Alex Gaw

Today is the last day of my fundraiser for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in honor of Hersh (z"l) and his family. All sales on Bandcamp through the end of the day will be donated. Today is also Bandcamp Friday. The Forum advocates for the return of the hostages and the end of the war.

I've had much greater success with this than I expected. I'm very proud of the amount I've got to donate so far. But it's still nothing compared to what we could achieve if you shared it with folks you know who might be into it.

https://alexgaw.bandcamp.com/track/hersh

Bring Them Home Now

Hersh, by Alex Gaw track by Alex Gaw

I'm releasing my song Hersh on August 18th. It's a tribute to Hersh Goldberg-Polin (and his parents Rachel and Jon). Hersh was one of the "Beautiful 6," who were murdered by Hamas in a dark, cramped tunnel, after being held there for almost 11 months under horrific conditions.

In the months before his death Hersh became one of the most recognizable faces of the hostages, probably in large part because of his seemingly inexhaustible parents, who became the most recognizable faces of the hostage families--traveling the world, talking to anyone who would listen, showing their fierce love and full humanity to the entire world. Sadly it wasn't enough. The world failed Hersh and the other beautiful 5 souls who were murdered, just as we have failed all the others who haven't and won't come home. We continue to fail them.

Since Hersh was murdered in a tunnel days before he was found, we don't know exactly when his yahrzeit (the anniversary of his death on the Hebrew calendar) is. But the closest I can figure, he died around the 24th of Av, which this year is August 18th.

It would mean a lot to me if you could listen to this song.

If you want, you can pre-save it here:

Hersh by Alex Gaw Stream and Pre-save Hersh - Distributed by DistroKid

Hey there, don't mean to interrupt your day, but What Love Can Do is now streaming on all platforms, and I just thought you'd like to know that. Go check it out!

Here's the spotify link, but it's also on Apple Music and Youtube!
https://open.spotify.com/track/6NEbpK62KIz2oyWUJDdvCF?si=f4eTZbs2S3KRbEZpApvdMg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3wx1DDS23wGwEsv3IFU4mB

It's been a tough couple months. It's been difficult to find time or energy or motivation to make music. The few songs or poems I've written have all been about Oct 7 and its fallout.

So it was really nice last weekend when I had some downtime and it was a beautiful day and I finally felt like playing music. It helped that I was working on a cover of a beautiful song by and I really wanted to get to where I felt comfortable sharing it (see previous post).

So I sat on my back porch and I played. I played her song a bunch, and I played some of my own songs, and yes some of them were about Oct 7 but it still felt really good.

Then the next day I went into the backyard and there was a piece of wood lying on the grass. It hadn't been there the previous day. It seemed weird. I looked more closely and noticed the words "Flip over" and a string. Now I was starting to feel nervous. I don't know, maybe it was a type of bomb I'd never heard of or there was a severed finger or a sw****ka or something else horrifying. I told my son Ezra to back away just in case, and I turned it over with my toe.

I saw this folded up note with a little flower and the words "to the guy with the guitar," and I was still nervous but not as much. I mean, it could still be upsetting. It could still be a note telling me to get my filthy Zionist colonist family out of Northeastern Round Rock. But at the very least it wasn't a bomb, and there's no way a finger would fit in there.

I opened it and read and my heart swelled. A passing stranger had connected with me and my music. I got to be part of a beautiful moment. I'm so grateful they took the time to tell me about it, even if it started out scary.

Thanks kind neighbor, I hope your year started as sweetly as mine did.

-The guy with the guitar

My mom asked me to make this shareable on Facebook. Is this how you do it? Probably not but here we are.

Day 2 spiders Short and sweet or at least short anyway. I wish I were better at recording myself playing because I like the chords and would like for them to have come through more clearly even as I try to play quietly and not disturb my housemates whom I love. #songtober23 #songtober

Oh heck, it's out now! If you like machines, or songs, or songs from machines, or literally anything at all, you might like this compilation! My song, Cold Shoulder, is song 15. I'm so astounded that I get to be in such extraordinary company.

https://open.spotify.com/album/28YBrK2dGrzTB4LXkFsmXN?si=BOhtTYyjTZq5RKZdibOG3A

The Song Machine (Song Machine Version) The Song Machine · Album · 2023 · 17 songs.

I'm very slowly working on a full album, but in the meantime, a song of mine is going to appear on a compilation album from my song game, The Song Machine. The album is comprised of one song for each participant who made it through a year of one song every two weeks and let me tell you it includes some fantastic musicians and songwriters. It also includes an attempt of mine to produce one of my own songs. I think the results speak for themselves, which is why I'm having my album produced by someone else.

If you're of a mind to pre-save, well boy howdy have I got some good news for you.

I have.

It's in the form of this Uniform Resource Locator (URL):

The Song Machine by The Song Machine Stream and Save The Song Machine - Distributed by DistroKid

"My dentist takes beautiful pictures
of wildlife

specifically birds"

God bless John Elliott

Well I mailed my unofficial EP in physical CD format to three radio stations. It involved effort. Maybe my songs will be played in Olympia WA, Austin, Houston, or some combination thereof? I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm watching James McMurtry for the first time and it's incredible. Unfortunately I've also listened to Gary Floater so I'm bursting into gut laughter every time somebody yells "yessir!" Which is often.

I just heard a guy in my gym mutter to himself "come on you fat f**k, get it up" while struggling with a final bench press rep. I felt really bad for him so now I'm telling myself "go for it, you worthy poet" before deadlifting these saucy fellows

My latest release, Keep Dreaming, has 44 streams on Spotify. It was released in February. Don't end up like me, friends. Promote your releases.

Also I guess here's a link in case you want to be lucky number 45 oh my god what did I just say

https://open.spotify.com/track/6PfmNu8fsS4oesFoyKrFHT?si=AxivcQiuS7m8_DsJdMMztw