Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – One of the stronger November storms on record passed through Los Angeles on Saturday night, but inside The C.A.P.O. Center all was of good cheer. Jail Guitar Doors USA musicians put on a record release party and fundraiser for the opening of a cafe that will help provide youth with job training and income.
The record release party for Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls’ “Earth Fire Water Airborne” served as the centerpiece of the night’s festivities.
Check out our interview with Jason Heath here.
The C.A.P.O Center is part of the non-profit Jail Guitar Doors USA, which empowers “youth and adults impacted by incarceration through creative programs that support reentry, recovery, and employment.” The initial vision of Jail Guitar Doors USA, founded by the late Wayne Kramer of MC5 fame, was to provide music workshops at jails across the country.
The opening of The C.A.P.O. Center expanded that vision and houses a recording center, film and computer lab, a dance and performance space, a classroom, and a podcast studio. Now, the non-profit hopes to raise enough funds for a cafe.
Heath’s roots rock performance was filled with social justice messages. Not all of the band’s music focused on social justice. For example, the song “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” was a non-stalker (unlike The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”) that was meant for the algorithms. The band also reached back into their music catalog to play their Bob Dylan inspired “Thunderstruck.”
Heath serves as the Executive Director of Programming for Jail Guitar Doors USA. Other members of the staff showed off their musical talents during the night: Director of Operations William Olivas, Director of Client Services Luke Reynolds (performing under his band name Morrison & The Underground Affiliates), and Case Worker & Policy Advocate Kenzo Sohoue. Laena Myers and Cole Berliner, who mentor bands at the non-profit, performed four songs. Also, the band that Myers mentors, Fluffy Pink Bunnies, played as well.
Laena Myers (formerly of The Like and FEELS) was kind enough to provide some thoughts about her involvement with Jail Guitar Doors and how it has impacted her life:
“I started working for Jail Guitar Doors in the Fall of 2019 after wrapping up touring to support my old band FEELS’s last LP, ‘Post Earth,'” she said. “I knew I wanted to find employment that centered environmental and/or social justice activism, and long story short I found out about JGD through my friend Guy Blakeslee, who was working for them at the time.
“I hadn’t anticipated finding work that incorporated both my passions for music AND activism in one – it seemed almost too good to be true – but when I went into the office and talked with Wayne [Kramer] and Jason [Heath] it immediately became clear to me that this was the real deal and I was in the right place,” Myers said. “I’ve been involved with them steadily since then in many different capacities but mostly as a teaching artist facilitating a few classes a week, between working as a musician and songwriter in my own right.
“Being involved with JGD has impacted me in more ways than I can count but I suppose most profoundly in reaffirming the power of music and artistic expression as a tool for healing, for connecting and for shifting perspective,” she said. “Everyone has a story to tell, and although our stories may be very different, at the end of the day we all have a lot more in common than not; we are all cut from the same beautiful cloth.”
Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls setlist: In Love with My Gun, Fair Fight, Children Chains and Razorwire, A Perfect Sound (Don’t Be Afraid), 6 More Miles, Postcards from The Hanging, Thunderstruck, A Fighter’s Lullaby, Can’t Get You Outta My Head, Earth Fire Water Airborne, Devil Ain’t Talkin’, Jail Guitar Doors jam session, KOTJ.
Check out ‘Earth Fire Water Airborne’ here.
