Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, April 9, 2020, 11:28 a.m. If the country is pulling together, you can’t prove it by Facebook. I’ll stop blaming President Twitter when he stops blaming everyone else. The best reason to watch replays of old sporting events is that at least it’s sports. The worst thing is that everyone knows …
Tag: guitar
Independence with a Little ‘i’
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, July 6, 2019, 1:49 p.m. I’ve restrung two guitars this week during the time I could spare from work. I also worked on my next novel on consecutive days for the first time in at least six months. Independence Day gave me some time for independence. I had a few local …
Playing Music Through the Years
It all started with a book, my last non-fiction to date. As I traveled around the country, writing about NASCAR, I started doing interviews with favorite musicians on the side. Robert Earl Keen in Newberry, S.C.; Tom Russell in Berkeley, Calif.; Pat Green in New Braunfels, Texas; James McMurtry, and Slaid Cleaves in Austin, Texas; …
The Sun Is Out, the Sky Is Blue … I’m in the House
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, June 3, 2017, 9:46 a.m. Sometimes I get up, and lesser aspects of life greet me, all at once. Everything seems mildly absurd. It doesn’t hurt, occasionally, to recognize this. Absurdity is on the rise. What Republicans believe about the planet, I believe about the absurdity. Just gotta let it run …
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I’ve Still Got My Guitar and the Red Sox Going for Me
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 8:54 a.m. Middle of the week. Last night traded one kind of music for another. A trip to Charlotte to see my favorite band, Reckless Kelly, fell through, but I visited my nephew’s lovely children – held them, made faces, sound effects, tossed the older lightly in the …
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Appeasement
I awakened this morning, and my mind was alive. It was aliiiiiive. Like Frankenstein. Then I staggered into the living room, and before I even put on some coffee, took my meds, and answered the alarms in my innards, I grabbed a pen and a notepad and wrote "appeasement" before my racing mind left it …
Can’t Rush the Important Stuff
My goal today is to complete the first draft of what I intend to be my fifth novel, Cowboys Come Home. I'm expecting it to take two more drafts, perhaps only one, but I'm optimistic on such matters, and two is the likelihood. They won't take too long. The story isn't likely to require any …
The Great Known
Mickey got up, drank some coffee, fixed breakfast, and rejoiced in the honor of being the last person on earth whose mother had the good sense to name her son Mickey, and he thought about the glory of Mickey Mantle, Mickey Stanley, Mickey Spillane, and Mickey Montgomery. Okay, the last one he made up. Then …
Isn’t Fun the Greatest Thing You Can Have?
My greatest ally is my guitar. Or, my guitars. I keep one leaning against the couch to my left while I type away here. I just got finished playing a few songs to get me ready to write this blog. I played a couple of mine, "Stuck in a Rut" and "Uh, Huh." Then I …
A Letter to the Young Me
Dear Tug, It’s just the name Dad calls you. Him and Roy Walker. What you call Roy, Pride, isn’t going to stick, either. Nicknames are going to get boring. By the time you reach, well, your age now, most nicknames are going to be related to your last name. Dut, for instance. You’re going to …
Nightrider's Lament 