this is blues time: challenging the madness with solidarity, trust and beauty

The last few days have been all about the blues for me - I have a periodic predisposition to melancholia - as well as a negative reaction to some over-the-counter medications. Mix this into the horror show of bad news abounding in my country and if you don't feel the blues, you're not paying attention.

The truly evil acts of this administration - from tear-gassing children on our Southern border with Mexico, giving Saudi Arabia a pass on murdering the journalist Jamal Khashoggi to encouraging the ecological devastation of the planet for short term financial gain - are soul numbing. And the cumulative assault on tenderness and truth-telling regularly break my heart. This regime goes out of its way to degrade public conversation. Their well-tuned fear-mongering machine keeps some of us in a state of distress while their pandering to our bigotry manipulates others into violence or despair. Recently the Ottawa newspaper, The Globe and Mail, ran a scathing editorial indictment entitled, "America is the bad guy now," that summarizes the US reality like this: the"unfortunate truth has become more evident since Donald Trump took the oath of office and steered the country by its worst instincts."

The unvarnished bigotry of (Trump's) campaign and eventually his administration peeled back the thin veneer hiding our ugliest prejudices. We are in very deep, very dark waters. Whether it was the prejudiced Muslim travel ban, the persecution of transgender Americans, the sowing of racial animus, his inspiration of neo-Nazis and murderous assassins or his partnering with homicidal despots, the sad truth is that, no matter how we want to deny it or wish it wasn’t so, this is who we are now. We are a country that enjoys closer relations to Russia, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia than our traditional allies in Europe and NATO. It’s in these vicious pacts with despots that the true nature of the problem crystallizes.(see https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-america-is-the-bad-guy-now/fbclid= IwAR1GGf2WLvU4r3GfeX0HjYAQHZBlOR_v8K8UVm9doFaEEk5_JCOA17Cvfy4)

"This is who we are now: we are a country that enjoys closer relations to Russia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia than our traditional allies in Europe and NATO." Let that sink in...

As the snow comes down in my part of the world, my small band of musical allies and I are preparing to play a show at the Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, CT. In light of our collective reality, I spent some time reviewing our set list for Friday. And much to my relief, I found it to be a blues-reggae-folk groove infused with modest hopes and poetic critiques of this current madness in America. I had been so caught up in practicing and rehearsals, that for a moment I lost sight of the new music we were sharing. It really does reflect what I recently wrote in a press release:

In a stressed-out era, we share songs of hope, challenge, compassion and humor for 21st century adults. Grounded in Americana our roots also include singer-songwriters like Tom Waits, John Hiatt, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead.

Perhaps its the new freedom of retirement. Maybe it has something to do with my stripped down spirituality. Could be the clarity that comes from choices we must make given our modest income. Clearly the influence of L'Arche and Jean Vanier is at play here. The salty wisdom of Mother Earth, too. Whatever else is going on, I see this as blues time - lament mixed with trust, grief and hope in close proximity - a reckoning giving birth to new alliances.

We're not going to change the world on Friday, but we will offer a little shelter in the storm. There will be a bit of encouragement to get up, stand up, too. If you want to reconnect with some beauty in solidarity with others committed to compassion, join us. (For more information: https://www.infinityhall.

com/Events/anthony-bonneville-and-famous-before-were-dead-feat-hal-lefferts-stars-of-open/