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| Jesse Goplen: America's Next Folk-Rock 'Cowboy' Rides High At the beginning of the 2000s, Jesse Goplen was gearing up to conquer the world, throwing himself full throttle into his hopes and aspirations to change America's drug laws. He was an honors sociology student at the University of Wisconsin, preparing to go to law school and deeply involved in the movement for drug policy reform. At the same time, the self-taught musician boldly envisioned a potential dual career as a singer/songwriter. At 15, as an exchange student in Germany, he worked as a street musician and remembered the rush he got playing Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" for a crowd of thousands at an acoustic rock festival. He felt that same rush performing an acoustic set in the bitter cold at the Marijuana Harvest Festival on Madison, Wisconsin's State Street in 2001. He had written his first songs in the winter of 1997-98 while serving a six-month jail sentence for misdemeanor marijuana possession. When 9/11 happened, like a lot of idealistic twentysomethings, he questioned the purpose of everything, including his existence and talents, and found himself adrift creatively for a long time. What a difference a few years and a move to the fresh air, live and let live world of Humboldt County in Northern California makes. Recorded organically at home, Goplen's debut CD Cowboy is a raw, impassioned and above all brutally honest all-acoustic set that marks the emergence of an important socially conscious musical voice of our time. Although Cowboy is Goplen's first official full-fledged release, he received great notoriety for September Eleven Blues, his 2007 EP of 9/11 "truth songs" which featured the powerful title track and another called "Controlled Demolition". Both tracks received air and podcast play and were popular within the 9/11 truth movement as well as on stations like KRCB; they also received prominent mention on sites like www.911blogger.com. In January, he's also planning to do a series of free 45-minute online streaming concerts on his website (www.jessegoplen.com) for 20 days in a row. He's starting off 2009 with his first ever full-fledged solo tour, beginning in February, which will tentatively launch in Chicago and hit many of the Western states. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |