A Message from Sixty Years Ago, to the Old Farts of Today

February 10, 2024.Reading time 5 minutes.

This very hour might be a really good time to re-read this editorial by Paul Jones. It appeared in newspapers, one day after The Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan, sixty years ago tonight. The cultural historian in me wonders: Did anybody ever go back to Jones later, and see if he changed his mind? […]

Joy at the Joy of Tracy Chapman

February 5, 2024.Reading time 18 minutes.

I want to circle back to a theme that clearly resonated with people in my post on Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce last week. It’s a concept I’ve come to now understand has a name: “Freudenfreude.” Loosely defined as:“Taking joy/pleasure in other people’s joy or pleasure.” It’s a concept defined as the linguistic opposite of “Schadenfreude.”“Taking pleasure […]

“Give the People What They Want”

January 27, 2024.Reading time 12 minutes.

We saw the “Tina Turner Musical” this week, and a brief moment of the narrative has stayed with me, touched me deeply, and seems to speak deep truth about our need to be entertained, and perhaps even our continued fascination with Donald Trump. I know, that’s a lot. You might think the Trump association has […]

Same Old Lang Syne (Fogelberg cover)

December 12, 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

“Die Hard” is to Christmas movies, what this song is to Christmas music. Listeners will no doubt forever debate whether it is, or is not, a Christmas song. One thing is clear: It definitely creeps into playlists this time of year. Over the past few months, I been learning it on guitar (because that’s my […]

Quadrophenia

November 3, 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

We interrupt this week’s baseball posts for: Quadrophenia.The album was released fifty years ago this week. One of my all time faves, it’s at or near the top of my “Desert Island” list. Later, of course, the film version was released, and I bought this poster. I found the poster this week, in the same […]

I Remember Too

February 24, 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

Earlier this week, I shared about Ash Wednesday, a year ago…some time I spent by the Roberts Forest fire pit, praying, crying, playing guitar. What I didn’t say then was that a song, in honor of my Mom, poured out of me that night. The whole thing took shape in about 20 minutes. I pulled […]

Faithspotting: Echo, Part 1

May 17, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Pretty excited to be a part of this podcast, with friends Kenny Dickson and Mike Hatch. Since I’m both a songwriter and preacher, they invited me to to talk about the great documentary “Echo in the Canyon.”It traces the roots of an amazing tradition of music in the iconic “Laurel Canyon” area of LA. Listen […]

Music News: August 2020

August 6, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

Hi Friends,It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a music update. In this time of pandemic, there’s not a lot of live music happening out there. A few reminders of things I’m doing in the online world, to help keep us connected in this unusual time. New Website! First, my music website has a […]

The Guilt that We Survive

August 21, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Survivor’s Guilt. Imposter Syndrome. Two words for relatively similar experiences that, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized many people have. Including me. The older you get, you start to look right and left, and sometimes you see folks who used to be standing beside you…aren’t. Somehow, you’ve “made it through” some life-trial, or tragedy. Somehow, […]