Willie Nelson's Letter to President-elect Obama

Dear President-elect Barack Obama,

As President of Farm Aid, I'd like to take this opportunity to whole-heartedly congratulate you on your historic victory. I'd also like to offer you every resource that Farm Aid has available to assist you in creating a new farm and food policy that supports a sustainable family farm system of agriculture.

I started Farm Aid in 1985 when family farmers were being forced off their land as a result of federal policy that paved the way for industrial agriculture. This shift replaced independent family farmers with factory farms that have wreaked havoc on our communities, our environment and our public health.

There is broad agreement that our farm and food system needs to be drastically reworked. The good news is that the work of building an alternative to the industrial food system is well underway and Farm Aid is proud to have been a leader in this work, something we call the Good Food Movement. The Good Food Movement has grown and thrived almost entirely without the support of the federal government. However, now is the right moment for the leadership of our country to take a role in this important movement. In fact the future of our economy, our environment and our health demand it.

Our family farmers are a national resource with incredible potential to be the protagonists in solving the challenges we currently face. Family farmers are on the cutting edge of thriving local food systems and economies, alternative energy production and environmental stewardship. Family farmers are marketing the fruits of their labor close-to-home at farm stands, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs), helping local money to circulate in local communities where it can do the most good. Family farmers are growing green energy and harnessing the power of the sun and wind. They are transitioning to sustainable production methods to grow food that is good for our health and our planet. These steps are strengthening our local economies, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, protecting our natural resources and increasing our national security.

As the national organization working on behalf of family farmers for the last 23 years, Farm Aid has helped family farmers stay on the land, organized communities to fight factory farms in their own backyards, and educated eaters about the choices they can make to guarantee healthy, fresh food from family farms. Over our history, we have grown, partnered with, and sustained a network of more than four hundred grassroots farm and food organizations across the nation. As you begin to implement programs to support a family farm system of agriculture, Farm Aid and our vast resource network is here to work with you.

Now is the time for our country to recognize and call on family farmers' ingenuity, strength and value to our past and our future. We can have strong local economies, green energy, a clean environment, healthy citizens and good food—all of these start with family farmers. I look forward to working with you to make this vision of a family farm system of agriculture a reality.

Stay Strong and Positive,

Willie Nelson
President
Farm Aid

Goose Gossage's Big Day

"Fearsome and fearless"* Yankee reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage is to be inducted into just about an hour to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. I wish I could be there! It will be a crowded one I'm sure. Also, I once had the great fortune to meet the Goose in the best of all places, a Willie Nelson show (see photo at right!). He's been friends with Poodie and all in the Willie camp since he was blazing fastballs in the 70s, and had his own bus backstage.

But mainly, I remember his White Sox cards, then heading to Pittsburgh and over to the Yankees as a big free agent, even though Sparky Lyle had won the Cy Young Award as a reliever in 77 (and a few others afterwards too). Those Yankees were incredible! As we face the Sox and go into tonight's game w/an eight game win streak, I hope we win one for the Goose tonight.

It would be hard to imagine Goose's speech won't include Thurman Munson, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles and other (Cliff Johnson?) Yankee teammates.

I saw him do it to the Red Sox on the last day of the 78 season, the pine tar incident and heard the tape where he told reporters to "take it to the fat man upstairs" many times before finally running into him in 2003. What a great guy.

I saw him pitch for the Giants, A's and Mariners at the end of his run. He may have been on one or two others too. Texas? Cubs. Anyhow, many cheers for the GOOSE!

Congrats to the great Goose Gossage on your induction to the Hall!

Happy Birthday Willie!

Today is Willie Nelson's 75th Birthday and I hereby request that everyone spend a minute or two or more to reflect on the man and his work.

Austin 360 has put together a great tribute, hats off to Michael Corcoran.

KGSR has a great event tonight featuring many artists singing Willie songs, anyone in Austin should stop by. I will wish I was in Austin tonight that's for sure.

Please stop by the Sony Legacy podcast page to hear some great interviews with Willie and Family members Bobbie Nelson, Paul English, Poodie Locke, Jody Payne and Mickey Raphael.

Check out the great Willie page www.StillisStillMoving.com for some great pics from Amsterdam where Snoop Dogg and Willie performed the other night (the lens cap is on for a minute or two!):

Earbender Earth Day Post: Green Baseball and Bands

If you read this story about the recent Cubs-Reds game where Lou Piniella reacted to Cincinnati broadcaster Marty Brenneman, perhaps you also saw the irony in it: Piniella's friend and longtime coach Lee Elia is famous for a long, blistering attack on the Wrigley faithful.

Here's the clip of Lee Elia going off, for old time's sake. It was 25 years ago next week:




Since it's Earth Day, and I am recycling old bits above, please read on to see about how Lou and Lee's old teams the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds are both going green today for Earth Day by playing carbon-neutral games. They are buying carbon-offsets Seattle and a biomass project in Spain, respectively, and reducing lighting and other forms of consumption to be carbon neutral for the day.

It's only a few parks on one day, but it's not a bad publicity stunt. It's more than the White House is doing!

Plenty of artists on the road are going green by using recycled vegetable oil and BioDiesel to help curtail consumption. Reuters made a top ten list, with Willie Nelson only #2 to Jack Johnson! No worries about that, it's not a competition, and I'm very into Jack's support and involvement with of Stonyfield Farms, Patagonia and One Percent.

One Hell of A Ride -- New Willie Nelson Box Set

After over 40 years in the business, a variety of labels and tons of bootlegs, Sony Legacy's new Willie Nelson box set, "One Hell of A Ride" covers it all with 100 songs spread over four cds. The album was released yesterday, April 1, no foolin'.

From the very first recording he ever made at KBOP, Pleasanton TX in 1954 through the Nashville frustration of RCA, to Atlantic and the glory years of Columbia Records. Recent forays into reggae, blues and his recent Cindy Walker tribute; it's all here.

There is also a great set of liner notes written by respected Willie biographer Joe Nick Patowski. While the album only contains one unreleased song, it's a new version of that first recording from KBOP, the prescient "When I've Sung My Last Hillbilly Song." I find it poignant, you should too:


Broke the heart of my darling who loved me
Broke her heart and I know I've done wrong
But I hope that someday she'll forgive me and remember
When I've sung my last hillbilly song

When I've sung my last hillbilly song
I hope that someday she'll forgive me and remember

When I've played my last hillbilly bar
I hope that someday she'll forgive me and remember

When I've sung my last Hank Williams song
I hope that someday she'll forgive me and remember

When I've sung my last hillbilly song
I hope that someday she'll forgive me and remember

-- Willie Nelson

There is a great radio special on its way to the stations. Part 1, is Willie's own perspective on his career and songwriting. Part 2 is "Willie Nelson's True Outlaw Stories," as told by him and longtime collaborators Sister Bobbie Nelson, Paul English, Mickey Raphael, Poodie Locke, Jody Payne and friends Nels Cline of Wilco and Ray Wylie Hubbard. If you want to know about Willie and how he got to be the Godfather of Outlaw Country (and a few other sects), you've got to check it out!

Daniel Lanois Movie "This is What Is" LA Premiere

So many thoughts came to mind while watching the deep, sensitive and slow musical performances in the new Daniel Lanois movie which I saw last night at its L.A. Premiere at the respected art house the Vista Theatre. It has been 25 years that I have been listening to his music, and he is still one of my favorites for many reasons that did not appear in the long documentary of his working life!

Brady Blades, Sr. joined the band for a song:




First, the music. The event opened with Lanois and his bandmate Brian Blades on guitar and drums, with Daryl Johnson and another dude I can't remember on vocals and keyboards. They opened with the great song "The Messenger" and played a few others including a great jamming version of "The Maker." I smiled during that song thinking of Willie Nelson and Jerry Garcia's versions and how the song has had a good run with a certain part of the public. As Lanois said in the film, their versions are validation.

At the end of the mini-set, Billy Bob Thornton came out and joined Lanois for an unbelievable rendition of the monologue from Sling Blade, with Lanois accompanying him on some of his most subtle, dynamic, simple, rhythmic, loose, amazing guitar playing. To see a movie star perform like that with live music is rare and it was awesome. Reminded me that I worked that great soundtrack and set up the first in-store at Hear Music in Santa Monica. You could argue the whole thing, tied in with a KCRW appearance helped launch the store in L.A. and gave all involved, which didn't include Starbuck's at the time, a sense of the possibilities.

Please see below for my Daniel Lanois' greatest hits list!

And he seems to need it even with all the success. Why else make a movie that shows a lot of jamming on unknown compositions and very little about his actual process, the talent that went into making him successful. It can be seen indirectly for the most part -- his guitar playing is clearly a big part of U2's sound, just based on listening to him. We see him and U2 jamming for like a minute in the movie. It was shocking how little his three biggest acts -- U2, Gabriel and Dylan -- were in the movie. He must be pissed at Peter Gabriel, the dude was barely mentioned and his So was the album that broke Lanois as a producer (without Eno).

Eno is the whole movie, of course. His bathroom interview with Lanois, apparently while on the bowl, is fascinating and inspiring. He says it's important to show that great works and results come from the smallest, nothing ideas and that it would give people confidence to know that they have that ability too, that there is no magic or secret to what they do. Eno points out that he has always gone out of his way to show his process. Lanois gives a glimpse of a childhood newspaper clipping about him playing guitar for 53 hours straight -- the only reference to the long hours of trial and error with the studio and his instrument to get where he is today.

Two moments where he was being a genius producer: conducting the band behind Aaron Neville as he sang "With God on Our Side" and singing the melody by heart from one of the collaborations with Eno and Harold Budd by heart as they played the actual recording. He has an amazing ear, a great sense of melody, etc.

Lanois quotes Dylan as telling him "you can't buy feel." But if you have some major dough and a decent band, you can rent it out from Daniel Lanois!

Some of my favorite Lanois albums, and I've been listening for 25 years now include:

On Land - first appearance on an Eno album

Apollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks

The Pearl - Second album w/Eno gets him shared billing (Eno/Lanois with Harold Budd)

U2's breakthrough The Unforgettable Fire

Canadian pre-fame: The Parachute Club, Martha and the Muffins

Peter Gabriel So - one of the best albums by one of the best artists ever

Bob Dylan Oh Mercy - the comeback by one of the best artists ever

Neville Brothers - best, most representative recording (not "Don't Know Much") under their own name. (Try Wild Tchopitoulas for great results)

U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind - again, the comeback is the hardest thing in showbiz and they came back all the way with this one.

Willie Nelson - Teatro - First Willie album I promoted and a great album too.

and Willie always gets the last word!

Baseball and Portishead back for '08

Baseball Returns

Enough with steroids, new stadiums (DC and coming soon to NY, Minn. and Florida), crossover promotion and even the winter leagues, I'm ready for the real deal. I have the 2008 Preview issue of Baseball Digest, and that's all I need (and Street and Smith's) right now.

Baseball Digest is the place you go to read about the game from a historical perspective, comparable to MOJO, the english classic rock magazine. In a world of pitch-by-pitch updates on cell phones, I still find their content fascinating. The letters, the quiz, old man John Kuenster's editorial and The Game I'll Never Forget are features I love. The Goose is in the new issue too as this year's sole Hall of Fame inductee.

It's now down to 8 issues a year after going from 12 to ten a few years ago. I hope BB Digest is around forever but turnarounds aren't typical in show business. Please read and subscribe to Baseball Digest if you are into baseball. They recently put out a book compiling their greatest stories, The Best of Baseball Digest, which is a nice resource on many players and topics.

The baseball digest letters section is great for people griping and looking up old info, as well as stating an opinion. It's similar to the MOJO letters column, where our old friend Daniel Makagon (formerly of KXLU, Los Angeles and WMTU, Houghton MI) recently called out my hero and client Elvis Costello in response to an epic interview (conducted at the Lincoln Memorial) where Elvis said he would never make another album and never play another show in England! Makagon thought EC was hypocritical for re-releasing his catalog several times essentially. There were a lot of negative reactions, but in my book (and my blog), Elvis can't do much wrong.

Fear Nuttin' Band

Fear Nuttin' concludes their tour with The Toasters and looking for stations to visit. Please read below about a band who's album I promoted years ago that started out just like Fear Nuttin'. They are a fierce combo of dance-hall reggae and hard rock. Sir Walford of WCDB Albany will probably be our first stop and accurately compared them to the Bad Brains. Sir Walford is a legendary roots reggae dj who has been on the station since the 80s and has a ton of listeners to both "The Other Side of Sir Walford" and "The Many Moods of Sir Walford."

Joseph Israel

Joseph hits Miami hard tomorrow with the Marley family at Carifest, and continues on to the following: 3/2: Jacksonville; 3/3 Wilmington; 3/4 Asheville; 3/5 Falls Church; 3/6 New York City; 3/8 Canton NY; 3/9: Boston; 3/10 New Market NH; 3/11 Rochester NY; 3/12 Athens OH; 3/13: Cincinnati OH; 3/15 Fayetteville AR

Willie Nelson
The new video features Jessica Simpson, Paula Nelson, Ben Dorsey, Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Willie in the First Bad Boy Lawn Mower Race through Luck TX. (embedding disabled so please click to view)

Buddy Miles RIP
The LA Times obituary says he sang for the California Raisins as well as playing drums with Jimi Hendrix and Mike Bloomfield, two of the greatest guitarists ever. Here's a bit of Buddy Miles as I remember him best:



Portishead back for 2008, fresh as ever

Our friends Portishead return with a new album in April. In 1994, with the grunge revolution still going strong, earbender took a project no other indies were interested in, the debut by Portishead, Dummy, and it made it to the top 10. I'm glad they are back but will be at Jazzfest when they do their Coachella thing. An interview with artist Jonathan Coulton on twit.tv where he described the loyalty of his fans, generated slowly and steadily via blogging reminded me of Portishead.

College radio is where Portishead engendered such loyal fans that ten years later, they come back to headline the best festival in the USA. Portishead will have good songs, and the passage of time makes me wonder how their sound might have changed (especially now that so many have caught up and adopted spy music/beats/chanteuse style. But I will be at Jazzfest for the re-debut.

Paula Nelson on KUT 2/27

In anticipation of SXSW, here's a bit of our client Paula Nelson on KUT this past Wednesday. Paula will also be broadcasting live from the legendary south Austin spot The Saxon Pub tonight on KGSR.com, so please tune in. The Saxon Pub is a great hang where Poodie once gave me the definitions of "Friday Night Hero" and "Pressure Cooker" strip clubs in the same story. It's going to be a fun night and Paula's album Lucky 13 is coming soon.

If you can't make it to Austin, you can virtually visit the Best Pub in Britain.

I Want to Believe opens, Willie Nelson on Democracy Now! and KEXP hits NY

Cai Guo-Qiang had the big opening at the Guggenheim last night and it was pretty spectacular. Here's some video to give you a small sample. There were also great gunpowder paintings, the wolves they showed in the newspaper, pigs, snakes, tigers and other thought-provoking images of China, nature, commerce, politics, etc.



Willie Nelson appeared on the 12th Anniversary show of Democracy Now this week. Please click on this link to hear Willie go off in words and song.

KEXP Radio Liberation had its launch party on Thursday night. Kevin Cole told me the project has been two years in the making and as a fan of diversity in music, this is a good thing for New York. Some folks mis-interpreted my comments about WRXP. It's not that I expect them to play James Brown and Run DMC, I just wanted to say that white music for white people is not my bag.

KEXP (mistakenly referred to as "WKEXP" on stage by Antibalas) Radio Liberation brought a youthful and ethnically mixed crowd to their event... has there been a WRXP New York Rock Experience launch party? I assume they will have a street team at the upcoming Springsteen show along with a wrapped van, and I'll be on the lookout. SBR Creative was shaken up by the first wrapped vehicle in adult rock, which I brought to the R&R conference in 2001, so I look forward to seeing what they do. Being "world class" they should use the Smart, but being green isn't part of the yuppie identity here like on the west coast.

Here's a snip of Antibalas from KEXP/Radio Liberation's launch party:

The Championship of Advertisements

Birth of The Rosenfelder Index

earbender is about two months old and hopefully after about 25 posts, there are some noticeable trends in my observations and interests. Namely, music, sports, culture, news, exercise/health and the media. Some recent benchmarks include Martin Luther King day, Sundance, Super Bowl Whatever, Bob Marley's birthday and more.

The Rosenfelder Index is the amount it would cost to buy one unit of everything advertised during the Super Bowl. I believe you can tell a lot about the economy and our culture by what is advertised (Remember the burst of www's around 1998? Most of those companies are gone now, even massive ones like go.com.). I named it after myself and this year's findings will be released on earbender.com on January 28.

Incidentally, during the recent LSU-Ohio State Game at the Superdome, I remembered watching the Cowboys-Broncos Super Bowl in 1979 or so when the building was pretty new, state of the art and SO huge. Who could have imagined then that it would be the site of perhaps the greatest disaster relief disaster in U.S. history?

Although I am pleased to see the Superdome back in action, I am very worried about New Orleans and what that Katrina still says about our country. My suggestion: everyone should go to JazzFest sometime in life, and why not 2008? It's an important one, there is still a lot of recovery yet to happen in New Orleans. We can all pitch in by going there and partying like a young W. (except with less coke).

Congrats to former Island artist (and close personal friend) Shelby Lynne who received a massive story in the NY Times Magazine. I'll have some further comments after I read the whole thing, but considering Shelvis was #4 most searched on Yahoo yesterday, she retains the ability to take a nerdy rock critic to the stratosphere.

Willie Nelson is about to drop a new album, coinciding with an appearance on the Super Bowl. The Bowl has been good to Willie, and with a new tour and the album getting good reviews, the run-up to his 75th birthday in April should be fun for us fans. He won't have a wardrobe malfunction but if Trigger makes a funny silhouette like Prince did last year, I'll faint. His new video "Gravedigger" was shot at the cemetery near the graves of Herman Melville and the Great Gildersleeve, and hundreds more, some with familiar names like "Ziegler," "Benson" and "Stewart." And it was a Tuesday!

Speaking of birthdays, Mike Watt sent the video below of him wailing on his 50th. Stand back, it's amazing. Like Rakim says, Watt gets stronger as he gets older!

I happened to space mentioning that earbender client Leonard Cohen made the Rock Hall of Fame. Mazel tov to say the least. Speaking of brushes with fame, vibes to WUSB founder Norm Prusslin on the passing of his friend Johnny Podres, who carried him on his shoulders in the Brooklyn Dodgers' World Series victory parade in 1955.

Also around 1955, Ian Fleming sat at his desk in Oracabessa Jamaica and wrote the incredible 007 stories. In honour of the author's 100th birthday, The UK just issued some pretty nice James Bond stamps, especially if you love vintage book cover art.

In addition to thanking everyone for visiting earbender, I was especially pleased to host our first two visitors from the Southern Hemisphere. Please come back sometime or send me a link to your site. As the man himself would say, "if watt can do it, you can do it!"

Rootin' for the Goose

Roger Clemens press conference and Mike Wallace dance are a good contrast for today's announcement of the sole 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, Yankee legend Rich "Goose" Gossage. He was all-natural, had insane high inside heat, an intimidating presence on the field and most of all is a cool guy who loves Willie Nelson and has been going to shows for many years.

Among other tales, Goose told me a great story about eating hot chili peppers brought to him by the grounds crew in the Anaheim Stadium bullpen every time he would play the Angels.

With a 22 year career, Goose has zillions of stories and had a love for the game and his teammates. Goose Gossage signed with the Yankees in the winter of 1977, the second year of free agency in baseball. The Yankees had just been swept by the Reds in the World Series, and it set the tone for the Yankee spending/expectations that continues to this day.

The Goose actually lost the first few games. “Thurman would come to the mound,” Gossage recalled, “and he would say, ‘How are you going to lose this one?’ The first time he asked me that I couldn’t believe he was asking me. But that was Thurman.”

So now we know The Goose is a cool guy but when he got out of that little Toyota Corolla in Yankee Stadium, it was scary. He had heat like a thousand suns, was a little wild, had a big delivery and the scowl enhanced by the mustache.

"He was absolutely the most intimidating pitcher of his time," said former teammate Reggie Jackson. "Because of his motion, the speed that he threw the baseball, he was a mean son (of a gun). There were times that (catcher Thurman) Munson would just wave his hands and tell Goose to bring it." Reggie Jackson faced Rich Gossage many times before they were on the Yankees together, and after too probably.

George Brett told Baseball Digest in 2000 why he became so incensed when the pine tar homer was called an out at first: "Oh, probably the fact that it was against the Yankees and against Goose (Gossage)," Brett said. "It was just such an extraordinary thing to hit a homer off him, the thought of losing it was too much."

• Goose's stats from MLB.com and highlight reel
  
• Kids jumping bikes at Rich "Goose" Gossage Sports Complex in Colorado Springs
• SI reporting Goose's wait for the call
• Champagne toast from Denver Post
  

A big part of being a Hall of Famer is individuality. Tom Verducci said in SI that changing role of the closer means they don't make them like Gossage anymore, even among today's elite, would be hall of famers, Rivera, Hoffman and Eckersley.

Does the Goose go in as a Yankee? He honed his craft and earned his nickname (a good measure of "fame") when he was on the White Sox. Gossage's Chicago and Pittsburgh manager Chuck Tanner told a story to Sports Illustrated about the Twins' Harmon Killebrew:

"He said, 'When you play the White Sox, you'd better get to them by the seventh. If you don't, put your bats in the bag. Goose is coming in, and you might as well go home,''' Tanner related. "That was a Hall of Famer talking.''

And finally Artie Lange, "I was happy to see this." Howard then played the great old tirade and said "Congratulations Goose, you're my kind of guy."

The Goose is the man, and he is in the Hall of Fame forever now. Congratulations Rich "Goose" Gossage!!!!!!