Dear Friends,

It’s a snowy New Years Day here in Charlottesville. The temperature hovers in a wintry clime, football bowl games rumble across the TV screens of America, resolutions are earnestly recited, and the smell of Hoppin John [a traditional Deep South concoction of black-eyed peas and rice and spices eaten on New Years Day to bring good luck] promises a year of good luck in our kitchen. This past fall has been surprisingly relaxing...a calm before the storm, I fear. In the next three months I’ll be squeezing in the resumption of my Left Coast Tour, a week-long visit to the Northwest, a two-week stint in the mid-Atlantic, a trip to Memphis for the Folk Alliance Conference, assorted weekends around the continent for concertizing, I’ll finish Autumnsongs, and Parthy and I will sneak away for a warm-weather vacation to celebrate our twentieth anniversary. When the kids’ spring break rolls around this April things will begin to wind down again and clear sailing appears to be in sight.

The fall began with a new configuration for me on the road. After eight years of trotting the globe with me, my old comrade and roadie, Tom Slothower, hung up his frequent flier miles for a computer graphics gig in his Rochester, NY home and lots of time with his two young sons. He’s missed by me and the rest of the Appalseed family as well as many, many people who came to know and love him around the folk music world. He’ll, no doubt, pop up from time to time to lend a hand and keep up his chops but he’s doing better and more important work at home now.

Easing the sting of Tom’s departure is the addition of new roadie, Scott Wagy. Like Tom, Scott is a man of wide experience. He was the Aamco rep in much of northern Virginia, taught English in Columbia and Chile for three years, and was most recently my son, Will’s, Spanish teacher last year. He comes with a vast knowledge of auto repair, percussion tips, and an amazing knack for finding great Spanish language radio stations wherever we travel.

With this new configuration, the 26th Winfield (KS) Festival was a venerable kick-off to my touring season. Tom Chapin and I debuted Doing Our Job, our live concert album, at the festival joined by compatriots Michael Mark and Bobby Read. The fond memories of this great festival we marred only by the news six weeks later of the death of Brian Redford, the son of Bob and Kendra Redford, and a hard-working backbone of the event. His death hit the entire festival community hard and we wish both Brian’s immediate family and his extended family a hopeful outcome in this most delicate and trying time.

Following a visit to the AFL/CIO Convention in Pittsburgh I was fortunate enough to perform a concert in honor of the seventieth anniversary of the Carter Family’s first recording session in Bristol, VA. The Institute of Musical Traditions in the People’s Republic of Takoma Park (MD) celebrated their tenth anniversary with a pair of concerts in October that were great fun and made up for the fact that the Orioles watched the World Series from home, as did I. I visited Bethlehem, PA on November 1st to perform (along with friends Steve Gillette & Cindy Magsen, Beppe Gambetta, and Guy Davis) at a Sing Out magazine benefit and sign the collective bargaining agreement Sing Out had negotiated with Local 1000. The real reason for my visit, of course, was to see editor Mark Moss’ daughter, Tam Lin, who, I’m happy to say, survived Halloween in fine, true form...a fact only you scholars of English balladry will appreciate.

I spent November getting to re-know Pittsburgh, thanks to the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival who hosted me for a series of a dozen concerts during the month. December brought me closer to home and the launching of the Autumnsongs project.

The boys continue to addle and amaze me. Will, nearly as tall as Dad now and twice as opinionated (a possibility that boggles the mind!) continues to write cool stuff for his rock and roll band. In his spare time he’s gotten a small business up and running creating WWW pages for non-profits in town. He’s dividing his school time between the usual college-prep courses at the local public high school and computer networking classes at the local vocational/technical school. He’s enrolled in a Java programming class at the local community college for the spring term that has UVA dangling a summer job at him. Funny, it was car washes and lawn mowing for me at his age.

Peter continues to defy gravity at the local skateboard park. He’s drummed his way to first chair in the percussion section of his junior high school band and, when he isn’t raising a racket in the basement, is regaling the family with ad-libbed tales of adventure and wackiness that have reduced many a suppertime gathering to hysterical laughter.

As the Christmas/New Years season winds down here at home I can’t help but reflect, once again, on the many kindnesses and the generosity shown me over the years by the people who continue to invite me into their towns and homes. I never forget that this ride is not forever and that it’s not for free. I’m blessed to have a job I love and work I believe is more than merely entertainment. Thanks for the company along the way. May you and yours feel likewise blest this season and throughout the year. I look forward to meeting you in your hometown. Until then stay warm and stay in touch.

If you have friends who don't have Internet access, they can get a copy of John's newsletter and be added to the snail mailing list by writing to:

Appalseed
1025 Locust Avenue
Charlottesville, Virginia 22901
Phone: (804) 977-6321
Fax: (804) 977-9708