We recently connected with Graham Guest and have shared our conversation below.
Graham, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
Back in the nineties, when Moses Guest was a three-piece band (guitar/vocals, bass, and drums), and we were writing distinctively grungy songs, we still got labeled a jam band. I could never understand this. I liked the Grateful Dead but was not a Deadhead, and I really did not like Phish or Widespread Panic. Still, to music writers and a lot of other people, we were a jam band. Ultimately, I realized that the writers and everyone else were right and that it was I who had misunderstood and mischaracterized myself and my own music. Moses Guest, I realized, was some kind of southern jam band at heart, so we – Rick Thompson, James Edwards, Jeremy Horton, and I – just let that inner jam band out, and it was really liberating.
Graham, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been active in the creative arts in the Houston area since the mid-nineties. I started a band in 1995 called Moses Guest, named after my fifth-generation grandfather. We played intensively from 1995 until 2005. Since then, we do shows whenever we can. When we play, we usually play in Houston, either at The Continental Club or The Last Concert Cafe. Last time we played in Houston, we played at Heights Theater. Occasionally, we will take a short tour. The last short tour we did was in 2018 to the Rocky Mountains, namely Idaho (where I used to live). We have some eight CD albums (www.mosesguest.com). We were about to start playing more shows when Covid hit. I currently live in the UK, with my family, but when we move back in a year or so, we plan to start playing shows again.
I not only write music and lyrics, I also write books. I have written three; Winter Park (Atmosphere Press), Tailgater (Atmosphere Press), and Henry’s Chapel (Sagging Meniscus Press) (www.graham-guest.com). Henry’s Chapel was published this year, on February 1, 2022, and I am particularly proud of it. It took me twelve years to write, so it was really a labor of love. All of my novels are probably in the category of psychological-philosophical-noir. I am lucky enough to have been woefully over-educated. I have a hard time remembering things, but I do love school – both learning and teaching. I have a PhD in English from the University of Glasgow, and I am currently working on a second PhD, in philosophy, at the University of Dundee, My daughter, Edie, is at Badminton School in Bristol, UK, which she loves. I guess we have found something great about getting an education in the UK.
When we move back to the States, I plan on splitting my time between Houston and Colorado.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
We are seeing now the negative effects of over-valuing science and under-valuing the arts and humanities in education. We are seeing now the negative effects of under-valuing education, period. Make education political priority number one; overhaul the curriculum such that arts and humanities receive equal or more attention than the sciences, and pay teachers a lot more.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I had known about meditation earlier in my creative journey. It really helps even things out. It would have been a really healthy tool out on the road with the band – better than beer even!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mosesguest.com www.graham-guest.com
Image Credits
Ron Fontenot Karolyn Veselka