David Byrne Is Optimistic-- And #1

When I was considering an offer I got to work at Sire Records one of the big factors in the "plus" column is that label founder Seymour Stein had signed an amazing roster of the artists I liked listening to and playing on my San Francisco radio show. One of those artists was David Byrne, then lead singer of Talking Heads. I don't think there's any artist's music I listen to more now-- 4 decades later!-- than David Byrne's songs, his Talking Heads music and his solo projects. He just released his 11th solo record, American Utopia and something happened for him that is truly amazing: it entered the charts at #1. That never happened for any of David's music before. The song above, "Everybody's Coming To My House," his the first single, something he collaborated with the Detroit School of Arts' Vocal Jazz Ensemble (and Brian Eno).



The album is the soundtrack for his touring show Reasons to Be Cheerful, an attempt to spread positivity in the Age of Trump. He's sincere too. Think of this as a Ted Talk and let David explain what he's actually doing, instead of me trying to: