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the list
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February 12, 2007: It’s Been A Great Ride
C’est la vie. I’ve been working like a slave and enjoying it all thoroughly. The music seems to hold up very well, a year and change after release. It’s been a great ride this past year with Black Cadillac, and I still have a few more of the full shows, with films and narrative, to do through the Spring. I’m also looking forward to sharing the bill with Kris Kristofferson at the end of February, for three acoustic shows in Florida. I just worship him and lovely Lisa, so this is a real treat for me and Mr. L to join them for these concerts. I had a fabulous time in Glasgow in early February, with old friends Phil Cunningham, Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain, et.al. The music was just transcendent at the Celtic Connections festival. I also did the Black Cadillac show at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow and it was a beautiful night, with a wonderful crowd. My daughter Chelsea accompanied me to Glasgow and we drank a dozen or so cups of tea at the Willow Tea Room on Buchanan Street, and laughed ourselves silly and eyed many a handsome Scottish lad. I also had a fantastic visit to Sydney early in January. The State Theater, where I played, is, hands down, the most beautiful old theater I have ever seen. I stood and gazed at the gold, chocolate and French blue intricacies of design on the ceiling, and the second-largest chandelier in the world, and completely redecorated my bedroom back home. In my head. Mr. L, happily, was none the wiser. On January 25th, I performed at Merkin Hall here in NYC with old friend Mark O’Connor, and it was just a sublime evening. Mark’s trio (himself on violin, Melissa Marse on piano and Arash Amini on cello, performed the first half of the show, a gorgeous composition of Mark’s called ‘Poets and Prophets’, which he had written shortly after my dad’s death, in his honor. For the second half of the show, I performed songs from Black Cadillac, including arrangements by Mark of my songs ‘God is in the Roses’ and "World Unseen’, which his trio performed, with me singing. This was a phenomenal night for us—- I think we were all inspired beyond what we even expected. My own trio, which included Mr. L, Zev Katz and myself, rose to the rather high bar set by Mark, and it was just…..one of those nights. I hope to do it again, perhaps this summer. Mark and I are talking about it. Today, I took my son to the indoor fields on the piers here in Manhattan for his Sunday soccer game. Yesterday we spent a couple hours turning a shoe box into a valentine letter-box for school. My life feels nicely in balance at the moment, and getting more so as I look at the next few weeks with not much on the calendar that doesn’t include taking a small boy to and fro. The only bad thing about time off is that it gives me too much time to think about the state of the world. I wake in the night and wonder if Greenland is going to stay frozen through the decade, and if not, will a rowboat suffice to get me out of Manhattan? Seriously, I have been religious about turning off lights, recycling and walking rather than taking taxis. I also offset all these jet flights by donating to carbon neutral organizations. (CarbonFund.org is a good one). I only use hybrid car services (Ozo here in NYC, and Eco-limo in Los Angeles) and I’m becoming more concious about consumption, in general. I think that too much material consumption affects the spirit like gluttony affects the body—- it makes you sluggish and thick and weighed down. My father had a great saying, which he got from a very elderly woman in the Deep South who owned an antique store he liked to visit. She would say (and then HE would say), ‘Honey, every possession is just a stick to beat yourself with’. I’ve thought about that saying a lot. I think they meant that too many possessions carried too much responsibility, too much space was given up to them, too much energy wasted in acquiring and maintaining them. Of course, neither the old lady or my father followed the line of thinking to its natural conclusion by living a spartan life. My father was a bit of a pack rat, and he had a house stuffed with furniture and rugs and china and linens and paintings and books. And so do I. But I am moving in the direction of doing some space clearing. (I hope Mr. L reads this column; he will be beside himself with joy.) I’ll start by clearing out the newspaper clippings from the 80’s and work my way up to the Manolos. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, thanks for all your kind reviews of the live concerts. I do like getting the feedback. We’re off to a good start in 2007, even if that other guy who was born on my birthday took the cheese for the folk record of the year. Love and Peace,
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Well, as expected, I lost the Grammy to a guy who shares my birthday (May 24th). Apparently, his planetary aspects were better than mine for the date of the awards. I don’t imagine the iPod commercial hurt much, either. 
