First... before anything else today. I need to express in some way the immense gratitude I feel to all of you who stop by this website... those who donated something to the "Permit/Website Fund", as well as those who didn't. I always say, the most important thing is that you show up and have a good time here, or get something out of it. Y'know, like Woody Guthrie said, "It ain't enough for a song to be good... it oughta be good for somethin'."

(If you still wanna help out and donate something for the summer permits or to help support this website, just click on that little PayPal thing up at the top of this page, okay?)

Hmmmmmm

"Good for somethin'."

For me, sometimes a song can tell me a love story. Sometimes a song lets me know I'm not alone. Sometimes a song might just give me a good laugh, or make me notice something simple that I might have missed. Sometimes it's purpose is just to touch a place in my soul that is still a mystery to me.

Y'know, I'm not puttin' myself in the same category as a Woody Guthrie. (I mean, the man wrote over 1,000 songs.) And, I'm not crazy about everything he wrote.

But, I love some of the things he said about songwriting.
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"....the hard-working people just stumbling about, bothered with mortgages, debts, bills, sickness, worries of every blowing kind, I seen there was plenty to make up songs about. . . . I never did make up any songs about the cow trails or the moon skipping through the sky, but at first it was funny songs or songs about what all's wrong, and how it turned out good or bad. Then I got a little braver and made up songs telling what I thought was wrong and how to make it right, songs that said what everybody in the country was thinking. And this has held me ever since."

"I HATE A SONG that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim, too ugly, too this or too that. I am out to fight those kinds of songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing the songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you."
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Pretty cool stuff. Stuff that has always been in the back of mind, and has come to the forefront in the past few years with everything that's goin' on in the world... and, with the arrival of the nightmare that is the current administration in Washington, and the thin-soup we call the mainstream media.

I love writing my love songs. Romantic love songs. And, those other "Love" songs like the kind George Harrison and John Lennon sometimes wrote, which Eric Clapton describes as "spiritual-love" songs.... y'know... songs about "Love". I'm still the guy who wrote "Crazy on the Same Day" and "The People on the Hill" and "One Word" and "A Lot of Lonely People". Workin' on a couple of new tunes right now.

But, some people have expressed to me how much they wish I didn't write songs like "JesusLand", and "Where'dat Money Go", and "Tired of Bein' Lied To" and so on. (By the way, I'm still giving "JesusLand" away for free. Scroll down.)

Y'know, Woody Guthrie said this once...

"I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kinds of songs and sing the kind that... poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow.

Anyway, just wanted to share that with you. I think it's more than a little cool. And, makes me feel kinda good about some of the songs I've written in the past couple of years. Once in a while I still get emails from people who say that don't like me or my music the way they did. That's okay. I guess I find I really can't care all that much. I just don't have it in me to give much of a shit. I sure wish them well. It's just best if I stay true to the Little Voice that doesn't lie to me. And, I'll keep havin' fun.

Here's something fun!

And, it's absolutely FOR FREE! Give a listen to the new song "JesusLand". If you feel like it you can download it for yourself and pass it on to all your friends. I want the whole country to have it... for FREE!

Here.

MP3 of Jesusland! Click to download or play.

I had a lot of fun writing this song, and I've really enjoyed all of the feedback I'm getting about it. The positive messages are fun, and the negative emails are often even more amusing. Keep 'em coming. Actually, the song is available for sale on iTunes. But, you get it for free by coming to this website.

Listen... the next indoor concert at CAMI HALL, I promise we're gonna do a whole lotta "Love Songs" and "Fun Songs".

(And, I'm just gonna be me.)

We'll have some fun. I'll probably have the new song about "Reality TV" nailed down by then.

Maybe I'll stop in the "Forum" later.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Thanks for everything.

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