I am preparing for my third cross-country motorcycle tour in as many years, I have a variety of creative services to offer, and I am looking for people to connect with along the way. The first year launched my “Motorcycling Music Across America” campaign through 18 states and culminated in a performance in Nashville on my birthday. Last year had me riding through 24 states and Washington DC to explore the legacy of Will Rogers, who I’ve been performing as for the last five years. This year’s tour includes screening the documentary I produced about last year’s tour and a performance of my one man show based on his political humor.
In it’s entirety, the show I’m offering is called the “Steve McAlphabet Wandering Soul Road Show”. It opens with a twenty minute version of “The Cowboy Cabaret”, where audience members get to choose what songs are played as I tell them about the mythos of the cowboy. That’s followed by a screening of the 62 minute film “The Road To Will” about my journey to nearly a dozen memorials to Will Roger around the country. After a short intermission, I give roughly an hour long performance of “Get The Bunk Out”, which infuses Will’s wit and wisdom with my own original songs and poetry, and I usually like to follow that up with a talkback with audience members who want to stick around.
I’ve also got 16 songs that have already been softly released by Steve McAlphabet and the Wandering Soul Band, and I’m seeking out other artists who would be interested in collaborating on some of the 24 other original songs I’ve written so far. In addition to strapping my guitar to the motorcycle, I will be bringing my 1959 Olympia manual typewriter, which I use to write “pay what you want poetry” for people who might like a custom poem written in ink on paper with human intelligence instead of digital poems written by artificial intelligence. And I’ll be able to dropship copies of my upcoming coloring book called “A Group of Critters”, based on my poem about the various names for groups of animals from an obstinacy of buffalo to a zeal of zebras.
My intention is to use the coloring book and songs I produce as example of a theory I’ve developed called “ABC Squared Economics”. As a multi-faceted artist, I am given the opportunity to be the Artist of my life. To do that, I rely on people who are in the Business of helping me get what I need, I engage in the Citizenry of the world I live and play in, and I get to contribute to my Community to alleviate suffering and bring support wherever I can. Since challenging myself to live without money for a year over a decade ago, I’ve been putting my theory into practice with the meager amount of money I’ve made since, and I think that in the growing digital age, it could be quite effective in helping us balance not only the Market Economy, but the Core Economy, the Planetary Economy, and the Gift Economy as well.
All that is to say that I have a lot to offer as I set out on this next adventure, and I am seeking out people who would like to connect with me along the way. Whether you’d like to help me get a place to perform (whether it be a stage or a living room), a place to sleep (all I really need is somewhere to hang my hammock), some food to eat, good conversation and company, or if you’d like to be involved in a collaborative creative project, like the documentary series I’ll be producing during this tour, or if you’ve got any ideas on writing the ABC Squared Economics algorithms, I would love to share this journey with you.
