Lana Phillips auditioned for American Idol and won Houston Texas and the golden ticket to Hollywood out of the 70,000 others who tried out. She decided to be an artist instead of a star so she teamed up with producers Bob Johnston, and his two sons Andrew Monroe, and Robert Johnston. Together they recorded the two singles for the “Safe and Sound” Campaign and her new album “Love Lana” that will be released this spring.
Singer-songwriter Natalie Pinkis began playing classical piano at the age of five. When she was 12, she formed a band with her sister and played over 300 shows – gaining both experience and local exposure. By the age of 16, she had written over 50 songs, influenced by musicians ranging from Joni Mitchell to Simon and Garfunkel to the Doors. Her body of work ranges from love songs to lullabies, social commentary to anti-war anthems. Painting music with such a wide brush was right up Bob Johnston’s alley. All it took was to hear her once. “She draws you in like the sirens drew Ulysses. She is really quite remarkable”. Not bad coming from the producer of artists like Pattie Page and Aretha Franklin. Remarkable indeed. Natalie is currently recording her new album at Sky Walker studios with Bob Johnston scheduled for release this spring.
Portland, Oregon songwriter Kasey Anderson has released two albums, Dead Roses and The Reckoning, to wide critical acclaim. Hailed by Paste Magazine as "a literate, workingman's poet," Anderson will spend the bulk of 2009 on the road, both in the United States and abroad, as he prepares for the release of three new albums. The first, Way Out West, a home-recorded album of covers by a diverse collection of artists from Bob Dylan to Arcade fire, was made available for free download May 12 exclusively from www.red-river-records.com. The digital-only release will be avaiable from all major digital retailers June 23.
Fall will find Anderson releasing Nowhere Nights, a collection of original songs produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, who produced Anderson's two previous albums. That release will be followed shortly by a second collection of original material, The Lucky One, which Anderson co-produced with Paul Turpin.
Kasey Anderson is currently on tour in Europe and the UK behind The Reckoning, which received international distribution from noted European label Blue Rose Records, but Anderson will be returning to the states this fall to tour behind Nowhere Nights.
"[The Reckoning] delivers on the promise of 2004's Eric Ambel-produced Dead Roses -- and then some. A versatile and confident songwriter and singer, Anderson nails these hard-luck tales with grit and gumption." - No Depression
"[Anderson is] a literate working man’s poet... and songs like “Don’t Look Back” and “For St. Ann’s” are surrealistic, visionary ballads..." - Paste
"[Anderson's] gravelly voice and insightful songwriting lift his down-and-out characters out of the ordinary and into the realm of legend." - The Stranger
"[Anderson] is distilling down his ideas, refining his craft and making exceptional, emotionally taut music." - Miles of Music
"[The Reckoning] is a rough, visceral collection of songs that rip through a personal landscape of love and loss." - The Chicago Sun-Times
"I Was a Photograph (Blake's Song)" is written from the perspective of Iraq War veteran Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, who gained recognition as the "Marlboro Marine" when a photograph depicting Miller's dirty, weary face, cigarette dangling from his mouth, was published on the front page of more than 150 American newspapers in 2004. The photograph, taken by Luis Sinco of the Los Angeles times, was interpreted by some as an expression of the stoicism of American soldiers fighting in Iraq, while others saw Miller's face as an all-too-real picture of the physical and emotional toll war takes on a person.
The photograph is one of the most expressive and enduring images of the Iraq War, but Miller's story is as much about the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as it is about military service.
I started writing the song after reading a piece on Miller in the April 3, 2008 issue of Rolling Stone. The article chronicled Miller's struggle with PTSD following his 2005 medical discharge (Miller was diagnosed with a "personality disorder"). In transit from the Gulf of Mexico, where Miller had been deployed to assist with recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrian, Miller was on a ship when a fellow sailor whistled in a way that reminded Miller of a rocket-propelled grenade. Lance Cpl. Miller attached the sailor and was thrown into the ship's brig. Miller's discharge came November 10, 2005, one year after Sinco's photograph made the "Marlboro Marine" a national icon.
As Miller continues to struggle with re-entry into civilization - he suffers from nightmares and blackouts, is separated from his wife, and lives in a trailer behind his father's house - he has become yet another cautionary tale that the casualties of war can not be measured by a body count; the toll taken on these men and women resides much deeper than the expressions on their faces.
I wrote "I Was a Photograph (Blake's Song)" because I believe the battle Miller is fighting now within himself is every bit as important as the battles he fought in Fallujah as part of Charlie Company, but it's not a battle getting coverage on the nightly news, nor is it being addressed by the American government or press corp. Whatever you see when you look at James Blake Miller's face in that photograph, you are seeing, for better or worse, the face of war.
Paul Hampton / Jeffery Locke
The video "So Long for Now" by Jeffery Locke features the song by Paul Hampton "I Stand for Everyone"
