May 2004

A couple of ideas I’ve been mulling around for some new songs:

“No one comes down from the mountain anymore” With mass communication now not only nationwide, but worldwide, there really isn’t anyplace where American music can be born in a vacuum. No one comes from the mountains anymore, there aren’t any mountains left. The mole in the ground has torn the mountain down. I’ve hashed out quite a bit of this but I can’t find my notebook to finish it up. Soon.

“Listening to ghosts” I first got this idea listening to music on late afternoon. My mp3 jukebox just kept cranking out old blues and traditional American songs and it suddenly came to me that all of the songs I was listening to were being sung to me by dead people. I was in fact, listening to ghosts. About a week later I watched a documentary on TV called “My Father’s Camera.” The film was a collection of old movies and studies on the impact and art of home movies. The filmmaker said, “Watching these movies is like watching ghosts.” I’ve spent my life listening to ghosts.