Release #2: APRIL 2026
Welcome, and thank you so much for being a part of my community. I am deeply grateful and honored to have supporters in this space where we can connect over our shared love of music and art. Leave me a comment below and let me know what you liked and what you want to hear from me next month!
TRACK ONE: FORTIFIED
This song is very dear to my heart! Written years ago and stuck in limbo while touring with my band, Flowmotion. I never could fit into the mix with the band. I recorded it during my session for the Driftless album, but it never stuck. I had a lightbulb moment about the sound/instrument that was needed. Tony Furtado - one of the most prolific slide guitarists and dobro players in the country, who, luckily for me, lives in the PNW popped into my head. I’ve been a fan of his for years so I just cold-called him. He agreed to track the tune remotely. I was so floored by what he recorded and sent back. After my Driftless session, I took Tony’s bottleneck slide part and Aaron Guest’s bass part, and I put the rest on it. Added some piano, guitars, vocals, and brushed my fingers over the head of the banjo for one of the shaker sounds.
Track 2 - “hidden jam” - One Legged
Live at Horning’s Hideout 2003
Welcome to April’s “Hidden Jam” - One Legged James Brown: The Muleskinner & LSD at Drowning Dragons - Horning’s Hideout 2003
Let me set the context for this one. This recording is very early on in my time playing with my new Flowmotion mates – which featured members of the band Beecraft, a phenom band out of Spokane that I fell head over heels for. My new drummer, Scott Goodwin and the epic percussionist, Bob Rees with guitarist, Zach Stewart fresh on the roster. We got booked at Horning’s Hideout for a set at a festival we had no idea about – but it was something about Dragons! For those who don’t know, Horning’s Hideout is a beautiful 6,000 person venue just outside Portland, OR. It’s famous for hosting String Summit – the Bluegrass Event that launched Billy Strings as well as the home of jamband, String Cheese Incident, hosting their long-running festival there. So, Flowmotion gets booked for a unique and hippy-trippy event about Dragons (seriously can’t remember the name of the event) but no joke – it had dragons in the name! We had a mid-day set on Sunday of the event. What we didn’t know is twofold: 1. That we would also get booked for a private party deep in the boonies of western Oregon where most of the band (willingly) decided to partake of some LSD in the middle of our show by the host. We thankfully had a great time and as you’d expect in the mecca of a Grateful Dead community, played our hearts out allllll night long. We were finding our way through the music, learning how to play together, and discovering the purpose of why the hell we were doing this in the first place! Oh yeah, and also burning off the LSD pulsing through our bodies.
Soooooo – now to the actual public gig we were there for….as you can imagine, we were still very high – no sleep, but happy. The next day came to pass, the sun came up at the private party and now it was time to load our gear and leave for the actual gig at Horning’s Hideout.
We all knew it was such an honor to get an opportunity to play there, but, what we found when we pulled in was that the two nights prior at the event had been an absolute downpour. Hence the name we gave it, “Drowning Dragons” stuck. A total rain-out. People had been sheltering in place. Vendors, patrons, staff and volunteers had basically given up and either left or were stuck in their tent or shelter for the entire festival.
Flowmotion arrived – gleeful and still buzzing from the night before on LSD – we were on a mission! To slay this venue (or in this situation) Slay the dragon!! So – that’s exactly what we did. We set up on this huge stage with nobody in the venue. Quick shoutout to the production team and crew who SLAYED and STAYED! They were amazing and so pro. We knew this was a hurting event with a major loss for the promoter and vendors etc. The ultimate tragedy for festival promoters – a total rain out. So, what you’re hearing in this recording is not only that we slayed the dragon, but if we had video of this moment, we also literally brought out the sun for the first time that entire weekend! We went for it. We did not hold back, and we certainly never intended on going this long with this song, but as we played the clouds parted ways and the sun started to shine on the people. The dragon lovers literally came out of the woodworks. We went from empty amphitheater to joyous occasion for all the people in one song!
NOW – to the Muleskinner, my bass player!!! Jessie Kansanback – the one of one – the one and only. Flowmotion’s OG bassist. Self taught, scrappy, and a total boss – but always the sweetest dude. Working with our new bandmates (Scotty, Bob, and Zach), he commanded the flow in such a fascinating way. Whether you like it or not. Because of Jessie and my new mates, I could continually float on that funky foundation with no idea where we were headed, but total faith we’d eventually get there! Their willingness to explore and their incredible talent shining though is a testament to the power and beauty of music as a language and a connector for us all. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
tom petty - Don’t fade on me
Don’t Fade On Me - Tom Petty is one of my all-time favorites:
I love this tune so much. I had to learn how to do this picking style as it’s not intuitive to me. I love the haunting vibe and depth of this track. This was a really good workout to play it through and record it completely solo in one take.
Donate a bit extra this month for a special custom merch package; Josh Clauson and Flowmotion albums + some extra goodies from my Meltdown stash of merch.
