llegada

How does the process take shape? As I patiently went about the business of repairing my soul, a vast chorus of voices provided the framework for my writing. I found myself in conversation with:

• The Great Latin American Voices: Violeta Parra, Silvio Rodríguez, Mercedes Sosa, Alberto Cortez, Ruben Blades, and Caetano Veloso.

• The Folk & Humanist Leaders: Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Victor Jara.

• The Icons of Soul & Jazz: Nina Simone, Bill Withers, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.

• The Modern Troubadours: Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Jorge Drexler, and Stromae.

• (Alberto Cortez, Harry Belafonte, Antonio Cabán Vale, Gloria Martin, Toña la Negra, Chabuca Granda, Leon Gieco, Alí Primera, Billy Holiday, Sonia Silvestre, Daniel Santos, Chico Buarque, La Lupe, Lilia Vera, Cheo Feliciano, The Weavers, Expresión Joven, Inti Illimani, Guadalupe Trigo, Ismael Rivera, Soledad Bravo, Luis Gabriel, Lyle Lovett, Grupo Convite, Jorge Drexler, Nanci Griffith, Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez, Dion, Chavela Vargas, Danny Rivera, Ronnie Gilbert, Héctor Lavoe, Pablo Milanés, Fefita la Grande, Phil Ochs, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Eugenia León, Gilberto Monroig, Odetta, León Gieco, Sabiá, Bill Withers, Piero, Nanci Griffith, Joan Manuel Serrat, La Familia André, Sylvia Rexach, Haciendo Punto en Otro Son, Adrian Goizueta, Paul Robeson, Leonard Cohen, Tom Paxton, Holly Near, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, Gilberto Gil, Elizabeth Cotten, Carlos Mejía Godoy, Joaquin Sabina, Tania Libertad, Daniel Viglietti, Los Guaraguao, Patti Griffin, Roy Brown, Moliendo Vidrio, Victor Heredia, Lucesita Benítez, Aires Bucaneros, Michael Feinstein, Sara González, Amaury Pérez, Noel Nicola, Carlos Puebla, Lead Belly, Jackson Browne, Santiago Feliú, Gaby Moreno, Eladio Romero Santos, Donato Poveda, Bessie Smith, Carlos Varela, Luis Días, and countless others)

If a song by Violeta Parra wandered into my head, I let it guide my musical choices. While my song "Albert Einstein" eventually abandoned her specific chordal structure, it desperately attempted to capture her emotional eloquence. This was my way of finding meaning through the Beckettian cycle of failing and trying again. These songs lived in a "box of dreams" for years, but eventually, the thoughts became too loud to keep quiet.