First, I am thrilled you took the time to listen to John’s new music, I believe" My Aeroplane" is just one song of an amazing CD. "Freedom’s Road" is not just a CD about America, but is really about everyman’s personal journey and the demons he confronts going down his own personal road to Freedom.

Second, why is it that we now have to judge every creative move in the short term of a few months. John’s frustration( your word) is brought about by our industry’s desire to only court and sell to youth. His core audience, like for many of his peers; are not adverse to buying new music, nor are they locked into living in the past (although we all like to visit it thru great music). That audience just has a different lifestyle, the freedoms and time that youth provides us for discovery, has been replaced by work and responsibility. It is much harder to break thru the daily routine and clutter, and seduce the brain to enjoy something new. If radio, (and NPR while great does not have the reach or repetitiveness to really impact an huge heartland audience), is not going to play his songs the way they did in the 80;s, then he has to find outlets and opportunities to speak to that audience.

I do not believe you will feel the impact of this song or the commercial in the first few weeks of a CD release. This commercial has proven its effectiveness, just in the fact that you have devoted a column to it. John is back on people’s radar, his music conveying emotion again to a wider audience. And little by little, that audience connects the dots of John’s rich musical past to his incredibly relevant and fantastic new music. Over the course of this year and next, the hope is that a Chevy truck ad will slowly and surely make all of his artistic and philanthropic work become more visible.

If some twenty something had written and recorded "Freedom’s Road", the critics, radio, and the whole music community would be screaming about the next great songwriter, one who had captured the American struggle on both a personal and national level…that artist would be on the cover of Rolling Stone, playing at Bonaroo and SxSw and Lollapalooza, and celebrated at awards shows.

But as a fifty something , who is cursed ( along with his peers) to be judged by his past work…..the outlet is TV and brands…and the hope that the visibility provided by that outlet, opens the mind of the public to listen. And that "road" is just longer, tougher and slower to produce results.

Thanks for listening and getting other people to listen. The commercial worked.