Samuel Birdsong is a native New Orleanian. His first two-and-a-half decades included schooling in the toughest of Catholic institutions + service during time of war in the U.S. Navy. The last two decades for Birdsong have been adventures in freedom + misadventures in film and television. Always an amateur photographer and coming on close to two years with a back injury, Sam is beginning to find renewed purpose in philanthropy with the 11:11 Philosophers and focus through documentation of an oral history project titled "The Musicians' Hierarchy of Needs."