A couple of cool things

A couple of cool things going on right now in my little music world. First of all, I am thrilled to have been invited to play at the 30A Music Festival this coming January. It's a weekend filled with music on the beautiful NW coast of Florida. This year the line up is amazing. 150 performers at over 25 venues throughout the weekend of Jan.17-19 including RICHARD THOMPSON, ANI DIFRANCO, LOUDEN WAINWRIGHT III, DON DIXON, MARTI JONES, MATTHEW SWEET, SHAWN MULLINS, TEDDY THOMPSON, MARY GAUTHIER, MARSHALL CRENSHAW, ALLISON MOORER, GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS and MANY MORE. Including me! I still can't quite conceal my delight. At any rate I have already started rehearsing and getting my callouses on. The only thing left to figure out is....what to wear..... If you think a nice, mild weekend on the Florida coast filled with music and food and wine is for you--PLEASE COME! Here is a link to all the festivities. Did I mention that I am THRILLED?!!!!!

 Also, I am happy to say I have a track on the new disc, DEL SHANNON TRIBUTE: SONGWRITER VOL.1, out on RockBeat Records November 19th!! Again I am in amazing musical company, all of us trying to show our respects to Del as the excellent songwriter that he was. I am triple psyched to be on this for many personal reasons, one of which is because Del was a very good friend to me and has DEFINITELY affected my life in many positive ways. I miss him so much. The record is a wonderful, eclectic mix of Del's work, hand-picked by various musicians that just wanted to pay tribute to an excellent and sometimes under appreciated songwriter. Known mostly for his powerful voice and incredible guitar playing, his songwriting was sometimes a little lost in the shadows. We attempt here to shine a light on his wonderful words. Here is a link with the full track listing and details.

 I am currently in the studio writing and recording songs for myself as usual. I am also writing and putting together production ideas for Marti Jones next musical project, YOU'RE NOT THE BOSSA ME, a bossa flavored record of original songs. Don Dixon asked me to co-produce it with him and I couldn't say "YES" fast enough. It's first for me to be producing and writing specifically for someone other than myself. The fact the the "someone" in this case is Marti is just awesome. There are no two musicians I respect any more than I do Don Dixon and Marti Jones. I am pinching myself and hoping I never wake up from this dream!