Nice review of Bill Toms’ “Memphis” CD here:

I feel like I’ve had a mini Key West vacation: I’m tired, hungover and gained five pounds! Seriously, I was pretty healthy—I walked and jogged for about 3 hours yesterday morning, and even this morning, in a rush to get on the highway back north to Lauderdale Airport, I took a walk back down to my favorite spot, Cuban Coffee Queen, for one last Cafe Con Leche. I told ‘em Paul Griffith sent me, and they smiled.

Even the long ride back up A1A was nice.
Made it through some pretty brutal Miami traffic to the airport.
I was reminded of an old Silos song, the one that says, “Driving down Highway 441 with the windows down. Beer in one hand, the radio blasting…”
Great stuff…
Waiting for my flight to Orlando, and from there to Louisville.

I’ll be at Art Bowman’s House Concert in Lawrenceville, Georgia, this Saturday. It’s all sold out! Sorry for you procrastinators who waited too late. But I look forward to it very much.

It’s been a wild ride all Spring and Summer. I’ve written all about the Emmylou Harris tour in support of her amazing new album “HARD BARGAIN“. We ended at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, in front of 150,000 people. The next day, I flew to play with Rodney Crowell and Jenny Scheinman in New York, at BB King’s. Since Oct 4, I have been down to the Gulf Coast, to Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, played the Americana Music Conference, played Huntsville, played Virginia and North Carolina, and now I’m at Land’s End.

Up next: Louisville with Brigitte Demeyer, opening for the fabulous Black Lillies, followed by Art Bowman’s House Concert in Lawrenceville, GA. Then…like I said, the party never ends…I’ll be at Jimmy Lafave’s Music Road Songwriter Rendezvous at Lajita’s Golf Resort and Spa in Deep South Texas. We’re talking Big Bend, folks. Viva Terlingua! And on and on…and on…whew…

So by Thanksgiving, I’ll have crisscrossed this great nation several times over, just since early October.

I headed straight for Cuban Coffee Queen for Cafe Con Leche (16 oz, no sugar, please). Walked along the harbor, passing Shrimpboat Studio—home of many great memories of recording the last 3 Jimmy Buffett albums—and many fine looking seafaring vessels.

Finished my coffee and, feeling properly awake and warmed up, I jogged all over Key West in my bare feet. Got sweaty quickly. Ran to the Southernmost Point in the US. Ran around the neighborhoods. In about an hour and a half, I was back at Cuban Coffee Queen for another Cafe Con Leche and a Cuban Mix. Walked my lunch back to the condo.

On a closing note, my kids both got straight A’s this quarter. Ain’t life grand?

Headed for sound check now. Hope to see you tonight—-Studios of Key West.

Also on the bill were The Wronglers (with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Robbie Gjersoe, Heidi Clare and Warren Hellman) and Peter Rowan!

Thursday was busy busy busy. Did some fun radio and press tapings and interviews, including this one for Freight Train Boogie (video footage courtesy of the lovely and talented Stacie Huckeba):

The Americana Awards show was Thursday night. There were great performances, especially by The Civil Wars (John Paul White is from Alabama, y’all) and Gregg Allman, whose “Melissa” was a real treat. By the way, I was nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year. Congratulations to Buddy Miller, who more than deserves the kudos!

Did a fun taping with Brigitte Demeyer and Chris Donohue for Bob Harris. Bob recieved a lifetime achievement award for broadcasting and gave a charming and heartfelt acceptance speech.

Played the Southern Festival of Books—-Nashville had a LOT going on last week—with Brigitte and Chris Friday afternoon, then took a break to have dinner with friends (Frothy Monkey is doing great dinner now…) and then rushed over to the Basement to see Ian McLagan’s set. It was amazing! He was everything I hoped for—funny as hell, soulful, rocking and rolling and swinging. John Notar Thomas played some excellent bass and nylon string guitar too. I got a big sweaty hug from Mac, too…

Kimbrough’s wife’s husband’s wife’s favorite band, The Bottle Rockets, were on the bill with us Friday night, so we headed straight over from the Basement to the Rutledge. Frank Sass was waiting to make it all sound right. Bottle Rockets were great.

My set was a blast. Nuff said.

Got up bright and early, with a few hours’ kip and drove to Northport, Alabama (across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa) to play the Kentuck Festival of the Arts. It was a good one. Had a good time playing and saw some dear friends.

Drove back to Nashvegas after the Kentuck gig. It was 500 mile day. Dropped by the house for a cup of tea and a shower. Then headed back out for my midnight gig with Brigitte Demeyer. We had a great rhythm section: Chris Donohue and Brady Blade. What a thrill to play in that band. Got some sweet comments after from fans and heroes (Buddy Miller, Greg Leisz). Nice one!

I am fried like a piece of country ham today, but so happy to get to do so much great music with such good friends for such cool people.

See you in Huntsville and Birmingham next weekend!

Cheers,
Will

Singing “Turn, Turn, Turn” with Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, The Civil Wars, The Secret Sisters, The David Wax Museum and M Ward at the Newport Folk Festival.

Kimbroughs in Nashville were spared any damage.

I met my Gulf Coast kinfolk in New Orleans yesterday and we shared a fabulous meal at Mandina’s, all of us very aware that only a few years ago, the city and the restaurant were devastated by another storm, another flood, another agonizing wait for the government to fix things.

No water in Boston…bombs in New York and Pittsburgh, floods and tornados in the midsouth, oil spill on the coast. And yet I look out the window at the bluest sky and the greenest trees I have ever seen, thinking back on three great nights of making music among friends in Texas.

It’s all so good and bad. It’s all so much.

I sat in with Tommy and his band last night—with the lovely and talented Lisa Oliver Gray—for Music City Roots at the Loveless Cafe. It was a terrific lineup: Minton Sparks, Marshall Chapman (with Danny Flowers!), Barry & Holly Tashian, and David Jacobs-Strain.

Stellar group of musical people. For you guitar freaks, be warned—if you have not heard of David Jacobs-Strain, you will. He is one of those insanely good slide players, with touches of Leo Kottke, Blind Willie Johnson.

See you at Pirate’s Cove!

I was a superfan.

I played to the pretty well packed club—they knew me and my songs, my choices of cover songs—The Bushmen were a Tuscaloosa mainstay from 1984 to the early 1990s. I went through my set and then decided I’d do “Thirteen”, a Big Star song from their sparkly sad debut album, “#1 Record”. I loved the song; I believed it, and usually performed it with my eyes closed, trying to channel to uber-sincerity of the original. About 2/3 of the way through the song, I took a breath and opened my eyes. About 5 feet in front of me stood Alex Chilton. I was mortified! Thrilled! My hero was impassively watching me play one of his masterpieces. He looked neither impressed nor disgusted. For once, Alex didn’t have that bemused little smile on his face. I was relieved, and launched into my next number, a cover of Gram Parsons’ cover of the James Carr soul classic “The Dark End of the Street”. I closed my eyes again. Opened them after the second verse. Alex was still there. Still just sort of checking me out.

I think “Dark End” was the last of my set, and this being a humble ’80’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama club gig, there was no dressing room, no crew to get Alex’ gear set back up for the show.

Alex climbed onto the stage as I was unplugging and casing up my ’60’s Epiphone acoustic guitar. He leaned over to me and said “If you play an F Sharp Minor instead of that D over F Sharp on ‘Dark End of the Street’, it’s MUCH scarier”.

The master had deemed to speak to the student. Victory was mine and I celebrated by drinking all fifty dollars of my pay for opening. I got drunk and enjoyed Alex’ show. I staggered down the the Booth later and enjoyed more after hours beers before somehow winding back up at my Dill’s Motor Court room with my friend and bandmate Sam.

We slept late and woke up to knocking on our motel room door. It was Alex Chilton. He wanted to check out my vintage Epiphone. He wanted to see if anyone had any pot. He was obliged. Alex asked if we minded if he played us a new song he was working on. We just laughed. The thought that he would ask US was nothing less than hilarious. He played the song. It was ok. Alex had to hit the road. I followed him out—he was traveling alone in a rented Ford Bronco, while his band drove the van with the gear. Alex played me a Jesse Belvin song. I didn’t really get it. Alex asked my birthday. I told him and he got a thoughtful look on his face for a few moments and then said, “Wow, Will. We’re just about astrological twins”.

Alex was into astrology.

He drove away.

I saw him again over the years, including that last short conversation on the hotel balcony in Oxford, Mississippi.

A lot of friends have been telling their Alex stories.

During a recent phone call, discussing Alex’ death, my friend Pat said it best: “Alex was our Beatle”.

Alex was our Beatle. But we could go see him up close in the clubs. We could shake his hand and tell him how excited we were to meet him. And he would give us that bemused little smile.

We’re just circling the wagons around here, gathering friend and family strength and support for all the friends and family that are struggling with their health. We are lucky to have so many good friends and strong family members to lean on, and who can lean on us.

Tonight’s show was a good example of people cooperating with each other in order to form a more perfect union—-in this case, to make some perfect music.

I saw some of my favorite musicians at the show tonight: Kenny Vaughn, Paul Burch, Bryan Owings, Michael Grimes, Jay Johnson, Jack Silverman.

Our Christmas was wonderful and crazy—-lots of family and friends getting together—a couple of unexpected deaths—-a serious illness in the family—-very intense times around here.

And at the same time, these tribulations have brought families and friends closer together. I am counting blessings at the beginning of this year, and there are many. Most of my family and friends are healthy and happy. Those that are ill are getting good care. My children are smart, funny, charming, beautiful and thriving, and they make me proud every day. My spouse also happens to be my heroine—-she is wise and strong and knows how to laugh and have a good time. She is the glue that helps hold together a lot of people who love each other. My songs are out there on a famous singer’s new album. I have a new album coming out in February. I have some shows and sessions coming up that I am excited about. All in all, I could well be the luckiest guy on earth.

I’ll see you out there somewhere I am sure.

Madness has a new album out, and it’s fantastic: The Liberty of Norton Folgate. If you like Madness, the Kinks, Brit pop, or just smart and hooky songs, check it out.