This is Wakefield's first release, in 1999. Dynamic, engaging, enigmatic. Buddy Wakefield delivers a ten-track CD of poetry and music that is seductively honest, with enough energy you could use it to jump-start your car on a February morning in Alaska.

11 MP3 Songs
SPOKEN WORD: Poetry, SPOKEN WORD: With Music

Show all album songs: A Stretch of Presence Songs


Details:
Before Buddy Wakefield went on to win 3 spoken word world championships, when there was only the idea to create something as thoughtful as the lyrics he was raised on, with direct aim at catharsis, he made the CD "A Stretch of Presence" in 1999. That was 10 years ago. Here's his current bio:

BUDDY WAKEFIELD is the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC, HBOâs Def Poetry Jam, and signed to Strange Famous Records. In 2004 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals thanks to the support of anthropologist and producer Norman Lear then successfully defended that [arbitrary] title at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands against the national champions of seven European countries with works translated into Dutch.

In 2005 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship again and has gone on to share the stage with nearly every notable performance poet in the world in hundreds of venues internationally from The Fillmore in San Francisco and Scotlandâs Oran Moore to San Quentin State Penitentiary, House of Blues New Orleans and CBGBâs.

In the spring of 2001 Buddy left his position as the executive assistant at a biomedical firm in Gig Harbor, WA, sold or gave away everything he owned, moved to the small town of Honda Civic and set out to live for a living, touring North American poetry venues through 2003. He still tours full time and considers recent tours with Ani DiFranco, I Am A Lagan, and Solomon Sparrowâs Electric Whale Revival to be the highlight of his career thus far.

Born in Shreveport, LA, mostly raised in Baytown, TX, now claiming Seattle, WA as home, Buddy has been a busker in Amsterdam, a lumberjack in Norway, a street vendor in Spain, a team leader in Singapore, a re-delivery boy, a candy maker, a street sweeper, a bartender, a maid, a construction worker, manager of a CD store, a bull rider and a booking agent. Wakefield is a growth junkie, an expert witness to the moon, avid player of marbles in the trees, elated son of a guitar repair woman, wingman of Giant Saint Everything, is void of S.T.D.âs, and remains generally hopeful for his health despite an abusive relationship with free range pastry buffets.

Buddy, a Board of Directors member with Youth Speaks Seattle and member of Team Seattle 2006 and 2007 for the National Poetry Slam Finals, is honored that his work is published internationally and has been used to win national collegiate forensics competitions. Also a member of Solomon Sparrowâs Electric Whale Revival, Wakefield is known for delivering raw, rounded, high vibration performances of humor and heart.

THERE IS NO ACCLAMATION FOR THIS ARTISTâ¦

â¦except for the time one of Buddyâs heroâs, Benjamin Morse, called him âMonster of Energy, Keeper of Hope, Friend of My Soulâ¦â That was a good one.

MORE ACCURATE BIO:

In the Fall of 1984 Anchor Bay Entertainment released a movie called Children of the Corn while Buddy lived in front of the corn fields near Niagara Falls, NY. This traumatic event (coupled with extensive exposure to Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie) may or may not have led to Buddy becoming a sensitive poet puss who plays marbles in the trees, listens by talking, and keeps fingers on pulse. HI MOM!