There are many different dimensions of Pain of course. There's plain old physical pain, but when it comes to my song I am referring to a deep emotional pain. In a recent television appearance after performing my acoustic version of "Pain" the host Jon Gray asked me, "Hey. Did a woman do that to you?" My response: "A woman did it. Life did it. I did it to myself." Having been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression when I was around 20, I know that sometimes there just isn't any answer as to what causes the Pain. Because of this I released the video in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month (Month of May). 

    There are three representations of Pain in the music video- Loneliness, Addiction, and Humiliation. Loneliness comes in the form of my imaginary friend laughing at me as I play solitaire, chess, and tarot with myself. Addiction comes in the form of a man continuously putting heavy rocks in my backpack. Humiliation comes in the form of a woman turning me into an ice cream sundae. There is also the infamous Veiled Lady- a mysterious blindfolded figure leading me to see my Pain. The dark side of my ego? Big thanks to director Matt Hoots for collaborating with me on these concepts. We may be most proud of the ice cream sundae.

-J.P.

     What mythologies are we attempting to live out in our lives today? Joseph Campell suggests in The Power of Myth we have lost our sense of mythology in Modern society. Now that we are Post Modern or even Millennial, how much more so have we left behind these unconscious archetypes?

The Hero. The Fool. Warrior. Queen. Pharoah. Father. Neighbor. 

     Have we made our final grasp toward the machine? Is technology itself the Mark of the Beast or is it our own inability to make something good with our society and ourselves? I would suggest the latter. Mankind is flawed. We have no inner peace in our society. That's our Mark, not an iPad. We can twist the most beautiful inventions and creations into monstrosities of nuclear proportions.

     I suggest we return to our Great Stories and mythologies for some answers to societal ills. We need to reawaken the Hero's Journey individually within ourselves. It is only when we search within ourselves that we realize the humanity of others. We see the Spark in other people because we first saw it in ourselves. I believe ancient cultures such as Egyptian and Greek had a firm grasp on these mythologies, laying the foundation for all of Modern civilization. Now our Global community.

     Being a musician can be quite the Hero's Journey sometimes. Maybe even a Fool's Journey. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle as usual. Being back in the Nashville area this year playing Music has been a trip and a half. Adventures have ranged from playing Original Music shows in Murfreesboro, Tullahoma, Smyrna and Nashville to playing the many blues jams and open mics in the area. The good news is we have pictures and videos of all of this!

The Only Limits That Exist Are The Ones We Create.

-J.P.