March 2, 2004

Hi Friends,

I’m just back from the North American Folk Alliance convention in San Diego and boy it feels real good to be home. There’s only so much sunshine, palm trees, folk music, and Corona that one PC man can stand. (“PC” it was decided this week stands, not for politically correct, but for personality challenged, which it turns out I tend to be even in the best of scenarios, i.e., without jet lag, 5AM (eastern time) showcase gigs, and  very noisy hotel rooms.

Actually I really did have great time.

Some highlights include getting to play Woody Guthrie’s guitar “May Belle”; being treated, along with Dragon’s producer Ben Wisch and bass player Jim Gilmour, by my label's president Hermetta Harper to a  CD release celebration dinner at the beautiful and storied Del Coronado - they actually charge $18 for macaroni and cheese at this restaurant – and drinking a fine merlot  while dipping my old Larry Mahan cowboy  boots into the Pacific Ocean; getting to hear the recently mastered recording of Full Frontal Folk’s great version of “Annabel Lee” -  the song I wrote with the great Edgar Allen Poe;  being  rescued at 4:30 in the morning by the same upstanding  young women of Full Frontal  when they found me wandering in  a bit of a fog through a mobbed hotel courtyard after ingesting my first (and last!!!) prescription sleeping aid just prior to being evicted from my room when an adjacent suite caught fire. (These talented spandex and vinyl clad young women have I believe much more of a maternal thing going than they would ever admit to. Anyway, although they have since teased me quite a bit about this episode, they kept me out of trouble until the fire was out and my somewhat frantic booking agent found me and, with their able assistance, ushered me back to bed.); and hearing from several people that a Chicago folk radio DJ had announced at the “Politics in Music” workshop with Arlo Guthrie, John McCutcheon and Holly Near, that playing my song “Minnie Lou” had caused his station to lose a $50,000 sponsor. Arlo later teased me that if this turned out to be true - I could actually begin charging places NOT to play, as my NOT performing could in the long run save them money. We both enjoyed this notion, especially when we realized that whereas you can only charge one place at a time to actually sing there, there was virtually no limit to the number of places you could NOT play on the same day, or the number of times you could NOT play them over the course of a career! I’m not sure this really makes sense now, but at the hotel pool, on three hours sleep under the Southern California sun it all seemed to be the stuff of which genius is made.

Anyway, it’s good to be home…

Peace,

John