expected to be there one school year but ended up staying two!

PG: How do you see poetry as a force to help inspire people towards social or personal change?

I think because I reference different stuff in my work, as well as there being a social justice thread quite often in my poetry, people listening to it might get inspired to look into things. One can go to an open mic and hear very topical poems.

Consequently, the art that resonates most is timeless because though the names and faces change, unfortunately, the human condition is pretty consistent.

Since I began reading my work I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful feedback thanking me for my candor, people have resonated with the work big time. Art is a very natural part of my life, the fact that I was so shy and never expected to read in public but that I do has inspired others.

I have a poem called “A Day in the Life of a Working Poor Xylophone Maker,” which talks about a lot of stuff but like most of my poems that deal with social issues it is also surreal, imagistic, and has humor.

One thing I think that people enjoy is the mix of emotions and moods. I think the subtlety is appreciated and since my poetry is a natural gift, I just am very grateful.

PG: Picasso is one of my favorite pieces/poems in that it addresses a feeling that I think a lot of women probably struggle with. Basically the “standard of beauty” which stood for hundreds of years has basically eroded in one lifetime, making a lot of women uncomfortable in their own bodies. Can you talk a little about that?

EM: I think your intro to the question basically nailed it!

PG: Is there a favorite track on the album for you?

EM: Wow, tough question. There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same is certainly one which I feel very strongly about but fortunately I feel the whole record came out really great. Deep gratitude to everyone who had a hand in making it. People were so incredibly dedicated at every level of the process. Now we’re beginning to rehearse for live concerts, very exciting!

PG: What drew you to this project?

Tommy C. Jordan: Harlan, the producer, is an old friend. He drew me into the picture.
After meeting Ellyn i realized it is a moving picture.

PG: You’ve written some of my favorite songs over the years and I wonder, what’s it like coming into something where the words/music are already there, and injecting your own self into that?

TCJ: It felt fun. Sometimes strange. Strange fun. Fast.
i love sopapillas.

PG: How did your own creative process work in this album?

TCJ: It was a Rorschach test to sound beds rather than inkblots.

What’s your favorite track on the album? Any of the poems really stand out and connect with you…affect you?

TCJ: Ellyn affects me in surprising ways. When words stop being words, its hard to say.
My favorite songs are the songs that stop being songs, and become vehicles of transportation.
City Streets makes me cry.

PG: What’s next for you? New Geggy Tah anytime soon?

TCJ: I am on a quest to ride in an actual “Poetry Rodeo.”

This Saturday I’m performing a wedding march I wrote for some friends. A good many friends have been sending Mendelhson’s “Here Comes the Bride..” to the showers; inviting fresh ceremonial tunes into play.

Geggy Tah?
Luaka Bop (David Byrne’s label) now and again inquires about releasing a “Best Of “. Sometimes I find my finger wet and in the air glistening. – By Alan Graham

Raised in New York City and Los Angeles, Metis Cole brings a true bi-coastal flavor to his music. He started making beats and writing lyrics as a young teenager. In fact, Metis has been teaming up with Second Son and Bravo for over ten years.

A decade later, Metis Cole’s rhythm and poetry have evolved into one of the most complete hip-hop sounds around. Let his slamming beats move your body but don’t forget to follow the lyrics. Because Metis’s verses, like those of Second Son, are the crême de la crême of rap music. Look out for Bravo as well. This is a man possessed!

Lonnie Marshall is the songwriter, lead vocalist and bass player for his band, Weapon of Choice. Lonnie was voted one of the top five bassists in the 1996 issue of Bass Player Magazine, Funk category.

Lonnie Marshall has performed on recordings of Tone Loc, Ice Cube, George Clinton, Funkadelic, Fishbone and many others. Performing live, he has played with The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Macy Gray, Chaka Khan and Queen Latifah to name a few. Check out his distinct brand of playful, swaggering funk as he strolls through a vivid landscape punctuated with falsetto swirls and that ever-present thumpin’ bass.

Maria Vidal is an internationally renowned artist, who’s hit single Body Rock reached no.8 on the US dance charts, and no.11 in the UK. Maria was originally a founding member of the band, Desmond Child and Rouge and Desmond wrote the hit single Do Me Right for Maria’s Debut album.
As a singer, songwriter and producer, Maria Vidal has contributed to many other artists music. Some of the highlights include vocals for artists such as Seal, Alice Cooper, Celine Dion, Stevie Nicks, Kiss and Cher. Maria also appears on new albums from Meatloaf and Cat Stevens.
As a songwriter, Maria wrote the hit single Summer Rain for Belinda Carlisle as well as the title song to her album A Woman and a Man. As a producer, Maria’s credits include Carrie Underwood and the other finalists on American Idol season 4.

An original and founding member of the musical group “The Doors”. John Densmore co-produced and wrote eight gold albums and toured the United States, Europe and Japan. His autobiography, “Riders on the Storm”, was on the New York Times bestseller list in 1991. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. His recent journalistic piece on corporations co-opting music to sell products, was published by The Nation Magazine, and subsequently syndicated in the London Guardian and Rolling Stone.

An original and founding member of the musical group “The Doors”. John Densmore co-produced and wrote eight gold albums and toured the United States, Europe and Japan. His autobiography, “Riders on the Storm”, was on the New York Times bestseller list in 1991. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. His recent journalistic piece on corporations co-opting music to sell products, was published by The Nation Magazine, and subsequently syndicated in the London Guardian and Rolling Stone.

Why call this radio show “It Might Not Be Poetry”?

Because it suggest that what we will be doing here might just not be what we have learned to accept as the narrow standard the poetry establishment may have pre-defined for us. The program title is a fait d complie giving us a blank check to present elements of all current art forms. Some previously advertised as language art, speech art, or perhaps even touchstones within the framework of international film culture and in very specific terms music culture.

Allen Ferguson co-founded a band with five of his compatriot musicians who were inadvertently connected with the Stanford University Music Department. Because of a distinctive engagement between the classic elements of chamber music and the melodic structures in American contemporary music, Ferguson named his experiment the Chamber Jazz Sextet.

Santa Ana, California is the home to the roots reggae sounds of Isouljahs. The group was formed in 1992 by band members Mikey Gamboa and Edgar Gonzalez. Mikey is on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Edgar plays the drums. Isouljahs also features Chris Bibler on bass and Chuy Gallegos on guitar. This band is true to the conscious roots Rasta reggae that they play and love. Isouljahs has played clubs and festivals all over California.

They are the best “homegrown” reggae band around. They have shared the stage with such reggae greats as Burning Spear, Culture and Bunny Wailer. Isouljahs is roots reggae music at its best. Their conscious lyrics and heavy rhythms are ancient vibrations coming from the past and headed for the future

House Brew is a seven-piece band with a horn section. They are best described as a groovy funky dance blend with a vast repertoire of styles and sounds.They can be mellow or extremely up-beat, switching and using different instruments to fit the mood. The smooth, laid-back style of the lead vocalist is beautifully complemented with the rich, savory harmonies sung by the rest of the band. House Brew meets the recommended daily allowance of phat calories and good vibes.

Founded in 2001, Hen House Studios is an independent record label, and documentary film/video production company located in Venice, California.
During the first five years of the company’s existence, Hen House recorded bands for free in the exchange for the right to film them. (The Hen House Experience)
Director Harlan Steinberger describes this time as extremely fruitful as there was no exchange of money between Hen House and the musicians who recorded there. “What we were left with was a pressure free, extremely creative environment that led to not only great performances but to one heck of a good time.”
Today, Hen House Studios no longer records bands for free and but still concentrates on developing musicians, making music and videos and its ever-evolving music label.

Fatal Charm emerged from the echoing halls and banging locker doors of a Los Angeles high school in 1996. Orlando Ravelo and singer / guitarist George Nakhla joined with classmates Steven De Luna on bass and Michael La Penza on guitar to form a bulwark for the Zero Tolerance generation (and generally raise a little hell in the process). Influenced by bands such as Korn and the Deftones, they began creating emotionally-charged hard-core music drawing from both the commonality of their American experience and from their Mexican-Indian, Egyptian, Italian, and Cuban backgrounds. Four years of intensive practice and study later, Fatal Charm graduated from school and struck out for the Hen House with their new sounds.

Freelance Johnson has attitude. An attitude that is everything surf culture embraces. What really matters is the next big wave, bong hits and beautiful girls. Their lead singer “Crash” is an avid surfer who can be frequently found at the breakwater at Venice Beach, California riding the waves.

Their sound is not reminiscent of the traditional twangy guitar surf music of the 1960’s, but rather a reflection of the modern surf movement. The ideals of this new movement in their song “Kali4na” where Crash sings “I gotta worn ya, this is California”, a song that expresses surfers’ territorial rights to the best waves and at the same time their frustration with the increasing pollution of the ocean’s water.

The band got it’s name from the famous surfing scene from the movie “Apocalypse Now”. In the scene, Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) commands a California surfing champion named Freelance Johnson into the waves even as the enemy continues to shell the beach. In one way, this band is a lot like Freelance Johnson from the movie, in that they will stop short of nothing in order to play their infectious music and ride the next big ocean swell.

Adam Rudolph, born and raised in Chicago, received music degrees from Oberlin College and California Institute of the Arts. He is now an accomplished master percussionist and has been studying music and rhythms from around the globe. Adam plays everything from congas and djembe to tabla and the didgeridoo.

Having lived in such places as India and West Africa, Adam’s music possesses an international flavor. Blending the different sounds from his colorful past, Rudolph teamed up with Hamid Drake to create some music that warms the body and soul.

Fanny Franklin knows all about Hen House Studios. She sang with Trulio Disgracias, Double G, House Brew and Lonnie Marshall. Now Fanny is doing her own thing, creating a handful of wonderful songs that The Hen House truly enjoyed, full of rich midranges, luscious overtones ready to plucked, and soaring melodies with surprising touches of complexity and purity. Her has flavors of live disco performances, but with an expansiveness rarely seen even there. Fanny’s talents are no secret around here. She sings with Dakah, a thirty piece hip hop orchestra, and Megan Jacobs. And most recently, she has been singing along side Macy Gray.

-A very hip local band, Capital Pusher, preaches love and funk to the world. Formed in 1997 by lead singer / bassist Nick Richetta, this band has been selling out shows for years. Nick teamed up with vocalist / keyboard player Rual Deleon in 1998 and the rest has been history. Capital Pusher is also comprised of Sean Sherrod on drums, Charlie Hitchcock in guitar, Chris Brown on sax, and Chris Hancock on sax. These guys love the music that they make. Their shows have a great vibe with up-beat energy. Capital Pusher is a must see band. Come join in on The Push.

-Based in Southern California, Boom Shaka is keeping roots reggae music alive and well. Founded just after the peak 80’s reggae Renaissance (lead by such notables as Black Uhuru and UB40, by singer/songwriter Trevy Felix, Boom Shaka has developed a serious following over the years with their brand of Peter Tosh-inspired sounds. Unlike some reggae, which leaps from genre to genre and primarily extols the virtues of a laid- back “party all the time” lifestyle, issues in Boom Shaka’s social and political landscape sculpt and shape their lyrics, giving them the raw intensity and emotion of a Dominican tenement. Boom Shaka has toured the world and have released a series of albums since their inception. Trevy Felix is the lead singer and plays guitar. He is accompanied by his brother Bass-I on bass, Lester Fari on lead guitar, Shaka Man on drums and Little George on keyboards. The result is a potent distillation of message and music, draped in harmonies and rhythm.

-Baba Alade grew up in Watts, California and approaches his folk/ blues from his urban roots, armed with Banjo in hand. Baba is a poetic wordsmith who sings of love, lost and found through sweet melodies that resonate in your mind. While the tunes ring with the sweetness of a child they reflect the wisdom of an elder. He has played with everyone from Taj Mahal, Babatunde Olatunji to the great jazz legend, Charles Lloyd. His mesmerizing performances are legendary.

Baba Alade grew up in Watts, California and approaches his folk/ blues from his urban roots, armed with Banjo in hand. Baba is a poetic wordsmith who sings of love, lost and found through sweet melodies that resonate in your mind. While the tunes ring with the sweetness of a child they reflect the wisdom of an elder. He has played with everyone from Taj Mahal, Babatunde Olatunji to the great jazz legend, Charles Lloyd. His mesmerizing performances are legendary.