Couldn’t be more excited to share that I’ll be opening for one of my all time favorites, Mr. Chuck Ragan at The Armory on Fort Collins, CO on August 22nd.
Hope you got your tickets. We’ll see you there!!
This month, my essay, "Sleepers for Seekers" appears in Fretboard Journal issue #59. The essay is accompanied by a work from artist Donald Groscost. Over the last fifteen years my friendship with Don has informed nearly every part of my life, providing a north star in times of darkness, a compass in times of confusion and a coconspirator in times of seeking. It is with that timely prompt, and the perennial struggle of worker-writers to keep creating in the face of uncertainty that I share this essay.
It was originally published on May 30, 2017. I’ve made some updates.
Read it now, only at The Lunch-Bucket Letters on Substack. All essays are free. Please share if you dig.
A shot from the other day at @rosies.loveland . It was a great night of music and comedy with @theactualbaileypope , @benroy00 , @bobbypelligrinocomedy and @fablesofthefall .
Calendar is clear at the moment, but should have a few new dates to announce shortly.
If you are rolling through Colorado this summer and need a local opener, hit me up.
📸 Terry Georgia
My latest essay, "Sleepers for Seekers: The Koan of the Cheap Guitar" is in the latest issue of Fretboard Journal.
The piece is highly personal, going deep into both my spiritual and musical journey. Most notably, the essay also features a piece of artwork from my pal @donaldgroscost - a collaboration that we've talked about for years, and couldn't have found a more fitting home for than FJ #59 with @jefftweedy on the cover.
Grab a copy, give it a read, and let me know what you think, what is a real value of an undesirable guitar?
"Can the right guitar calm the nerves? Writer Noah Lekas delves into the zen of music as a discovery journey and what Krishnamurti calls a “conclusion mindset” through the lens of guitar. Art by Donald Groscost."
Special thanks to @jasonverlinde for always expanding conversations in the guitar universe.
My latest piece for The Lunch-Bucket Letters examines the Politic of Strength and the Classism of Violence in America.
In it I discuss everything from "American Notes for General Circulation" by Charles Dickens, The Crime Against Kansas speech, Congressional cage fighting, Killer Mike and the Kimberly-Clark warehouse fire.
Strength, violence, politics and class are inseparable in American history, from the beginning to the adolescent shows of force and performances of intimidation that we see today.
This essay examines the conflation of violence with virtue and suggests that anti-violent worker-led intervention may be the straightest path forward.
Give it a read, share if you dig, and comment "Lunch-bucket" if you'd like me to DM you the link.
Solidarity Forever.
Visited some of the most sacred ground in America's 100+ year labor struggle.
The Ludlow Massacre Monument sits just off I-25 about fifteen miles north of Trinidad. Many history books retell the story as a "vicious skirmish" but on April 20th, 1914 the Colorado National Guard and a private militia shot and burned women and children who'd been pushed outdoors, living in tents after bosses retaliated against striking miners by kicking their families out of the company housing.
It's a harrowing story, one that is all too often lost in the sanitized retelling of the labor struggle. The eight hour day, the weekend, health insurance, medical leave, pensions, everything workers in post new deal America grew to expect were bought with blood, and as we watch working conditions deteriorate, the long memory is once again our greatest asset.
“Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision, not of where we're going, but where we want to go.” - Utah Phillips @theutahphillipslibrary
📸 1: I recorded a couple songs at the site, including "Which Side Are You On" and "Solidarity Forever". During the first refrain of "Which Side" a strong wind swept across the field, chilling my spine to the bone. I am not sure if I'll post the video. Picture taken by @maascomedy
📸 2: The UMWA built this monument in 1918. Etched into the sigh are the words "Be Union".
📸 3: This is the "death pit". Workers built cellars under their tents for women and children to avoid the gunfire. Guardsmen and private detectives lit the tents on fire, burning women and children alive. Today you can step inside one of these preserved pits.
📸 4: A dedication at the site.
📸 5: An old mining car sits alongside the site on a piece of old track.
📸 6: The Ludlow Massacre Monument with the death cellar door in the foreground. Flowers and trinkets of solidarity are placed by workers who regularly make the pilgrimage.
"If blood be the price of all your wealth
Good God, we have paid in full."
Thank you to everyone who came out to a show this past weekend. It was an incredible run with my good friend @theactualbaileypope cruising up and down the Front Range from Trinidad to Loveland, CO.
Shout out to @maascomedy , @nathanlundcomedy , @benroy00 , @bobbypelligrinocomedy , @dura_mater_denver , @devinjamesfry and @fablesofthefall for joining us. Good music, killer comedy, great people and union organizing. I'm already looking forward to the next go round.
📸 @andrewmrowley at the IWW Union Organizing Summit and Social, April 25th, 2026 in Denver, CO.
"There is no perfect sentence in labor organizing. It is not merely marketing nor is it an advertising campaign. Focus groups, consumer testing and the strategic tricks of propaganda will only take us so far. Likewise, just as there is no perfect sentence to crack the code of solidarity, there is no perfect platform to ease the pain of community building."
In my latest issue of The Lunch-Bucket Letters, I get into the difference between organizing and educating, and the importance of an in-person labor movement.
"Instead of saying 'The system is rigged' or 'Democracy is an illusion' I believe the more accurate statement is that the wealthy practice class solidarity regardless of political persuasion, and it is time for the working class to do the same."
Hit the link in bio to read the full piece.
#Union #LaborOrganizing #Solidarity
We've been talking about doing a run of shows together for as long as I can remember, and next month, it's finally happening.
@theactualbaileypope + @noahclekas comedy and music tour is coming to Colorado this April.
4/23 @trinidadlounge Trinidad, CO
4/24 @tridentboulder Boulder, CO
4/25 @goosetowntavernbbq Denver, CO
4/26 Rosie's Barbershop Loveland, CO
Tickets are on sale for all four dates and full show lineups are hitting shortly.
Special thanks to @yeehawbarbietattoos from our favorite local shop @satoritattooco for the poster art.
Grab your tix and we'll see you in April.
Some days you get to play John Denver’s one of a kind Ervin Somogyi 12-string. Excited for this story to hit @fretboardjournal in the near future. If this guitar could talk, Denver played it at the White House for Reagan and Lord knows where else. It was built by Somogyi in 1987 and the guitar still travels in Denver’s prized leather gig bag, complete with an engraved sacred dove.
#johndenver #fretboardjournal #ervinSomogyi
