Name: Inside Deliberation by Peddlers of Joy
Duration: 2 min 57 s
Description: Experimental Word Art from Award-Winning Poet, M. D. Friedman

In 2020, during the lockdown, a group of mystical women came together on zoom to sing their healing prayers for the world. We met every week for many months, weaving our voices together with deep intention. 

All my love flows like a river
Out into the world to the deep blue sea
Bringing hope to all it touches
Rolling like a wave coming back to me

While we couldn’t hear everyone singing due to the limits of zoom, we could feel the energy of the whole circle, and it was truly delicious! We decided to make a collaborative video of this chant so that we could share this healing-song energy with others. I created a basic track for everyone to sing along with and each woman created her own vocal part and recorded it at home, most with their cell phones. I wove it all together into this beautiful chant.

The video was created in the same way. Videos come from Boulder, Colorado Springs, California and Jamaica. To see the mesmerizing video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUppXG4Nezs

So much gratitude to Caitlin Arce, Harpiar Kaur, Tanya Brody, Phoebe King, and to all the lovely women who showed up for our circle. I can still feel our resonance!

Like A River

Big Willy with Mad Dog Blues performs Mad Dog Friedman's "Powerful Love," recorded off the mixing board at on September 8, 2021 at Brookdale Senior Living in Centennial, Colorado.

Best of Our 2021 Better Than Ever Tour

Powerful Love - Live Band Bootleg 9-8-21 - Brookdale

Mad Dog Blues' performance of Jeff Becker's "Water in the Well," recorded off the mixing board at on September 8, 2021 at Brookdale Senior Living in Centennial, Colorado.

Water in the Well - Live Band Bootleg  9-8-21 Brookdale

A stellar Mad Dog Blues performance of Mad Dog Friedman's "Shine," recorded off the mixing board at on August 9, 2021 at Niwot Tavern in Niwot, Colorado.

Shine - Live Band Bootleg 7-26-21 Niwot Tavern

Mad Dog Blues' performance of Mad Dog Friedman's "Alone Is My Home," recorded off the mixing board at on July 26, 2021 at Niwot Tavern in Niwot, Colorado.

Alone Is My Home - Live Band Bootleg 7-26-21 Niwot Tavern

Mad Dog Blues - Never Again - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-04-14

As you can probably work out from the lyrics, this song is about the Book of Revelation, its author John of Patmos and the breaking of the Seven Seals, bringing on the apocalypse.
It emerged in a recording by Blind Willie Johnson in 1930, so this is going way back.

It’s a classic “call and response” blues, 
[call] Well who's that writin'? 
[response] John the Revelator

Mad Dog calls it an “easy one chord song,” and here I am behind the mic thinking, easy for you maybe!

The actual music might be easy, but often these songs were used for work songs where the tempo sets the work rhythm and pace.

Artistic musical flourishes become less of an issue compared to holding the tempo.

The call and response keeps everyone’s attention on that tempo.

This performance has that crisp and measured tempo, right on the money.

It’s a live recording, no messing around, and this is how it would have sounded and been used.

One chord might be easy, one steady tempo, not so easy.

A great performance.


Mad Dog Blues - John The Revelator - Tempo Review

In Your Eyes

Experimental Word Art from Award-Winning Poet, M. D. Friedman

Inside Deliberation

Here is a three and a half minute aerobic harmonica workout @ 145 bpm.
Peter Madcat Ruth - harmonica
Brennan Andes - bass
John Churchville - drum set and tablas

New Sixteen

This beautiful chant was written by the group Libana. I love the image it invokes of women taking wing and moving as one. 

There's a river of birds in migration
A nation of women with wings

This is my interpretation, using layers and layers of lush, interweaving vocal harmonies. I also made a lovely video for this song. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03B3KG2q3xg

A River Of Birds (Libana)

Experimental Word and Sound Sculpting by M. D. Friedman

M. D. Friedman is a poet, teacher, musician, digital artist, photographer, television producer, videographer, small press publisher and web master. 

He writes from the moment chiseled fresh with revision and draws influences from sources as divergent as William Butler Yeats and the delta blues. His poems have appeared in numerous small press publications and e-zines.  His fifth volume of poetry, Leaning Toward Whole, was released by Liquid Light Press in 2011. He has won numerous awards and contests including the New Zealand Poetry Society 2008 Poetry Contest.  His spoken word performances often incorporate musical elements such as blues harmonica and sound sculpting with live effected Theremin.  He is the founder of the popular Internet Poets’ Cooperative web site and is one of the originators of a new genre of poetics called Digital Poetry.

As a musician, songwriter and composer, M. D. Friedman performs over 100 shows annually, mostly in Colorado, and plays regularly in four different ensembles.  His recording credits include appearances on over half a dozen albums including Jenn Cleary’s Back to the Wheel and Papa Juke’s Out of the Blues, both of which have received significant critical acclaim and international airplay.  His web site at www.maddogharp.com is the gateway to all his musical events and projects.

His digital art has been featured in galleries and juried shows across Colorado where it has won several awards. His art represents an evolution from capturing (through photography) the beautiful and peculiar in our world to expressing (through digital creation) the beautiful and peculiar within us. The resulting works are sometimes startling, sometimes subtly intriguing, but all map the personal journey of the artist from photographer to poetographer, from collector to creator and from seeing to being. It is the artist’s hope that the joy and self-discovery intrinsic to his work will be contagious to the viewer.  His website, www.digitaldada.org, represents an effort to explore the transformational impact of digital creation on contemporary culture.  His personal website, http://www.mdfriedman.com, offers access to all his creative ventures.



Inside Deliberation

Peddlers of Joy

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