NEW ENGLAND – There are a few New England shows on the books in October and November, exquisitely timed to interfere with both fishing and hunting, and starting with a benefit for our local nonprofit, The Permaculture Place, in Shelburne Falls, MA., this Sunday night (10/10, 5PM) outdoors at T he Mill at Shelburne Falls. Permaculture is an approach to land management that adopts the arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems, and results in sustainable use and yield. What Aldo Leopold called the Abrahamic concept of land had a real nice run of a few thousand years, and only destroyed mostly everything. Maybe we should try something else? Get there early for the best spot on the lawn, and bring a blanket.

Thursday, October 28th I'll play the second of two all-request livestream shows, and you can watch that here, and in the usual places, from the comfort of your own home, where the bartender is generous and understanding. The first show brought in more requests than I could get through in one night, and it was alternately heavy and sweet reading through as much of what folks wrote as seemed right to share. Thanks everyone who wrote in and sent along a little cash, and if you want to hear something, get your request in by high noon on 10/27 (so I have time to go back and learn my old songs, which frequently have as many as five, or even six, chords).

In November I'll play the Center for Culture and History in Orleans, MA., a show put on by Vinegrass (11/4), and then head up to see our old friends at the Word Barn in Exeter, NH (11/5), finishing the brief run up in Vermont with a show at the Zenbarn in Waterbury (11/6... we're shifting over to an all-barn itinerary apparently). After Waterbury I'm going to hide in a rented off-grid cabin on a small farm for a couple days and try to write some songs, as long as the nearby hunting and fishing aren't too very good.

KRIS DELMHORST – Kris Delmhorst, my wife and sometime collaborator, has been doing this job longer than I have and as with most things, she's better at it. Those of you tuning in to livestreams this past year may have thought that I keep a backup singer in my dining room at all times, but she actually lives here, and has other responsibilities. Unlike those of us frittering away our time on literature and outdoorsmanship, Delmhorst has used the pandemic to diversify her portfolio, releasing a beautiful new album of original material in 2020, writing songs for film and television, and rekindling her longtime interest in making pottery. She recently created a Patreon page, with the aim of letting people into her creative process –sharing songs and fragments, covers, livestreams, etc – on a subscription model not unlike your local CSA.

MERCH – There's a truly wonderful variety of new merchandise for sale at the STORE and folks, I don't need to tell you it will be holiday season in roughly fifteen minutes. As long as the new internet business model for the artisan class is to incur often crippling debt in order to create art which we can hire an expensive publicist to help us convince the public to steal nearly outright, maybe everyone should think about buying a bandanna. Or a poster. All designed by the wonderful Jordanna Rachinsky.

READING – The Living, Being and Time, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Holy The Firm, The Maytrees, Annie Dillard; Blue Fire, James Hillman, Conversations with Jim Harrison(collected Interviews, edited by Bob Demott); One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder, Brian Doyle. Process and Reality, Alfred North Whitehead.

LISTENING – Madison Cunningham, Who Are You Now; Greg Brown, The Evening Call; John Prine, Prime Prine; Willie Nelson, Shotgun Willie; Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (audiobook); Tsegue Maryam Gebrou, Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Emahoy (Piano Solo); Matthew Fowler, The Grief We Gave Our Mothers; Anders Parker, Wolf Reckoning.

ETC – My friend Tony Polecastro, who teaches online lessons to many thousands of people, recently highlighted an album of mine as one of his favorites on his program. I last saw Tony, somewhat less than clearly, at the Sip 'n' Dip in Great Falls, and I have it on good authority that if you want to improve your chops, his Acoustic Challenge course is fun and effective. I know he's a great picker himself, and we've enjoyed playing together.

Enough for now. Get yourself vaccinated, and let's get back at it.

October 2021