David LaMotte
Speaker • Author • Musician
I’m thrilled to announce that registration is now live for our 2025 Roots & Branches retreat, Oct. 2-5 in Montreat, North Carolina. Please check out the details below. I look forward to spending some time together!
It has been quite a year for me, with the release of the new TEDx talk and a beautiful calendar of events. I’m deeply grateful, and somewhat baffled, to find that my career seems to be on an upward trajectory here in the second half of my fifties. But Broadway? That wasn’t even on my […]
Dear friends, It has been an extraordinary couple of weeks in Western North Carolina. The destruction has been incomprehensible, and the community solidarity and compassion overwhelming. My family and house are fine, and so many friends are not. Power came back yesterday, and I put together this music video to my song, Here for You, […]
We are in countdown mode for the release of my TEDx talk, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like it or Not, and excitement is building. We have a great team working on putting this together, we have launched a whole new website, and we are planning and rehearsing for the online Launch Event on Tuesday night, July 30, […]
Thanks to the New Castle News for this article about my upcoming trip to New Wilmington, PA. Author, speaker, musician, peacemaker to speak at Westminster David LaMotte, author of “You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not,” will speak at Westminster College on Monday. The 4 to 5 p.m. free event at Mueller Theater […]
“To be hopeful in bad times is not being foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of competition and cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness… The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, […]
This was such a fun conversation, and a poignant ride on a Time Machine back to 2006, when my record Change was released. The album features Stephanie Winters, a close friend and brilliant cellist, with Chris Rosser in the producer’s chair. It’s unlike any other record I’ve made, and I love looking back on it. […]
Here’s the “Sizzle Reel” that the amazing organizers of TEDx Asheville 2024 put together. The theme for this year’s gathering is “Meet the Moment,” and all 450 seats at the Wortham Center are sold out. Really looking forward to this!
If you have a half-hour drive coming up, I’d love to ride along. I really enjoyed this podcast interview by David Diana on the show he hosts, A Look Within, from the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. David is a great conversation partner. I hope you will enjoy listening in. All good things, David
Yeah, I know… it’s a Hallmark holiday, but it’s a good excuse to share a few love songs. The big news, though, is the unveiling of a new video for my song The Way It’s Done. Beth Wood sang with me on this one on Still, and months later, we shot a video together. I […]
So this is happening. This photo is of a class at Westminster College in Pennsylvania that I had just finished doing a lecture a few months ago. Now, in the new semester, there is a class being taught with my latest book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, as the […]
My brothers-from-other-mothers Dawud Wharnsby and Billy Jonas and I have a musical trio together, Abraham Jam. All three of us are songwriters and have musical careers on our own, but we have gathered together from time to time over the last dozen years or so to make music together. We are not currently touring, but […]
…if you’re trying to put Wyoming in there, or Montreat, or Guatemala, or Scotland. If you need things that really do fit in stockings, I can hook you up on bookmarks, guitar pick tins full of guitar picks, or bumper stickers, CDs, books, etc., but, as someone once wrote in a song, “there’s no present […]
I’ve been a fan of Christine Lavin’s since I first discovered her music in the early nineties. She’s insightful, sings and plays beautifully, and she is incredibly, side-splittingly funny (often ending her concerts with a baton-twirling routine). A great entertainer, and, as I’ve discovered more recently, a wonderful human. I kind of guessed that last […]
I got the word yesterday that my song September Me is a finalist for the 2023 USA Songwriting Competition in the Folk Category. The winners will be announced on Nov. 22, and there are some great songwriters on the list. I’m honored to have made it this far. Below is the Folk finalist list, if […]
An invitation for you… To learn more, here’s the link. And please tell friends who you think might be interested! The easy link to share is: www.rootsandbranchesretreat.com Hope you can join us! David
Such a delight to have a good long conversation with my friend Alonzo Johnson about changing the world, on the occasion of my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, being published on Chalice Press. I hope you will enjoy it, too.
I have long been a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the United States’ oldest peacemaking organization, and I hold them in high esteem. It was pretty amazing for me to open up the most recent edition of their magazine, Fellowship, and find this two-page spread about my song, Look Away, and the […]
I’m really grateful for this good conversation with Doug Pagitt about my new book on Chalice Press, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not. Doug is doing good and important work with Vote Common Good, and I am grateful to call him a friend. I hope you enjoy the interview.
powered by Crowdcast (note that David and Hannah have created a web page that goes into the details of production and other aesthetic choices they made in the making of the Look Away video. Check it out at www.LookAwayProject.com) Join Hannah Garrity and me this Saturday at 2PM for the release of the new music […]
Hey friends, I’m in Ireland on a family vacation for a few more days, trying to survive the rental car in the two-lane left-handed roundabouts. So far, so good. I’ll be home this Thursday night, and I’m going to be at the Montreat Bookstore at 2PM on Friday to read a bit from my new […]
Hey friends, I’ve got some exciting news to share. The release date for my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, has been set! It will be out in bookstores on July 25, 2023, less than three months from now. Foreword by Brian McLaren. What’s more, you can now […]
In 2004, Deanna and I got married. Being a fairly nerdy pair, we couldn’t think of anything more fun to do on our honeymoon than go to Guatemala, stay with a family in a homestay, and go to language immersion school for two weeks. It was a blast. We made some friends while we were […]
Hey friends, I’m taking an amazing trip with good friends this summer. You’re invited. My dear friends Gareth Higgins and Brian Ammons lead retreats in Gareth’s native Northern Ireland, and they have changed a whole lot of lives through that work. Here’s a bit about their retreats from their website, irelandretreats.com: The story we tell […]
The Folk Alliance International Folk Radio Charts for January of 2023 were released not too long ago, and it seems that my album Still, released in June of 2022, is still in the Top 40, at #35. That’s eight months running in the Top 40! Its highest slot as an album was #4, and it held […]
As the world continues to gradually reopen, I’m so enjoying being back on the road. To facilitate that process, I’ve just begun working with not one, but two new booking agents to help me organize the calendar and connect with the venues who might value what I’m doing. In the early part of next year, […]
Here’s a new music video for my song “Thinkin’” that I’m very excited to share with you! I’m planning on releasing three new music videos before the end of the year, so keep in touch by subscribing to my YouTube channel now. I would also love for y’all to sign up for my mailing list […]
I’m thrilled to have received the word that my song “September Me,” from this year’s release, Still, was tied for #1 as the most played song on folk radio in September, 2022! It’s an honor to share that slot with the legendary Canadian folksinger James Keelaghan. Folk Alliance International compiles the data, and just put […]
In August I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina to speak and play at the STEPS conference, an annual event for church educators and other leaders put on by Charleston Atlantic Presbytery. This time together was three years in the making, as I was booked to do this event when the pandemic interrupted so many plans. […]
Big news to share! I have signed a publishing deal with Chalice Press to publish a new edition of my book Worldchanging 101: Challenging the Myth of Powerlessness. The new book, with significant updates and new material, will be called You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, and is due in […]
I really enjoy a good conversation. All three of these were good conversations, on varying topics, and I hope you will enjoy them! Resilient Expats, with Kim Adams https://resilientexpats.com/ep-28-you-are-changing-the-world-with-david-lamotte/ Kim holds conversations about living and parenting cross-culturally, and we had a rich conversation touching on many topics. Let’s Talk About It, with Pripo Teplitsky https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-begins-at-home/id1435550119 […]
As the pandemic finally appears to be fading, it is good to be able to gather in person again. We also have a lot of healing to do. With that in mind, I’m inviting you to come spend some time with me, with three options coming up to spend more than an evening (of course, […]
Hey friends! I hope you can join me for this very special event. There are only about 20 seats left for this one (as of Friday morning), out of 50 total, and 100% of the proceeds will go to Faith4Justice and BeLoved Asheville, two great organizations in Asheville. The concert will happen at American Vinyl […]
Every Monday, I send out a video of a song to my Patreon community, just to start the week off with a little bit of music. Last week, I had to work for it! Jess Fox, who helps me out with video, thought it would be fun to chop together an outtake reel, and did […]
Hey friends, Thank you for stopping by to check out this new project. I’m really thrilled to be launching this Kickstarter campaign to help birth this collection of songs, and I appreciate your consideration of helping to midwife! Here’s a little video about the record and how Kickstarter works (with big thanks to David Saich […]
On the first weekend in May, I’m gathering some friends for a weekend retreat in Montreat, North Carolina. I’d love for you to join us. Here are all the details. Hope to see you in the mountains in May! David
