John Walradt

over 30 days ago to PJ3

Percy, "Another Sun" is excellent. I was struck first by the lovely melody then the very direct and personal lyrics matching the mood of the melody...emotionally very moving. You have a strong message needing to be heard on a personal level. No one who is different in any way should have to go through life in such fear! I have gone through being treated differently as a lesser person for having autism...treated as a being retarded or as not yet an adult, paid less, and with little respect. Now the police in Phoenix, by court ruling, are allowed to beat up or shoot people with autism without cause or provocation because of a teen who was beaten, sent to the hospital, and the parents lost the case! My wife drives everywhere we go now. I think the implications for just being black are worse and more pronounced because you're visibly different...and what kind of reason is that? Yours is a great song of social consciousness. Lyrically to be stopped without having done anything wrong and trying to clear your mind while knowing you could wind up dead are written in the best personal terms...another way of saying they really strike me! I have a song that I wrote and rewrote, took about a year, called "Equal!" which stems from my life with autism. It reached #2 Earth. My songs are autobiographical. Another couple of songs I like very much are Warren Hein's "Letter to the Lord" about a Vietnam soldier who became homeless who he used to talk with daily, and "Graveyard Shift," just the personal thoughts of being in a late night diner. My own "Just Another Weekend" is really about a long journey trying to find love, which I finally found just before turning 50 with "Stay Here Now." Now I'm working on "Ride the Wave," a call to Democrats to get it together as a single force instead of being splintered. We live in fear of losing Social Security pension and Medicare, and going further back in time to where only the rich and most powerful have rights and acceptance. That definitely has fearful implications for you! For those of us who are creative, writing about our own experiences gets down to what really matters, what really means anything. I'll listen to some more from you. Wonderful job with "Another Sun"! John

2 Replies

 

PJ3

over 30 days ago

Hello John! Sorry I`m so late replying. I really appreciate your candid assessment of my song and your personal sentiment. It`s refreshing to know that what we do as artist can move people emotionally and have them look at the world from someone else`s perspective. Thanks again for your comments and when I have some free time I will definitely take some time to listen to your songs as well. Let`s continue this exchange of ideas and conversation! PJ3

John Walradt

over 30 days ago

Hi, Percy. I sometimes am late on responses as well. Last year my wife, Lora, and myself, moved from Phoenix to Yucaipa, California, and grateful that we did. I haven't participated on Broadjam in the last year. We got very involved politically after I saw Jack Posobiec's introduction to the CPAC convention with, "Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely!" That scared me and I told Lora we had to get busy. But all our collective efforts, time and money spent, just didn't work out. Well, I'm slowly returning to music and writing some new songs. I listened to your lovely song, "Another Sun," again, which is beautiful, aesthetically and emotionally, timeless and classic. The gentleness of your song carries the kind of strength I wish the rest of our society would adopt instead of the cold tight lipped squinty eyed tough emotionless cowboy mentality that seems so valued. I'll take some time to listen to the other songs you have. Thank you for responding. It wasn't too late as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad you did! John