Thursday, June 22, 2000
home (Black Mountain, NC)
It's hammock season.
I'm wasting no time. Right now I'm stretched out on
the hammock in my backyard. I just bought this house that I've
been living in for six years now. We closed on Monday, and one
of my first actiions as a new homeowner (well, I own the living
room and half the bedroom, and the bank is graciously letting
me occupy the rest of the house) was to buy a hammock. Good livin'.
Y'know I spend all this time travelling around the coutry singing
songs about taking the time to slow down, but... Well, it's time
for me to practice what I preach, so for the next two months
I'm not doing any shows that require more than two consecutive
nights out of town. Mostly I'm just playing around here and working
on the house. And lying in the hammock, of course.
Yeah, I know the laptop on my lap in this hammock
might blow the image of blissful repose for some of you, but
I promise I'm enjoying writing this note, and that I'm occasionally
pausing to stare up at the trees for a while.
I got some practice in the repose department at the
folk festival in Kerrville, Texas where I make an annual pilgrimage
to spend time with good friends and pass hugs and songs around.
That was a pretty great time. One night I ended up sitting between
Tom Kimmel, one of Nashville's finest writers, and Peter Yarrow,
of Peter, Paul and Mary. Peter played a song then turned to me
to play one. What's funny is that there was no nervousness involved.
just people sitting around sharing songs under the Texas night
sky. Good for the soul.
There has been other big news, too, of course, with
the release of my new record, Corners.
The release party was a blast. I had a nine-piece band backing
me up which included Chris Rosser, Beth Wood, Kristin deWitt
and Christine Kane. We even got Evan Brubaker, who produced the
record and flew out from Salt Lake City for the show, to come
up and play organ on a couple of songs. Don Porterfield, Joe
Ebel (of Bonfield and Ebel), Jay Hoots and Mike Alexander were
also in the band, so it was an all-star cast.
And then there was the audience. Over four hundred
people showed up, including folks who road-tripped from Virginia,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and
Ohio. No kidding. It was pretty overwhelming, and lots and lots
of fun. Just having Christine, Kristin and Beth on harmony vocals
was enough to make me feel like my life is now complete.
But of course it isn't. There's some very important
hammock lying left to do. And even a few other things. Part of
my time home this summer will also be spent working with Kathy
on filling in the rest of the dates for my world tour later in
the year. We just booked a big festival in South Australia on
the last weekend in September, and that's a pretty great addition
to the line up. If you know anyone in Australia, New Zealand,
Ireland or France who may want to help us fill in some dates,
drop us a line! :)
And there are even a few things that are good enough
to pull me away from home for a few days. One is to go to Camp
Ferncliff in Arkansas, where I'll be playing for and hanging
out with some young people from from Jonesboro, Arkansas, Littleton
CO, and several other towns in the states that have experience
school violence. There may also be six children from Sarajevo
who have grown up in the midst of the war there. The kids are
getting together to form and train teams of kids who have credibility,
are willing, trained and organized to be able to help others
if/when trauma occurs in other communities. I'm deeply honored
to be invited to be a part of this, and my girlfriend Kristin
and I will be going there in late July before heading to Florida
so that she can meet my great Aunt Evelyn. On the way to Arkansas
we'll also be stopping in Nashville for a Songs.com sponsored
"Asheville in Nashville" performance, which should
be lots of fun.
Keep in touch. I plan to spend lots of time in this
hammock this summer, and I'll bring the laptop now and then.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time.
David
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