This one's called the 4th of July. Summer was the hardest part of my treatment. It was vacation season and everyone was clearing out of town, but Ever and I were stuck in LA so I could resume chemo and begin six weeks of radiation. I spent the days strumming Uncle Dave's guitar and wishing I was anywhere else. The wish must have made it’s way into the guitar because I stumbled into a different tuning and, with it, a set of chord changes that sent me on my way. It was built on a framework of cowboy chords with a western lilt and I was determined to give it words then and there. I turned to the memory of a road trip my brother Matt and I had made a summer or two back, aimed for the east coast. Out on the highway and going state by state, one pocket of America after another all the way across this humongous country, felt like just about the most freedom you could have. I remember trying to tune into whatever was on the radio as we made our way across because it made me feel connected to the places we drove through. I'd have done anything to be out on the road with Matt that year. I'd been so blessed to be free as a bird all my life, until now. But all I could do now was conjure up the memories, and write about it. So I ruminated on my experience of freedom and on America and the 4th of July. That year, we were a nation at war, and while I was working so hard to save my own life, it made me real mad to think of our flag being waved for the soldiers dying in the name of freedom when it felt like they were really dying for something else. We got a great version of this song on Stars & Curses that feels like a firework in slow motion. Immergluck plays an LSD soaked guitar. Will Golden provides hallucinogenic backwardsy swirls of sound. Oli Kraus's cello feels like rain on hot asphalt. We're in a tough stretch as a nation, but this is for all the cancer patients stuck in hospitals today, fighting for their lives. May you never have to spend another 4th of July in a hospital. ✌️&❤️ #4thofJuly #cancersurvivor #singersongwriter #songwriter #songs #fuckcancer #cityofhope #pediatriccancerawareness #livestrong #musicmaker #stars&curses #grateful