Alright, it's been several months since my last official bloggish
communication and that's just ridiculous isn't it? I've had my reasons and
strangely, they were mostly physical. At the risk of sounding whiny I'll explain
it this way...after fifty relatively healthy years I was suddenly hit with some
dreadful maladies last fall. Without going into too much detail I'll just say
that it involved some..um.... discomfort, some minor surgery and a rough
recovery period. On the bright side, in the middle of said discomfort I traveled
and performed three holiday season Cracker shows in Petaluma, San Francisco and
Reno. Hallelujah! He moves! Music cures. Thank you to those of you who gave me
some love and assistance out there. The wonderful David Immerglück would be at
the top of that list, wheeling me around San Francisco in my chair barreling
down crowded avenues to dinner and back, making me laugh myself silly with
glee.
On the musical front, I am happy to report that I am currently involved with
some new projects. Those of you who were in attendance at the recent Colorado
shows will remember Jim Dalton, singer and guitarist from our support band the
Railbenders...he of commanding stage presence and amazing, Johnny Cash like
baritone voice. Jim and I are about 10 or 12 songs into an album of original
material....very old school, sixties sounding country music which is sort of
where I come from stylistically (as if you couldn't tell by some of my Cracker
contributions and solo songs I guess eh? ). Some of the songs I write are
probably just too country for Cracker and it's wonderful to have a home for many
of them.....and it's great to write with Jim. We are both singing on the record
ala Willie and Merle, Johnny and Waylon. Duets, harmonies and the like. Here are
some titles; Mexican Jail, Hello Lonesome, Larimer County Blues, Hold My Drink
While I Kiss Your Girlfriend......yeah Mr. Wrong lives.
Around my home town of Fort Collins CO, I've been playing shows with a great
alt-rock / alt-pop band called the Piggies. I don't know what's in store for the
future there, but something good I'm sure. I've played around in their private
studio with a couple alternate versions of my own songs, just to get a feel for
their masterful recording chops, and I will probably post the results of that
first experiment on MySpace or somewhere else in the next year.
Last but not least in collaborations, I am also very proud to report that my
friend Roger Clyne put the song we wrote together on a vacation (rest, sailing
and tequila) weekend in Mexico on his new album. The song is "Bottom of the
Bay," and the album is "No More Beautiful World." My current favorite songs on
the RCPM album are "Andele" (no surprise I guess that I would love a
pirate-themed song that mentions ravens, hmm) and "Maybe We Should Fall in
Love".
Another bonus of all this collaboration is that doing all this writing and
co-writing has got me fired up for some new Cracker music. I can feel it coming
soon......Mr. L. and I have both been staying in the muse with other projects
which always seems to lead us back to Cracker and new songs....or finishing ones
that we started somewhere back in time. By the way, if you have not done so yet
check out David's MOG site and devour his new song and video "Deep Oblivion".
Enchanting. Okay, it's 4 am and we are not even to the middle of this Duo tour
yet so, in the name of health and sanity I will sign off for now and send this
to my ever-talented Webmaster Shay. Sweet dreams, Johnny
