Of all the aggravations and outright horrors to befall the United States in the Trump administration’s first year, one of the worst is the president’s dangerous belief that American exceptionalism means cutting our country off from the rest of the world. The border wall, the travel ban, the tightening of relations with Cuba, potential cuts to programs offering cultural-exchange visas—the list goes on.
No one understands this better than percussionist Barrett Martin. Known among grunge aficionados as the former drummer of Screaming Trees and the Pearl Jam/Alice In Chains-associated dark blues group Mad Season, 50-year-old Martin has spent the better part of his adult life traveling the globe, studying the world’s cultures through music. His curiosity and adventurous spirit have taken him to the Peruvian Amazon, where he participated in an ayahuasca ceremony; to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and, in 1999, to the streets of Cuba, where, as a musical ambassador for the Music Bridge program, he jammed with locals and shook hands with Fidel Castro.