Hey, good to have ya drop by. Welcome.

      Just got back from Bakersfield, where we recorded Mr Norman Hamlet on pedal steel guitar for three tracks on this when-the-hell-is-it-finally-going-TO-BE-DONE second album.

      Norm Hamlet is, of course, one of the pre-eminent pedal steel players in the world, and has been Merle Haggard's band leader for 38 years now. He DOESN'T record with other songwriters -- but I guess we caught him in the right mood, with the right songs.

      [He's on the full-band version of "One Great Mornin' (The South's Gonna Rise Again)", among others -- that's the song ya may recall The San Francisco Chronicle called "an ultra-left wing Confederate call to arms."
      So I told him this was his penance -- his "atonement", finally -- for playing all those years ago on Merle's "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me"!]

      It was as much fun just talking shop with Norman Hamlet as it was working out the parts during the session. (Of course, most of that Real Work was done by the great Garrett Soden, the producer of "Ashmore's Store" -- that's the name of this up-coming album.)

      This is gonna be one HELL of a collection of songs, folks! The more we get it ready, the more convinced I am that we're building something memorable here. I'll be surprised if most folks won't agree.

Catch y'all on down the two-lane road....
Michael, May 4