tbag

That was the nickname I had for the song "Thankful Boys and Girls" when my friend Billy and I wrote it many (dare I say many, many?) years ago. Ginger asked me to sing the song as a part of worship today and several folks stopped me at

hakuna batata

I’m watching Chef walk an interesting creative line these days. He’s in the process of making some menu changes that work to incorporate his culinary creativity with the fact that our restaurant is, as he puts it, “in a meat and potatoes town.” Instead of each steak on

city of immigrants

As you make your to do list for today, write down, "Buy Washington Square Serenade ." Steve Earle's first studio recording of new songs in three years is worth every dime. For those of you who don't know him, Steve's first record, Guitar

raising my ebenezer

Though I was flying home alone from Durham last Thursday night, I was not by myself. Seated next to me in the exit row was a large man who actually needed the extra leg room and who quickly fell asleep; across the aisle sat a couple who each had a

41 down

The clue for 41 Down in the “difficult” crossword in Spirit , the in flight magazine of Southwest Airlines was “golden rule word”: unto, as in do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus’ words are as obvious as they are wise. We, as a people, however,

music to your eyes

I was going to write this morning, but I got to reading the annual Southern music issue of the Oxford American , which comes with an amazing CD. The periodical is a labor of love and excellence, and certainly worth a look. Check out  this piece on yodeling by Roy Blount,

building bridges

One of the ideas that continues to intrigue and haunt me is that most of the world lives their lives without knowing or knowing of me and they don’t miss me either. I even posted a poem about it called “Spokane.” This morning, I’m sitting in Foster’s

drinking beer with bob dylan

The prompt from Writers' Island this week was "The Journey." I have no idea how I got from there to here, but here's the poem -- and I couldn't pass up the video. Peace, Milton

cdl

Yesterday was our Schnauzer Lola’s seventh birthday and my brother’s forty-ninth. (I suppose that makes them the same age.) Today, my friend Doug is fifty years old. By coincidence, today also marks my four hundred and fiftieth post since beginning this blog on December 27, 2005. Eliot said

down the long road

One of my tasks in preparing to move is to go through my CDs and transfer the bulk of them to my MacBook instead of boxing them all up to head south. I’ve invested a lot of money in CDs over the years, collecting a good bit of interest,

fall

Our burning bush is just starting to singe around the edges. Before long without smoke or fire, the leaves will blaze brilliantly without burning up and fall to the earth. We talk about colors, yet name this season for the letting go, the breeze-ride down from life into death. How

red dirt girl

On the way home from church to go to work, I heard the end of this interview with Emmylou Harris on NPR. She has a new boxed set out of rare tracks and unreleased material that I am now coveting in the worst way. One of the songs she sang