Man! I have been sooooo up to my ass in the preparations to get the Voices Together Concert on it's feet, I almost completely forgot something! I woke up this morning and realized that this is the month I hafta start putting in the applications for the permits to play music on "The Hill" in Central Park!

Gotta take care of that this week, hah?

I'm also gonna be doing a few shows out of the country in the first week of February and I wanted to write a song specifically for this gig. These things are gonna get done. I just hafta jump on them at the same time the "Voices" event is coming together.

So, what's going on today?

Well, I've been watching the Senate judicial confirmation hearings a little bit. And, like I said in yesterday's update, to me Samuel Alito just constantly has a look on his face like a fourth grader who's in trouble.

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Now, I don't know where his "heart" is, or where his "mind" is. But, on my television screen... his "head" does nothing but "lean to the left."

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When asked a question, this man cocks his head to the left like a dog out in the rain. I don't know. Should that be the kind of thing that would concern people in this country who lean to the right?

Just a question.

Anyway... completely switching gears.

Well, while everybody in the "news" media and our government has ther eyes trained on Samuel Alito, there is a war raging in a part of the world we call Iraq. And, another 30 Americans have been killed in Iraqi the first 10 days of this month.

Yeah, you won't see it a whole lot on the "news" this week. But...

Okay... guess how many ordinary Iraqi people have been killed in the fighting in the past 11 days.

Over 335.

Just since New Year's Day.

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Please... please imagine yourself there. Please imagine the heartache.

So many of the victim's families and surviors of these horrible bomb blasts and attacks are women and children. And, essentially.... there is almost no help for them.

So, a couple of my good friends and fellow artists decided to get together and do something. Okay... what can we do? We're just ordinary people, too.

Well, we found some people who are doing extraordinary things to help these people who so desperately need help right now. And, so we decided to put on this concert to raise money for them... to help them do their work. It's an effort that we call...

(Click on the logo to visit the Voices together Website.) There you'll find out all about the remarkable people we want to raise this money for, and about the heroic work they are doing.

All you hafta do today to be a real hero and make a real difference is buy tickets tickets. You can get tickets, right now... today... at the Peter Norton SYMPHONY SPACE website.

We also have a very limited number of VIP tickets available. But, if you want to order those and be invited to the reception after the show, you have to contact the Voices Together Group at:

Get VIP Tickets

The VIP section will get all kinds of goodies, and the artists will all hang out at the reception after the gig.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for a little miracle to happen.... so, that we can announce another special guest or two. So, keep checking back okay?

Here are the artists who've lined up so far. (Click on each photo to visit their websites.)

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They are... Christine Lavin, Karlus Trapp, Modern Man, Roger Bartlett, Sam Leopold... and me.

You all know that, personally and artistically, I never shy away from letting my thoughts and feelings known... especially here at the "Guitar Man" website. But like I said, I hope we can all come together for this purpose.

It's also gonna be an amazing night... a whole lotta fun to be a part of. It's gonna be a night of smiles, purpose, laughter, some tears.... but mostly an evening of music.

Listen, I gotta get out there and get to work. If you feel like emailing me about the concert or anything at all, just click on the "Contact" button. I can't answer all the email I get. But, I promise I eventually read every single one. And, listen. I know there are people reading this in different parts of the country and different parts of the world. If you're new here, take a look through the "Archives" to see what we've been up to. There's alotta fun stuff in there... FREE songs to download, political cartoons... all kindsa stuff.

See you at Symphony Space on Janaury 28th.

Thanks again