I’m not frightened! I’m not worried about Al Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden. Hell, I don’t think that Al Qaeda even exists. It’s a figment of our imagination, brought on by 9-11 and our present administration.

We need a "boogey-man" and this one will do just find thank you very much. Oh I know... you’ll say of course Osama is alive and well living in Pakistan or wherever, and he may well be.  But my point is one or two men can’t bring down this government.  Meaning that the worldwide spread of the Al Qaeda network is non-existing. That’s right, non-existing, meaning they don’t fucking exist!

At the end of the cold war with Russia, our government had no bad guy. And everyone knows we have to have a bad guy or boogey-man, it’s just how things work. I can’t really explain it, but do some research and you’ll soon discover that this is a correct hypothesis.

But what I would like to do is try and stop the American people from being frightened.  Not all Americans are scared, but a lot are and they make it hard on the rest of us. And then you ask me "How is it making it hard on you if I’m frightened?"  Well, I’ll tell you!

Frightened people do stupid things; very frightened people do very stupid things. And when enough people get scared they make it hard on the rest of us that aren’t. As I write this, the United States Senate are having hearings about American surveillance. This administration calls it "Terrorist Surveillance" but don’t kid yourself; it's domestic surveillance. They are spying on Americans in this country, listening to our phone calls, reading our emails and heaven knows what else. All under the guise of "protecting us from Al Qaeda" You know... the "boogey man."

It’s time-consuming not to be afraid; it takes time to research and find out what’s really happening in our country let alone the entire world. But I’ll tell you one thing, you have no reason to be afraid of Al Qaeda because they don’t exist!

If you’re interested, I will tell you who you should be afraid of. You already know the answer to this; it’s "the boss, same as the old boss." That’s right, be afraid of your government. You know them; the guys that tell you "Listen to me, do what I say, and I’ll protect you." Well they may do just that but at what cost? Oh yeah, it costs, not in dollars (although we have spent a pretty penny so far in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.)

But the big cost comes when you turn over your rights. That’s right, your freedom. The things you don’t really even take into consideration. You just expect them to always be there, just like electricity, running water, or gas for your car. After all, you live in America, and we all know that living in America guarantees certain rights. Right?

The only rights that are guaranteed are the ones you’re willing to fight for and they are under siege as you read this. Ok, ask me how I know this. Well, I know this because I took the time to find out. I did my research, and it’s there for all to see.

The Internet is a wonderful tool. It will take you places you’ve only dreamed of and do it from the comfort of your living room. I would also suggest turning off the television now again and picking up a book, and not just any book!

Hell, if you agree with this administration, then you should be frightened and anything I might say will fall on deaf ears. But if you’ve been wondering why things in the back of your mind have been bothering you lately, such as "Why did we go to war with Iraq? Why hasn’t the most powerful country in the world been able to find Osama bin Laden? Why does gasoline cost three dollars a gallon?" If you ask yourself these questions then you should really do some research.

So I’ll close by quoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”.

And of course this; Always question the authorities. Always question your government. After all they work for you. We have a republic in this country and these guys work for us. So stop being frightened, start doing some research. Find out the truth, it’s out there but you must find it and spread it around.

Till I knock on your door

- em

We did however make some new friends.  We meet a couple; Ron & Tessa Green; they opened up their hearts and home to us and for that we’ll be forever grateful. We plan on putting up some photos soon, as a picture still tells a thousand words.  So let me close by telling you about the second part of this blog post.

A couple of days before we left, I got the note below from my good friend Mark Merritt. I wanted to add it too this post, as it meant a lot to me. I’ll post pictures of the road trip soon.  Enjoy!

- em

By now, I'm sure Gus is gassed up, the bags are packed, and your favorites CD's are at the ready. All that's required is a turn of the key, and then start heading west, young man. Out into the Great Unknown where forgotten stories will be re-discovered, and others will be born. Out onto the vast concrete pathway that stretches as far as the eye can see, populated by other souls heading somewhere, or maybe even nowhere. You'll see others on the path going to wherever fate will take them. They just pick a direction, hit the gas, and wait to see where the journey will take them, and to see if their stories can be told.

But, in this case... the path has been chosen. "To the Pacific Northwest" we shall go. To see coastlines of serenity, forests of green splendor, and nature as God intended it to be. The air will feel smoother, the water crisper, and the spirit flame re-ignited. Choices will be simpler to make, time will not be a factor and the simplest things will make everything worthwhile. Things that troubled you before simply don't trouble you right now. At least not for a while. Because the mission is clear.

To re-discover a part of the country almost long forgotten, and to share it with a soul-mate... Ahh... that's the stuff. Those are the things worth waiting for.  Cameras can take two dimensional pictures of what I'm sure will be vast amounts of eye-candy, but the memories of a journey like this, will make you smile when you fall asleep at night.

So here's to a safe journey.  May you laugh all the way there, and all the way back.  Stop at some historical markers along the way, and learn new things about this land.  Take lots of pictures, remember the funny stories, and write goofy songs.  Please, at all costs... avoid telephone poles and large mammals in the road. (The farther west you go, the bigger the critters get.)

In the immortal words of two brothers before embarking on their own journey:

"We've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, and we're wearing sunglasses.....

Hit it."

Have a wonderful and safe trip. See you on the other side.

:-)

mm

em

Terry Razor; Terry’s a local musician singer/songwriter with a heart as big as Texas herself, so when the invite came to join in, well... needles to say it was a no-brainier.   The boys & girls and myself loaded "Gus The Bus" up and headed SXSW to a little place on the river called Bucks On The Brazos.  Bucks is owned and operated by Scott & Cindy Chaffin very nice folks, again with hearts as big as Texas. 

We, (meaning me and the band) Oh yea, the band now has a name!  Let me know if you like it!?  From now on and forever unless we decide to change it, The band will be known as “The CowTown Truckers”  Yup, I came up with that.  I kind of pride myself with naming bands and giving people nicknames.   Back to the story, fourth paragraph!!

Well, we made the trip crash-free, showed up about 3pm and the party was going strong.   The party had been going on since Thursday.  We got there on Saturday and we had some catching up to do, so we got right to it.   I bought a new hat, Darlina got a new OKOM t-shirt from the good folks from Texas Music Guide, and we were ready!

The weather was perfect!  Nice breeze and the temperature was 89 degrees.  It don’t get much better in Texas in the month of August then that.  Met up with some folks we haven’t seen in awhile and that’s always fun.  But the largest surprise was while we were playing I turn around and there he was grinning right back at me... Yup it was Tim Rivera my long lost harp player.  I’ve been playing music with this guy since the 70’s but I hadn’t seen him in ten years, well that made the party complete!

When we finished our set we congregated around Gus The Bus, broke out our lawn chairs and set in for a long overdue visit.  We all did some catching up on what we had been doing, the lies were flying, and it was hard to get a word in side ways.  After a long visit we promised to stay in touch with each other this time and there were hugs-a-plenty.

That’s about it.  We had to get back to Fort Worth (some of the CowTown Truckers had plans that evening) but personally I would have liked to have stayed around as it was just getting good!

Till I knock on your door

em

Here’s what’s going on, I’ll let you decide if you think I’ve really been busy or I’m just BS’ing...

I’m working on two new albums, not mine but just as important to me as if they were.  Let me mention these projects, because in the near future you’ll be able to hear for yourselves and make up your on mind if they are indeed important.

Mark Merritt is putting the finishing touches on his new album titled Peace Of Me, This is going to be a great album, I’m happy to be involved with Mark’s first effort and it’s proving to be time well spent.  I even get to play a little guitar on this record, other than me, it’s all Mark Merritt.

I’m also working on the Mortal Coils project; this will be a concept album in the true sense of the Texas flatlands. Let me give you a break down on some of the musicians playing on this record.  This is not a complete list but it is the core of the rhythm section:

Mick Morrow will be playing Bass, Mick’s a friend and a fine musician we’re lucky to have him available. Walt Redding is the drummer/percussionist, also a fine musician.

The core of this project, meaning the songwriters that got me interested in getting involved are Mike Price, Greg Jackson & me.

The Mortal Coils album is a combination of Texas story telling put to a swing beat, and other musicals ideas that come with getting to play with fine musicians.  I think it will be well received, by the Americana & roots audiences that appreciate real music, warts and all.

I’m going back to work, if you have questions or comments just drop me a line I’ll probably reply.  See all of you soon... watch out for spinning Buick’s.

em

Well, the festival tour is over. We've done four shows in four weeks and that's pretty good for me.  I never really wanted to tour; I enjoy writing songs and working in the studio.  But when push comes to shove, I'll do what's necessary to get my songs heard.  After all, if no one's ever going to hear these songs, why in hell write them?  I have to mention this now or I’ll forget.  Seems that several radio stations are playing cuts off Privateer, that's the good news.  Now here’s what I 'd like everyone to do for me.  Mark is adding a "Fan Support" link on this website.  The premise being click on the radio station link, and when you get to there,  request a song  from the Privateer album.  The trick is all radio stations compile information regarding requested songs. If they get enough requests they will contact the record label and procure that title being requested.  This deal helps the artist, and more importantly helps the Indie music cause.  You can apply this principle to all of your favorite artists.

Back to the festival tour.  Let me give you a little background...  A couple of years back we had a songwriting deal with a Nashville publisher. (I won't mention his name but he's a big time publisher.)  We sent several songs to this guy; he listened and made a few comments then decided to accept nine songs.  He put these song on a schedule “A” which means they were being to artists.  A couple of established artists came to his office looking for songs.  Said publisher played some of our cuts for these artists and they really liked one of our songs.  So they asked the publisher if he would demo this song in a Rock-n-Roll version.  Let's get something straight; re demos of songs in Nashville are as commonplace as buying a beer, besides everything in Nashville is re-coupable.

Needless to say this new demo was never done.  So goes my career as a songwriter.  After that, our songs were put on a shelf and forgotten.  Well, a bad business deal left us out in the cold as this publisher has our nine songs forever.  So that's how that goes.

Back in August I decided to release a new album (Privateer.)  That’s the only way I was ever going to get these songs heard; that and to play them myself.  That brings us to the present- day festival tour.  April had us going to the Northgate Festival in College Station, followed by an album-release concert.  May brought the Cottonwood festival and the Wildflower Festival in  Richardson, Texas.  I'll tell you about the Wildflower Festival...  If you've never been, it's a must-go.  We got to the festival early.  We don't have an advance man, and so we have to check things out for ourselves.  Anyway, we get to the festival, park in the wrong parking area, walk five miles and locate our stage.  We’re playing the main stage, and keep in mind that this is a festival.  After locating our stage and parking area we walk back five miles get "Gus the Bus" (our traveling wheels) and go to the correct stage/ parking area.   Hell, I'm already exhausted at this point and we have forty-five minutes before we play.

Let me mention how great the folks were at Wildflower.  They went out of their way to make us feel welcome and important and that really helps.

Did I mention that this was a festival?   Well, it was.  It was huge!!  Festival seating, festival stage, festival sound system, festival lighting... the works!  All this does not overwhelm me, but I was curious, "How are the songs going to sound in this type of venue?"  We've played outside before, but nothing like this.  Sometimes the songs can get lost in the vastness of it all, so I'm thinking "Well... I'll know in about an hour." (that's how long we played.)

I'm happy to report the songs stood up well.  From what I could hear from the stage, the sound flowed pretty well, and I think the folks that were there had a good time, and we on stage did as well.  Did it help my career?  Not sure.  No one's contacted me about playing Woodstock 05.  We'll see.  ;-)

Till I knock on your door………… em

Go to go, need to re-string Fran and get ready for tonight, hope to see you somewhere along the blacktop!  Till I knock on your door.....em

Till I knock on you door......em

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