No Depression Interviews Mary Gauthier

I was honored to be interviewed by No Depression's Kim Ruehl this month! Read "Songwriters on Songwriting" HERE.

The Power of Truth

Monday night I played a beautiful listening room called Morris Hall in the medieval town of Shrewsbury, England, the town that Charles Darwin was born in. I’m at the beginning of a seven-week tour of the UK and Europe, where I’ll be enjoying the stages of fine theatres in five different countries. It’s hard to believe that I’m the same person who used to be terrified of the stage, mortified…petrified…. The first time I played music on stage in front of an audience, a cold, clammy sweat formed on my forehead and upper lip, then spread down to my hands and fingers. My legs started shaking, and the trembling spread to my arms and the rest of my body. My saliva evaporated, and the inside of my mouth and throat became so dry I could have spit dust. My heart raced like galloping horses, pounding was all I could hear, and I came close to having a panic attack and bolting.

I was 35 years old and beginning to pursue a dream I’d had since I was a teenager, but it was a dream I’d never spoken out loud. I’d held it inside so deep that I forgot it was there, entombed and silent, covered by years of feeling of unworthy. I ignored it, buried it, and set off to do other things. It was a secret dream so dear to me that I dared not speak it—it would break my heart if it didn’t come true, so not acknowledging it was a way of trying to protect myself from disappointment. My secret? I wanted to be a songwriter.

I got sober at 28 years old, and my long buried truth started rising to the surface, asking to be reconsidered.

I carried my tangled, repressed dream onto the stage with me that first night, and it was too heavy to maneuver delicately. I buckled under the weight of it. I forgot the words, chords, and melody. I fought the impulse to run and survived my less than impressive debut, and became determined to get on stage again and do it better, but the terrors followed me, and stage fright choked me every time I got on stage. I was determined to find a way to overcome it, but over and over, I’d take the stage, plug in my guitar, and completely freak out.

It was a cold New England February night when I encountered a lesson in songwriting that helped me begin the process of breaking free from the stage fright horrors I suffered. I’d been playing songs at open mics for a year or so at this point, working hard to develop thicker skin--practicing the song I was going to play, over and over and over again. But once I left my living room for the stage, the terror always returned.

On this particular night, I was one of almost 100 people signed up to play the open mic at a venue outside of Boston called the Old Vienna Coffeehouse. Each songwriter was allowed to play one song. I drew a late number, real late. About two hours in, still waiting for my turn to play, a farmer type fellow took the stage with his guitar. He was much older than most of us, and quite heavy, in overalls and a ragged red checkered shirt buttoned up to his neck, a dilapidated straw hat with a hole in it, and dirty work boots. He was so big that it made his guitar look tiny.

No one cared when he started to play - we were waiting to play our own songs and get out of there. People tried not to groan as he stood on stage with his eyes closed, banged his guitar into the instrument mic during the first verse of his song, and sang in a shaky voice. The audience started talking loudly, ignoring him. But when he got to the words of his chorus, the entire room went silent. His words sliced through our indifference like a razor blade, we forgot our boredom, our impatience, ourselves. His honesty made us drop our judgment of his appearance and his limited musical ability. His song sucked all that scattered energy out of the room, focused us, and sang us to a sacred place. The Truth. He was singing about the loss of his wife, about how he felt now that she was gone.

“I’m gonna walk in the water 'til my hat floats away.”

All eyes were on him. Many were filled with tears. We believed him. He was telling us his truth in the way that made us feel our own. Our hearts opened, our eyes opened. And I learned…yes, finally, I got it, THIS is what my job is. Honest songs tell us what it means to be human, and it doesn’t matter who sings them, they are beautiful. From then on, to this very day, that’s what I try to do when I get on stage. Quit sweating the small stuff. Tell the truth, don’t worry about what people think about me, just be honest, and it’ll all work out.

Trouble and Love

Hello Everyone! I’ve officially kicked off the preview tour for my new release on Proper Records UK, and am in Europe right now doing interviews, shows, and teaching a songwriting workshop in Glasgow.

I started off in London, Camden and am now in Scotland where I got to perform in Paisley Abby—what a place to sing! It’s 850 years old, and has somehow survived that many years of human turmoil. I could not stop thinking about the thousands of WWI and WWII widows and children on their knees in that ancient Kirk. And those that came before them. 850 years of spook on top of spook on top of spook. I felt them in the resonance of the echoes at the end of each song. Thanks, Glasgow, for having me and to Paul Brady for letting me share the stage.

Pre-Order The New CD

My new record is called Trouble and Love, and will be in stores June 10. I’m offering signed pre-orders HERE, and they will be mailed in early June, before the record hits the streets. I co-produced this one myself with the brilliant engineer Patrick Granado, and I am very proud of this collection of songs. It's the best work I have done so far, I think.

I’m working with smart folks all over the world to make this record a success, and we’re having fun in the process. I will be posting a Lyric video of each of the 8 songs every Monday, so look for an email with a link each week starting April 21!

The Letter Series

CD Baby asked me to write the first letter for their “Letter Series,” which is based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s brilliant Letters To A Young Poet. I was honored to do so. Here’s what I came up with: Mary Gauthier’s Letter To A Young Songwriter.

April 19 is Record Store Day

I have teamed up with my friend Sam Baker for record store day, and we are splitting a 7-inch single, with very limited pressing. Sam’s song is on one side, mine on the other. My song is called “When A Woman Goes Cold,” and it’s the first cut off my new record.

You can pick one up at your local record store, or at CD Baby.com on April 19.^. But you need a real record player to play it! Visit the Record Store Day website to find a store near you.

Big Shows in L.A. & Zip Code Update

I’ll be performing at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on April 21. Hurry up and get tickets on these if you want to go, because it will sell out.

 Songwriting Workshop Update

My first Nashville Performing Songwriter Creative Workshop took place in February.

A huge thank you to the 20 students who came and shared themselves and their songs in my inaugural workshop. We had a jam-packed weekend as Lydia Hutchinson and I tried to balance showing off some of the people and places that make Nashville great, with deep intense song work. We kicked off the workshop with a pre Mardi Gras gathering to break the ice on Thursday Night. I made some Jambalaya and Jalapeno Cornbread, Lydia brought a Kings Cake and Mardi Gras beads, and we all spent a little time together before the workshop got started the following morning.

We started the first day bright and early working on students’ songs. The brilliant Don Henry helped me out in the afternoon, and then we ended the night at The Bluebird watching the great Don Schlitz weave his magic. Day two was spent working on songs and Gretchen Peters joined us as a guest speaker that afternoon before we all headed to dinner at Monell’s, one of my favorite Nashville family-style restaurants.

Sunday we worked even harder on songs and I tried to give the class as many tools for their writing tool kit as I had time to offer. We wrapped it up right before an ice storm with thunder sleet made the roads impassable—so some of our group ended up staying extra days and using it as a writing retreat.

My partnership with Performing Songwriter’s event guru Lydia Hutchinson will continue with another workshop in a couple of weeks. It’s sold out, but be sure to SIGN UP HERE if you want to be the first to know about any new upcoming events.

Check out the photo gallery from our workshop.

Thanks and look forward to seeing you on the road!

—Mary

Views, News and The Other Side of Fear

“Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures.”—Rainer Maria Rilke

VIEWS

The cold woke me up this morning. As in either I turn on the heater, or I need another blanket on this bed kind of cold. Fall is here in Nashville, and the chill in my house was the first of the season. The seasons are changing, and I’m changing too. I’ve taken some big steps into independence, self-reliance, and self-determination. It’s been scary, stepping up into career self management, letting go of the record company I was with, foregoing a producer and going into the studio and co-producing my own new record with an engineer (albeit a brilliant engineer!) —it’s a re-thinking, and re-doing of the way I’ve run my business for the last decade.

On the other side of the fear, as I walk through it, is a re-birth of my passion and love of my work. Can’t help but notice how the things we fear often are the very things we must walk through to grow. So often on the other side of fears sit gifts, unopened. I’m unwrapping some of those gifts days. They are as the poet Rilke described, “most precious treasures.” I have grown stronger in my step, stronger in my voice, stronger in my vision, stronger on stage solo.

NEWS

My new record is almost done. More details on this soon, but I brought in plenty trusted friends to help me, as record producers do! Duane Eddy came in to play this week, and wow, he was fantastic. The man who invented twang, playing one of my songs, it took my breath away. I love him dearly, and admire him deeply.

The Vinyl Version of LIVE at Blue Rock is available on my web site, signed.  It’s a two record set, pressed on super high quality thick vinyl, and it sounds terrific. I also have a few copies left of Mercy Now and Between Daylight and Dark vinyl records from my days as a Lost Highway artist and when those are gone, there will be no more made. So they are collectable now, I guess.

Mercy Now T-Shirts, in black or gray, are available from size small to XXL. Super soft, unisex, and comfortable. 100% Cotton

We got a new design on the Mercy Pick Necklace, and you can order them with some beads or a regular version without any. Here’s what the beaded ones look like:

I’ll be out on the road again soon, this time I’ll be on the West coast of the US. Be sure to check out the Tour Dates and hope to see you out there. As always, endless thanks for your support!

—Mary

"Nashville" and A New Record

Hello from the artist’s lounge in Ricky Skaggs Studio outside of Nashville, where I am in the process of wrapping up a new record. This will be my 7th release of new songs, and we’re doing it differently than I did the other ones. I’m co-producing this time, with the amazing Patrick Granado, and we’ve recorded to tape, with Viktor Krauss, Lynn Williams, and Guthrie Trapp as the core band. No click, cans, charts or ProTools. We’re cutting songs I’ve worked on for the last 18 months directly to tape with microphones from the ’50s. We will be wrapping up this project in a day or two. Then I have to make some business decisions: Do I go to labels with it, or put it out myself? I don’t have that answer just yet. First things first, and I’ll worry about that after we’re done. Either way, a new record is forthcoming.

In the news department, I am thrilled to report that I have placed a song on the ABC TV series Nashville. It will be sung this Wednesday Sept. 25 on the season opener by the wonderful Jonathan Jackson who plays the character Avery on the show. The song is called “How You Learn To Live Alone,” and I wrote it with my dear friend Gretchen Peters. So be sure to tune in! (Here’s me and handsome Jonathan at the Bluebird.)

I’ve come out with a Vinyl Version of LIVE at Blue Rock. It’s a two record set, pressed on the fine thick vinyl, and it sounds terrific. They are available now on my web site, signed. I have a few copies of Mercy Now and Between Daylight and Dark vinyl records from my days at Lost Highway as well, and when those are gone, there will be no more made. So they are collectable now, I guess.

I’m hitting the road again on Wednesday, headed east. Come on out to a show and say hello!

Greetings from Lyons

Greetings from Lyons Colorado, where I am in the middle of a fine week of teaching at the Song School and preparing to play the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. The sky has offered up plenty color and beautiful Van Gogh swirls this week. Quite the show!

In the news department, I’ve come out with a Vinyl Version of LIVE at Blue Rock. It’s a two record set, pressed on the fine thick vinyl, and it sounds terrific. They are available now on my web site, signed. I have a few copies of Mercy Now and Between Daylight and Dark vinyl records as well, and when those are gone, there will be no more made. So they are collectable now, I guess.

We lost a true great this month, Cowboy Jack Clement. I met Cowboy Jack Clement when I moved to Nashville in 2001—I went looking for him. He invited me into his house, The Cowboy Arms & Recording Spa, and played me the movie that was made about his life, Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement's Home Movies. We stayed up very late watching it, and he laughed out loud at all the funny parts and I couldn't believe I was sitting with him in his office in the middle of the night like we were old friends. It was surreal and as fine a way to start a friendship as I'd ever known. He played me some unreleased Louis Armstrong songs that he'd recorded, and we listened to some old Johnny Cash stuff, from the Sun years. What a welcome to Nashville that was, what a wonderful memory it will always be. Cowboy was the most original, eccentric, hysterical, visionary clown I've ever met. His contributions to the American songbook are immeasurable, and I doubt there'd be an Americana Genre without him. I'll be forever grateful that there ever was a Cowboy Jack … as unlikely a human being as God ever made. We had him for 82 years, and for that we can only say thank you, thank you.

Hope to see a lot of you during my upcoming travels. Be sure to check out the tour schedule, and as always thank you so much for all of your support. I'm forever grateful.

From the Carolinas to Copenhagen

Hello All! I’m writing from my hotel room in Belfast, Northern Ireland, having completed nearly two months of continuous tour dates from Copenhagen to the Carolinas, Stockholm to Shreveport—I’ve been moving fast out here. But my Irish tour is still ahead of me, and I’m off for a few days, sleeping late and moving slow today.

There’s constant motion on these long tours, with a typical day starting 15 minutes before the hotel breakfast ends. We run down and grab a quick bite, head back to the to the room, shower, pack, drag all the gear and suitcases out to the car, drive three or four hours, drag all the stuff out of the car into the next hotel, have about an hour to sit in the room, then get back into the car for soundcheck, toss down a quick dinner, play the show … wake up the next morning and repeat. Whew!

It’s got a rhythm and flow to it, though, and it’s as good a way as any to spend my days. I do love the structure and predictability of the routine even if the travel wears me down. But off days build me back up, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.

Here are a few highlights of my past month and what I’ve been up to:

Paste Magazine did an interview about my about my recent adventures, called Catching up with Mary Gauthier. Be sure and check it out, and thanks to everyone at Paste for your continued support!

I played live on the air in Austin, at KUTX with Scott and Jo, and my old friend John Aielli conducting the interview. Here’s the stream of us playing Can’t Find the Way from that show.

We kicked off the European tour in Sweden on April 17, playing with the talented Ben Glover. Denmark was next, and here’s a beautiful sunset on the canal in a town called Brons. We played to a sold out house there before heading to Copenhagan for another sold-out show at the Pumpehuset. It was a great way to end the Danish run before heading off to Ireland.

I was asked to carry the Americana Music Association Banner on my 17-city tour of Europe. It is an honor for me to do so, and a joy for me to let audiences know a little more about the genre in which I perform, and to give them an introduction to the Americana Music Association, the non-profit trade group whose mission is to advocate for the authentic voice of American Roots music around the world.  Here’s a shot from the stage in Copenhagen.

I hope everyone is doing well and that I get to see you somewhere along the road. And as always, thank you so much for your support—it means more than I can say.

—Mary

21 Cities in 27 Days-- More On the Way.

I've been on a roll out here on the road, moving quickly from town to town to town, dodging winter storms, closed roads and cancelled flights. Winter touring is always a challenge, but we have not had to cancel any shows. We've dealt with a couple van break downs, dodgy sound systems, and scary Motels, but we've met wonderful folks every single night as my LIVE at Blue Rock tour with Scott Nolan and Joanna Miller proceeds onward.

From Minneapolis to Dallas, this run is on a roll!. We had a great time in Burlington, VT. at The Higher Ground, where I was honoured to meet Jon Fishman, founder and drummer for the band Phish, who came back stage to tell me he likes my song I Drink. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him, and I'm honoured that he'd take the time to stop by.

(I snapped the mic shot below from the stage while I was at soundcheck).

Some stand out moments:  The night I made a joke on stage that I don't write dance songs, and a woman came up to me at the CD table after the show and told me that she met her dad for the first time when she was 40, he was dying of cancer, and they danced to Mercy Now.

The night I learned from a music therapist at a VA hospital in CT. that some of my songs were being sung by Vietnam Vets, who are calling themselves The Homefront Band,  and they won a Silver Medal in the National Veterans music competition with my song Sugar Cane. Congrats fellas!

Having Richard Shindell join us on stage with his electric guitar in Ashland VA. and "noodle" for 5 or 6 songs. Lets just say he is really, really good at noodling.

I have plenty more tourdates in front of me. We are headed to Georgia, Alabama, Florida Louisiana and Texas after Easter, then I head to Denmark, Sweden and Ireland with Ben Glover and Michele Gazich. I look forward to announcing two weeks of Canadian tourdates with Scott and Joanna in July, the details are still being sorted, but we are almost ready to announce.

For those who've been asking, I've added XXL T Shirts to the store.

The LIVE at Blue Rock CD is #11 on the Americana Music chart right now, which is an amazing feat for a Live CD. I wanna thank all the  stations and jocks that have been playing it. I wanna thank everyone everywhere thats helped me keep this little show on the road, it's a great job, and I am grateful to be able to keep doing it. I've got plenty new songs, and I'm playing a few of them every night, getting ready for the next studio record. The  LIVE at Blue Rock tour is keeping me busy right now, but I am looking at studio time to start cutting the new songs when I get off the road for a few weeks in June.

Onward!

A Texas Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving with friends in Austin and in Wimberley, TX. Great food, great conversations and warm weather were a wonderful way to spend the holiday. The above is the beautiful quiet cabin in the Hill Country where I stayed. And here I am having fun with Sam Baker and Rodney Bursiel.

I was at Blue Rock Artists ranch for the release of the new edition of the Blue Rock Review. I am honored to say they've featured me in it, with lots of pictures and a long interview. It’s a beautiful publication, and ya'll should CHECK IT OUT.

It was a wonderful night of songs, poetry, stories, visual art, cookies, cake, coffee, hot cider, new friends, old friends and big big love of creativity and creative people. I took the stage with Tom Prasada-Rao and Danny Schmidt for the release show.

I hung with my pals Eliza Gilkyson and Tim O'Brien one night after Thanksgiving, and in this shot we kinda look like the potato eaters...

I got to hang with old friends Gurf Morlix and Sam Baker, and against all odds, I got them to start tweeting. I also got Scott Nolan to start tweeting, and I feel like the twitter team captain right now. I'm loving twitter. It's a great way to stay in touch with people everywhere simultaneously. You can join me on twitter at this address: @marygauthier_

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

P.S.—Check out my friend Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy's web site. She is an adoption rights activist and all round bad ass brave human, doing great work in this crazy world we live in. She was kind enough to feature my posting from last weeks song on her site.

Cotton and Biscuits in Lower Alabama

Woke up this morning in the deep south, lower Alabama ( LA ), in house the middle of cotton fields. So beautiful and yet such a tortured history. Wasn't long ago down here, Cotton was King. And all that entailed..the plantation culture the exploitation of human beings, the poverty shacks sharecropping and sorrow.  Ahhh, Lincoln, the war, the blood and the glory, such dark, rich history the cotton fields of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I see so much more than plant when I look at cotton.

Played last night at The Frog Pond on Blue Hill Farm, a very, very cool place indeed!

This morning, our wonderful host Cathe Steele at the Blue Moon Farm House made us biscuits, bacon, eggs and coffee, and it sure felt like home.

Home again, for little while.

I made it home from my Europe/UK tour tired but excited about going back over in April for another long run. It was wonderful to see all the folks that come to the shows, and have the chance to experience so many great cultures and countries in such a short time. Italy, Denmark, Holland, England and Norway, in three weeks time. So many diverse experiences!  It went so well I am going back, for a month or so in the spring. My two big memories?  1---I Played the maximum security psychiatric prison chapel in Trondheim, Norway that houses the most dangerous criminals in the Country. Some of them were there, and I will never forget it. The staff at the place is doing God's work, I gotta tell you, they moved me. Not an easy job, and they do it with grace. 2--- I went out on the town in London for the premier of the Led Zeppelin movie, walked the red carpet and got to meet some rock Royals, Robert Plant and Julian Lennon. WAY cool night! So I am home now, and life is just as amazing here in Nashville. Guess who loves John Prine as much as I do? Bonnie played the last show of a 75 city tour here at The Ryman, and we all got together for dinner to celebrate the sold out shows and major success of her new record. John and Bonnie go back nearly 40 years....so much love there, and mutual respect. It was an honour to join them for an evening of reminiscing. Nashville, what a great city to hang my hat.

Got to meet the great legendary Duane Eddy when Whispering Bob Harris brought him over for dinner, along with his shiny new CMA Award that he was presented with the night before. Finally, a CMA Award at my house! Congrats Bob, well deserved! I was the grateful cook, who had the most fantastic night of all...Duane and Bob and Beth, I will cook for ya'll anytime!

Last night my pal Ralph Murphy called and asked me to come to dinner, and pick up our friend the legendary Cowboy Jack Clement and his lovely partner Aileen. Jack's resume reads like the history of great American Music. He produced Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Pride, and on and on....PLUS, he is a ballroom dancer. Cowboy, we love you!

Right now when I am at home I'm busy working on a series of short stories, hoping to write enough of them to be able to put out a book of shorts soon. That means getting up before the sun comes up, making a strong pot of coffee, and playing with words for 4 hours every morning. It's a challenge, it's a joy, and it's a journey. I have two done, and about 10 started. Slow going, but getting there. Love the Fall, love the work, love my friends, love my life. I hit the road on Tuesday, headed south, more adventures to come. Thanks for joining me n the journey!

Tin Can Caravan Rolls Down Route 66

I’ve been rolling down US Route 66 with Fred Eaglesmith’s Traveling Steam Roadshow. This tour is his concoction, he calls in the Tin Can Caravan. 50 fans, some in a bus, some in their cars…all following us down America’s weirdest highway, Route 66. We’re playing  little  towns along the way, and a few big towns too. Pulled into Needles, CA today and it was HOT HOT HOT, they say this is the hottest town in America. It was dang hot in Fred’s un-air conditioned converted old school bus, I can tell you that. He runs it on vegetable oil, and it gets the job done. But in the desert, in the heat, it ain’t for sissies.

Tonight at the Elks Club, in Needles, Fred closed the show solo, playing Me and Esther. One of my favorite songs….I am having an adult sized adventure on this tour. Loving it!

Success, Family, Heart, Courage

The Foundling, my last CD, was not commercially successful. It left me reeling, wondering what success means when it comes to creativity. Art and commerce are almost always at odds, and I am being taught, again, that in spite of the trappings of Nashville, the music BUSINESS town where I live (sales charts, radio charts, soundscan, the fame game, the industry sales magazines that focus on money, money. more money and then there’s … money) success is all a matter of interpretation. Did the work connect? Did the work help to heal the person who created it? Did the work bring truth and beauty into the world?  Was the work useful to other people in their life journey?  Will the work endure the test of time? These are the true measures of success in art. Any other measuring stick is a false one. The following video deeply moves me. My friends Catie and Liz are courageous, which to me means they walked through fear and did what needed to be done anyway. They did the right thing by their children. They truly love their children, and they put them first. They took them to find their original families in Guatemala, so that they could live in the light of truth for the rest of their lives. These are not easy stories; adoption stories are NEVER easy stories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o326WoMcju4&feature=plcp

That’s why I wrote the Foundling, try to and make sense of my own confused messed up story. I am deeply humbled that the songs of The Foundling were part of the reason that Catie and Liz's kids now know their birth families. The not knowing has primal, lifelong, ramifications. That I was able  be of service to the spirits of these two beautiful children and this beautiful family is humbling, and makes my understanding of success clearer. The Foundling succeeded on levels that are not commercial, on levels that are far more important than money.

Here's a beautiful thing I learned from Catie and Liz's story. The human heart is built for expansion , it is DESIGNED to open. Hearts can and do hold many family's. My story is not blessed with a warm hearted re-union with my mother. But the failure there is not in the human heart.

Also, the heart has a knowing, it has information that mind does not have.  When your mind does not know what your heart knows, the results are often mental illness, addiction, depression, anxiety, attachment disorders, and a laundry list of other diagnosis that adoptees often suffer from. Knowing is better, even if it hurts.

In the end, this is what I was looking for when I wrote The Foundling.

I found what I needed to find on my vision quest of The Foundling. This is success. A deep and true success.

I need to spend less time in Nashville, and more time in the real world. They told me that sooner or later music city would screw up your head. I'm getting mine put back on by people like the ones in the video above.

Catie and Liz, Celia and Lucy, I love y'all. What a beautiful, true, loving family.

Music I'm Enjoying

It's a great time for music. There's an abundance of creativity in the air, a boom in innovation and imagination, and great new ways to reach people globally that are a series of firsts in history for musicians and songwriters. You tube and the Internet have changed everything. The old gatekeepers no longer have a monopoly on who is allowed into the arena, old radio is dead or dying, old media the same, and the world wide web is wide open and ripe with possibilities. There's no more gate to keep! No one is in charge. It's a free for all. And really, that’s a good thing. Because so many artists could not shape themselves into the pretzel that old media demanded before allowing entrance, they were shut out Today, the game has changed. It's becoming easier for the cream to rise to the top. It's a vastly different world then it was when I entered the music business in 2000, and it's an exciting time. Sure, it's hard to get heard because there's so much happening now, (it's like trying to drink from an open fire hydrant there's so much out there now), but what a good problem to have! It's a great time to be alive, and to be an artist and a fan of original music.

Here's a few of the people I've been enjoying, a few artists I'd like to share with you l because I love them, enjoy their work, and believe they have something valuable to offer. Let me know what you think, it's would be great to hear from you.

CW Stoneking

We played a show with him on BBC Radio Scotland as part of the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. He's amazing, check him out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mclo3kYr9Y

Fred Eaglesmith

My friend, my hero, my mentor, my favorite songwriter. 'Nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMu2BE_z6A

Gretchen Peters

An absolutely gifted and amazing artist, with a fantastic new CD out now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUyOFlF9K1E

Lori McKenna

What a great song, what a great songwriter, what a great CD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5BkV-qEJU

Ruthie Foster

New CD just out, Let It Burn. She's a true BAD ASS!!!  She's got it, and then some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxP4o-fLkFY

Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings

Seven years in the making, and finally, here it is. The Harrow and The Harvest. A new record from one of the most amazing duo's that have ever walked the earth. They are truly timeless, operating outside of time as I know it. They are time travelers, and we are lucky to be able to see perform live in our time. If they are playing near you, you gotta go see them. It never ceases to amaze me how good they are live. Truly, truly great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37u3_659fXk