Living with War

Just got through listening to Neil Young's latest tour de force "Living with War". If you've been living in a vacuum for the last month or so... this project was written and recorded within a 2 week span in early April and includes a little ditty call "Let's Impeach the President" (though that's not my favorite on the album). In short, the album ROCKS!!! The whole thing is pure Neil and is full of spit and fire in the tradition of "Ohio". Great, scathing, straight up rockin' protest songs about where our country has headed under the misdirection of our Commander-in-Thief. Though not available yet in CD the whole album is streaming for FREE HERE

A Word on the Peace Takes Courage link

I just posted this link by a 15 year old peace activist by the name of Ava Lowery. (She has received much hate mail for her efforts.) I must warn the squeamish among you that the work is devastatingly graphic in nature and shows photos of the situation in Iraq that you don’t see in the news and even I prefer not to see, but sometimes the horror and cost (and I'm not talking money) of war has to be brought home in order to shock people into doing something, in the same way the more realistic and gruesome news coverage of the Viet Nam war in the 60’s helped fuel the protests. It makes me cry. Click if you dare.

P.S. If you want to just talk money, I just found out that to pay off the National Debt now, every man, woman and child in the US owes the Federal government $150,000.00.

home again home again, jigitty jig!

Hi folks, just got back from the Bay Area Renaissance Festival in Tampa Bay, FL.

I must say, it really feels great to be back in the hills where I belong instead of the Babylon FL is turning into. Even so, I had a great time performing for the FL crowd, and I had a chance to rub shoulders with some truly great artists.

The photo is from the Faire (taken and sent to me by a patron, Bobby Peel... thanks Bobby!) and shows me playing with my good friend and ace bagpiper Charlie Rafferty. If you're wondering why he's not blowing into his pipes, it's because he's playing the Irish "uilleann" pipes. "Uilleann" means "elbow" in Irish Gaelic and he pumps air into them by means of a bellows under one arm, while the other arm squeezes the bag. At my feet is a harmonium that I set on various drones and pump with my foot (also with a bellows connected to the instrument... up Chicago way they call us "the Bellows Brothers"). I usually will then play flute, guitar or percussion along with the harmonium depending on the arrangement.

Tomorrow, (Sat. April 22nd) I'll be spending Earth Day at the Jacksonville Center in Floyd, VA (540-745-2784) http://www.jacksonvillecenter.org. It's an open house so please stop by. There will be food, and various Earth friendly exhibits. We set the old grain silo up for a musical performance (the acoustics are amazing). I'll be playing around 2 pm and there'll also be old timey music by the Snake Hollow String Band at 4 pm.

Later Sat. evening I'll be playing with Chris Luster at Oddfella's Cantina just down the road in Floyd. Great food, music, and odd and (somewhat) normal people that like that sorta' thing will be there. Hope you're one of 'em!