Hi dear Neko! Thx for bringing the tour and new songs off the fantastic Neon Grey Midnight Green to Dallas at Longhorn Ballroom a while back. You and band were amazing and it was particularly cool to hear the great and wicked Bracing For Sunday with saxophone like on the record! The whole evening was perfect.
Your recent post here about reaching out to our elected representatives was the nudge I needed to finally do just that. I wrote letters/emails to our 2 US Senators (Cruz and Cornyn) letting them know how I feel about their refusal to stand up to the administration's cruelty and fascism. I talk about it briefly and name you as the inspirational force on my Substack page, Ain't Like I Thought. Thank you for all the beauty and compassion you put out into the world! With love, from Dallas.
I was there that night, too, so it's funny that yours is the first comment I saw! I live in Stillwater, OK right now (has to travel for some Neko 🙂). Good on you!
Neko, I appreciate you immensely. Your newsletters are a huge boost of hope in these times- we're out here and we hear your message of love. It matters so much.
I got to see you play in NYC last fall and it was a highlight of my year. Your music and your writing have given me so much over the years. Because of your book, I finally allowed myself to acquire a guitar and start very small trying to play it! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being you and sharing your gifts with this beautiful, broken world.
Big love from Jersey, where my sweet community is organizing against ICE and making my heart swell with hope and pride and belief in the people.
A great set of remarks that have brightened my overcast morning.
Hope is absolutely something we make and have to practice at!! Lots of points in here to mull over and act upon. Inspiring words that lead to positive actions and outcomes are always welcome, and these certainly count. Thanks for being so good at compiling and sharing these!
Oh you ARE certainly a pin on the map, Neko. Your sharing of heart and soul I sure take as a manner of insightful poke and prod... Happy to say after almost six years of homelessness, I've again a roof over my noggin'! Safe parking program here in San Diego and a local homeless advocacy org. worked together to get me into a brand new seniors only studio apartment complex.
Already writing fresh song lyrics and poetry. Here's my very first piece of work.
A lovely and inspiring message, just this morning I was reminding my students that there will come a day when you-know-who and his minions/puppetmasters will no longer be in charge (and with any luck be behind bars), and it will be their turn to seize the reins. It felt good to say it, even if it can be hard to imagine in the moment.
The only down side to this post ... I now have an insatiable craving for Moons Over My Hammy. Mmmm ...
Sadly, never got to go to Dennys with Garth, but he did invite me up for a can of soup after he played the Halifax Pop Explosion, and he loved that my dad used to see Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks at the Coq d'Or in Toronto when he was there studying to become an air traffic controller. Long live The Professor.
You really hit on something I've been feeling myself and have been trying to bring across in my own creative work: Fuck state lines! Fuck otherness! I earnestly believe that this "moment" is about us all waking up from our collective history of categorizing everything, including ourselves, which keeps us divided and locked in an "us vs. them" mindset. Instead, we are now learning how to see ourselves as one great whole--not only a single nation regardless of state, regional, and ideological boundaries, but as a global humanity and even as one living organism in harmony with all other life on Earth and with Earth herself. I think we are getting there, and I feel privileged to be alive and making art at such a critical point in our species' evolution. <3
Also I have already said this a few times but I'm gonna keep saying it... your show in Vancouver last November was one of the all-time greatest live shows I've ever seen. It was amazing to watch how you use distance from the microphone to produce ethereal effects with your voice. I'm sure you need a long break, but I can't wait until you're touring again so I can see you again!
Fuck yes! Go see the show, go interact with the world, talk to people you don't know, community is everything...and mostly importantly hold on to all the joy and positivity you can find. It fills you up, you need it. We all need it, now more than ever.
Thanks for reminding us of the power of hope. Sad to say it's been in short supply around here. BTW did you see The Boss played with Tom Morello at a mutual aid benefit at First Ave?!? Finally, he can get his own star on the building (but not until you get yours).
I hope ManFriend Jeff's family and friends are all staying safe. These are ridiculous and frightening times in an otherwise beautiful city.
We (GF/partner and I) saw you at the Wilbur in Beantown. Her ticket stub became the bookmark in your memoir, her Christmas gift to me. Take it from us; you are hardly powerless - you and you and your crew reached wonderful places of intensity and success that night!! And Des Demonas were fabulous!! Revel in all. Cheers…
I wish I could’ve seen you on this tour. Savannah would always like to see you again! But just like in 2004, after Bush Junior won again, you gave me great strength. You came out wearing your “ this too shall pass” T-shirt, and I knew it would. And even now, all the garbage is going to disappear. It’s painful, but we’re all in it together and we will see the other side.
You/yours, the fab six were great in Orlando and deserve the utmost respect and consideration for maintaining such a tight entertaining show. A little sad for not being able to say Hi, but that's understandable given that this is the land of the winter flock, and they bring all notions of communicable disorder along their migratory path. Some how we must stop being victims of these subjective cabal's. Our moral perspective and sight is below and trailing behind the objectives of the elite empire builders. I feel as much angst about those gaslighting the vulnerable into unspeakable acts, as I do those who would throw us away to preserve profit. No they are not going to use rubber bullets.
Having grown up on the upper edge of the south their existed many families split by the civil war. One story I found was of a native Cherokee boy who wanted to be a drummer boy for the north (turned out he was taken in by a branch of my family, not a blood relative). He lived along the Ky/Tn border where the elites were in full terrorist mode on the common people. They managed to hijack the vote for succession in Tennessee where eighty percent opposed it. Lincoln preserved Kentucky. He managed to elude and serve anyway. The question of why people common white people would fight for the confederacy has been long considered. Well we project our fabulous modern communication system on the past. They were simply told the south was being invaded, and they would become slaves next. I wonder if those so worried about illegal migration ending aren't some what scared of being demoted and are just afraid. The British had already transitioned away, seeing the end of it's economic value, but this country suffered from the requirement of consensus, which slows decision making down. We still do, but it's better than elite's deciding for us. Well they do maintain a great deal of control, as it pertains the economy. At least a voice is maintained for the people. A Russian pointed out to me that when you no longer are of benefit to the system. Then you are disposed of. Socialists have killed twelve time more than any Nazi ever did. It's all so complex. A Jamaican person recently pointed out to me that the English did not bring slaves to Jamaica. Americans are not responsible for reparations to them. There is an eminence amount of subterfuge regarding responsibility of these depredations. When and how are we going to learn and detect them before the chattel is upon us. The south won't rise again, because they want the whole country. At least we can come and see an excellent show now and then, and forget the worries of the world.
love this. thanks for writing and singing and going and doing the creative thing you cannot help but do! The show in Albuquerque was transporting and heckin' wonderful!
I have loved every word you’ve ever said, but this was brilliant and important and so moving. Thank you, Neko, and thank you for our wonderful show in Richmond.
Hi dear Neko! Thx for bringing the tour and new songs off the fantastic Neon Grey Midnight Green to Dallas at Longhorn Ballroom a while back. You and band were amazing and it was particularly cool to hear the great and wicked Bracing For Sunday with saxophone like on the record! The whole evening was perfect.
Your recent post here about reaching out to our elected representatives was the nudge I needed to finally do just that. I wrote letters/emails to our 2 US Senators (Cruz and Cornyn) letting them know how I feel about their refusal to stand up to the administration's cruelty and fascism. I talk about it briefly and name you as the inspirational force on my Substack page, Ain't Like I Thought. Thank you for all the beauty and compassion you put out into the world! With love, from Dallas.
I was there that night, too, so it's funny that yours is the first comment I saw! I live in Stillwater, OK right now (has to travel for some Neko 🙂). Good on you!
You walk us home, darling. Every time you open your mouth. Trust and believe, it helps.
Neko, I appreciate you immensely. Your newsletters are a huge boost of hope in these times- we're out here and we hear your message of love. It matters so much.
I got to see you play in NYC last fall and it was a highlight of my year. Your music and your writing have given me so much over the years. Because of your book, I finally allowed myself to acquire a guitar and start very small trying to play it! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being you and sharing your gifts with this beautiful, broken world.
Big love from Jersey, where my sweet community is organizing against ICE and making my heart swell with hope and pride and belief in the people.
A great set of remarks that have brightened my overcast morning.
Hope is absolutely something we make and have to practice at!! Lots of points in here to mull over and act upon. Inspiring words that lead to positive actions and outcomes are always welcome, and these certainly count. Thanks for being so good at compiling and sharing these!
Good morning Neko. I just wrote a reply which I lost when my old fingers jabbing the screen closed it down. Is it still here? I don't know.
Suffice to say, thanks for everything.
Jenny and I are off to the UK, France, Spain and Greece.
Our retirement reward.
I hope and try to generate hope that your country will rid itself of the narcissistic manchildren.
The tour sounds great, we are seeing Gillian Welch next week in Adelaide.
VA bene
Oh you ARE certainly a pin on the map, Neko. Your sharing of heart and soul I sure take as a manner of insightful poke and prod... Happy to say after almost six years of homelessness, I've again a roof over my noggin'! Safe parking program here in San Diego and a local homeless advocacy org. worked together to get me into a brand new seniors only studio apartment complex.
Already writing fresh song lyrics and poetry. Here's my very first piece of work.
"BAD DOG...!"
For Kristi Noem
Each day is Halloween
Babbling at the podium
In some new costume to be seen
Lackadaisically labelling citizens
Domestic terrorists or worse
For Kristi Noem
The truth does not come first
She makes me want to scream
To tell her what is real
They weren't puppies, Kristi Noem
They were two decent people
EUGENE! I'm SO pleased to hear that you have a home again! What wonderful news!
A lovely and inspiring message, just this morning I was reminding my students that there will come a day when you-know-who and his minions/puppetmasters will no longer be in charge (and with any luck be behind bars), and it will be their turn to seize the reins. It felt good to say it, even if it can be hard to imagine in the moment.
The only down side to this post ... I now have an insatiable craving for Moons Over My Hammy. Mmmm ...
Ah! Not a downside! I put that semi-reference in as tribute to Garth Hudson. He ordered that EVERY time we went to Dennys. ☺️
Sadly, never got to go to Dennys with Garth, but he did invite me up for a can of soup after he played the Halifax Pop Explosion, and he loved that my dad used to see Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks at the Coq d'Or in Toronto when he was there studying to become an air traffic controller. Long live The Professor.
That classic Denny’s order was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. Well played, Neko!😸
My love of food puns is my eternal curse. And the Betty Grable movie its name comes from ain't bad neither.
You really hit on something I've been feeling myself and have been trying to bring across in my own creative work: Fuck state lines! Fuck otherness! I earnestly believe that this "moment" is about us all waking up from our collective history of categorizing everything, including ourselves, which keeps us divided and locked in an "us vs. them" mindset. Instead, we are now learning how to see ourselves as one great whole--not only a single nation regardless of state, regional, and ideological boundaries, but as a global humanity and even as one living organism in harmony with all other life on Earth and with Earth herself. I think we are getting there, and I feel privileged to be alive and making art at such a critical point in our species' evolution. <3
Also I have already said this a few times but I'm gonna keep saying it... your show in Vancouver last November was one of the all-time greatest live shows I've ever seen. It was amazing to watch how you use distance from the microphone to produce ethereal effects with your voice. I'm sure you need a long break, but I can't wait until you're touring again so I can see you again!
Fuck yes! Go see the show, go interact with the world, talk to people you don't know, community is everything...and mostly importantly hold on to all the joy and positivity you can find. It fills you up, you need it. We all need it, now more than ever.
Thanks for reminding us of the power of hope. Sad to say it's been in short supply around here. BTW did you see The Boss played with Tom Morello at a mutual aid benefit at First Ave?!? Finally, he can get his own star on the building (but not until you get yours).
I hope ManFriend Jeff's family and friends are all staying safe. These are ridiculous and frightening times in an otherwise beautiful city.
We (GF/partner and I) saw you at the Wilbur in Beantown. Her ticket stub became the bookmark in your memoir, her Christmas gift to me. Take it from us; you are hardly powerless - you and you and your crew reached wonderful places of intensity and success that night!! And Des Demonas were fabulous!! Revel in all. Cheers…
I wish I could’ve seen you on this tour. Savannah would always like to see you again! But just like in 2004, after Bush Junior won again, you gave me great strength. You came out wearing your “ this too shall pass” T-shirt, and I knew it would. And even now, all the garbage is going to disappear. It’s painful, but we’re all in it together and we will see the other side.
You/yours, the fab six were great in Orlando and deserve the utmost respect and consideration for maintaining such a tight entertaining show. A little sad for not being able to say Hi, but that's understandable given that this is the land of the winter flock, and they bring all notions of communicable disorder along their migratory path. Some how we must stop being victims of these subjective cabal's. Our moral perspective and sight is below and trailing behind the objectives of the elite empire builders. I feel as much angst about those gaslighting the vulnerable into unspeakable acts, as I do those who would throw us away to preserve profit. No they are not going to use rubber bullets.
Having grown up on the upper edge of the south their existed many families split by the civil war. One story I found was of a native Cherokee boy who wanted to be a drummer boy for the north (turned out he was taken in by a branch of my family, not a blood relative). He lived along the Ky/Tn border where the elites were in full terrorist mode on the common people. They managed to hijack the vote for succession in Tennessee where eighty percent opposed it. Lincoln preserved Kentucky. He managed to elude and serve anyway. The question of why people common white people would fight for the confederacy has been long considered. Well we project our fabulous modern communication system on the past. They were simply told the south was being invaded, and they would become slaves next. I wonder if those so worried about illegal migration ending aren't some what scared of being demoted and are just afraid. The British had already transitioned away, seeing the end of it's economic value, but this country suffered from the requirement of consensus, which slows decision making down. We still do, but it's better than elite's deciding for us. Well they do maintain a great deal of control, as it pertains the economy. At least a voice is maintained for the people. A Russian pointed out to me that when you no longer are of benefit to the system. Then you are disposed of. Socialists have killed twelve time more than any Nazi ever did. It's all so complex. A Jamaican person recently pointed out to me that the English did not bring slaves to Jamaica. Americans are not responsible for reparations to them. There is an eminence amount of subterfuge regarding responsibility of these depredations. When and how are we going to learn and detect them before the chattel is upon us. The south won't rise again, because they want the whole country. At least we can come and see an excellent show now and then, and forget the worries of the world.
We loved your performance in Charleston, SC. Looking forward to the next opportunity to enjoy a show!
love this. thanks for writing and singing and going and doing the creative thing you cannot help but do! The show in Albuquerque was transporting and heckin' wonderful!
I have loved every word you’ve ever said, but this was brilliant and important and so moving. Thank you, Neko, and thank you for our wonderful show in Richmond.