People Ask "Why do you write" part B

My own songs fell on me like lightning from the age of twelve. Some of them terrified me - charged with imagery from another dimension. My father said to me, “You have the kind of imagination that requires that you not imagine anything.” Extraordinary experiences we have in childhood - traumatic or otherwise - compel us to hyper-develop certain aspects of ourselves, often at the cost of our emotional balance. I had a mother who was raised by a dreamer for a father, and she had a sadistically abusive mother. My mother, born Joy Goodman in 1926, was a brilliant teacher, lover of art and fighter for justice. She was also a raw-nerved rage-aholic whose demonic words shrieked to her terrified 4 year old son would turn a therapists’ face white a quarter century later. My father, the son of an eminent historical theologian, began his still unfinished life’s work in philosophy at the age of 12. When I was in my mid-teens, my father began having awe-inspiring visions after a trip to France and relating them to me. I was sleepwalking through high school in a conservative Chicago suburb, staying up late listening to Mississippi John Hurt records and writing songs. There were times when the images in my father’s visions were common to songs I was writing independently of them. There was a sense of moment, of things in the balance, of keeping vigil, of witnessing. My songs of that time were not always well received. There was a happening folk scene in Chicago at that time that wanted no part of me. I could mesmerize an audience to the point of getting an encore at an open mike, but I still could get any work. Well, it was a scene, and one with a feeling I wasn’t going to fit into. I wasn’t looking at the scene and trying to find my place in the pecking order. If it’s not about the art, I’m not interested. I donated my time performing at a weekly coffeehouse at a place called Save the Alcohoic on skid row in Uptown, founded by James Harper. The only requirement for entry was that you had to be sober. Those people living on the edge, were open to my songs. My first recording, Water Street, was funded by a couple on the board. I found help when I gave freely to others. Those of us who feel alienated from ordinary life and conversation by odd experience are trying to find a way back in to the circle. And we do that by taking the experience that alienates us and putting it into a sharable form. A painting, a song, that says, “this is what it is like for me. This is what I have seen” And when that song or painting is created convincingly enough to resonate with others, we feel less alone. Transforming our pain into beauty heals us and we intend it to heal others as well. Sharing difficult things with an audience liberates everyone in the room from feeling that their sorrows are unique to them. When this energy begins to work, there’s a very dangerous point, where people want to think that the artist is special, to make a celebrity of the person rather than deal with the message. This has been happening at least since the time of Christ. When the artist buys into the myth that they are special, a “star,” the work ceases to evolve, and we are left with either a nostalgia act or a good-looking corpse. The lantern bearer is not the lantern. Stay humble and keep learning if you wish to grow old.

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People Ask "Why do you write" part C

I trace the roots of Waterbug to a night at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in 1991. There was a late gathering on Chapel Hill; Kat and I had just met Hugh Blumenfeld a couple of nights before; a singing fiddler from New Orleans sat next to me and introduced herself as Gina Forsyth; Diane Chodkowsi sang the first Richard Shindell song I ever heard, “Fleur-de-Lis,” a teasing, subversive challenge to hundreds of years of corrupt and twisted religion; and as she finished, the wind rang the chimes on the hill. Michael McNevin sang “Busy Life,” a vision of struggling humanity trampling its own garden to death; as he finished, there was a rare police siren in the rural distance. As dawn broke, we wandered down the hill and stood around a circle of stones. Hugh improvised the funniest song any of us ever heard off the top of his head. Michael sang “Castaway,” the loveliest song about friendship I’ve heard to this day; Margo Hennebach sang a Susan Osborne prayer. But it wasn’t a prayer of asking from God; it was a love song sung full-heartedly to God. No one spoke for several minutes. It was the first time in my life I had experienced being in a group of people who respect the sacred. In May of 1992 I wrote to my brother and said, “I want to start a record label and get America’s real singing poets on the airwaves.” When you share your pipedreams , it brings them a step close to reality. I borrowed money from my father to produce a collection called “American Impressionist Songwriters”. Cosy Sheridan was finishing up her “Quietly Led” recording, and we schemed to start an artists’ cooperative where everyone would produce and own their own work; we would set a standard of quality and eventually score national distribution. Waterbug’s first releases come out in March, 1993. Ken Irwin from Rounder warned me it wasn’t a good time to get into the record business, and the entire business was headed for a train wreck of unprecedented proportions that started in 1996. One of the things that kept us afloat was the direct mail order business generated by our samplers; 20 artists would contribute a track and production money; each would get 50 copies to sell at $5 each, and could reorder at $2.50 each. Before youtube and downloadable music, these had a big impact. The artists would sell them at their gigs, sharing their audience with the other artists; we sent them to radio, and out free with every mail order. Advertising that pays for itself. Artist helping one another get heard. I want to say something to young people who are starting careers; when people start talking to you about “the next level,” cover your wallet. There is no other level. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re supposed to get someplace you aren’t already in order to feel fulfilled in your life and work. Be grateful for every gig. Play for children and old people. If your work touches a heart, it’s valid. Your personal ambitions will be dashed on the rocks more than once. That sense of quest, of serving something larger, will sustain your energy over the long haul.

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People Ask "Why do you write" part D

My mother was a union steward in a Chicago canning factory in the 50’s, and hollered against Jim Crow on sound trucks. She sang us ballads and spirituals like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and “All God’s Chil’n Got Shoes.”She took us along to bring hot coffee to strikers on the picket line in the winter, and to a civil rights march in 1965. She volunteered at Head Start. Into her 70’s she was driving in to Beethoven School near the Robert Taylor homes to tutor disadvantaged children. She contracted progressive supra-nuclear palsy, and for the last year of her life was unable to walk or speak. I moved back in with my folks and took a shift at night so my father could go upstairs and think. I sang her a lot of the songs I wrote in my teens. When hospice told us it was the end, my brother and sister flew in; That evening my sister Ellen asked me to sing “Mother, I Climbed,” by Dave Carter. So I poured myself a shot of Bowmore and sat on the commode, the only available chair, and sang for six hours, my mother’s favorite songs of mine, songs Matthew and Ellen asked for that I didn’t think I still knew. Then it was songs we could all sing to her, that she had sung to us: “I Gave My Love a Cherry,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,””All God’s Children Got Shoes.” My mother had loved to walk, and Ted and I would help her up and back on Cumnor Avenue until she couldn’t shuffle her feet any longer. “When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, I’m gonna walk all over God’s heaven.” I always thought it was a cool song. But this passing is what the song was for. I had a palpable sense of people “out there,” who were wiser about death than we, who were neither defiant nor afraid, but embraced this passage as an adventure. What was heaven but the sky? And what more beautiful heaven could we imagine? During that week, I talked more with Matthew about the spirituals, and began ordering books, eventually stumbling onto “Slave Songs of the United States,” published in 1867. That summer, out on Matinicus Island, my caregiving father allowed himself to catch a cold for the first time in six years; I brought him cups of peppermint tea and started sounding out some of the songs. They blew our minds - 135 songs of which I’d only ever heard four. I ordered more collections, Lomax’s Deep River of Song and Southern Journey recordings. After several months, the lightbulb went on - the wisdom of the spirituals is from the West African religious sensibility. Google. Bingo. The 10,000 year old Vodou religion has strong parallels with Lakota spirituality. There are the ancestors, and the four directions, the communal support for transcendent experience for which our society offers almost nothing. I read up on my history for a year, determined to make a recording to revive some of this material. I met the great Gullah painter Jonathan Green in Naples, Florida. “Slavery was war,” he said to me. He hooked me up with the Avery Research Center in Charleston and I saw “De Gullah Singers” perform a ring shout. I met a singer in Charleston, Anne Caldwell, who had taken a gospel group to Europe. The European venues complained that her group included two white singers. My white liberal folksinger friends warned me repeatedly about making the recording, They said, “They’ll say, why is a white guy playing our music?” As if somehow I was violating something by learning songs by brother and sister poets from old books. No one has ever complained that I play Bach on the guitar without having German ancestry. It took some searching but I found some black singers and musicians, and mixed in with some white ones we made friends and an album called Bound to Go together and nobody ever said, “why are you singing our songs?” Our folk genre is as segregated as an Alabama bus station in 1957. The very few blacks in folk music tend to play in bands with other blacks. But all of this music we play was created together, and nobody even knows that anymore.

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People Ask "Why do you write" part E

Back in the 20’s, Jimmie Rodgers learned a lot of music from black railway workers who worked for his dad, mixed in some yodelling with the blue notes and became a recording star. A.P. Carter went on collecting trips with his African American friend Lesley Riddle, collecting songs from white and black families in the South. A.P. Carter copyrighted these songs - the roots of country music. Hank Williams said he received all of his musical training from Rufus Payne, called Tee Tot, a black street musician in Birmingham, Alabama. Bill Monroe created his high lonesome vocal sound from imitating the field hollers of African American farmhands. He was mentored by Arnold Shultz, a legendary black musician who was never recorded. Shultz also coached a group of Kentucky guitarists in his amazing style, one of whom was Merle Travis. A fourth of the sailors on American whaling ships were the free blacks of the North, the preferred shanty singers over the Irish. Those rockin’ call-and-response work shanties also were created by the dynamic interaction of cultures. A racist recording industry segregated blacks and whites by genre. It is a tragedy that we have let this pass in silence. I am here to tell you that it is not so hard to befriend and include black, hispanic, any other musicians in your life. You can start by saying hello. If you love Pete Seeger, don’t just look up to him. Follow his example. Be inclusive. Reach out. When Bound to Go was finished, I felt for the first time as if I’d finished a real chunk of my life’s work. I wondered what was still going in with this story and I looked up the prison system. When I wrote my first song, there were 200,000 Americans in prison. Due to the “war on drugs,” there are now 2.3 million Americans in prison, more than half being African Americans incarcerated for non-violent offenses. Poor Latinos make up the next largest percentage. The US now incarcerates more people than Russia and China combined. This is not about drugs. This is about cheap labor. 110 factories in the federal system alone are operating 24 hours a day, paying wages of .15-.23 an hour. Prisoners take apart biohazard computers without health regulations. Prisoners make the cheap cherrywood filing cabinets we buy at office depot, replacing Union jobs. Convicted felons, deprived of the right to vote, cannot find employment on the outside. The rate of illegal drug use is the same for whites and blacks - 13%. But when they need more cheap labor, they do their sweeps in minority neighborhoods. 7% of African Americans have lost the right to vote, as compared to 1.8% of the rest of the population. The Corrections Corporation of America recently offered to buy up all the state prisons if they would be guaranteed 90% occupancy. Our minority poor are viewed as a harvest crop. California now spends more on prisons than h igher education. This is Mordor - a slave state operating under our noses, and they are counting on the fact that people with a voice will not speak out, will not raise hell, do not give a damn. The problem is bigger than me and you, but it is not bigger than us. Let’s not make a statue of Dr. King and give up on the dream. On the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birth, let’s remember why we sing.

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What otheres have to say...

I got this little write up from a new fan who attended the gig on Saturday....

Don Scott... ... With winter around the corner, one dreams of those far away places in the sun, Manzaillo, perhaps the Algarve region of Portugal. Where, you can stroll down to the oceanside, attend a local market and pick up some fresh seasonal fare, stop by a quaint bistro, for a bite and sample some of the region's wonderful wines, Then as evening draws near, check the local scene for some of the area's best i nstrumental guitarists, and storytellers through song. Oh what a dream.....what's that you say? Of course, warm sunny day, the Alberni inlet, Farmer's Market at Harbour Quay, one of many coffee shops or lunch spots, BC wines and over two hours of the most talented guitarists in the form of JIM MOFFAT and MIKE SAMPSON less that ten feet away. Holy Crap are we blessed to be living in Port Alberni and have the likes of Jim and Mike attend out town to perform live. After an evening with nationally acclaimed Brad Prevedoros on Friday evening, my expectations for this evening were tempered by his well known talents. Those in the audience Saturday evening were blown away by the incredible playing abilities of both artists and the raw and powerful voice of Jim Moffat. This duo has been together for a few years now and should most definitely be taken in if they happen to be on a stage near you. They are the epitome of true friends playing to each others' talents and amazing abilities. Thank you so much for visiting our town and thanks again Charlene for this one of a kind venue...

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Life's Tough Lesson

Hi All

I know it’s been a while sense I wrote. Yet write I will and even though ... I have learned a tough life's lesson... I am getting old and by "I" in really mean "we" I know, I know, you are thinking, "What fluff! We all know we are getting old." I got hit with it right between the eyes. Let me explain… I have a very good and dear friend named Will. He and I meet in 1991 and among other things we shared a home, a boat and a love for movies, good TV and wood work. When I found I couldn’t do commercial wood work I even gave him a lot of my tools. In the last few years with my music taking so much of my time and his family living around the country taking him away we don't get to see each other all that much, but we do try to talk on the phone and stay in touch. So with that said ... I called him a few of weeks ago. No answer. I left a message and forgot about it. "He’ll call me back" I thought, "he always does." He didn't. I called again a couple of weeks ago and left him a message reminding him that I called and he didn't call back so something must be up and asked what was going on. After a few days he didn't call and so I called again. The number was disconnected and suddenly I have a huge knot in my stomach and a feeling.... I called a mutual friend and as his phone was ringing...my Jan and I searched the internet and that’s when we found it; an obituary for my friend. Turns out he went to see the Doc for some aches and pains and was admitted, and died a few days later. So last night after feeling uneasy I went alone to the movies, sat through two I know he would have liked, The Bourne Legacy and Resident Evil: Retribution I found myself it tears, silently talking to a friend who wasn't there. I guess we all grieve in our own way. This morning I woke and realized life is a gift and not forever, If you have any friends who you haven't seen in a while, don't wait, call them and stay in touch. You all mean a lot to me Jim

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#VIMF Jim Moffatt's news and views from Vancouver Island MusicFest 2012

HI $first_name

Well the suitcases are unpacked and things are getting back to normal here at home.

I have spent a lot of time going over pictures and edits and video from the Vancouver Island MusicFest 2012 and have posted most on face book and Utube here are a few just for you all....... these are my favorites...

Video of Stage Shots = The Grierson Stage http://www.youtu.be/bqb9tnFVwns and the Main....basically you get a look at what goes on on stage as we get ready to perform and the audience is growing and growing along with our nerves and sound checks... all we want is to start :-)

Shot of me on Stage = https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9b09pnko3iiqpn/DSCN1095.JPG = This is my Favorite picture of me from stage...the look on my face says it all

Peter Prince = https://www.dropbox.com/s/7dllj0t9fleqv4c/DSCN1067.JPG = was our host and this is a great shot of him on stage doing his thing

Woodlands stage = https://www.dropbox.com/s/txu238mtd1ynzwg/IMGP0498.JPG = was where I did my concert with Mike playing second guitar. This is a shot of us on stage with the crowd in the foreground, Funny thing is that about 5 mins before stage time I looked out and there were 19 people sitting in the grass to play to. 19. I laughed to myself and thought here we go...10am on a Sunday Morning...I need not have worried though...by our second or third song it was fairly full and by last song it was packed. I was really surprized and happy.

Mike and I on stage = https://www.dropbox.com/s/qniek3wqqbr2job/DSCN0938%20%281%29.JPG = I have no idea what I am dong here but I do know we were all having fun by this time. Me, the audience and even Mike :-) This is my fav shot of all.

I was really into this one = https://www.dropbox.com/s/vq1gr0o4abx8fcb/DSCN1004.JPG = ...think i scared Mike a bit hehehehhehahahhah

We got a standing ovation = https;//www.dropbox.com/s/wtksm58tcqwkwcl/DSCN0904.JPG = I was feeling so humble and thought I was going to burst into tears...wouldn't you know it made a good shot.

Good shot of me doing what I do. = https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3r57ch8ej4y9ce/DSCN0900.JPG

This is me singing my song Old Man. = https://www.dropbox.com/s/qa7vk5zugaeqbaq/DSCN0996.JPG = It is based on the story of an old man who cane to the city center each day for years and talked to the people about freedom. He stopped coming one day, was never heard from again and that cause the his ideas of freedom to spread....the song tells the story and points out that its still spreading and the powers that be don't like it. Too bad. :-)

Mike Rocking out on a lead break. = https://www.dropbox.com/s/ecytuen0t98qud6/DSCN0949.JPG = Don't kid yourself. My buddy can play with the best of 'em.

One more last shot of the stage from the audience point of view. https://www.dropbox.com/s/cja4ptf5vg419t2/IMGP0497.JPG

Well that's about it for now. If you want to see them all check out the albums on my Facebook page = https://www.facebook.com/jim.moffatt3/photos = There are lots there. And check out all the video's in Utube = http://www.youtube.com/user/jimmoffatt1?feature=mhee

Now I am going back into the studio to do some writing and recording. I want to put out a new CD of Songs written in the last year or so.

Goodbye my friend and see you soon Jim Moffatt

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Jim Moffatt and Mike Sampson at VFMS 2012

It has again been too long but i have a gift to share with all my friend and family. Below is a link to a concert/show/performance/storytelling that I did earlier this year with my good buddy Mike Sampson on lead guitar. If you have every read the discription of my music that says, "Think Jim Croce meets Godzilla. Two beautiful guitars and strong vocal with a bit of the monster to keep it real interesting', this is what they are talking about Get the whole show "Jim Moffatt with Mike Sampson at VFMS 2012" here http://www.reverbnation.com/playlist/view_playlist/3273966 or cut and paste into a browzer Here is more information on the Victoria Folk Music Society http://www.victoriafolkmusic.ca/ My Janice is going away to visit her dad for a few days and I can't go. I am going to miss her. I hope you and yours are doing well. I send my love to you one and all, Jim

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'Don't be Pushy" ya right :-)

Hi $first_name

You know from time as far back as I can remember I was taught "Don't be pushy" "Be patient' not to mention the old "children should be seen and not heard". I have struggled all my life with these lessons. Why? Cause I am a person who pushes against the borders and I react very strongly to anyone who tries to pull "authority" on me. It's just who I am and I do handle it well most of the time. Not all, but most.

Don't get me wrong, I have never been to jail (except as a GreenPeacer) nor had a lot to trouble with others, but there is a part of me that really hates the word "No" or any sentence that starts with,"It can't be done," or "You can't do that." Maybe that is why I heard so much of those sayings, or maybe not, but I did have an experience just in the last couple of weeks that makes me want to go "HA, I am right!"

I friend of mine runs a festival that I very much wanted to play at this year and lo and behold sent me an email asking me if I was interested in performing.

Now don't expect me to even hint at who or when. This little effort isn't about blame or any crap like that. This is about experience and learning and this is a friend.

Anyway, I replied YES right away and told him I was hoping he'd ask and .... then I waited,

Couple weeks go buy and no reply. I think "lots of time, be patient'

Couple more weeks and I start to wonder? Then I think, " Patience, don't be pushy"

Another month goes by and I finally can't take it and I send an email letting him know that I am sure I responded and wanted to confirm everything. Well you know where this is going don't you. My friend writes me back and says "I was wondering why you didn't respond? I am all booked but for sure next year", and why didn't I let him know.

I told him I DID let him know, he finally found the email but its too late. At least for this year.

You see my friends, this Artist Director and I both had the same upbringing. Heard the same "don't be pushy" stories and besides, he is the AD and it isn't his job to follow up with me, it 's mine to follow up with him. and I didn't. :-(

Too bad, so sad, my bad. I blew a great gig.

Ya Ya I know you are thinking, "next year". Come on! We only have so many years in this life and I don't want to spend any more going "next year" I learned from the Olympics that "next year" is no guarantee. (Moscow, 1980. We boycotted. My next year)

So what is the solution?

Simple. I grow a pair and stop listening to voices that hold me back and start listening more to my instincts and going by my gut.

I wonder how that is going to look in my music?

O well lesson learned, lesson shared and love to you all

Jim Moffatt

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Jim Moffatt why do I write? What is it about?

I ask myself this question every time I perform. "Is this just my ego?" It has to be true that there is some ego there but it goes way beyond that. In the simplest terms it’s "I write, therefore I am." Corny I know but I actually hear myself thinking in song. Everything from the mundane to the serious, and in my minds "ear" I hear a melody lines and music when I am pondering a problem or situation. Does that make me nuts? Maybe. But don’t believe I write ever song I "produce" or “think up”, only the ones that seem to make sense to share. What I do believe is; it makes me is a song writer. I am driven to this. In my performances, I now have 3 songs that have a set melody and style but no written words. They are “told” on the spot as performed. My side man Mike Sampson says it’s his favorite parts of a show; to me the scariest. I either soar or painfully crash and I have to be very careful about saying something stupid in the moment. Yet these moments result in the biggest connection, the deepest vibes and magic. It is for these moments that I write songs. So in retrospect; careful, yes but not so careful as to destroy the spontaneity. I love doing things and going places I am told aren’t popular or I won’t fit in. A while back I told a wrestling coach of mine that I wanted to try for the Olympic team. He laughed. I dumped him. Two years later I was a walk on at the trials. An underdog. I finished third. One step short of a spot on the team. In high school I had a music teacher who told me that I would never be any good. He dumped me. Three years later I was in another school, competed against his protégée in the city wide talent show and won. I got hurt working on the oil-rigs in Alberta. A very severe secondary infection in a knee. Was told I was going to lose my leg. I still have two. Got injured in a car accident and couldn’t play guitar for almost 3 years, but I am playing, writing and performing again for the last 3 years. I am better now then before. Yup I love proving skeptics and na-sayers wrong. I love being the underdog. Not too comfortable. As a song writer being comfortable is a curse. Too much comfort is death. I get lazy and non-committal. Not enough comfort leads to paralysis. I have to work a day job that kills time and just gives enough money to almost cover bills. Somewhere in there, is a place where I get to be comfortable enough to not be paralyzed and yet still hungry enough to want to write. Now at the moment of writing this I am too paralyzed. I am working toward that hungry comfortable and I hope you all like my music and songs enough to help me get there. If you see me at a show come up and say you read this. Let me know what you think about it and what you heard. Tell me how you felt. Jim Moffatt ------------------------------------ • Grew up in streets Chatham Ont., attended school & finished with no fixed address • went to universities for football & wrestling, • Zodiac pilot for Greenpeace “Save the Whales” & term in a Newfoundland jail for anti-sealing protests, • Then started writing songs. His first test, Calgary Albt. at 1st Studio 1/ (Long & Mcquade) music award, he won. • Opened for Utah Phillips, Rosalie Surell, Connie Calder, Michael Lewis, and Scott Parsons. • played the Home County Festival in London Ontario, Blackfalds Folk Festival in Alberta & Vancouver Island Folk Festival & others. His first love has always been a singer-songwriter writing music to bring images to his listeners mind. With songs that are at times beautiful, then striking, there is always something you will enjoy and remember.

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