Milk & Honey

I’m going off the grid. I just finished watching “The Island” a second-rate, Michael Bay sci-fi flick. In the film, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson discover that they’re clones created as insurance policies for their real-life doppelgangers. So they break free of their faux-Utopia and, you know, live happily ever after on a boat in…

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Back In The Arms Of A Good Friend

A funny thing happened on the way to retirement. I’ve been thinking about retiring from music. Not completely. I expect I’ll continue recording and releasing albums (though I think I’ll rely more heavily on digital distribution), but I’m not sure how much more I want to perform and tour. Fact is, I’m a media executive.…

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I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas

For the first time in three weeks, my throat isn’t sore. I was gonna drag ass into the office yesterday morning on account of the fact that I have this coming Monday off (I’m going to West Palm for the weekend!) and I felt guilty missing a full day of work. But as I was…

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Out Of Office

Sherbert is the poor man’s sorbet. When I got sick as a kid, ginger ale and orange juice was one of my favorite remedies. Spaghetios with Meatballs was another. But rainbow sherbert was the best. It’s all in my belly at the moment. I told the guys the entire time I was on the road,…

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Original Of The Species

Every gig is more unusual than the last. Last Saturday found me making good on my bargain in Waterloo, Iowa. This Saturday found doing it again in Westford, Massachusetts. And then some. You’ll recall that I solicited patrons for the making of “Heartland.” Three of those contributors merited a live performance at the location of…

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Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

‘Over it,’ I thought to myself as I approached my ninth MTV Holiday Party. ‘Been there, done that, drank the bottom shelf liquor.’ It’s a big mess of an affair. Five thousand MTVN employees packed into The Hammerstein Ballroom, wolfing down stale sushi, tossing back shots of Mr. Boston Vodka, and shaking their humps to…

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Hometown Waltz

Everything I own was stacked against the far wall of my apartment when I walked through the door tonight. It as all there in a big pile: my couch, my big red chair, my Ikea chair, three guitars, two lamps, and my shag rug all rolled up and sad. And it was all covered in…

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Roll On

Walker, Chris, and Tony were already on stage when I walked into the venue last night. I stood alone on stage throughout last week’s tour. It was just me, my voice, and my guitar. Solo acoustic works for moving hearts, but not so much in moving bodies. I like to movie bodies too. So it…

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Love For Nothing

My first time at the Eastern Iowa Airport was September 28, 1971. My family was moving from Iowa City to Washington, D.C. It was my first time on an airplane. I was three weeks old. Thirty-four years later, I’m here again, waiting on American Airlines flight #4239 to Chicago, then connecting to #360 to Laguardia.…

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Better Than That

I just had a fairly major revelation on I-35 between Des Moines and Ames, Iowa. My new record, “Heartland,” sounds fucking excellent. That might sound a bit arrogant. But I’m as surprised as anyone to hear myself say so (or see myself write so). It was either absolute serendipity or complete randomness that made this…

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