Michael C Ford - Motel Cafe

From Ford's self-styled press release circa 1988:

While he avoids specific regional identification, Michael C Ford divides his vocational activities between suburban Los Angeles, California's north central valley and varied national spoken word engagements which range all the way from college campus performance spaces (UCLA, U of New Mexico, Harvard) to urban jazz bars (Vine St., The Palace Court) even to new wave venues (Hollywood's Lhasa Club, San Francisco's DNA Lounge).

Through the publication of approximately seventeen volumes of his prose, poetry and plays, critics continue to view him as a "quite passionate chronicler of American popular culture atmospheres." The Los Angeles Times goes further in calling Ford "a poet who immortalizes and, in many instances, resurrects not only the popular but, also, neglected regions, landmarks and celebrities in modern media history."

Ford's first public poetry reading experience occured in the Summer of 1969. He was in company with composer-poet Jim Morrison, poet-playwright Michael McClure and an entourage of Andy Warhol actors all in a bid to fundraise for Norman Mailer's mayor of New York City campaign. Since, he has performed in scores of FM-radio, Public Television and on-stage recitals. One of his one-act plays GODDESS LATITUDES was featured as a single character performance piece on a PBS theatre anthology series.

Michael C Ford's early allegiance to the Beat Generation of poets and their modern jazz connections has been seen as an integral part of his writer's melody and cadence. Bay Area Music Magazine talks about his adolescent apprenticeship with poets Kenneth Rexroth and Kenneth Patchen - "listening to their readings with pre-1960's jazz bands; so it isn't surprising to hear Ford's work out loud, not coming out of a pop music California dream, but like someone accomplishing a horn player's improvised meditation."
Robert Peters, author of two acclaimed volumes of modern poetry criticism, appraises Ford's most recent book LADIES ABOVE SUSPICION as an "enchanting, delightfully original vision sauced with brainy invention."

Michael C Ford's album LANGUAGE COMMANDO received a 1987 Grammy nomination in the spoken word category. His recently recorded work includes verbal portraits celebrating American contemporary music pioneers all the way from Milt Jackson, Charles Mingus, Shorty Rogers, Bobby Troup, June Christy and Flora Purim to Jello Biafra, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
One of his earliest chapbook-length poems SHEET MUSIC si, incidentally, dedicated to Morrison who, along with another of Ford's UCLA film school friends Ray Manzarek, cofounded 1965's seminal theatre-rock band The Doors and, now, some twenty years later, Manzarek appears occassionally putting a keyboard backdrop behind a special segment of Michael C Ford's concert readings.

Liner Notes

Released April 20, 1988
Blue Yonder Sounds in Association with Freeway Records

Words & Voice: Michael C Ford

Guest musicians:
Dos (Mike Watt & Kira Roessler): bass guitars on "San Bernadino Freeway Fugue"
Ethan James: synthesizers on "Natalie Wood/Lifesaver"
John Dentino: keyboards on "A Landscape Entitled Janet Leigh"
Ray Manzarek: piano on "Bungalow 3K7"
Richard Luther: vibraharp on "Packing Some Bags"
Joanne Grauer: piano on "Private Eyes for You"

Produced, monitored, compiled, edited & sequenced by: Harvey Robert Kubernik
Engineers: Ethan James, Richard Andrews, Michael James, Randy Tobin
Mastering: Michael De Cuir at KM Records Inc.
Cover photo: Jennifer Lagier
Graphic design & production: Steven Alexander/Flash Graphics
Executive Dude: J. Randal Johnson