Hey, welcome to the website.

YESTERDAY I told all of you that I woke up with a powerful thought and that I would share it with you today.

Not today.

Sorry. I need to make this a slightly different update.

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Y'know, I wrote a song called "The People on the Hill"

In that song, there's a lyric that goes...

Some have been here from the start
And I can still remember when
Singin' helped me heal my heart
You may have saved a life back then.

When I sing that line I will often look at a smiling face or two... people who've been coming to hang out at "The Hill" in Central Park to share music and laughs with me since the very first day, or very nearly the very first day.

I'll make eye contact and connect with people great like Dave Konis, or Laura Leonard... or faces of people I recognize as regulars for years and years but never knew their names.

One smiling, gentle man who I often sang that line to very often word a wide-brimmed, brown hat and a signature blond beard. People just got used to his presence every week and that he seems to sing nearly every word to every song. I would sing that particular line from "The People on the Hill" at him and wink because I KNOW for a fact he was here the very first day. His presence at that first spontaneous concert was documented in Jack Rosenthal's beautiful, unexpected article in the New York Times called a "CONCERT IN THE PARK"

John's been hangin' out with us every Saturday afternoon so far this season. You guys all know his smiling face!

This past Sunday was June 14...

18 years ago on that day that I met John. And it was 18 years to the day I became "That Guitar Man from Central Park"

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John died of a sudden heart attack this past Sunday.

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I'm gonna write more about John MacAlinden in a day or so.

But, right now I wanna get to the new music. Life does most definitely go on. (Somehow even for John I'm sure.) Everything is eternal.

Everything.

So, I need to tell you guys that... working on the new CD has been and continues to be an amazing and affirming experience.

The other night I assembled a handful of the sweetest people to sing on a track that I just wrote.... a song that will be mixed and mastered before the others because I have special, very ambitious plans for this song. It's tentatively called "The Torture song (Are you listening Liz Cheney)"

But for today I'll leave you with a few things to help you smile.

Click on the photos for larger image.

A photo from the studio the other night of the engineer, (Brian, who's workin' this new collection with me), his lovely girl and wonderful singer, Ashley... and my pal Sid, the man who brought The Beatles to America.

And, a shot at "The Hill" on one of the last days we got to hang out with Johnny Mac.

And a song for my ol' pal, John.

HERE TODAY

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Thanks for everything. See you tomorrow.

PEACE