Individual Artist Project

By creating The Senior Moment, for podcast, radio, and television broadcast it will also give me a chance to highlight senior citizens and their stories. I believe that particular audience is currently underserved by popular media. While showcasing these stories, it will provide spiritual, personal, and societal sustenance to that audience as they resonate with these memories recognizing their own personal journeys within. We will also be able to share those stories with younger generations while giving the younger audience a real glimpse into the hard work that went into making America, and the lessons to be learned from those stories. We will be interviewing a cross cultural menu of guests that can provide a glimpse into what it means to be a Holocaust survivor, how one lived with discrimination of all sorts and survived, living with a disability, living with loss, to name but a few. One of the strengths of the show will be to define what we have in common, in spite of how everyone's life is uniquely different. This world is awash in negative images in media and in real life. It seems as times we live in a world without heroes. These stories will ultimately be positive and uplifting, and folks may realize the heroes they are desperately looking for may indeed live right next door. ; With this project I intend to preserve valuable information from community elders and at the same time promote experiences by those 60 and older to break down stereotypes associated with "senior moments". Experiences and stories shared by program interviewees will be presented in a positive light so the younger folks in our communities can find value in the wisdom shared by the older generations. Outcomes will be measured by feedback from families and friends of those interviewed as well as the quality of the conversations generated by the interviews. Since I was a child, my father instilled in me the belief that "what ever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve." That has been my mantra for my entire life. For example, when I saw Leo Kottke at a concert in 1972, I decided to become a professional musician that night and my only goal was to play at that historic Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. I moved to Minneapolis in 1978 and performed for the first time there opening for Ry Cooder with my Cats Under the Stars in 1984. Over the years, I played there 7 more times and sold it out in 1994 with a 10 piece band. I released a record called Mississippi Farewell, a live document of that show, and will be rereleasing it this year for it's 30th anniversary. Since 2014 when my Wall of Power Radio Hour debuted on AM 950 in the Twin Cities, we have over 300 original shows currently recorded. My Wall of Power TV show has close to 200 shows recorded. Both shows air weekly (with rebroadcasts.) My latest radio show aired on 2/17/24. ; The outcome of this project will be measured by online view statistics and follow-up surveys from the general public.