I am never certain whether I feel like an introvert or an extrovert. I suppose I could get both answers depending on who I ask.  I know that when I am with my tribe, I am loud and expressive and…

When I was a kid, I could not get enough of the Alamo. It is the Texas origin story/creation myth. I read every book I could find in my elementary school library and then at the public library after we…

Monday, March 31, was a good day—hell, it was a great day. We were on day three of a long weekend in Nashville, and I was having a blast with my grandson. Still, when I woke up on Monday…

We usually measure time less by the clock or the calendar and more by moments marked and milestones reached. Birth and death loom large in the way we measure our days… things begun and things ended… entrances and exits. Much…

“Pretty as a movie star, homecoming queen in’61…” 

Today is her birthday. 

Lori McKenna’s new song “People Get Old” wrecks me. It wrecks me because I am getting older. It wrecks me because I am a grandfather…

In the late 1980s, I worked in a high-end electronics store. Pre-Best Buy, we sold specialty audio and video gear. There were a lot of large-screen TVs on display (rear projection!) and I always kept at least one tuned to The Nashville Network. I did not consider myself a country music fan but I kept the TV tuned there in hopes of catching a music video from Dwight Yoakam, Allison Krauss, The Sweethearts of the Rodeo, or… Foster & Lloyd. The first time I saw the video for “What Do You Want From Me This Time” I was blown away by the tight Everly Brothers harmony, the Telecaster twang, and Radney Foster’s long hair, John Lennon glasses, and dangly earring. It was the earliest stage of my return to country and roots music. 

I was, in many ways, a late bloomer. I played my 1st real gig in Little Rock when I was 46 years old. I released my 1st record at 53. I skipped over all the young musician angst and…