Ellis Paul Productions

It has a diaphragm. You communicate through it with your voice. Your speech. Your ideas. Your information. The diaphragm vibrates and sends a signal across wires, the sky, and space.

A microphone is a miracle receptacle for ideas. It is designed to receive them, and as a trampoline of sorts that transmits the ideas to the universe .

It is the physical receptical for the First Amendment. And all sorts of crazy shit has been spoken into these things.

Some I wish I hadn’t heard.

But anyone can speak their minds into it, and your mind’s thoughts can be heard everywhere someone is tuning in. Berlin. Japan. The moon.

For those of us who step before them, we gauge the weight of words and choose what part of our minds to rattle that little diaphragm with. But occasionally we rattle people as well.

Over my last weekend of shows, my friend and opener Marissa Levy dedicated a song to ICE. She was speaking into a microphone. I was in the lobby, outside of the performance space, and had the privilege of seeing two very upset and horrified conservative people angrily demand their money back at a folk show.

Their idea of art didn’t include someone speaking their mind.

But what is art, if not that?

Van Gogh spoke his mind by painting potato farmers and fields of crows. Dylan nudged us closer to peace with Blowing in the Wind. The Beatles turned a black and white world into technicolor. Henry Miller sparked a sexual revolution with his books. Lenny Bruce broadened our ability to absorb language. Hendrix played us freedom and anguish with an electric guitar.

There are no amendments written to protect the hearing of someone else’s 1st amendment rights. But the couple in the lobby seemed to think there should be.

Isn’t that funny? You get the right to say something. But we don’t get any protections from hearing it. Imagine how we could shut down the flow of ideas. But this is all you got— you can walk out, counter protest, ask for your money back.

Make a scene. It’s your right.

I love it when one of our wee citizens speaks into a microphone, and members of the government and self-appointed power players get rattled and say things like: Shut up and dribble. Shut up and sing. Shut up and ski. (I wish I had an amendment that blocked me from the Shut up people— but whatever… they are expressing their first amendment rights). It's just a joy to see them put down the little people, and make asses of themselves while doing so.

The reasons why I believe citizens need to speak up, is that we are the front lines. We are the recipients of bad policies, bad practices, bad government actions. Who else is more qualified to speak than someone living in the thick of it?

We need to hear from the immigrants. Not the propaganda machine, which clearly wasn't invented by geniuses.

The government is trying to control the media conglomerates, firing the comedians, controlling the papers, and shutting down the polls. They are coming for the microphones. It’s up to us, to speak into the diaphragms and fill the void.

Marissa Levy is…

And you-- with your little media empire— your Tik Tok and Instragram, Facebook page, your performance stages, livestreams, your on the street interviews, and the next microphone you meet--add up to a chance to lay bare your view of the world. CBS news isn’t gonna do it.

The rest of us should.

And honestly, I'd rather hear from an Olympic skier than a vice president who gets booed whenever he stands in a crowd.

I will be speaking, singing, laughing, into the microphones at the venues below in the next few months. Songs and jokes and ideas. My take of a world on fire. Nothing you can't handle. Come on out. It’s a folk show. Expect folky things!

See you out there! See www.ellispaul.com/calendar for details and ticket information for the upcoming shows below!

Ellis

Sat Feb 14 Live Stream Valentine’s Day Show—

Fri Feb 20 TCAN— Natick Center for the Arts, Natick, MA (With Radoslav Lorković

Sat Feb 21 New Song, Bedford, MA (With Radoslav Lorković

Sun Feb 22 One Longfellow, Portland, ME (With Radoslav Lorković)

Sat Feb 28 443 Social Club, Syracuse, NY

Sun Mar 1 Beachland Tavern, Cleveland, OH

Thu Mar 5 The Loft, Manor Hill, MD

Fri Mar 6 Lyric Hall, New Haven, CT

Sat Mar 7 Packing House,, Willington, CT

Fri Mar 20 Swallow Hill, Denver CO

Sat Mar 21 E-Town, Boulder, CO

Sun Mar 22 Comedy Fort, Ft Collins, CO

Mar 26-28 The Opelika Songwriters Fest, AL

Mar 29 The Red Clay Theater, Duluth, GA

Fri Apr 10 2nd Friday Concerts, Belmont, MA

Sat Apr 11 House Concert, Newton, MA

Sun Apr 12 Club Passim, Jon Svetkey Birthday Bash!

Thu Apr 16 Bartell, Theater, Madison, WI

Fri Apr 17 Shoulder to Shoulder, Wausau, WI

Sat Apr 18 Hook and Ladder, Minneapolis, MN

Sun Apr 19 West Theater, Duluth, MN

Fri Apr 24 Off Cabot, Beverly, MA

Sat Apr 25 Boothbay Harbor Opera House, ME

Sun Apr 26 Vinegar Hill Music, Arundel, ME