Great music

I spent Thursday afternoon in Asheville, NC, singing harmony vocals for Greg Adkins new CD, due out this fall. I've never driven 5 hours to sing backup before, but then, there are not many songwriters I admire as much as Greg Adkins, and it is an honor to be on his CD. He's recording with Chris Rosser, who in addition to being a great singer/songwriter, is a highly regarded producer. From what I heard of the recording, this is going to be an awesome CD. (harmony vocal aside). I knew most all of Greg's new songs, from playing with him on a midwest tour earlier this year. There are some absolutely tremendous songs on this CD, notably for me is 'The End Of You And Me', which you may have heard me do a cover of recently.

The thing I was thinking about on the long drive home late Thursday night, is what is it that makes Greg's songwriting so good? Why does it speak to me more than other songwriters? One theory I've come up with, is that the place that his music fits in his life, is exactly the place where songs should come from... What I mean by that, is Greg writes and performs music because he loves doing it, not because he is trying to accomplish some ridiculous level of fame (like most singer/songwriters I know, occassionaly myself included). Greg has a great job that he enjoys, a wonderful family, and a strong faith, all of which are clearly more important to him that his music "career". Without that distraction of searching for fame or critical acclaim, he is able to write songs that matter to him, and write about the things that mean something to him.
The fact that he can write as well as he can from the technical side, and his music/vocal abilities are just good fortune on his side. Some people have it, and some people don't. But, there are plenty of people who have "it", but don't put enough truth and feeling into their songs, and it shows. Greg Adkins has "it", but he also has the skills to let it shine.

I will be letting you know the moment his new CD is available, and I hope y'all will buy a copy, because it deserves to be heard.

Big times in Florida

This summer has been pretty slow for me on the touring front, as summer usually is. I did, however, have a great trip down to Florida last weekend.
I made my first ever trip to the nation's oldest city, St. Augustine. Stu Weaver, host of 'Messages' on WFCF Radio set up a concert for me, sponsored by WFCF at Flagler College. They are hoping to make this a regular concert series, and from the turnout of the first show, I certainly think they should. It was a wonderful crowd, and I owe a lot of it to the promotion work of Stu, who also opened the show for me. His is a great singer/songwriter in addition to his radio work.

The next day, I drove down to Orlando to play at the Live at Leu Gardens Concert Series, put on by the Central Florida Friends of Folk. Many thanks to Doug Spears and Barry Brogan for getting me down there. My old friend Garrison Doles opened the show, and it was a treat to hear him again. Noteworthy from the Orlando show, is that a family drove up from West Palm Beach, a 3 hour drive, to see me perform. I am always quite humbled when someone enjoys my music enough to want to go that far out of their way to see me, thanks!