I will be flying to California tomorrow, to begin a week of solo shows out there:

Friday, Jan 13 – San Francisco – Great American Music Hall – opening for David Lindley (how cool is that??). Finally, Friday the 13th is my lucky day.
Sat, Jan 14 – Sebastopol, CA – Studio E
Sun, Jan 15 – Berkeley, CA – Starry Plough
Mon, Jan 16 – Santa Cruz, CA – Don Quixote’s
Tues, Jan 17 – Pasadena, CA – Coffee Gallery Backstage
Wed, Jan 18 – Hollywood, CA – Bootleg Theater – opening for Joy Kills Sorrow

Fri, Jan 20 – Opelika, AL – Winter Brewfest w/ Grayson Capps and Brandon Jenkins
Sat, Jan 21 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry w/ Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys

Fri, Jan 27 – Champaign, IL – Virginia Theater w/ Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys
Sat, Jan 28 – Ann Arbor Folk Festival w/ Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys
Sun, Jan 29 – Lexington, KY, Opera House w/ Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys

Thur, Feb 2 – Nashville, TN – Bluebird Cafe w/ Webb Wilder and Patrick Sweaney

Then I go to the UK with Brigitte Demeyer and Chris Donohue…

More to come…cheers!

http://musicalgetaways.com/

Will

My friend and musical collaborator, Lisa Oliver-Gray, has a new CD out. It’s called “Dedicated to Love”. It’s wonderful. You should hear it, and not just because I’m a self serving egoist who wants you to know that I played and sang on it and co-wrote two of the songs, including a brand new gospel song called “Adam’s Rib” that I absolutely love and a fresh take on “Open to Love”, which was on my album “Wings”. And not because it features Tommy Womack, Paul Griffith, Tim Marks, Tom Littlefield, Michael Webb and Lee Roy Parnell.

I just like it so much.

Sun209: The Americana Music Journal

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I just returned from wonderful shows in Huntsville and Silver Hill, Alabama. Got to do a killer house concert, and then interact in the round with Randall Bramblett, Spencer Bohren and Grayson Capps. I give thanks!

See you at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville Dec 1.

http://www.tallgirl.com/content/

http://www.stationinn.com/pgcalthis.html

See you Friday in Huntsville, AL and Saturday in Silver Hill, AL!

Ray Bonneville, \"I Am The Big Easy\"
Sam Baker, \"Mennonite\"
Jimmy LaFave, \"Hideaway Girl\"
Gretchen Peters, \"On A Bus To St Cloud\"
Slaid Cleaves, \"Broke Down\"Malcolm Holcombe, \"Becky\'s Blessed\"Kevin Welch, \"Too Old To Die Young\"John Fullbright, \"Satan and St Paul\"

Wow.

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