March 2023

 When I say March I mean April. I'm not doing anything much in March except writing this email and minding my own business, various as it tends to be and – so far, at least – endless. But someone has to alert the internet to my movements as a famous songwriter and multi-millionaire, and I worry no one else will capture the nuances. Being a millionaire isn't all Teslas and liposuction (though that is a lot of it). There are newsletters to write, for example. Plus, we lost some branches in the storm last week and I need to go run the chainsaw.

NORTHEAST – This run has just enough point-to-point navigation to resemble a tour, We'll start with a return to one of our favorite clubs, the Cock'n Bull in Galway, NY (4/12), a magnificent old barn in the bucolic upstate farm country that most of the world fails to picture when someone says, "New York." It's a wonderful joint with great food and sweet people, and they always make it sound good. Next morning we haul ass out to the coast to play the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA (4/13) – a real stunner of a concert hall where we may tuck our shirts in – then turn around and head back north and west to the Zenbarn in Waterbury, VT (4/14), finishing back in here in the valley at The Drake in Amherst, MA (4/15). Get your tickets, tell your friends. Erik Koskinen opens and joins the band on electric guitar.

PARIS – There are worse things than April in Paris, even in the rain. The Pando hosed us out of a trip to France three years ago and we've been meaning to make it up to our kid ever since. In an effort to offset costs, we've called in a favor with our old friend and promoter Hervé, and after some running around the country Kris Delmhorst and I will return to Paris to play a single one-mic acoustic show (4/23) at a little place called Le Café Du Village. If you or your French connection might like to come, email Hervé: acousticinparis@proton.me for tickets/information. 

MIDWEST – I lied last month about what towns we would play in the Midwest in May. Let's all try to remember the valuable lesson never to trust me on the details. Or trust, but verify. The center of balance has shifted away from Michigan and toward Wisconsin, but we'll still get up to Marquette, and this must count for something. We start in Eau Claire, WI. at Ume Studios (5/3) progress to Ore Dock Brewing Co. in Marquette, MI (5/5) and then over west to Bayfield and The Backstage (5/6), a new indoor venue run by the Big Top Chautauqua folks (Yeah, I know, they don't have the show listed yet. It's a long winter up there, just call them). Then its down to Appleton and a show at the Appleton Beer Factory (5/7). After that I'll play the historic Trempealeau Hotel (5/10) north of La Crosse, fish the Driftless with my brothers for a few days, go see Mom for Mother's day, and play a show that night at the Cafe Carpe (5/14) in Fort Atkinson. The Carpe is tiny and it's my home stadium, so if you want to be there, get on it early. Extra points if you bring Mom. Your own Mom.

READING – Fiction: Cormac McCarthy, Stella Maris, The Stonemason; Stendhal, The Red and the Black; Poetry: Denise Levertov, O Taste and See; Phillip Levine, Unselected Poems; Kenneth Rexroth, In Defense of the Earth; Non-Fiction: Cormac McCarthy, The Kekulé Problem; James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, Moanin' At Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf; Basil Bunting, On Poetry; Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character As a Medium for Poetry (from Ezra Pound, Instigations); Barry Lopez, Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World; Audiobook: David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything, A New History of Humanity; Patrick O'Brian, The Fortune of War.

LISTENING – David Lindley, El Rayo - X; Sheryl Crow, Sheryl Crow; John Hammond Jr., Wicked Grin; The Staple Singers, For What It's Worth; Bill Frissell, Good Dog, Happy Man; Stephan Crump with Rosetta Trio, Reclamation; Howlin' Wolf, The Memphis Sessions; Tom Waits, Mule Variations; The Beatles, Rubber Soul, and Revolver (Giles Martin remixes).

That's all, and it's probably more than you need. For a variety of reasons – among them that I feel like an unpaid coal miner working for the internet – I'm considering separating this letter into two parts, and migrating the semi-literary part to the Substack platform, where I can stretch my legs without losing the thread. It currently costs me about sixty dollars a month to write this thing and I'm beginning to think I may not have fully absorbed the Labor Theory of Value.

If I decide to enter the rentier class I'll probably write a long-winded essay about it, and let you know how to find me. Or, I may just move an amp into the kitchen and play electric guitar real loud all day. Either way, we'll see you out there.