Uncle Francis is Gunfighting at Dawn

I took a drive today with Uncle Francis. He's a longtime Oakland resident and a retired therapist. Back in the day, he was hired by various bay area schools to work with at risk kids. One of his mentors worked with drug addicts back in the '60's and conducted the therapy sessions sitting on a park bench--the drug addicts natural habitat. That put them at ease and communication started to happen. In his wisdom, Francis decided to put a killer stereo system in his car so that he and the hard to reach at risk kids could cruise around and listen to Tupac and Biggie Small. Somehow this worked. Released from school for an hour, ride around in a rad Lexus with a killer LOUD ASS stereo and go to McDonalds. Sounds like fun to me (except the McDonalds part). The kids started to communicate with him and the parents and teachers began to see a positive change in their kids.

Francis is a hardcore music fan. We bonded over music about a million years ago when we first met. So today we drove roundtrip from Oakland to San Rafael with the sole purpose of listening to Felsen's new album, I Don't Know How To Talk Anymore. It was a real treat to listen to the album on such a great stereo. I LOVE BASS and that stereo has got some serious low end! For a 72 year old guy, Francis likes to listen to music at a very high volume (bless him). God so do I and I think he likes to listen to music louder than me. And he really listens. I'm so totally narcissistic about Felsen's music, that if you ever suffer the unfortunate great displeasure of having to listen to any of that stuff with me, I will need your UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. Turn that cell phone off. Clear your schedule. Your world now revolves around ME, at least for the next unsuspecting 40 minutes of your life. Francis obliged me with great attention and focus. Verdict: good album to listen to in the car. I wouldn't argue with that.

I haven't listened all the way through in a while. I've had a few months away from it. We play the songs on stage and we rehearse, but that's different. The album is it's own animal. It was nice to come back to it with fresh ears. And it made me reflect on making the album and writing those songs and some of the personal price you gotta pay to make art. I'm not talking about the major hassle it is to get something completed, funded, etc...or the personal havoc it may wreck upon you and your family or personal life being so obsessed with something that vehemently consumes your time, mental energy and money. No I'm not thinking about that, but rather the life you gotta pour into it to make it real. Kinda hard to describe. You gotta earn that stuff and it doesn't come cheaply. You have to go live a little bit, experience some of life's joy and sadness, love and loss, life and death and while you're at it, go smell a new born baby's head; this all somehow mysteriously morphs into songs. And it's still no less mysterious a process to me all these years later. Maybe it's a mystery now more than ever. The more you know, the less you know.

Uncle Francis really liked Gunfighting at Dawn. He said it kinda reminded him of Leonard Cohen. I'll take that. I'm real proud of that tune. It's about Katrina and the great flood and all those people stranded on the bridge (shame on us). It must have felt like judgement day for them. Police officers from nearby Gretna, LA blockaded the bridge, preventing thousands from fleeing NOLA. "Meanwhile I'm stranded on this bridge now three days. Across the overpass a well-armed militia's waiting for me." "If you got a weapon to use dear Jesus, use it on your enemies." (That's right. You read that one correctly.)  Although their crimes against the gulf didn't come for another few years after Katrina, I name check British Petroleum too, just for good measure. Uncle Francis really liked all Dylan's guitar playing on this one. I think Dylan was mad when he was playing the guitar that day. At least it sounds that way to me.  Gunfighting is an easy one for me to get worked up over.  It feels real good to sing on stage and get a whole room of people singing along.

Need to work it out?  Feeling a need for some group catharsis and drinking a few beers on a Friday night?  Please join us Friday January 3, 2014 at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. Francis, you in?  This is how Felsen conducts OUR therapy sessions thankyouverymuch.