Jake Kaida sponsors his way across the land as a farmhand, cook, organic gardener, landscape artist, writing instructor, mentor to at-risk youth and his favorite tasks---picking apples and gleaning grapes in the autumn. Blue Collar Nomad is a compendium of his North American travel and place-based pieces, which he composed between 23-35 years of age. These atmospheric poems, travel stories, and spiritual vignettes blend genuine working class ethics with jazzy intuitive language in order to rouse hidden emotions and knead spiritual nerves within the reader’s psyche.
Wandering is a collection of deeply moving travel/place compositions that form the soundtrack for Jake Kaida’s book. These musical pieces evoke the emotional fluidity as well as the various psychological nuances and changing ambiances that a nomad encounters in various locations. Matthew Tavis Johnson deftly captures the unencumbered rhythm and transitory openness that occurs during the transitional phases of traveling from place to place. Overall, the composer was able to delve into the intuitive vitality of each specific poem, travel narrative or spiritual vignette and render its musical heart.
Jake Kaida is an itinerant worker and spiritual pilgrim who has spent time in all forty-eight continental United States and several Canadian provinces. He has done this without the use of cell phones or any handheld technological devices.
Matthew Tavis Johnson is an accomplished pianist and musical composer who has released several beautiful albums over the years, including Reach for the Sky, Walk With Me, Light and Dark. He is also a member of the experimental indie rock band Evening Shades.