Here is a video, filmed surreptitiously at the House of Blues Voodoo Lounge (3/31/11).
Lisa C. Pollock joins me on “Hard to Believe” (from Villain).
Lisa is my Hollywood go-to lady for duets in L.A. She is the daughter of a great fellow Oregonian from KLRR in Bend–Dori Donoho, champion of independent Northwest Music.
At the turn of the decade, New Year 2010, I vowed to make myself available to all those Pit Bull Rescue events I get invited to. An unlikely advocate ever since the circulation of my song/video, “Pit Bull Blues,” I’m finally making good on the resolution. Next weekend, I’ll be in St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida. A fundraiser for a rescue called Buster’s & Foster’s Haven is being held at Green Iguana on October 9th, thanks to Krisztina Kallai.
I hope this is the first of many. All I ask for is a plane ticket and a decent bed or couch to sleep on. Most of these rescue shelters work on shoestring budgets, so my travel expense is quite a pinch. But if we can scrape it together with the help of friends and donors, I can see myself traveling all over the place. (I’ve been invited to events in Denmark, England, and Germany.) It’s not like I’m a big celebrity. Nor am I an expert on Pit Bulls. But like the idea of showing up to sing a few songs—including two about Pit Bulls—and talking a little bit about the good things that are happening with shelters out here on the west coast.
For new fans wondering I’m writing about canine stuff on my music biz blog, click the below video, produced by Jeff Fleiss. (It had become a rallying anthem back around the time of the sad Michael Vick episode.)
The start of 2009 found me in North San Diego County. In the middle of my Yellow House run, it seemed a mistake to up-and-leave headquarters just to get out of Northwest rain. Sure, we lived on the beach, and the sunny weather was awesome, but they don’t have much of an original singer/songwriter scene in that surfer strip between L. A. & S. D.
What they do have, however, is a great Irish scene. Irish bands and Irish pubs. (Gentlemen from Flogging Molly reside there.) I was lucky to fall in with these folks. Ned Giblin, of Brehon Law, invited me to play Wednesdays at his pubs, J.J. Landers and R. O’Sullivan’s. So, I had regular gigs and a close look at a timeless style of music. (The influence of Ned and his cohort David Lally is bound to show on my next album.)
In Oceanside, I befriended Doug Whorly and several of his showcases at McCabe’s, where I met the lovely and talented road warrioress Jacqui Foreman. She honored me by covering my “Faith in the Man.”
It was at a Whorly showcase where my wife, Amy Wray, filmed the video of me covering The Pretender’s “Brass in Pocket.”
I didn’t bother working the L.A. scene. Too big, and like different country. But at the urging of my publicist Leona, I played a couple times at The Gypsy Den in Orange County. (Once with Trevor Davis.)
We lived down the beach from football star Junior Seau, who has a beautiful blue Pit Bull named Rocky. I mention the dog, because it was about this time that my connection to the international Pit Bull community really deepened. I was getting daily e-mails from dog lovers about my song “Pit Bull Blues,” which I gave out freely to anyone engaged in canine care and rescue. Soon, videographer Jeff Fleiss contacted me with the idea of making a video. By spring, he had hauled me up to L.A., filming me in front of the Coliseum amidst 25 Pit Bulls and their trainer, Dogman. He put it together with some excellent footage taken by Amy, and boom… there was a sweet video… still getting legs on the web.
News from Shipe, Treasures & Found Objects | shipe | 
April 18, 2011 11:01 am | 
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