Broadjam Artist: Michael Cregan
Song: HUngry and Cold
Reviewer: Kate Carpenter
Positive Comments: Here’s a song about the man that you see standing on the freeway ramp, holding his sign, begging for help. This is really well-written and the performance is convincing and grabs the listener by the collar. Definitely a shake-up, unsettling song for anyone who has looked the other way rather than right into the eyes of our exit-ramp beggars. There’s some really fresh and clever lyric-writing here “when the sun went blue” “life in a bag” (love that!). I appreciate the honesty of the lyrics. He’s not just dissing the drivers. He knows he was one of them at one time. The chorus is convincing “but tonight I’m hungry and cold.” That’s what really matters to him right now.
Constructive Comments: I think I’ve only heard one other song on this subject…you did a fantastic job on this. I like the way you get inside the head of the man asking for help. “so many things I could have done”. This is a really important song, and I am so glad you wrote it. I hope that wherever you perform it, it will do some good and make people think. I always keep packaged food in my car for these guys. I have also read articles on how much they pull in per day (tax free). But how do you know who are the “real down and outers” are? How do you differentiate between the able-bodied people who prefer begging to working? It’s a quandary for sure!