This guy. Lives in Wisconsin. Knows everything. Born in 1976, he's killing time in a little town ten miles from home, drives a 1984 Suburban, plays a 1973 Martin D-18. Numbers add up to nothing. He reads too much, drinks too much, works handyman and time-and-materials jobs. Substitute teacher trying to make three hundred dollars rent every month, plus another hundo for food, and when he has it made he turns down work, sits at his desk with a coffee and a cigarette, banging on a blue typewriter. It sounds romantic, but it isn't. He's maundering around waiting for something to happen. When I go home I think about this guy. I haven't seen him in years.

MIDWEST – Going home this month I'll achieve tax-deductible status for Wisconsin Family Christmas by playing shows at SPACE in Evanston, IL (12/7), and The Back Room @ Collectivo in Milwaukee, WI (12/8). Minnesota's Erik Koskinen, a bad man who wears his sunglasses on the hotel gym treadmill, will open both shows, and join me on the electric guitar. If you don't know his work, start anywhere.

KINGS OF JOY – I joined a band. I had only a few conditions, that I would not rehearse, or pay much attention, or play very often, and it had to be fun. Kings of Joy is old my friends David Champagne and Jim Fitting – members of the seminal 1980's-era rock 'n' roll band Treat Her Right, in which Billy Conway played cocktail drum – along with my longtime bandmate Jeremy Moses Curtis on bass and more recent bandmate Jeff Berlin on drums. The band bears a strong resemblance to the band that sold out the Parlor Room last month under the banner Smokestack Lightning. That wasn't a band though, and this is. December 18 we play Atwood's Tavern in Cambridge MA. Electric guitars, blues harp through an amp, bass and drums. Rock 'n' roll. Old songs, new songs. Get tickets.

WEST – Late February into early March I'll be on tour on the west coast of the United States, south to north, more or less. Details presumably will eventually appear on the t our page, as if by magic.

THE RIVER YOU TOUCH – My recording of the audiobook of my friend Chris Dombrowski's new offering, The River You Touch – a beautiful lyric memoir detailing the wonder, and occasional terror, of a life lived in direct relationship to the rivers and mountains of the Montana landscape that claims him – is now available on all platforms, so if you'd like to hear me talk for nine hours straight you no longer need to join my band, you can simply download The River You Touch at Audible, or Audiobooks.com, or wherever, and then order a hardback copy, or six, right now.

It's been a hell of a year folks. I don't really know where to start, and I don't care to. In the first week of '23 we'll go into the studio and see what we walk out with. I'll keep you posted on that, but meanwhile, keep your chin up, and have sweet holidays.

Thanks,

JF

December 2022