BLACKBIRDS
[Band Page]

The Name?
Blackbirds - combination of a recording session going until about 5 AM, an adult beverage or two too many, a noisy bird singing outside, and an old Beatles song.

What are your songs written about?
Life - falling in love, falling out of love, birth, death, connections, responsibilities.

What makes a good song?
Honest emotion captured in concise lyrics matched with an original tune.

What is your favourite song of all time?
Wow- good question. Maybe "Born to Run", maybe "Pride - In the Name of Love", maybe "Like a Rolling Stone" - can I pick a third of each?

Who would be in your ultimate musical supergroup?
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Fogarty

What is your claim to fame (musical or non musical)?
My family - wife Arlene, daughter Becky, son Matt, late son Andrew (Forever age 4)

What are your musical dreams and goals?
I just want to help someone escape into a song for 3 or 4 minutes and maybe see the world in a different way.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?
Estes Park, Colorado - there's something about the Rockies that I haven't found anywhere else.

Finish the sentence: "I'll never forget the first time I...."
....Saw the birth of one of my children.

Why did you sign up to Sound Aid?
I've been helping to raise money for many years now in my campus ministry work and in my music. In fact, a student of mine clued me in to the website and it was a natural fit.

What other Sound Aid artists do you listen to?
I tend to stay with the acoustic folks - not that i don't like lots of other kinds of music, but time is precious and there's only so much to spend on listening.

What do you think are the best ways to cure world hunger?
For the nations of the world to live up to their Millenium promises - a concrete economic goal was set and agreed to by the world's "haves" to give a pittance - less than 1 percent of GDP - to eliminate extreme hunger, and only two nations have lived up to that. Spending $2 billion a week in Iraq when that amount could go a long way toward eliminating world hunger, through ideas like Heifer and the One Campaign, is an obscenity.