How I spent my summer part 1

How I spent my summer.

Off, flat out, like a bat out a hell, is how my friend Noelle described it. True enough My summer started strong and just got weirder and crazier as it went along. It started in May with my deciding to hit every dulcimer festival in a 7 hour radius of me. Sometimes my friend Mary would come along, but mostly she would lend me her car. the drives were 5 to 7 hours a piece and they all seemed to be in Ohio. I played some shows, met some great people. won some stuff.

Robert Force had me out to his pad in Port Townsend, Washington, just about as far north and west as you can get in the lower 48. There over 10 days (and one marathon 20 hour mixing session, that we've subsequently spent six months tweaking) we banged out 16 tracks (14 we kept), magic, mayhem and this stupid dog that would not stop barking while the red light was on.

Christie was in Ireland for the summer and asked me come with. Seeing how it was such a long time gone i decided to sublet the room and roll. Now the rug had been wrenched completely from underneath me. So glad i did it too. Ireland was as wonderful as anyone else has ever said. Afterwards we spent a few weeks in England and Scotland, playing shows, meeting the angels of this life, and falling ever deeper in love.

Knee deep in mud at Falcon Ridge as mother nature made us sit through previews of Hurricane season and everyone on the planet seemed to have a song about why they hated George Bush. Kuddos to my porch girls Lisa Beth Weber and Maggie Marshall, who came down the hill in a Boots, dresses and a gift wrapped bass and kick butt in the Friday Showcase. Kudos to those of you who sat through the entire thing.

Sadly, This year also marks the first year I did not make it over to the Budgie Dome. I'm sorry guys. But I decided that since FRFF is where me and Ms. Burns first met, it seemed a fitting place to make an honest woman of the girl. So on one knee I did the deed. Everyone cried, and then EVERYONE plays the sweetest, best, most sentimental song they knew. They say life comes down to moments. I don't believe that for a minute. But this was a indeed a MOMENT. Thank you to everyone who was there.

This is a good place to end for now.

archives, e-mails, love and rockets

My mailing list is archived, so I can look over all the brilliant, stupid, pathetic, cocky and occasionally meaningful things I've sent to you over the years. Most prevalent: the number of gaps in the posting frequency, and the number of times I've posted an apology for the lack of postings. Well I have said it on many occasion, "never apologize, even when you should". As I dust the debris of the ol' hood of the folk-music machine, and see if I can get her to turn over. I am hoping that this can be part of the project, that I can remember the letdown I feel when i go to the site of someone's music I like and find no new tale to tell.