Jesse Slokum

The son of a Croatian immigrant sailor, Jesse Slokum grew up in the fifties & sixties in Rockaway, NJ. Exposed to many "folk revival" singer/songwriters and traditional blues greats while working at Seton Hall University's WSOU-FM, volunteering for a folk music program, Jesse began his extensive travels about the US, by moving to NYC's East Village in 1967. A restless spirit, he has criss-crossed the country many times since then, playing coffee house settings, taverns, and by choice street, settings. I found my voice on the hiway sides and street corners and park benches (Including sitting in Lafayette Park, at the suggestion of a friendly Secret Service officer, facing the White House in 1995. He liked what he heard, Slokum says!)

A trip to Sullivan County, NY in August 1969, for the fabled Woodstock Festival, led to an inclusion in a crowd response sequence in Richie Havens' FREEDOM Medley. It's Jesse's back that gets zoomed up on, when Havens begins chanting CLAP YOUR HANDS! Viewers see Jesse begin doing just that - as he turns back towards the stage, people around him stand & join in.

After this he adopted the identity of Busker4FREEDOM. Jesse's been crafting his songs of Freedom ever since. One of them, Shadows of FAME, reveals what it's like to write, play & sing for the LOVE of it, no matter what, with or without the bright spotlight...

Jesse Slokum began making cassette recordings of his material in 1986, with the original equipment from the old Jack Gilfoy Studio in Bloomington, Indiana. Speaking of Bloomington, although Jesse's lived and performed in San Francisco, and Berkeley, CA, Tucson, Arizona, Atlanta, Georgia, it is in Bloomington where friends helped him record another effort in 1993, called "From HERE To Jubilee."

The title song, speaks of life in the US since GHW Bush got elected in 1988, and what the future may bring. A song Jesse's being singing all over the US for 20 years, it sounds as if it was written last year.

"Alchemy of HOPE" is a compilation of songs from the last 22 years, including 3 "singles" recorded by the able Dewayne Schunn, of Perfec-schunn Studios in Bloomington. Baby SPOONS asks the musical question, "Now that we can send a rocket past Jupiter & its moons, how come we can't turn all those army tanks into Baby SPOONS?"
(Written in 1984, Baby Spoons is more current than ever, these days...)

Recently, September 15th, 2008, saw Jesse Slokum do his second Bloomington Songwriters Showcase at the Players Pub, along with 3 other singer-songwriters. A highlite of the night was the ad-lib rendition the audience was treated to, when the others joined Jesse on Baby Spoons with guitar, piano and violin.
This song was especially well received during Jesse's opening set of the Tylerland Studios 2nd Annual All-Star Jam at Rome, NY's Snubbing POST, December 20, 2008.

Jesse's played & sung before 10,000 people at a Stonehenge Rock Concert on the Indiana U campus, been a stage guest of Michelle Shocked twice for her "Strawberry Jam" song (both in Bloomington, IN), and jammed it up with Rock Legend Buzzy Linhart in Oakland, CA.

Jesse is currently in the midst of a new recording project at Tylerland Studios in upstate NY. A rough mix of Golden DAWN, recorded with drums, keyboards, and guitars can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/busker4freedom