"They are all linked, but music is superior to literature and politics. You can listen to a great song 5000 times and grow each time. You can't read a novel or a poem or hear a political speech too often...its unmoving - sometimes it's rhetoric. Toilet paper."

Tom Russell: The Rose of…

"I think the whole concept of the outlaw or the counterculture is the concept of the outsider and the outsider is very real, that’s their connection, just people that don’t fit in who want to change things, that’s where they meet and are one and the same to a certain extent."

John Dorsey:  Off The…

"All of the best literature is countercultural because it challenges commonly accepted ways of thinking and living."

Hassan Melehy: Langue, Poésie et Musique

Hassan Melehy is Professor of…

"Many of the counterculture’s progressiveness regarding sexuality, drugs and technical innovation (in writing and art) have been absorbed into the mainstream of Western culture and its value has been appreciated."

Alexander Adams: Visual Literature…

"The Blues is an art form that allows the artist to express those life lessons in song. That we all have things in life we have to deal with. Happiness, sorrow, good times and bad. No matter our race or nationality we are all members of the HUMAN race with similar but individual problems."…

"Jazz and Blues were an important part of the Beat movement and I think it has to do with the idea of a search, for the creative impulse to make something new and express your own ideas to the listener/reader."

Paul Rogers: On The Jazz Roads…

"If given the choice, today’s youth would choose the Beats over Podhoretz by an overwhelming majority. The older following discovered the Beats in their youth and simply continued to enjoy their literature."

Michael Schumacher: Howlin' Lion Blues…

"The joining of music and poetry influences the way information is received and perceived. A good musical riff will call the words up; an electric poetic phrase is music to the heart."

Pamela Twining: Dancer Of Rhymes…

"Bohemians were outside the box as well as the young people today following Slim (Gaillard) and speaking the Vout."

Mark Gaillard: Vout-O-Ree-Nee Cool Cat!

Mark Gaillard is the…

"Blues/ jazz is based on improve which I see as a direct connection between the artist and the spirit mind/heart of the people. The Lakota say music carries the prayers of the people."

David Lee Carson: Archetypes Visions…

"Across the whole planet, populations are dividing into futurists and conservatives. Obviously a peaceful revolution which celebrates humanistic change at the expense of small power elites will make this world a better place."

Daevid Allen: From Another…

"I hope that artists continue to be more open and expressive, collaborate more, continue to learn from one another, and are never afraid to express their ideas, no matter the state of politics, war, religion, or whatever else is going on in the world."

Rich Ferguson: The Voice of…

"People make music (or any art for that matter) to express themselves: their joy, their suffering, their love and their loss of love."

Zachary Richard: J’Aime La Vie

Cultural activist,…

"Writing is one way of documenting my actual experience—the content and sensations of my life, including my mental life, my emotional life, my physical surroundings, everything I become aware of."

Randy Roark: True sounds from a poet…

"I miss most about the Beat family was their willingness to open their houses and lives to us, the next generation’s poets. It was an inspiration to meet people who were artists and that was enough and every conversation was between poets."

Randy Roark: The Lotus of the…

"Beat writing was to a certain extent influenced by Black music and speech patterns in the manner of its composition which could be compared to oral improvisation, a kind of lively street corner jive."

Pat Nolan: Nualláin Roadhouse Blues…

"The poets need music and music needs poetry as a way of grounding itself in human life: consider that dance and movement-are connected to music in subtle ways."

Warren Leming: Aristophanes Blues…

"The Blues and Jazz touch deep emotionally resonant chords in anyone who is open to heart soul spirit sex. The Blues and Jazz are real vibrant life force energies."

Ron Whitehead: …

"The Beats have a youthful way of looking at life and questioning the status quo, which is why youth will always be attracted to them."

Mellon Tytell: Outside The Comfort…

"Outlaw is about bringing something new to the word, the poem, the lyric, or the music. Robert Johnson was an outlaw because of what he invented."

Tony Moffeit: Shaman of Outlaw's Tribe

Tony…