BEN SCALES: Letter From God

Ben Scales

Letter From God

© 2003 Ben Scales (783707707228)

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Home is discovered here, 10,000 miles from the scene of the accident of birth, on a tiny island in the Western Pacific Ocean.

notes

Saipan is a tiny little island in the western Pacific where I've lived since 1993. It was on Saipan that I became a husband and a father. It was here that I decided that I'd rather make a little bit of money playing music than a whole lot of money doing anything else. These songs, all recorded on Saipan, comprise my debut album.

The tunes range from romantic cowboy ballads to philosophical ponderings to tender reflections on love and parenthood. The overriding theme throughout is Fun with a capital "F" - folk music with a smile.

Because of MP3.com, I've been able to measure my music's appeal outside of the two or three bars I'm used to playing at on Saipan, and it's been encouraging. One of my songs, "She Loves Me," has been in the top 10 of the MP3.com Acoustic charts five different times over the past three years. Another song, "After You Let Go," went straight to Number 1 on that chart as soon as I released it in February 2002.

But my biggest hit by far has been "Growing Marijuana In My Yard." Released in December 2002, this humor-based political anthem has topped the MP3.com Bluegrass chart almost every day since Feb. 10, 2003. It has also reached Number 5 on the MP3.com Country charts, surrounded by acts such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, George Strait, Mark Chesnutt, and Shania Twain (Mark's grand-niece, I guess).

On April 17, 2003, I was invited to perform the song at the NORML conference in San Francisco, after which High Times senior editor Steve Bloom called it "the musical highlight of the conference."

I'm a responsible family man, first and foremost, and I proudly support and promote reform of U.S. drug policy, which destroys families by incarcerating nearly 700,000 otherwise law-abiding Americans every year for simple possession of a natural plant.

My good friend and award-winning Texas songwriter, Billy Walden, wrote "Long Distance Blues," and he and I share writing credit for "Where Does A Cowboy Go?" I wrote "Who Got Da Pugua?" with my island braddah Ezra Johnson, a Hawaiian native who's lived on Saipan since the early 1980s, and who continues to teach me the true meaning of "ohana" ("family" in Hawaiian).

Thank you, Mahalo, Si Yu'us Ma'ase' from Saipan.

reviews

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  • wow!
    author: Philip B

    old people grow marijuna in there yard too! lol fav song there boy! :)

  • Great multi-mood perfermance.
    author: Joe Jacco

    I absolutely loved this CD!! The range of emotions is incredible. I primarily bought the CD for "She Loves Me", which is simply the best love song I have ever heard. Then "After You Let Go' is about the best breaking up song I have ever heard. Throw in the satire of "Dig Deep" and the sheer fun or "Growing Marijuana in My Yard" and you have one of the most eclectic CD's of recent memory.

  • this is a wonderful CD which I stumbled on by accident.
    author: James Clay

    This is a refreshing CD which includes some Carribean/Reggae flavor as well as great folk music.To anyone who really likes true folk and songs with a message, this album is a keeper.

  • Ben Scales belts out the anthem for today's medical marijuana movement.
    author: Berk Snow, host of Wild River, on KMUD & KMUE - FM, Humboldt Co.

    Ben Scales belts out the anthem for today's medical marijuana movement. This song should be aired on every community radio station - hear this, Clear Channel. Even if a medical marijuana patient can't obtain medicine, at least they can tap their toes to the voice of sanity in Ben's song. No one's immune to illness, and with a song, Ben's providing the antidote to right-wing plant-a-phoebes !

  • Scales entertains and charms in the vein of John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III
    author: Bill Dean - The Ledger, Lakeland FL

    The line that provides the title for Ben Scales' new album, "Letter From God," comes from the opening song "Dig Deep," a tongue-in-cheek tune that sets the rest of the album's tone of witty lyrics and cleanly executed acoustic guitar. A longtime Lakeland resident now living in Asheville, N.C., (and who annually returns to perform at Mayfaire by-the-Lake), Scales entertains and charms in the vein of John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III on such songs as "She Loves Me" and Where Does a Cowboy Go?" Others on the album, including "After You Go" and "Growing Marijuana in My Yard," have become big hits on mp3.com. The album is available on www.benscales.com.

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