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February, 2005 - So how about this one....I was at a small birthday party in New York a
couple of weeks ago and ended up sitting at a table with Kurt Vonnegut.
Now I knew that he might be there, and by the way he is (and I mean
this) my favorite writer of all time, so I had a copy of Fields and
Fences on me ready to give to him if the opportunity gracefully
presented itself. At some point we struck up a conversation, not about
his work (what do I say that's enough about that?) but about the music
business. We ended up speaking for perhaps forty-five minutes. He’s
eighty-three years old but his eyes are six. It was incredible having
the chance to sit there with him. Near the end of our conversation I
handed him the CD and said it would be a great honor if he would accept
it. He immediately opened it, took out a pen and asked me if I'd sign it
for him. Has a more humbling or satisfying thing ever happened in my
career as an artist/writer....no.
I've been writing for and with other people almost full time since
Fields and Fences was completed. I haven’t been playing out almost at
all...I'm sorry. Sorry because playing these songs is why I wrote them.
Keep watching and email me if you like (I eventually see them all), I
hope to be playing near you soon. I will be writing and perhaps playing
in Belgium, France and the UK in the spring and summer, I'll let you
know where and when.
One last thing....if you haven't seen the pictures of Titan, the largest
moon of Saturn, that were sent back by the Huygens probe, then you've
got to go to the the web site of the European Space Agency. At first the
pictures don't look like much, black and white patches oddly quilted
together. But one appears to be of a mountainous coast line with river
basins. You've got to stare at that one and think about it being a world
840 million miles away and a camera that traveled eight years to get
there. Then read Vonnegut’s "Sirens of Titan"...then look at that
picture again. Now that will keep your eyes six-years-old.
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September, 2004 - Here’s the thing...I haven’t been playing out much. I promised you
and me that I would but it just hasn’t come together yet. I’m working on it. What I have been
doing, thanks for asking, is writing and recording a lot. Primarily with an artist I call
Emma Foxall.
We began writing together over a year ago after
I saw her do a show and fell in love with her voice. We’ve created this Bossa-Nova,
alternative, pop, bengali (not necessarily in that or any distinct order) vibe. We’ve
just gotten it to the point where we are shopping a deal for her. It’s not "Fields
and Fences" that’s for sure. It’s more of a "Peter Gabriel meets Elis Regina for
cocktails in a small club in Paris where classically trained Indian musicians are
playing Roxy Music covers, and over the course of the evening they have a beautiful,
but eventful, love affair" kind of a thing.
I did recently record a "Songwriter’s Circle" for National Public Radio
(http://wpln.org/songwriters/)
with Phil Lee and Joy Lynn White, and a cable TV show
called "Words and Music" for WTVF channel 5, with Suzannah Spring,
http://www.newschannel5.com/content/fiveplus/967.asp.
"Fields & Fences" is doing well. Bonnie Bramlett (of Delany and Bonnie) heard it and
was gracious enough to ask that we write together, which we did. She was, and is, great
to work with. What a voice. We came up with a song called "Waiting On the Rain" that I
hope you’ll be hearing soon.
That’s enough for now, I have unfriendly sinuses and I can’t think straight, or stop
hearing music. That’s what my mind seems to do when my head hurts, tries to drown it
out with song, it doesn’t work and I get caught in between. Everybody!..."Oh Suzy Q,
Oh Suzy Q....."
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March 3, 2004 - Suddenly it's warm here in Nashville. My garden
would be coming up if our dog hadn't dug up and eaten the bulbs over the winter.
I just found out that I'm playing a Tin Pan South show with Holly Williams (Hank Jr.'s daughter
and of course Hank Sr.'s granddaughter), Marcus Hummon (wrote "Ready to Run" for the Dixie Chicks
and "One of These Days" for Tim McGraw among lots of others) and Marv Green (wrote Amazed for
Lonestar). We're evidently on just before Kenny Loggins. The show is at 12th & Porter in
downtown Nashville on April 1st. I've played with both Holly and Marcus before, don't know Marv
but it ought to be fun.
They found undeniable evidence of once flowing water on Mars yesterday.
Kind of scary...makes you realize how completely things can dry up. I'm hoping that they discover
there was also life. That there was intelligent life. I want them to turn a corner on some
barren red-rock landscape and see a little scratched-out picture done a billion years ago by
an unimaginable guy who sat by what was a river. I don't care much what the scratches mean,
just that some witness took the time to say "I was here" and it lasted.
Oh yeah....Tricia Yearwood was excited about cutting "From Now On"
(first song off of "Fields & Fences") in December. Unfortunately the excitement wore off. Dogs
dig up your garden and rivers turn to dust.
That's just the way it is sometimes. Hope you're well.
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December 5, 2003 - So now it's almost 2004. Three years after the Space Odyssey, twenty
past Big Brother, thirty-nine since The World of Tomorrow fizzled out.
But you know... I'm feeling all right. Things have gone completely haywire outside my little
bubble, but the bubble has grown a bit and in here I'm dangerously content.
..The cd is out, of course, and available a couple of pages back. We played a cd release show
at Nashville's "12th and Porter Playroom" in November. I and several of the players from the cd
plus Chas Williams on dobro did most of the cd for a good crowd. Everyone seemed to have a good
time, I know I did. We're still figuring out the details, distribution, booking, cologne, etc.
Oh yeah...before the "official" cd release show I did a house concert with an acoustic, more
streamlined version of the band for fifty or sixty people. It was a lot more fun than I'd
expected. So much so that we're going to do a few more, here in Nashville, in New York, L.A.
and perhaps San Francisco.
That's all to tell. Except it does look like "From Now On" is going to show up on a bigger
record than mine, I'm not telling who's yet...superstitious you know. My show dates will
multiply and expand, I promise. If you want to be on the e-mail list use the contact page,
you don't even have to say anything. If you know Wendell Berry have him call me. Hope you're
well.
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July
9, 2003 - It’s 8:30 in the morning and I’m half
way through a cup of coffee. Nashville is in it's "hot
and muggy" stage of summer now but I refuse to turn on
the air-conditioning until I get dizzy. When it gets like
this things start coming out of the woods. Yesterday I had
to buy a pellet gun because a big coyote stared me down in
my back yard. He had that spooky, smart look in his eyes that
said, "I'm here to eat your cat, don’t try to stop
me". I don't want to kill him, just worry him a little.
Did a demo session (songs that my publisher will pitch to
other artists) last week. It seemed to work. Two of the songs
were written with and for new rock artist Savannah Snow....kind
of Aerosmith meets Macy Gray in Mississippi.
Let me tell you about tracking Fields and Fences. We
spent two days at the Sound Emporium here in Nashville with
some of my favorite musicians; Steve Brewster and Shannon
Forrest on drums, Allison Prestwood on bass, John Willis,
Russ Paul, George Marinelli, and Gary Burnett on guitars,
dobro, banjo and steel, Tammy Rogers on violin, mandolin and
bazouki, and Jon Mock on whistle, bodhran and concertina.
Those people are so good you don't know whether to sing along
or stop and listen. Some combination of them will be the live
band. I was lucky to have artists Georgia Middleman, Savannah
Snow, Harry Stenson and Joy Lynn White come in to sing back
up vocals. Herb Tassin engineered and co-produced and Jay
Fenstermaker assistant engineered. There you go.
Now we're dealing with the details, so the truth is there's
not much real news to tell. Over the next few weeks there
will be bookings and distribution and reviews to talk about.
But for now it's writing and rehearsals. I’ll come out
of the woods sooner or later. Everything does.
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