If you couldn’t make The Filling Station show this last weekend, you did miss a high-energy, inspired performance from ‘yours truly.’  Luckily, one of my oldest friends and one of the top photographers in the country happened to be in the house, so you get to see the show through his eyes.  Enjoy!

It’s easy to get down on ourselves sometimes - we see our flaws through a magnifying glass while others see them through a telescope.  I have been a chronic psoriasis sufferer for over 20 years (see photo) and sometimes my mood and self-esteem are directly connected to how my skin is behaving that day.  On good days, I feel like I can conquer the world and on bad days, I feel anxiety, frustration, and physical discomfort. 

Psoriasis is a non-contageous, genetic disease where, essentially, my immune system get’s bored and decides it needs something to do, so it attacks my skin.  The result is red patches of flaky, itchy skin.  I’ve tried every medicine imaginable, and have come up with a treatment program of light tanning and Dovonex cream that seems to work okay for me.  Being on the road during this California music tour has defininitely inflamed it - probably because of the stress and exhaustion - as my condition has flared up to it’s worst levels in nearly 20 years.

Which brings me to my inspirational and throught provoking story.  Sunday at the Haight Street Festival in San Francisco I saw a man who had psoriasis covering nearly 90% of his legs and arms.  He, I’m sure, had no health insurance and was unable to really treat the disease as they were dark red, thick, and super-inflamed.  This young man didn’t seem to care - he wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt and jammed to the music with reckless abandonment (see video below).  It was actually one of those “I was depressed at how slow I ran until I saw a man with no legs” moments.

As an ambassodor for people with the disease I encourage all people to live their dreams in spite of physical limitations and frustrations.  Use your negative experiences that can occur by having psoriasis (or any disease for that matter) as fuel to accomplish great things in your lives.  It’s what I’ve tried to do.  In high school the kids in the locker room used to tease me that I had AIDS (of course, no one really knew what AIDS was back then).  Today I channel the frustration that accompanies psoriasis into my shows and that leads to some of the most empassioned and empathic stage performances - it’s also probably where I get my humor.  Hopefully people will be able to be inspired by my life to shoot for success instead of making excuses for failure - to live their dreams instead of settling for “playing things safe.”

Did you know that Ben Franklin had psoriasis?  In fact, there are millions of people who suffer from it in America today including yours truly.  To find out more information about psoriasis and some of the advancements for people suffering from psoriasis please go to:
http://www.myspace.com/psoriasiscurenow
http://psoriasis-cure-now.org/

Dancing psoriasis man at Haight Street Festival:

The new album, “The Walking Wounded,” is nearly finished for the June 2008 release.  All the tracks have been written and the roughs have been laid down in the studio.  We are still waiting on a few of the finishing touches, (like the cello to be played by Chuck Thompson on the new song Camelot).  We have also planned the photoshoot for the album cover.  Here’s a sneak peek at the track list:

The Walking Wounded (June 2008)

1)  Cigarette Girl Intro
2)  Cigarette Girl
3)  Goodnight Darling, Goodnight
4)  One More Day
5)  Camelot
6)  At the Fisher House
7)  The Walking Wounded
8)  Wake Me Alive
9)  I Wish I Had More to Give You
10)  The Majesty
11)  Undiscovered You
12)  Never Let Go
13)  Surprise Bonus Track