Mumbo Jumbo December 2017

Thanksgiving

I was somewhere over the Carolinas headed to Key West, blissfully thankful and still full from a Thanksgiving weekend with great friends in Maine. Staring out the window at the cotton clouds floating over the blue Atlantic, I realized it was exactly 29 years since I drove out of New England with little money and minimal talent, headed for Key West with no job and a dream of playing music and writing songs. It could have gone wrong in so many ways.

I happened to see an excellent play recently titled Good People. The story centers around two friends from the hardscrabble Irish neighborhood of South Boston. Twenty years after high school they re-connect. One is a single mom still living in “Southie” working for 8 bucks an hour. The other was lucky enough to go away to college and has moved into the ritzy section of the city. Near the end of the play, in a dramatic screaming match, the struggling woman just can’t get her old friend to concede that a few breaks either way can mold our lives forever. I’ve met a few people like this myself, and they drive me crazy.

If Thanksgiving is about counting all of one’s blessings, this could be a very long newsletter, so I’ll try to keep it brief and related to music. I was lucky to be born in New Hampshire to fine parents, not a perfect childhood, just enough strife to drive me to music. My mother was a singer and played piano by ear, my father a puckish character, born in Boston to Newfoundland parents. Because of my age, my two major influences were the Beatles and the incredible singer/songwriter explosion of the ’70s. We had an old piano in the basement and my parents were able to afford a guitar for me when I was 12, and I was just depressed enough to ignore my homework and spend countless hours in my room teaching myself the play it, never far from a James Taylor record.

After a dozen years working in “real jobs,” I was desperate enough to flee to Key West in search of a place to perform for the winter. Within a week of arriving I landed an audition for the best gig in town. The manager was so high on cocaine and tequila he hired me to play 7 shows a week for the entire season. Before he sobered up and could renege on the deal, he was fired. An incredible stroke of good luck – I went on to play at the Pier House for a dozen years.

Since then, I’ve been blessed with one good turn after another. From meeting Gabriel Donahue and Peter Mayer in the early days, to the privilege of working with Bill Blue, JL Jamison, Dan Simpson, Russ Kunkel, Lew London and Matt and Andy Thompson on my albums, to the advent of Radio Margaritaville and online stations, I have so much to be thankful for.

Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost is available to download from today

On Friday, December 1, my new album will be available to download at CD Baby. And if you’d like to write a review on CD Baby, I would much appreciate it!

Holiday specials

Between now and Christmas, anyone who orders three or more of my CDs on Little Flock Music will receive a free Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost hat. All copies of the new CD will be signed.

Thanks for listening!

 

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