above: in this video you can hear the title piece of Stephen's new album, Where Do We Go?            above: Stephen performs The King of 3 Strings and talks music.

above:  Stephen plays his unique miniature guitar in the woods. Birds join in.               above: Stephen plays variations on a theme, using 6 of his instruments.

below:  What's Wrong  on miniature guitar        The Road West on acoustic guitar                       below:  Read the lyrics and hear Stephen's song, 
 Atomic Clock  voice and cigar box guitar                  with Yuan-Chen Li on guqin:                                                                                    Miniature Planet:                :                                                              

What's wrong, what's wrong with us people? Why do we hate, why do we make the same mistakes? Why does push come to shove, why can't we love?

Stephen with Yuan-Chen Li at the Grant Street Studio in Portland.

Click here to see Stephen perform Excuse Me, So-Called President and Miniature Planet at the Portland Musicians Rising Up Concert.

​Stephen talks about 2 of his instruments and plays A Pug Named Fred and Interplanetary Chatter at the close of the Music OMI
Guerilla Improvisation Concert at the Basilica in Hudson, N.Y. :

Above left: Stephen performs           Above right:  Stephen and Yuan-Chen Li     Pot of Gold, a song he recorded         perform their original piece, Flight in A,   on his first album with his band        at a music and poetry event Stephen       the Tree People in 1979. The                curated in Portland, Oregon. A baby     lyrics still ring true today,                     joins in with perfect timing and melody.

Miniature Planet                                                                                by Stephen Cohen                                      I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around,  I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, with miniature sights and miniature sounds and miniature cities and miniature towns and miniature people with miniature brains and miniature cars and miniature trains and miniature houses and miniature planes and miniature clouds with miniature rain and miniature rivers and a miniature sea and a miniature forest with miniature trees. 
I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around,  I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, with miniature sights and miniature sounds and miniature cities and miniature towns. There was a miniature election, with miniature selections and miniature choices with miniature voices in a miniature debate, with miniature candidates,  with miniature platforms and miniature stands and miniature minds with miniature plans. 
I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, so I'm singing this song with my miniature guitar, and here we are. 

Ride the Train from Here was the closing piece of the 2017 Music OMI Concert in the Fields. Music OMI is an international artist residency, and Ride the Train from Here features Stephen with artists from Peru, Nigeria, United Kingdom and Germany:

Stephen composed Garden of Bees on a beer-can guitar he made as an Artist in Residence in Belgium, and later created this video: 

Stephen used a beer can from a local Belgium beer for his hand-made beer-can guitar.

He composed the piece in a studio overlooking the bees, performed it in concert, then recorded it back in Portland.

Above: Stephen plays A Thousand Voices using his homemade 1 String Thing instrument.   

Below:  Stephen plays cigar box guitar on the                            below: Stephen with his homemade blue cigar box guitar and his 1 String Thing instrument
C.B. Gitty Juke Shack Stage in New Hampshire:                      2018 Pavement Performance Festival in the Pearl District, Portland Oregon.   photos by Meg Nanna:

   below:   Stephen at the 2105 Pennsylvania  Cigar Box Festival.                          Stephen performs his original take on Dr. Suess                      Stephen plays Red-Tailed Hawk at the Flying Monkey Theater,                                       photo by Ben Sussman:                                                                       at the Pennsylvania Cigar Box Festival:                                            2016 Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville, Alabama:            

   Below: 3 pieces with acoustic guitar: 1 hit song, More Than Yoko, and No More School:

This video below has Stephen's first album, The Tree People,                   And you can hear Thomas from the 1984 album by the Tree People,
recorded in 1979 in a studio in the woods near Eugene, Oregon,             with Stephen on voice and acoustic guitar, Jeff Stier on recorder,
and reissued in this century by record companies in Japan and Spain.       Jeremy Cohen on electric bass, and Denis Mochary on drums:      

​  Below left: a music video created by Stephen, Your Bus is Late​:                                      Below:  Living with the Animals:  another video created by Stephen:

Stephen created this short film/music video/work of art, the Cistern Symphony, at Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington in 2012, with a team of musicians and artists during his Centrum residencies. It was shown at the AVI Festival in Jerusalem, Israel in December of 2016.

​Stephen created his sculptural percussion instrument, an instrument he could get to while playing guitar, in the late 20th century, and did a series of performances and residencies with it in the early twenty-first century.

Here Comes the Band, Give Me That Toy, and Mr. Knickerbocker are on Stephen's 2006 children's and family album Here Comes the Band     Click here to see and hear more of Stephen's children's music and read about his interactive children's music performances. 

"Here Comes the Band" painting by Christopher Shotola-Hardt

Stephen with guest singers at the Long Island Children's Museum. photo by Ben Sussman

Stephen playing and dancing "Mr. Knickerbocker" at the Long Island Children's Museum. photo by Ben Sussman

"You Need to Get to Know Me" is from a 2001 Oregon Public Broadcasting Art Beat show featuring Stephen's residency at Wilsonville High School, where he assisted special education students, along with several music and art students, in creating instruments out of found and recycled materials, composing music and writing songs, producing a CD, Junk Jam, and performing at the Wilsonville Festival of Arts.