Rest Easy Wild Child

Boyd Rivers - I Done Died One Time

Firstly, it has to be acknowledged that Power Trip singer, Riley Gale, has gone on to his reward at the young age of 34. It was tempting to have made today’s newsletter a Power Trip song, but I’ll let numerous other outlets devote their space to that. I’ll just acknowledge that Riley seemed like the type of guy who “the scene” needs - and people’s personal stories of knowing or meeting him back that up. I saw them once at a small venue in Vancouver, and the current he (and Power Trip) channeled was electrifying and magnetic and all of the things that make someone connect to a band as their own. And as a Texan, I especially felt kinship watching that guy explode on stage. Rest easy, dude.

As I write this, I the sky outside is has gone grey and the first wave of rain from Hurricane Laura draws near. The past few days have been an increasingly steady rhythm of storm tracking and preparing, trying to get whatever work done possible before I anticipate a power loss that could be hours or could be days.

Between the deaths of Justin Townes Earle & Riley Gale, the news of Covid’s fingers gracing ever closer to my world, a hurricane aimed at yet another poor community left vulnerable by the ecology of resource extraction, more police brutality protests, violence at the hands of extremists roaming the streets and the surreality of our political reality show, it’s hard to not just ask that we all recognize this thing called death is merely a name we give. We don’t ever really die, we just transform into the spirits and hearts of the people we’re lucky enough to be loved by.

Like what I’m doing here? Let me know by suggesting it to someone else that may like it. Not into this song? Stick around for the next one, it may be what you didn’t know you needed! Remember, there are only two genres of music here at SERMONS!: good and bad, and I have to much to do to waste time on bad music.