May 2026

You have to go away before you can come back, but we don't really do that anymore. We curate our undead internet fame at all times as if someone was paying attention, inverting the whole notion of scarcity, that fundament of economics. But me, I'm off the road for a while, and trying hard to go away. The fruit trees have bloomed, the light gets longer, the fishing is good. There are certain things I'm probably supposed to do, but in spring I have a hard time remembering what they are. I wouldn't bother you at all, but I have one show each in May and June, and this is still technically my job.

COCK'N BULL – Much like myself, the Cock'n Bull in Galway, NY is in the midst of celebrating its 50th year, and they've asked us to come and be a part of things. So we'll start the Memorial Day weekend with a Friday night show (5/22) in the quartet formation, with our friend Winnie Roy opening the show, and joining the band on vocals. This is hands down one of the loveliest places we get to play. The food is great, the company is sweet, the sound perfect, the scale human. If you're within an hour or two, come up to Galway and see us play an old barn that smells like woodsmoke and sounds like heaven. Don't miss supper.

WORD BARN – In June we'll be back at the Word Barn Meadow in Exeter, NH (6/5), a little series that's steadily outgrown it's initial footprint to become a beloved stop on what they used to call the Couch Circuit, the constellation of little rooms strung out across the country where music is played to a hundred people or less. Now they have an outdoor stage, and things continue to refine. This is another great place to hear and play music, so throw a lawn chair and a beer koozie in your car, come and find us. 

DERESIEWICZ – I met Bill Deresiewicz when he interviewed me for an article in Harpers Magazine, after which we began a long argument by mail about a particular writer, and became friends. It's rare I find anyone who likes to argue as much as I do. I've read his books, and found his social criticism – of the bizarre post-literate, post-fact landscape of our dazzlingly stupid time – bracing and thoughtful. He published a nice essay last week on quality of teaching in the context of the research university model, and I've probably shared this older essay on American tribalism with twenty people over the past few years.

GIOIA – I follow a few people on Substack, and Ted Gioia's letter is consistently rangy, compelling, and useful. He's pointed me toward some musicians and composers I wouldn't have found otherwise and I think his takes on the business of music, the importance of genuine literacy, and the generation and maintenance of culture, are spot on.

     I'm not going to work much this summer. Our kid is finishing high school and going off to college and I plan to stick around, go broke, and tell you as little as possible. This fall I'll tour extensively with my dear friend John Convertino on the drum kit, reprising the stripped-down drums and guitars approach of years prior, maybe picking up a player here or there. In the meantime I've been writing songs, revising poems, mowing the lawn. I read somewhere that when the economy goes to shit people gravitate toward darker and sadder music. Boom times are surely the horizon, if we can afford to fill the tank.