Someone recently asked me why I’ve called Devi’s debut album Get Free. Here’s the story. One birthday a friend handed me a slim book titled Zen Guitar. The author’s name was Philip Toshio Sudo.

“That’s funny,” I thought, “I used to know a Phil Sudo.” I turned the book over and read that Sudo was a musician living in Maui with his wife and children. Couldn’t be the same guy. The Phil Sudo I knew was almost certainly still fidgeting miserably at his desk at American Banker newspaper.

That’s where I’d last seen him, back when I was a punk rock guitar player who freelanced for AB to pay for my East Village rathole. I’d traipse in to see the editor, ignoring the reporters snickering at my thrift-store dress and Doc Martens.