Blind Willies Links Alexei Wajchman Misha Khalikulov Adam Coopersmith Max Miller-Loran Daniel Riera

Everybody’s Looking for a Meal
©2008 Alexei Wajchman

I got bones under my skin
Starving to death on Avenue D
Now a beggar, once a king
I shed all my faith and fancy rings
They pricked me with a razor
And shaved my head
I wasn’t made for pigeon work
Don’t want to trade in these teeth
For a shot in the heart
I’ve got a healthy taste for meat
I’ll kill every fish that’s in the sea
And drag a net loose through the dark
To catch a preacher swollen with pride
Who hides his shadow in the robes of Christ
No, the world isn’t quite so round
The hill you think you’re on
Is just a stump in the ground
You’re just another animal on the prowl

Everybody’s looking for a meal
Every tied up dog
Every woman in heels
Some of them kneel at the altar to pray
Some of them use each other as bait
Most of them are looking for something to steal

I know not how the hammer falls
Nor of the hand that moves the plow
But the price to pay will be in sand
It won’t satisfy the hungry man
It’ll be like a hurricane that hunts you down
Through the cracks in your window
And under your door
It gets down into your belly
Like the termites in the floor
And all you ever see is meat
At the butcher shop and on your TV screen
You wonder what it’s like feeding at the top

Can’t you see yourself feeding at the top?
Telling everybody that they better get lost

I’d rather be a beggar than a Cowboy King
Who smiles on his saddle while spitting on the dead
I lost my position ‘cause I showed my teeth
The lies were getting heavy
I just had to get clean
Of the honest politicians and their crooked dreams
I’ve got one tooth left and a cardboard crown
I wear upon my head like a royal clown
The people that pass they clench their hands
Don’t want to look into the eyes of such a pitiful man
Don’t want to recognize themselves in such a hungry man

Everybody’s looking for a meal
Every tied up dog
Every woman in heels
Some of them kneel at the altar to pray
Some of them use each other as bait
Most of them are looking for something to steal

So if you’re looking for a meal
Don’t leave it to Fate
You’ve got to be sharp as a dagger
And ready for the price to pay

A Sort of Song

Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.
---through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.

-William Carlos Williams

Woody Guthrie letter to Alan Lomax, 9/19/40

Huddie Ledbetter 1942

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

1/13/07 Blind Willies debut Mom Says No, Saturday morning with Enzo Garcia on saw

3/29/08 @ WFDU, Carnival of Song

The Jonah Kit's ornery contribution to the American Songbag

6/2/10 Isaac Pingree @ Tiny Telephone. We have 3 songs(Shark Out of Water, Everybody's Looking for a Meal,
The Unkindness of Ravens) on the soundtrack of Isaac's new release, D ay of Vengeance(aka Blood Loss).
Order the very hip new Vengeance T-shirt here.

Saul Studio concert 5/24/08 photo by Lisa Miyako

Armed with a punk rock sneer worthy
of Jello Biafra and a love of traditional
roots music ranging from Fred Neil to
Townes Van Zandt, The Jonah Kit's
Jonah Watchman is one of the most
fascinating frontmen to emerge in
some time. His San Francisco-based
trio comes with classic country
instrumentation, while Watchman
presides likeably over the
arrangements with an almost irascible
charisma. He's a strange dude for
sure, and his delivery casts him as a
lanky prairie iconoclast, traversing the
American Heartland with a Mohawk
tucked under his cowboy hat. Vibrating
away through such numbers as the
prickly "Rebound Shit" or the doleful
"Mercy Kit," Watchman brings to each
composition a real originality that's
complemented by his band's studious
rootsty accompaniment. He can play it
pretty straight ("Uncle Cadillac,"
"Another") or go wild before a campfire
("I've Got Something In My Eye," "Even
My Dog Done Made A Fool Outta Me"),
but either way, Watchman is never dull
company
—Alex Green
Caught in the Carousel, 3/09

7/25/09 Emile B Klein's portrait project You're US . Emile's portrait of publisher Eric Rhoads is
featured in the November 2009 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.

BLIND WILLIES Needle, Feather, and a Rope 12/13/09 with Community Music Center Teen Jazz Band

NYC 8/2008

Joe Hill