Singing for Change
February 16, 2026
ISBN-13: 9781950561193
When a mass shooting shatters the lives of a journalist, an NBA star, and an LGBTQ activist who cross paths at an airport, their bond—and their healing—take center stage at an anti-gun music festival organized by Dutch, a reclusive '60s musician determined to turn grief into a rallying cry for change.
REVIEWS
"...it is the characters and their lives before and after the attack that makes this book so compelling, especially as they come to terms, in their different ways, with the changes wrought in them by the trauma. And once again the logic of the argument is so obvious when viewed from this side of the Atlantic that it is difficult to describe it as politically partisan. It seems much more like common humanity."
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"...Chico writer Emily Gallo (emilygallo.com) has charted the lives of a group of unlikely friends. Many wind up at Dutch Bogart’s former pot farm in Garberville. The reclusive Dutch, a former Sixties musician, lives on song royalties.
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Among the “motley crew” is Buster Fingerpickin’ McCracken, a famed blues musician now in his eighties. When Dutch gets a call from “Playing for Change,” a charitable foundation “trying to spread music for social change around the world,” the opportunity to make a music video along the boardwalk ignites something deep in him, and he’s able to persuade Buster to join him. That’s when Dutch meets audio assistant, Vivienne, a reporter for the Haiti Liberté, and he is smitten."