Dan Samples is a folk singer / songwriter with a large library of work at coolanddark on Youtube.com.  This song is a classic American folk song about the legalization of medical marijuana.

Download audio file (Dan Samples – The Medical Marijuana Song.mp3)

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

John Gilliat is a Canadian-born musician who has been playing the guitar since he was nine years old. By the time he had graduated from High School, he was ready for his first tour across Canada and the US. After his first tour, he took the time to formally study his art.

He studied with jazz masters at Capilano College. It is there where he fell in love and was inspired by the Flamenco guitar. Taking his cue from Flamenco masters like Paco deLucia, Vicente Amigo and Nino Josele, he spent the next six years studying Flamenco and practicing 8 to 10 hours a day.

 In 1995 John won Best Acoustic Guitar Performance in the Music West Star Frets Competition and Vancouver’s Unplugged Competition in 1996. He won the Grand Prize at the Boss Loop Station 2009 championship National Finals.

Gilliat continues to offer new direction and contemporary expression to Flamenco, Nouveau Flamenco and Flamenco Rumba, touring festivals and headlining concerts with his quartet (bass, 2 guitars, and percussion). He even finds time to perform regularly with Vancouver’s hot gypsy jazz club quartet, “Gypsalero”. Today’s Tune is called “Smoke”, and it highlights the zesty Flamenco Nouvou Style that has become Galliat’s signature style.

Download audio file (John Gilliat – Smoke.mp3)

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Chief Greenbud is not only a great singer/songwriter in the Nashville tradition, he’s also a right swell dude.  We met here in Portland when he came out for our Million Marijuana March.  Then I got to go to Nashville and speak at a Tennessee NORML event, so we met up again and headed back to his basement studio (or as I might call it, “Chief Greenbud Nashville Studio Headquarters”).

He played a little bit of this tune for me, “The Hit That Makes You Cough” and I was ready to sing along the obvious next line (“is the hit that gets you off”), except he was bound and determined to have me prove that line of the song, so I was coughing at the time.

You can get more Chief Greenbud music at myspace.com/cgb.

By the way, the “Chief” part is a verb, not a noun.  As in “to chief (to smoke) green bud”.

Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (Chief%20Greenbud%20-%20The%20Hit%20That%20Makes%20You%20Cough.mp3)

Welcome back, Stashers!  I hope your Thanksgiving was chocked full of turkey, or tofurkey if you’re a vegan, or turbaconducken if you’re aiming for clogged arteries and an early death, and lots of, um … sacraments, let’s call them.

Oh, who am I kidding?  I hope you smoked yourself silly!

Who is that handsome redheaded man to the left, you ask?  Why, that’s me!  Now, I promise the Stash will never become a venue through which I will self-promote.  It is, and will always be, a showcase for artists across the country.

That being said, after hearing Chief Greenbud’s tune on the Stash last Wednesday, it made me realize that I wrote a holiday themed song about three years ago called “The Chrimmis Time Blues.”  It’s a silly song that’s somewhat pot-related, for a silly EP called Chrimmis Time! and has sat in the vault that is my computer’s hard drive ever since I wrote it.

And since it’s Monday and Monday = bluesday, I thought I’d play the song for you.  It’s nowhere near the caliber of Mr. Greenbud or any of the other music I’ve featured here, but it’s cute and funny and I think it will start off the holiday season (whatever that may be for you!) nicely.

Oh, and here’s the MP3 if you wish to download it!  The Chrimmis Time Blues

If you’d like to hear more of my music, you can head to my myspace page or to my website.  Now, enough self-promotion!  :)

I’ll be honest here.  I wasn’t originally going to put this song on the Stash because it doesn’t have anything to do with pot, and the reference to “smoking” involves the act of smoking things out of caves.  But then I was reminded of this recent news story and that, coupled with the fact that this song is really good, was enough to make me post it.

Poorfolk is a the project of Ottawa, Canada resident Jonathan Pierce.  Pierce was once in a “party-math rock” band called The Marato.  I find the concept of any math rock being party-worthy intriguing.  I mean, who wants to dance to an alternating 7/8 and 5/4 beat?  It’s nearly impossible!

Anyway, their website is down right now but I’ll link it in case it comes back up, and, as always, you can check out their myspace page.  If there’s a band out there that doesn’t have a myspace page these days, they deserve a medal.

Have a great weekend Stashers, and I’ll see you on Monday!

Poorfolk
“Cave Smoking” (mp3)
from “Poorfolk”
(White Whale)

More On This Album

Happy Election Day, Stashers!  I know that the Stash is meant to be a bipartisan spot where everyone’s opinion matters, and so I won’t be bringing you any music today that sides with one candidate or the other.  But I will bring you a song that sides with one particular issue — peace.  Maria Daines’ ”Peace Wins the Election” is a wonderful 60′s-esque song about peace and finding a voice within the confusing and frustrating electoral process.  Who can’t identify with that?

Ironically, Maria herself is from Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, so she can’t vote here, but I think she and everyone else in the world is anxiously awaiting the results.

You can listen to more of Maria’s music on her website, or her myspace. 

You can also check her out on music.podshow.com.

  mp3 download

Before I go, I’ll say it again, like everyone else has been — if you haven’t gone out and voted yet, please do so.  It’s not a privilege, it’s not a right — it’s your duty as an American citizen to make your voice heard.  And the marijuana rights movement certainly won’t get anywhere if you don’t make yourself known and accounted for.  Nobody should feel like they have to smoke cannabis in the dark.  Turn the lights on, make yourself known, make yourself heard.  Especially those of you in Michigan, Massachussetts, and California!

Here’s to hoping for change!

I assure you that I am cool.  I’m Josh Belville, Russ’s younger brother, and some of you may remember me from this post.  Well, Karri is getting too busy with her DJing gig that she has passed the podsafe Stash music search into my capable hands.  I thank her for this opportunity and hope that I can find only the best pot and social justice-related songs for your listening pleasure.

Now, I may deviate a bit from what Karri likes to put on the Stash.  My preference is indie pop/rock stuff, but I also have a particular love for certain types of dance and electronic music (so beware the occasional techno…).  I also want to find songs about social reform and justice and liberty and freedom (which all of you Stashers deserve!), and that search has led me to this song: “Liberty” by Up Stairs.  It’s a nice mellow acoustic track about a girl named Liberty, but is obviously a thinly-veiled metaphor for, well, actual liberty.  Those songwriters sure can be sneaky.

Up Stairs is Tim Oneal and Andrew B. Davis, and you can hear more of their music on their myspace page.

Before I go: Musicians!  Bands!  If you want your music featured on the NORML Daily Audio Stash, please friend us at NORML Safe Music!  Myspace is the best online tool for musicians, and NORML Safe Music wants to help get your music and your message out to thousands of listeners across the country!  So send us a friend request and we’ll keep in touch!  Thanks!

For more information on Up Stairs, see http://music.podshow.com.

mp3 download