Music in the Sun: Phoenix

I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, as I write today. I'll be here for one more day. Tomorrow evening I will do the largest show I have scheduled in Arizona, and then the next morning I will set out for Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Everything has gone really well in Phoenix. I've met some great new friends and enjoyed meeting up once again with old friends here: Many, many super, open, friendly, helpful people. I have not had enough time in this short visit to spend much time as I would like with some of my friends. Wish that were not the case. I'll be back for a longer stay in March, when I am playing the Phoenix Folk Festival here. I already have some other bookings for that time.

In this visit I've done some of my shows alone, and some with the strong support of mandolin wizard Bill Burkette, bassist Igor Glenn, and drummer Eddie Detroit. All good fun. I've made it a point to play some of my music that rarely gets played in the festival environment: Spanish Fandango and Black Range Tales (the latter one of my compositions) in alternate guitar tunings; my sad ballad I Remember You, which is a favorite of my good friend and very talented singer/songwriter/poet Dee "Buckshot Dot" Strickland Johnson; lots of fingerpicking guitar tunes that don't fare too well in the festival settings; some mandolin duets with Bill Burkette (notably Whispering); and more.

One of the places I've played this time in Phoenix was Fiddler's Dream, a wonderful listening room I wouldn't want to miss playing while in Arizona. If you get through Phoenix, be sure to visit Fid's. A couple of years ago, in Fort Worth, Texas, I wrote a ballad called Fiddler's Dream especially to play at the Phoenix venue, about an old fiddler who may have Alzheimer's disease, dreaming of his late wife and resisting going to a nursing home. I always play that a couple of times when I come to Phoenix.

During this week in Phoenix I've stayed most of the time with Jim and Midori Hall, new friends and wonderful people who have warmly welcomed me into their home. Midori is a musician who plays a variety of instruments, and Jim loves music and supports her in her music making. We've had many happy times, lots of good conversation, and lots of laughs while I've been here. The Halls live in a southwestern-style home in a quiet suburb of the city, with a walled back yard very well suited for my early morning yoga practice.

I also enjoyed very much staying one night with John and Dee Strickland Johnson. They are also wonderful people, and we had wonderfully good times together. As "Buckshot Dot" Dee is an amazingly talented singer, songwriter, poet and writer of prose with many books to her credit. She has several CDs out and her compositions are recorded by others in the western music genre.

Here's her web site: http://www.buckshotdot.com/

I'll be staying with Bill and Beth Burkette tomorrow night, after a big concert in Sun City, where they live. Then early next morning I'll hit that endless music road.

Coming here from Walsenburg, Colorado, I took winding mountain roads over the Rockies, stopping at about 11,000 feet in cool rain to look at a waterfall. I collect waterfalls. I had intended to go to Mesa Verde National Park on the to Phoenix, but when I arrived at what would have been the turnoff to reach the park, rain had become torrential. I skipped the park with great regret. Next time!

There are lots of nice things about Phoenix, including the best grilled catfish I ever ate and a host of great western people, but I must say the contrast between all of the negative aspects of the city's urban sprawl and the natural splendor that surrounds it here in the Arizona desert is downright shocking. Traffic is particularly terrible, featuring lot of fast crazy driving on jam-packed clearly inadequate highways, with many drivers showing evidence of road rage as they hurtle through outrageous rush hours and their precious lives. Phoenix is amazingly hot and amazingly dry, even in September, and that causes most people to live sealed up in air conditioning. I suppose Phoenix is no worse than a dozen other metropolitan stress centers, but it sure makes me appreciate my home on Florida's balmier, slower-paced Gulf Coast.

I'm surviving nicely, however. All is well. There are a heck of a lot of worse places to be---and no places where one could find nicer people than the people who are my friends and fellow music makers here!

See ya next time, when I'll let you know how things go in New Mexico!!