dont miss our very own Mike Pallamary this Sunday at noon...
34th annual Adams Avenue Roots & Folk Festival
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; Adams Avenue , between 34th and Wilson , Normal HeightsFree; (619) 282-7329 or www.AdamsAveOnline.com
Fight the power!
By Mikel Toombs
April 19, 2007
...Sometimes, there are ways to measure such things. Mike Pallamary, a fledgling local singer-songwriter who performs Sunday on the Di Mille's Stage, has seen his antiwar anthem “Hero” rise to the Top 20 (out of over 1,700 songs posted) on Neil Young's Web page Living With War; the long-outspoken musician features the forum on his official site, www.neilyoung.com. “I listened to Neil Young yesterday, his (live in 1971) 'Massey Hall' album, and he did that acoustic version of '(Four Dead in) Ohio .' You just listen to that and you start shivering,” Pallamary said. “Neil Young is phenomenal and he's a phenomenal inspiration in a great many ways. One is, he's not backed down. He's been unwavering in his position. And his music is still innovative and fresh.”
Pallamary, who has a MySpace page – www.myspace.com/mikepallamary – that includes such fresh material as “We Don't Need Another Wall” (referring to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial), would seem an unlikely protest singer. “When I started playing my songs,” he said, “I had some friends who said, 'Gee, how could you be against the war? You're a Republican.' And I said, 'Well, I'm first and foremost a parent and a grandparent.' How could anyone of any political persuasion believe that death and killing is something to be admired or even desired?”
Pallamary is just not any Republican, but a former member of the San Diego political establishment. As spokesman for then-Mayor Dick Murphy, he was an early favorite in the 2001 District 6 City Council race, eventually won in a runoff by Donna Frye (Pallamary finished third in a 12-candidate field).
“The problem with politics is, of course, if you have a good position or a position that has merit, you will probably be attacked,” Pallamary said. “If they disagree with you, they will find a reason to invalidate your position. With music and my songs, I can just put them out, and if people disagree with them, don't listen to me, turn me off. But they can't stop me from saying the things that I feel that need to be said or I want to say.”
