Hi everyone. It's getting on in August so I had better get this written before it's all forgotten!

I've actually been home a lot lately. It's the last big down time before the fall tour. Before The Trade is finished and out of my hands. Before I uproot myself from summer lowness and my life changes a hefty notch. Before I let go of tunes I've been rehearsing toward perfection, and allow my creative horizon to shift. Before clearing the slate in my mind to allow room for fresh experiences and new songs. I feel them sitting there under the soil like seeds, stirring. Winter wheat.

I've slowed down enough in the last three weeks to enjoy buying fresh food and cooking again. In North Carolina the last week of June I bought a huge basket of fresh peaches. I brought them home to Massachusetts. I've never found nice peaches like these in the north in the summer. After waiting a couple of days for the weather to cool so I could bear turning the oven on I made a pie: a simple recipe right out of Joy of Cooking. In all my combined years of restaurant experience and owning my own bakery I have never made a pie as good as this one. The planets must have been aligned just right or something: every bite was practically an orgy! Well, that led to roasting fresh bell peppers and making cold salads. And that led to purchasing fresh herbs and spending most of my August publicity budget at Stop and Shop on this musicians woefully understocked cupboards! Like I said, "the planets......"

Well, I figure food is like music. Set lists are like menus. We go from appetizer to entree, one course to another. Cleansing the pallet with a short pleasant tune in a major key then getting to the meat of things with a ballad in a minor key. A humorous song to get a little tipsy on then something political for a little starch. You get the idea.

Sather and I got back last night from a brief power tour from Northampton to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We departed Thursday morning in the trusty van and arrived back on Monday night. The mission was to play for a friends wedding (Blessings to E.C. and Kristy!!). They put us up at the Milwaukee Athletic Club and it was wonderful. Nice room, nice food, swimming (a pool on the 6th floor!), basketball, and sauna: a just reward for 2000+ miles round trip in five days. Milwaukee is a wonderful small city. Nice architecture. The newer high rises blend very well with the older buildings dated around 1860's and 1880's. The Milwaukee River runs right through downtown with bridges arching over the water. Sitting along side it on an outdoor patio having supper with good beer while the early evening was growing chilly, I felt like I was in a quiet part of Amsterdam. And to support this illusion the next morning getting a good look out of our 12th floor window, between the tall buildings lay the expanse of Lake Michigan. The broad horizon of water made me feel like I was in a seaport town. Quite a mind bender considering this is the great Midwest.

To round out this month's entry I'll decipher an actual note to myself while on the road. It's a study about how time becomes suspended during the long haul of a many hour drive:

~On these drives, time is measured by the space between stops at the travel plaza. Time is measured by tanks of gas. Time is measured by the 100 yards between my headlights and the Semi's tail lights in front of me. Time is suspended, never changing. Time is measured by the length of a state. The space between time zones. Between sunset and sunrise, between sunrise and sunset. The sun arching around me while I sit still. I am the fixed point.~ Sunday August 15th, I-80 Indiana

That's it for this month. Write me a note, send me an e-mail. Keep in touch. Hope to see you in your town when I tour through.

Blessings to you all,
Dana