Blue Rebekah video gets posthumous shout out

This morning, it came to my attention that a folk DJ from El Paso (Dan Alloway, of KTEP Folk Fury) posted the “West of Eden” video from John Shipe & The Blue Rebekahs (circa 2005).

This does my heart good. I was in awe of that lineup’s imaginative proportions, and proud of that album’s creativity–knowing it had little commercial value.

It’s surprising that Dan chose this video. But I’m glad he did. While I’m an Americana artist, pushing an Americana CD, I have an alter-ego who grew up on the British Artrock of King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, and Moody Blues. “West of Eden” is a dark, epic art-rocker about taking the difficult path in life. We placed it last on the album, destined to wallow in indie obscurity for an eternity.

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New Pit Puppy

We got a new baby pit bull around here at West of Eden. His name is Otis. He loves the sound of the piano, settling himself down to help me work on new tunes for the new Shipe album (currently in pre-production with Ehren Ebbage).

We picked him up from Luv-a-Bull, a shelter & sanctuary here in Eugene, OR. Liesl Wilhardt, the hero who runs the place–compassionately and expertly–takes in orphaned Pit Bulls from all around North America. Likewise, people from all around the continent adopt from Luv-a-Bull.