3/31 The Wade Mountain Wanders, featuring Wade Taylor on mountain dulcimer, Sue Charles on autoharp and Glen Ponder on guitar and mouth harp performed at the store this evening. It was a great night of old time music. We had a good crowd and the band really sounded good. We were taken back in time to the days before the ascendancy of bluegrass bands and the 60's folk revivial. This was authenic Appalachian mountain music the way it was played in the past, before Nashville got ahold of it. A rare opportunity to hear stuff like this anymore. They do some modern folk as well, such as John Prines "Paradise", some Gillian Welch songs, etc. but it all fits together very well. Wade does the best version of "The Farmer's Curst Wife" that I have ever heard. He had the audience rolling on the floor. Wade may be the best dulcimer player I have heard in a long time, usually you can harldy hear it, but Wade makes his sing. He brought three instuments so that he would not have to retune. Sue Charles has played here many time and is a wonderful singer and autoharp player, a real treat when she comes. Glen's authenic sounding guitar background and mouth harp added just the right touch to highlight the music. I hope to have them back before too long.

2/27/06 Gerri and I drove to Chicago and back last weekend for Coffee Fest 2007. We go to this almost every year, it is a really good chance to keep up with what is happening in the coffee business and to try new products. We left on Thursday and came back Monday. The weather was good except for an ice storm Saturday night which made things a little exciting Sunday morning on our drive out, but we had no problems. It was held in downtown Chicago at Navy Pier. We attended seminars on running the business and found some new products that we will be trying out in the store. Check us out.

Among some of the things we are going to try are organic cookies made by Immaculate Bakery in North Carolina. These cookies are great and the packages feature folk art mostly from Alabama folk artists living in the Black Belt. I am still searching for a great organic espresso and will have some samples sent here for us to try. I really like my present espresso beans, but trying to find a comparable organic so far has been impossible. We also gained some tips on marketing and branding which we don't do well but must if we are to survuve in the face of increasing competition. It was avery worthwhile trip. We didn't do much siteseeing, but drove the Miracle Mile a time or two and ate at our favorite Italian restaurant Maggachianos (?). We had troulble finding a room at a reasonable price, there were several conventions going on, and the place we normally stay was booked full. Expedia, or one of those similar deals, found us a room at the Lakeside Ramada for half the price of others and it was just what we needed. Long trip back, we made too many sightseeing stops.

1/4/07 I had cancelled the concert schedule for January because the performers had not contacted me to confirm as I require. However Baily Easterwood did call today and I decided to go ahead with it even though I had announced its cancellation. For those of our customers who just like music, this would be a good chance to hear a new talent, a local young singer-songwriter. I think it will be a good show. This is the kind of stuff I have wanted to do since I opened the store, promote folk music and local talent. We take our music seriously here and try to provide quality music venues. So far I think we have been somewhat successful in that, but not to the degree I had hoped for. It is definitly not a profitable venture, we do it more out of our love for folk music. I firmly believe that American folk or roots music is slowly disappearing, which is a great loss especially to our younger generation, although they are not even aware of what is is. It is an important part of our heritage, it embodies oral histories that explain much about us as a people and culture. We are trying to preserve and perform as much of it as we can here, often to very samll audiences. But the performers are just glad to have a place to share the music that has been handed down to them.

12/21 Christmas time is coming. I don't know whether to be glad or not. The religious aspects picturing Christ's birth, which tend to be overdone (no one knows for sure when he was born and there is no biblical precendent for it anyway), are OK if not taken too far. But to me it basically seems to be a time to celebrate materialism, especially in this postmodern age in which religion takes a back seat to the god of self. Celebrations are good, we had one here, where people can take time out of their busy lives and spend a few hours together talking and eating, bonding, we don't do that enough in our society, so maybe Christmas is valuable just for that aspect. Gift giving is good too if it is real and not just an effort to get more, so maybe that aspect of Christmas in moderation is good too. And of course its an exciting time for kids, but it can be debated how beneficial that is as well. I'm thinking about the sacred lie about Santa Claus. As you can see I have been deep in thought about this.

11/21/06 We flew into San Franciso on Friday with Gerri, me, Erin, Josh, my son Todd, his wife Sonia and their kids Logan and Taylor for a family reunion in Modesto. My brother Andy and his wife Brenda from Perth, Australia were already their as was my sister Sue and her husband Rob. My son Michael, his wife Angela and their two kids Sierra and Greyson came Monday. My sisters son Tim and his significant other Kate came yesterday and her daugther Ashley and her sig other will be coming later today.

10/28/06 Jeff Melvin passed away yesterday. Jeff was only 45 years old and I had only known him for a little over three years, but I counted him as a friend. Jeff passed away at the Intensive Care Unit of the Cullman Regional Medical Center in the early afternoon around 2 PM of kidney and liver failure. Gerri, Julie and I were there with his mother Edna, her sister and husband and Marsha Glover. It was very unexpected and very sad.

9/30 Last night Bimini Road performed to a full house at our store. The performance was outstanding, I think the best they have done yet. Everything was "on". The sound system, an engineering marvel, worked perfectly (although Chuck may not buy into that) from the audience's point of view anyway. Shelly Heard's mandolin added an extra demension of depth and character to the group, he and Chuck really played off each other in their jams. I hadn't noticed this before in their previous appearances. Ruthie and Daniel have really matured, their first year at Alabama has been good for them musically somehow. Daniel's conga solo blew away the crowd which wasn't expecting that, he hadn't done it before. Ruthie voice continues to amaze us, her rendition of Summertime is according to some customers the best they have ever heard. I agree, even better than the musical, was it Lena Horne? She has developed a captivating stage presence and a Janice Joplin style delivery, but retaining her own personality. She really feels the music and gives it her all which is considerable. She is a talent to be watched. American Idol eat your heart out!

8/25 I'm a little late getting this entry posted, life has been very hectic lately. I work two part time jobs besides the store and they both have increased in activity lately. But one, my training jobs for the Alabama Forestry Association will end for this year at the end of September. Anyway I wanted to review our last concert and open mike night which were held on 8/19 and 8/21.

7/29 The Devastators really had the place rocking Saturday night to a full house. It was a great show. Tony Perdue on guitar and vocals, Mike on upright bass and Wayne on drums really put together a fun evening. They played covers such as Johnny Cash's Big River, Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire, Bill Halley's Shake Rattle and Roll and some originals such as The Devastaors Boogie, Stubborn As A Mule, Alabma Fish Fry, Gump and many more. They would be the perfect band for a street party. I opened with a set of my old stuff, talk about a contrast. I may have put them to sleep, but Tony and his group got them rocking in no time flat. A good evening.