The Jail Guitar Doors Rock Out 2!

The second annual Jail Guitar Doors Rock Out was held September 5th at the Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood, and it certainly held true to its name. With another all star line-up coming together to benefit the organization founded by Billy Bragg (in the UK) and Brother Wayne Kramer and his wife Margaret Saadi Kramer (US) to bring guitars to inmates in prison as something positive in their lives.

It's touching to hear the stories that happen each Tuesday night in the guitar classes led by JGD volunteers in the Twin Towers men's central correctional facility in downtown L.A. MC of the evening, Dana Gould, brought out Wayne Kramer to much applause, and Kramer explained, "We see  inmates learn to process problems in new, non-confrontational ways. The walls go down, racism goes down, classism, sexism goes down ... and we end up with all that we really are - human beings."

Powerful stuff, and the applause was resounding for the volunteers (Jason Heath, Cody Marks, Michael de la Rocha, Adele Bertei, etal.) and JGD graduates that came out to play the first number, a jazzy one, led by graduate Franc Foster, who has gone on to run his own music program on Skid Row. The chorus went "I love you" ... and that's just about the most important thing to say ever, so we were off to a good start. They clanged out the namesake Clash tune, "Jail Guitar Doors", and then it was time for Kramer to really shine.

Earlier this year, Kramer released his jazz album, Lexington, and the Ford audience was in for a treat as Kramer and his Lexington Arts Ensemble (Phil Ranelin on trombone, Tigran Hamasyan on piano,  Buzzy Moore on tenor sax, Bob Hurst on upright bass, Doug Lunn on bass, Eric "The Claw" Gardner and Brock Avery on drums and percussion) spoke to us about life in prison through jazz in three instrumental numbers.

Kramer introduced the first number by saying that this album was "a way to talk about my jail experiences in my first language - music." As Kramer's signature star spangled guitar wailed in conversation with his fellow musicians in the Ensemble, and he tore off a particularly fresh solo, I thought to myself how he really is speaking, and we really are being taken on a tour of the thoughts and feelings involved with incarceration. It was heavy and cool at the same time, like jazz itself, I suppose. A true highlight.

Gould next introduced the ever-charming Jill Sobule, as a "Musical novelist", which is true, because every Sobule song tells a whole story, always with a little zinger of wit included. Like in her opening number, "Jetpack" where she sings, "If I had a jetpack, I'd take you so high, If I dropped you, you'd die." She's the best. She brought out a band to join her on the next one, saying, "I'm not used to having a guitar person!" and said that her favorite gigs are always the ones played with Wayne.

"When My Ship Comes In" was a rocker, with Sobule trading licks with Kramer metal-style. Raucous applause met them at song's end, and Sobule said, "I've always wanted to do that with Wayne!" Gould came out and said, "A guitar duel with Wayne Kramer? For a young lady, that takes balls." Yeah.

Next up was Tim Presley's White Fence, who, appropriately for the evening, have a new album called, For The Recently Found Innocent. While Presley looks a bit like a young Serge Gainsbourg, his band is straight out of hipster band central casting ... skinny jeans, pointy shoes, big beard, baseball hat ... check, check, check, check. They live in the "Psych Rock" bin at Amoeba, but had a lengthy jam band thing going too. They played two rockers for us before it was time for intermission.

After a few minutes of catching up with old friends, checking out the JGD merch table, and grabbing a beer, it was time for Mr. Gould to introduce the next performer as playing with his Mother, "So she's obviously more supportive of his career than mine was..." and out came Ben Harper with his band, The Relentless 7 (Jesse Ingalls, Jason Mozersky and Jimmy Paxson on drums and garbage can). "My Mom told me to man up and play one on my own first," Harper joked as he and the band played an acoustic "Don't Give Up On Me Now". With all of his vast catalog to choose from, this was an interesting choice when each performer only got a few songs in their set. Maybe to tie in with the prison message or something, but it's not really a fan favorite. But still real good.

"I'm Ben Harper, and this is my Mom, Ellen." Harper welcomed his Mother, Ellen Harper, to the stage with a hug and a kiss, and they harmonized beautifully together on the family-feeling "A House Is A Home" from their recent collaboration together, Childhood Home.

Ellen Harper took the lead on "Farmer's Daughter" on vocals and banjo, while Ben slid away on his Weissenborn ... taking us to the Appalachians and back, lamenting the loss of family farms to conglomerates like Monsanto. It was very easy to see where Ben gets his talents, and his social consciousness, as he played next to the woman who gave him those gifts. And that was it! Shouts of "MORE!" met the Harpers and the band, but as Gould said, "Ellen has to get Ben's lunch going for their gig tomorrow." Ha.

Rock Hall of Famer Jackson Browne took the stage next with a big band, including Ben Harper, who Browne brought back on to join him for a song "we both know, but we've never played it together before." So together they gave us, "Jamaica, Say You Will" (which Harper covered on the recent Browne tribute album, Looking Into You: A Tribute To Jackson Browne). It was as sublime as you can imagine, as Harper's Weissenborn, Browne's piano, and their classic voices blended together like a good dream.

"I'm fortunate to be here ... compared to jail, we're fortunate to be anywhere," said Browne truthfully. He brought back Jill Sobule (Jack and Jill!) to join him on Warren Zevon's heartbreakingly tender "Don't Let Us Get Sick". So pretty, I almost cried (but if you know me, that's not that hard). After that loveliness, it was back to the rock, with Browne unleashing his timeless "Running On Empty", stoking the entire place, as everyone sang and danced along under the starry skies on a warm, Hollywood night. It doesn't get a whole lot better ... but it does.

Browne brought out actor Tim Robbins (in a tank top) to join him, saying, "You're like the poster child for going to jail, Mr. Shawshank!" Fittingly, they lit into The Clash version of "I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)", trading licks and verses, and looking like they were having an absolute blast - as were all of us in the audience.

The octane got jacked up a whole lot higher for the last performers, Tom Morello and his Freedom Fighter Orchestra (Carl Restivo, Dave Gibbs, Eric Gardner). Bringing the incendiary rock for the final jams is now standard protocol for Morello at these events, and he did not disappoint.
 

Unveiling the brand new and super timely "Marching On Ferguson", they had fists raised and a whole bunch of grey heads practically moshing. A heavy tune musically, lyrically and subject-matter wise, Morello reinforced the argument for him being the modern-age Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger ... that can do a solo with his teeth on his Arm The Homeless guitar.

"Well, this is my last song because of curfew issues, so let's make it a good one!", said Morello to a disbelieving, riled up crowd. It WAS a good one, however, as Morello's version of Springsteen's "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" would have blown the roof off of the Ford, if it had one. It's so much his own now, with the famous guitar solo that still gives me chills. When you hear THIS Tom sing ...

Now Tom said, "Ma, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy,
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries,
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air,
Look for me, Ma,  I'll be there.
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand,
Or decent job or a helpin' hand,
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free,
Look in their eyes, Ma, you'll see me.

... you know that he absolutely means it. If there's a strike at the Port of L.A., or a Teacher's Union picket line, or a night of rock to help give incarcerated inmates something positive in their lives, Morello can be counted on to be there, if at all able. I am proud to be his friend, straight up.

People jumped to their feet, whistling and stomping, having just had their minds blown. "Does that mean you want one more song?!", Morello shouted. He then invited EVERYONE down front to jump and scream around for "The Road I Must Travel".

"OK, I need that 17 times louder, all together in solidarity!" ... and together the Ford crowd shouted the "Na, na, na, na..." chorus one more time. After more yelling for more, Morello ignored the curfew (and the fines), saying, "I don't think I'm done with you yet," and launching into the power riff from Rage's "Sleep Now In The Fire". All-time.

"TAKE IT EASY! TAKE IT EASY! TAKE IT EASY! ... BUT TAKE IT!!!" shouted Morello in his customary sign-off, but then swerved and said, "Fuck the curfew, let's play one more!" No one minded in the least (besides maybe Ford Theater neighbors, but they should be thrilled), and Morello brought back the whole line-up for the All Star finale. "Where's Ben Harper?! I've been waiting my whole life to play this song with Ben Harper! C'mon, we're being charged $15, 000 a minute!", Morello kept asking, but alas, the Harpers had already curiously peaced out ... Mom must not have wanted him out past curfew (Sorry. The comedian stuff rubbed off a little).

A shame, because who wouldn't want to play Kiss's "Rock And Roll All Nite" with Morello, Kramer, Browne, Sobule and a slew of other fantastic band members that BROUGHT. IT. Carl Restivo took on lead vocals, and we really could have kept it up all nite.

You can't have a Wayne Kramer gig without seriously kicking out the jams, and that's what the grand finale was, with everyone on stage as one unified Guitarmy. Kramer, Morello, Robbins and Browne all shared a mic at one point, and it was a delight to watch Franc Foster watching all these music heroes playing for, and on the behalf of, people just like him.

Jail Guitar Doors gives hope to the inmates it serves. It also gives hope to the world, that you can always make change for the better. When Kramer shouted at song's end, "We done kicked 'em OUT!", it was about the jams, of course, but it could just as well have been yelled about all the 'isms that he spoke about at the beginning of the show ... there's no room for racism, sexism, or any negativity at all when you share moments like this with good people like these ...it's ALL kicked out.

Support Jail Guitar Doors, and the musicians that support them, because they're all doing something that truly matters, all while rocking you silly. Everybody wins!

*Photos by PaulGronner.com

Jail Guitar Doors Show Rocks Out The Ford Ampitheater

In 2007, Billy Bragg founded the Jail Guitar Doors organization in England, named after The Clash song about Wayne Kramer of the MC5, who served time for cocaine offenses, but Bragg didn't know it was about Kramer. In 2009, Bragg and Kramer met up for a show at Sing Sing prison, and Kramer both told him he was the song's namesake, and decided to start up Jail Guitar Doors USA. They give guitars to inmates, who then learn and have a skill to use - even if just to make themselves feel good and express themselves - when they get out of lock-up. After many shows in many prisons, their good work is clear to see, and we saw it up close and awesome in their benefit show Friday night at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

It was a hot night, perfect to rock out under the stars, and rock out we did! Comedian Jay Mohr was the host of the evening. It's obvious that he's a big music fan, but he started out his schtick talking about how musicians should just shut up and play their hits, going into a long bit about Eddie Vedder being ridiculous for talking about politics and playing venues without advertising. It seemed odd that he'd go off on that, when all the musicians playing this night are major activists, and activism was the cause of the evening. But I guess THESE musicians are cool by Mohr. Anyway.

Mohr introduced Brother Wayne Kramer and Billy Bragg, who told us that Jail Guitar Doors is now active in 40 prisons nationally, and there are 42 on the waiting list. And on this very day, they just found out that they will receive an Annenberg Grant - amazing! Though as Kramer said, hardened inmates are a tougher sell to get people to give to than baby seal pups in the Arctic, but these are human beings, and they are changing for the better through music. Like we all do.

Then they brought out a JGD alumni, Franc Foster & His Melting Pot, who started with JGD a year ago, and "Look at me now!" His enthusiasm was infectious, and when he said, "This one is called 'Nightmover', and if it makes you wanna dance, don't be afraid," many in the house complied. His other guitar player had a thing with baby powder that he kept shaking all over the stage, to the extent that you could smell it a few rows back. He looked like he was having fun sliding around in it, but the Ford workers cleaning it up every time did not seem thrilled. He didn't care, all smiles and powder. The Melting Pot is Foster's program to teach music to the homeless on Skid Row. What a difference a year can make, indeed.

After the powder got swept up, Jason Heath and The Greedy Souls took the stage. Heath dissed Obama in his opening statements and the power went out on his guitar. Someone in the audience yelled, "They're watching!" which cracked everyone up, and these days, seemed probable. They played "God's Name In Vain", which asks the good question, "What have we done in God's name?" Think about it.

Brother Wayne returned with his famous star spangled guitar to join the Lexington Arts Ensemble in a jazzy guitar and sax duel/conversation that was jamming at its best, and then played the song that started it all, "Jail Guitar Doors".

It was a great end to the first part of the program, and the intermission gave us time for perusing the cool stuff at the booths by Jail Guitar Doors and KPFK. It's such a relief to know that there are still good people doing good things! Phew.

Dave Alvin kicked off the second half, looking smooth in his cowboy hat, and playing his "4th Of July", with Kramer backing him up, aptly, on that patriotic guitar.

They were then joined by Dave's brother, Phil Alvin, who said, "If any guitar belongs in prison, it's this one!", making everyone laugh before they launched into The Blasters' "Marie Marie", 50's Chuck Berry style rocking, which made many of the older generation in the audience (the vast majority) completely thrilled, up and dancing in the aisles. It was simply great.

As was the next act, Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman. He took the stage to happy shouts before he played a note, and then said he'd been thinking earlier on "What do Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr, Gandhi and Wayne Kramer have in common? They've all been in jail, and got out to change the world."

Much as Morello continues to try and do, with his "One Man Revolution", which was his first song (backed up by Carl Restivo, Dave Gibbs and Eric Gardner, his Freedom Fighter Orchestra), complete with amp feedback solo. His "Fuck, YEAH!" at song's end was echoed by us all. But THEN - Morello brought the house not down, but UP - on their feet as he incinerated the poor place with his now-famous version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad". I've seen this one played live many times now, and I still get chills every single time. I mean ... Watch!

Yikes. People sprang to their feet and caused such a ruckus that another song (unplanned) was demanded, and the entire joint stood and sang along to the Na-na-na-na chorus on his "Road I Must Travel".

The place went crazy, and as Mohr came out he joked, "You'll get 'em next time," admitting that he'd never want to follow Tom Morello. But he did. I'm a person who really doesn't find mainstream comedians that funny as it's usually so smart assy and mean spirited, but I especially didn't laugh when, in telling a bit about Christopher Walken, he said, "And then he looked over his shoulders like he was telling a black joke at work ..." Really? Talking/perpetuating "Black jokes" at an audience full of activists and KPFK listeners, with African American people on stage and in the seats? He then went on to say about something else how men should think things through 1,800 times before they say them. He didn't take his own advice on that one, and I found it to be the one damper on the evening. I'm sure he must be cool if Brother Wayne is his friend, but it left me unamused. I guess I don't get the joke?

But then Jackson Browne came out and also said, "Among the dreams and aspirations in my life, I never did want to follow Tom Morello." High praise, Tom! But he did a beautiful job of following, with a new song, played gorgeously with just him and the piano, called "Standing In The Breach." He said it started out being about the terrible earthquake in Haiti, and then became about the disaster of poverty, and how we can't seem to do anything about that. I've been thinking of that a lot myself lately, seeing giant Russian billionaire yachts anchored off of Venice for our homeless to look out at. How can anyone feel right about that kind of excess when there are children in our own city that don't have enough to simply eat?! I don't get it, Man. The theater was so quiet,  just Browne's voice, the piano and crickets in the trees harmonizing. We're such a far cry from where the world could be ... The song touched me, and from the sound of the place at its end, everyone else too.

Kramer joined Browne for "Casino Nation" and then the Lexington Arts Ensemble returned to rip through "the feel good hit of the Summer ... many Summers ago," "Running on Empty". His fans for life in the place were ecstatic, dancing as they time-traveled themselves back to their own past Summers. It's wonderful to look around and see so many people so happy, just because of music, proving again how healing, transformative (even if just your mood!) and inspirational it can be.

When Billy Bragg took his solo turn on stage, he said it can be hard to connect with young people in prison who may have never heard of him, or even Joe Strummer, but he can always count on the songs of Bob Marley. He played "Redemption Song", solo acoustic, in a very British version that held the fans rapt. He next gave us his pretty true"No One Knows Nothing Anymore." Bragg then explained that "the real enemy of all of us is not capitalism or conservatism, it's CYNICISM. Our OWN cynicism, that nothing can change. This must be overcome, and the only antidote to it is ACTIVISM. I have faith in this audience to change the world!" He should too, as this was a fired up bunch he was playing to. He dedicated his lovely, "I Keep Faith" to this very audience ("in every single one of you!"), in a song statement that was not only extra hopeful, but completely NECESSARY. KEEP. FAITH. Amen.

The wonderful Jill Sobule was the penultimate treat, joined by Kramer. She said that her favorite gigs ever have been "with Wayne - in prisons!" She played her gorgeous - and funny - "Mexican Wrestler" that begins with the lyric ... Sometimes I wish that I was an angel, a fallen angel that visits your dreams ... but she really needn't wish any longer, because with her voice, she already is an angel. LOVE her. Everyone did. Even more so because the next line goes ... Sometimes I wish that I was a Mexican wrestler in a red vinyl mask, and I might grab you and body slam you and maybe cause you physical harm ... Classic.

Then it was time for the All Star Jam, which of course, HAD to be the mighty MC5's "Kick Out The Jams"! Morello took a second to tell us all that Kramer had recently become a father, "And I've never seen him happier!" It was true, as Kramer - as well as the entire cast of rockers - all had best time ever smiles plastered across their faces.

These friends and comrades proudly displayed how much fun they all have playing together, and the JDG grads seemed to be having the best time of all - complete with more powder!  "Right now it's time to .... Right now it's time to" Kramer repeated until the crowd all shouted back, "KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKER!" And they sure did.

The barn burner finale was one big jumping rock out, precisely as billed. There was even an extended trombone solo that rocked! It's almost surreal to be at these shows, where any ONE of the artists playing would leave behind a stoked audience, but to get them ALL on stage together is something truly special. You could tell they thought so too. And they "Done kicked 'em OUT!"

Bows were taken, and the fans roared. It was a great night of rock and roll, but more importantly, it was a great night of doing something, caring about something, together. These nights DO help you to keep the faith. Cynicism, be damned! Please check out Jail Guitar Doors, and help if you can. Help with ANYTHING if you can. And you can. I have faith. In every single one of you.





PS - You get that I'm not a photographer, right? Just visual aids.  Love, CJG