Jerry Jeff Walker, Joe Ely & The Flatlanders, Robert Earl Keen, Rita Coolidge, Arthur Brown, Raul Malo, Delbert McClinton, Teresa James & The Rhythm Tramps, Hayes Carll, Rodney Crowell, Lee Ann Womack, Mignon Grabois, Johnny Nicholas, Chicago Farmer, Lucas Nelson, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Sam Outlaw, Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Sunny Sweeney, Redd Volkaert, Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis, Leopold & His Fiction, Kelly Mickwee, The Watters, Bruce Hughes Arms of Shiva, Unfaithful Servants, James Petralli, Jim Lauderdale, Katie Shore, The Hard Truth, Tim Easton, David Bromberg, Great American Taxi, Adrian Quesada, Marcia Ball, Jack Ingram, David Grissom, Deadeye. I know I’m missing some but the above is a list of artists that I’ve either recorded with or shared the stage with in the last year or so. It’s a nice list, yes, but I only mention here to demonstrate that I’ve been really busy. Throw in the fact that I’ve joined the Dad ranks during this time frame and you have a reasonable excuse for why I haven’t posted since early 2016. So for the few of you out here in cyberspace (you know who you are!) who email or say hi after the show and inquire about the dearth of blog updates, this one’s for you.

Recent books that I’ve read and enjoyed:
The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout
Testimony, by Robbie Robertson
Magister Ludi, by Hermann Hesse
Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Live and Times of Doc Pomus, by Alex Halberstadt

Records that I’ve been digging, check em out:
Silver Tears, Aaron Lee Tasjan
It’s Our Thing, The Isley Brothers
We Got More Soul, Dyke & The Blazers
Complete Hit Singles A’s & B’s, Little Willie John
It’s Too Late To Stop Now, Van Morrison
Teasin’, Cornell Dupree
Everybody Likes Some Kind Of Music, Billy Preston
The Bremen Concert (bootleg) Feb 2, 1975, Keith Jarrett (check it out here)
Bob Dylan, Saved

This blog from the great Danny Barnes:
(this post is a little old now but it’s so good and really worth sharing to those who might have an interest)

This from Hazrat Inayat Khan:

“When one realizes the ultimate truth, one comes to understand that one single underlying current to which all the different religions, philosophies and faiths are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same truth, and it is the absence of that knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many different sects and religions.

In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind men were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind man one day took them to see one. There, standing by its side, he said, “Now, here is the elephant, see what you can make of it.” Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its appearance. One said, “It looks like the big pillar of a palace,” another said, “It looks like a fan.” And so they differed and discussed amongst one another, then they quarreled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said, “I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it.” Then the man who took them to the elephant came and said, “You are every one of you right, but you have each seen only a part of the elephant.”

So it is with the religions. A person says, “This religion is the one, this doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible.” That shows a lack of knowledge of the ultimate truth. As soon as one comes to the realization of the depth of truth, one begins to discern that it is the same truth which the great ones have tried to express in words. They could not put it fully into words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.”

Peace to everybody

TN