Exit 100,  I-95 
North East - Rising Sun: I've been looking at that exit for years, thinking it was one of the nicer named exits I've seen. That and "Falling Waters - Marlowe" going south on I-81 into West Virginia are such lyrical names to be represented on a cold, green interstate exit sign. My gig this past Saturday night was at the North Elk Coffeehouse in the town of North East, Maryland. North East is a quaint fishing village, now mostly shops and restaurants on the Main Street. It is located upstream from where the North East river flows into the Chesapeake Bay. A wonderful gig it was, and a full house too. The next morning before my drive back to Asheville my host, Rob Northrup, took me for a hike out to the tip of Elks Neck where standing atop the cliffs with a lighthouse at our backs, we viewed the great expanse of the Susquehanna Flats where five rivers merge at the northern-most point of the Chesapeake. After writing a song about the Susquehanna it was great finally seeing where her waters flow into the Bay.

The weekend before made no less an impression. I had the opportunity to play at Cousin Andy's in Carbondale, Illinois. Vern Crawford is the host at Cousin Andy's, and my friends, this man is high (and I don't mean on anything!). I had seen Vern before at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, but at Kerrville, everyone is high. Vern is definitely an elder, a love of a man with much to share for anyone willing to be receptive. I discovered that Vern and his sweetheart Lenora got married under the Ballad Tree at the Kerrville festival. Since Lenora arrived late to the show and missed me singing Ballad Tree, I had to sing it again after the show so she could hear it (my pleasure). Some folks behave one way at Kerrville, and just a part of it in regular life, but Vern, to my approximation, lives it year 'round. He and Lenora just purchased a "Prius" – Toyota's electric/gas hybrid car. Seeing my enthusiasm in it the next morning on our way to breakfast Vern asked me if I wanted to drive it. Yeow, how cool is that! I felt like I was driving a spaceship. When you turn the key you don't crank the engine, you boot the computer! The car is so quiet most of the time, you can't even tell it's running. I've got my mind set on a hybrid mini-van when they finally come out.

In Carbondale that night, I discovered I was singing more in the state of "Little Egypt" than I was singing in Illinois proper. I was told that it got it's name in 1831 when Southern Illinois sent grain north on wagon trains following a harsh winter when crops in upper Illinois failed. Much like the Bible story of Jacob's sons going to Egypt to buy grain to survive a famine, Southern Illinois fed the north that year and thus gained it's name. 

The next night I traveled north to Peoria to play at the Forest Park Nature Center. I've always thought that nature centers are among the best places to have folk concerts. The environment is very conducive to the love of learning. With the ubiquitous cages of snakes and rodents, stuffed mammals and raptors gazing down upon singer and audience alike, it creates an attentive atmosphere at least! I commented to Mike, my host, about how beautiful the Illinois River was from the hill above the nature center and he told me about the Kankakee torrent. How in the later days of the last ice age it was the break in a natural dam that sent the Kankakee torrent down through the Illinois River Valley creating the landscape that exists today.

Above my desk at home hangs a large schoolroom map of pre-interstate United States, circa 1948. It is vividly colored to represent land elevations. Looking up as I often do to daydream and route my tours, I can see a dark green gash running from Kankakee west through La Salle and Peru then turning south through Peoria and on to meet the Mississippi just north of St. Louis: the path of the Kankakee Torrent right before my eyes.

Anything to do with Kankakee these days catches my ear. I had driven through the little forlorn railroad town on my way to Chicago last year, but mostly it brings to mind Steve Goodman's song "City of New Orleans": "all along the south bound odyssey, the train pulls out at Kankakee, and rolls along past houses, farms, and fields…". The "City Of New Orleans" also passes through Carbondale, where I had sung the previous night at Cousin Andy's

All and all though, I've been at home quite a bit. At my desk during the day, and off at some open mic, jam session, or rehearsal during the evenings. It's a good rhythm. I'll miss it when I go on the road March and April, but I'll have something to look forward to when I return. Man, oh man – that's just a week now before I leave for Greeley, and Grand Junction, CO then to Wells, Nevada where in contrast to a "House Concert" I'll be doing a "Ranch Concert"! I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for reading. And as always, I am interested in your comments about my website, these notes, or if you just want to say "hello", drop me a line in my guestbook. I hope to see you at a show coming up.
Peace and love - Dana