Description

David LaMotte is a songwriter, speaker and author. He has performed over 3500 concerts and released thirteen full-length CDs of primarily original music, touring in all of the fifty states and on five of the seven continents. The Boston Globe writes that his music “pushes the envelope with challenging lyrics and unusual tunings, but he also pays homage to folk tradition,” while BBC Radio Belfast lauds his “charm, stories, humour, insightful songs, sweet voice and dazzling guitar ability.” His most recent album, Still, features the number one song on Folk Radio in September, 2022 (September Me), and the album remained in the top twenty for six months. He has been a featured performer at top tier music festivals including the Kerrville Folk Festival, Merlefest, the Auckland Folk Festival (NZ), and the Australian National Folk Festival.

On March 15, 2024, David LaMotte was one of eight TEDxAsheville speakers who presented to a sold out crowd at Wortham Theater for the Performing Arts. After his talk was submitted to TEDx, David’s team was notified that the talk would be featured as an Editor’s Pick in July. The TEDx talk, based on David’s book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It or Not, was released on the TEDx Youtube Channel on July 30th to their 41 million subscribers worldwide. The talk is titled Why Heroes Don’t Change the World and it can be found on Youtube.

Upon its release, Why Heroes Don’t Change the World garnered over 35,000 views in less than 48 hours. In the talk, David challenges the hero narrative in modern society and contends that it is movements, not heroes, who ultimately achieve meaningful change. An online event on the night of the release had participants from 23 states and several foreign countries.