Leaving Albuquerque and shaking off the Folk Alliance Convention, I drive with the noise of the exhibition hall still in my head out of town west on I-40. It's not for a couple of hours and I'm well over the mountains before I begin to calm down. This is the first time I've been in the southwest and the beauty of it starts to sink in. Just east of Tucumcari (ever since I was a teenager listening to Lowell George of Little Feet sing "Willing" I've wanted to see Tucumcari) there are a handful of ruined stone houses visible from the road. The sun was getting low and the color it was casting on those already red rocks was just heavenly.

Driving through Tucumcari itself I was kicking myself for not having a camera. Words must suffice, as excerpts from my journal: The collective art of a town abandoned. Neglect takes away the least essential leaving the dictates of erosion. No less beautiful than a simple landscape, the boarded up facades and the grass cracked sidewalks. The rosy stone walls and adobe archways stand half disassembled. I recall this the next day driving through north Kansas. The morning after driving through a thick fog and dust of the cattle feedlots in north Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle. The stew of air brought on an early twilight. After three weeks in the desert I forgot what humid air felt like, and this was the musty stench of the feedlots.

This weekend was good for discovering a couple new people. Good to get a blast of Colin Linden. Great to get absolutely floored with Stephen Fearing's set. My favorite music that I came away with were the songs of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Something about the unpretentiousness and beauty of Dave's lyrics is very compelling. Their CD "When I Go" is just wonderful in it's variety within it's minimal production. Well, I'm recovering myself here in Lincoln for a day before scooting out for a weekend between De Kalb IL, Bloomington IN, Louisville KY and Rolla MO.

Keep in touch!
Catch you soon!
Blessings!
Dana