Olympia bard and poet Chester Baldwin, known under his artist name as Lord Baldwin, is an artist of great intellectual and emotional integrity. I have known Chester as a neighbour and friend for 25 years now, and I remain impressed by his passionate dedication to his art and the high standards he sets for himself in his writing and music to achieve the lyrical and artistic depth and quality of his songs. A man devoted to his community, his family and his deeply devout and humanistic beliefs of kindness and compassion, inclusion and tolerance, Chester's music is steeped in a sincere longing to share his life's wisdom, trials, perspectives, dreams and warm heart's hopes in order to communicate the importance of mankind to strive for a better, fairer world.
Lord Baldwin is as prolific as he is dedicated, his list of albums is impressive, and that is just going back for the last 7 years :
" Approaching Earth ", " World on Fire " ( 2013 ), " For Her " ( 2013 ), " Left to His Own Devices " ( 2014 ), " A Flash of Brilliance " ( 2015 ), " Alter Egos and Secret Identities " ( 2017 ), " Nevertheless " ( 2018 ), and " Dejando la Galaxia " ( 2019 ), and " Resilient ", the 2019 musical. Most of his albums are invariably double albums, for which Chester Baldwin writes not only all the lyrics, but also all the music, and does all the vocals and all the instrumentation. Truly a remarkable achievement each and every time. The 2019 musical " Resilient " is important because it showcases Chester's musical talent, as well as his writing talent, as the play has both the poetry of the songs and the prose of the theatrical scenes. A musical in two acts, of 14 and 12 scenes respectively, " Resilient " is dedicated to the homeless of the world, and specifically to the plight of the homeless in the United States, of which there are 552, 830 people as of 2018, with the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Rosa in California and the states of Texas, Florida, and New York City and Seattle, Washington having the highest percentage of homeless people. Lord Baldwin's musical humanizes an issue that tends to do just the opposite : treat the homeless as less than worthy of dignity and fairness, of compassion and a chance. The musical deals with the homeless in Olympia, Washington and the shuffle and ordeals the homeless people of our town endure on a daily basis for such basics as food, hygiene, such as a chance to shower and wash clothes, a warm bed and a safe place to sleep. Through a cast of characters that hit close to home as the main character Hoot, is a musician and bard, and his wife, Faith, a kind, wise woman, in which I recognized Chester and his wife of over 40 years, Diane, and young men and women that speak closely to friends and acquaintances, and family of Chester and Diane, if circumstances had been less kind and found these souls so dear to them homeless and struggling for hope and survival. Private is a veteran down on his luck, Jerome is a man struggling for a second chance, Bobby is a female boxer who is worried about deportation, Princess is a teenager fighting for a fragile happiness, Gladstone is an earnest young man who falls in love with Princess, Angel is a young woman who is trying to reconnect with her mother, Scrounge, a hard but well meaning woman, and there is also a kind and savvy dog, loved by everyone, Dumpster. The plot of the musical centers around the closing of the homeless campsite, and the anxiety and fears surrounding this emotional upheaval. The plot of the story is interspersed by very timely songs, 16 to be exact, which give a deeper insight into the individual characters and their challenges, hopes, and dreams. A deeply moving song is song number 5, " They're Taking Over ", which is sung by Jerome, and deals with the all too sad reality, politically speaking, of a sharp turn to the right, here in the United States, but unfortunately also just about everywhere else in the world, including in Western Europe who saw the horrors of the extreme right and the fascist Nazi nightmare and its genocide, with the Holocaust, which became the worst genocide in human history, perpetrated in the heart of Western civilization. The gradual indifference and contempt toward people who are different, more vulnerable, more marginal, through circumstance or just plain bad luck, is a dangerous slope and we see here already its ugly shadows of racism and callous neglect of the poor take hold. " Resilient " deals with this issue earnestly, being realistic, but also very determined to believe that the tide might turn, if awareness is spread, and kindness finds its way back into the political agenda when it comes to social issues.
Chester Baldwin's musical does a good job highlighting also that homelessness is not just an idea, a reality, it is people, real people, with real aspirations, with hopes and dreams, people whose hearts, minds, and sometimes bodies, have been broken, fractured, bruised, damaged, and who struggle to get back to the place before things went badly for them. The second song of Act I, " Struggling to Get Back " sung by the character Private, a veteran with PTSD, deals very honestly and poignantly with that very dour reality for so many disenfranchised veteran soldiers. The second song in Act II, " Looking like the Enemy " sung by the boxer Bobby, who is worried about deportation, is a wry song that deals with the stark truth of a muddled and broken immigration system. The play deals with the hopes and dreams of the old and young: Hoot, the main protagonist, honestly confronts approaching old age, in the very moving song number 3, in Act I, " On the Cover of the AARP ", as he muses in a bitter - sweet way of letting go of his musicians's dream to be on the cover of the famed Rolling Stone magazine, and settles for the hope to be someday on the cover of the AARP magazine for retired folks instead. There are love songs dealing with a broken teenage heart on the part of the character Angel, and the fruits of a mature steadfast love that Hoot and Faith celebrate, in " She Takes Care of Me " in Act I, and " My Best Friend " in Act II.
"Resilient " is a brave musical, as it tackles in a very artistic way a delicate subject a lot of people rather not think about, let alone dedicate a musical creation to. Yet, Lord Baldwin's artistry does both, it provides serious food for thought with a thoughtful, sincere script and very real, believable characters, and it delights with musical interludes that are warm, heartfelt and beautiful, in lyrics and melodies. I sincerely hope Chester Baldwin finds a good, solid cast for his musical. It deserves the attention for its sincerity, its artistry, its fluidity in plotline, its well fleshed out characters, its beautiful songs, and its very deeply touching gift of making us aware that there is at least one artist in our town who takes the situation of the homeless community to heart. Bravo, Lord Baldwin. A true win for the iconic bard of Olympia. My deepest respect for this never faltering poet - songwriter of the heart and mind, relentlessly pursuing his dreams for a better world.
Trudi Ralston
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