Blog

Esaze on Kickstarter My friend Chinobay and I have formed a band, Esaze, and we are having so much fun writing and playing together. More importantly, the music we are making seems to be landing powerfully in people’s hearts. In a time of so much division and rancor, it feels particularly good to be celebrating […]

Last year, I had the extraordinary good fortune to strike up a friendship with one of my favorite authors, Parker J. Palmer (Let Your Life Speak, The Courage To Teach, Healing the Heart of Democracy, etc.). The photo above is from a visit in his and Sharon’s home in Madison, Wisconsin last August. I’m so […]

As I write this note, I’m sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Antigua, Guatemala. A woman is mopping the floor, trucks are rumbling by outside, and church bells ring in the distance. Even with all of that sound, there is a certain kind of quiet. I’m on the last day of a trip […]

I’m excited to officially announce a new musical collaboration with my dear friend Chinobay. Esaze (pronounced ‘ay-SAHZ-ay’) means “crossing” in Chinobay’s native language of Luganda. We will sometimes play as a duo (coming up on August 7, 2026 at the White Horse Black Mountain, for instance), and sometimes as a larger band (as we did […]

In August and September, I made a trip to Uganda at the invitation of a close friend. Chinobay is a world-class Ugandan musician who tours internationally, playing traditional instruments that he makes by hand (akogo, ndongo, kora, and many others). He is also the bearer of a huge heart, doing great work to support orphans […]

In this dense and fast-moving season, for me and for the world, I am far behind on catching folks up with the news in my own life. It has been an extraordinary summer and fall — and year, for that matter. In the midst of so much going on, though, there have been some moments […]

Hi friends (and Friends?), Recently, I was invited to be a guest on two different Quaker podcasts with folks I admire. Jon Watts and Zack Jackson have been doing great work in recent years creating digital space for conversations about Quakerism, and sharing stories that matter. Carrie Newcomer and Parker Palmer, among my favorite songwriters […]

On October 16, I’ve been invited by Gannon University to speak at the historic Warner Theater in Erie, Pennsylvania. Gannon has chosen my book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, as their Gannon READS selection for the 2025-2026 school year. They are giving each incoming student a copy of the […]

I realized last week that during this past summer, I was in five countries on three continents in ten weeks. I’m not counting any layovers (that would make it seven countries), though I am counting the U.S., which sometimes feels like a foreign land these days, I confess. Trips to Canada, Scotland, Guatemala, and Uganda […]

In 2008, Deanna and I went to Guatemala on our honeymoon, with no idea that we would found a non-profit organization that would work there for decades. I’ve just returned from a ten-day trip there (maybe my 36th?), and it was truly inspiring to see the difference this work is making in folks’ lives. Every […]

(big thanks to Rotary’s pro video crew and Rotarian Shawn Hamm) A few months ago, I was invited to speak at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This was an extraordinary invitation, and I was beyond thrilled. I am grateful for the chance to hold the good work Rotary is doing in the […]

I’m writing from somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean on my way back from an amazing trip to Scotland, organized by Raven Sinclaire of Traceless Tours. We traveled to three towns/cities, had some grand adventures, relaxed, enjoyed, and laughed a lot. We visited castles, saw an extraordinary sheep dog demonstration, heard six different concerts and some […]

A little over a month ago, I was sitting next to my amazing mother when she drew her last breath. Dad was asleep nearby. My sisters had both spent the whole day looking out for her, and had each left to get some sleep. They have both shouldered so much of the caretaking over the […]

I’m deeply honored to be a featured keynote speaker for the Opening Plenary of the 2025 Rotary International Conference in Calgary, Ontario, Canada this June. Since my second TEDx Talk came out this past summer, amazing invitations keep coming. This is, by far, the biggest one yet. Rotary International has a membership of about 1.2 […]

Last week marked the six month anniversary of Hurricane Helene. Over a hundred people were lost to the storm, and so many structures, livelihoods, and personal possessions that held particular value for folks. My immediate family was very fortunate, though so many people we love were hit hard. One thing of mine washed away, though, […]

2024 was quite a year. Here in Western NC, it will always be the year of Hurricane Helene, but there was so much more, and so much of it was wonderful. It does my heart good to remember. Like the very last thing that happened, for instance. I spent the last weekend of 2024 in […]

Thanks for being interested in my Patreon community. It’s now been over five years since I decided to experiment with it, and I can’t tell you how important it has become to me, in terms of my art, in terms of community, and in terms of keeping me going professionally. I was looking for a […]

I will not soon forget this past weekend. Deanna, Mason and I road-tripped to NYC to see Our Town, the classic Thornton Wilder play, in a contemporary interpretation on Broadway. A song that I co-wrote and sang with my brothers from Abraham Jam, Billy Jonas and Dawud Wharnsby, is used at the opening of the […]

I’m thrilled to announce that registration is now live for our 2025 Roots & Branches retreat, Oct. 2-5 in Montreat, North Carolina. Please check out the details below. I look forward to spending some time together!

It has been quite a year for me, with the release of the new TEDx talk and a beautiful calendar of events. I’m deeply grateful, and somewhat baffled, to find that my career seems to be on an upward trajectory here in the second half of my fifties. But Broadway? That wasn’t even on my […]

Dear friends, It has been an extraordinary couple of weeks in Western North Carolina. The destruction has been incomprehensible, and the community solidarity and compassion overwhelming. My family and house are fine, and so many friends are not. Power came back yesterday, and I put together this music video to my song, Here for You, […]

We are in countdown mode for the release of my TEDx talk, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like it or Not, and excitement is building. We have a great team working on putting this together, we have launched a whole new website, and we are planning and rehearsing for the online Launch Event on Tuesday night, July 30, […]

I’ve been a fan of Christine Lavin’s since I first discovered her music in the early nineties. She’s insightful, sings and plays beautifully, and she is incredibly, side-splittingly funny (often ending her concerts with a baton-twirling routine).  A great entertainer, and, as I’ve discovered more recently, a wonderful human. I kind of guessed that last […]

I got the word yesterday that my song September Me is a finalist for the 2023 USA Songwriting Competition in the Folk Category. The winners will be announced on Nov. 22, and there are some great songwriters on the list. I’m honored to have made it this far. Below is the Folk finalist list, if […]

Such a delight to have a good long conversation with my friend Alonzo Johnson about changing the world, on the occasion of my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, being published on Chalice Press.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.