I saw Jonathan Richman a little over a week ago at the Pearl Street ballroom in Northampton. He is one of my hero's and I think that the snippet below, written by Mr. Valania from the Philly Inquire, quickly sums him up in words better than I can. Below is a song for you to check out and pretty much expresses the magic Jonathan Richman represents in a nutshell...innocence, sincerity, playfulness, creativity, expressive and lovely. He is a diamond in the rough.

A charming, disarming, hope-filled minstrel

By Jonathan Valania

For The Inquirer

If Jonathan Richman didn't already exist, we would never have thought to invent him, which is a testament to his originality and to the shortcomings of our collective imagination. For more than 35 years, Richman has been a tireless advocate of hopeful romanticism, rugged individualism, and unyielding optimism, traveling the world like some postmodern Jimmy Stewart with a guitar, telling anyone who would listen that, despite all the hard-bitten cynicism that surrounds him, it's still a wonderful life.