Good to be back.  I think this is longest hiatus I have endured since I started this in July.

I have had my reasons.  For the past few days my hands have been occupied by either the steering wheel or my guitar.  Spent Saturday and Sunday on the road.  Spent Sunday evening and Monday prepping for a visit to the recording studio.  Alfresco’s Place Recording Studio was in good form this evening.  Jefferson Carpenter and I did it again.  It was three demos…just me and the guitar and Jefferson recording what came out.  We were both fairly pleased.  Jefferson is the greatest music man I know.

This is not a bad time.

There are times when one must concentrate.

There are other times that don’t require as much concentration.

My trusty Seagull.

This is where Jefferson does his wonderful work.

Bad picture…sorry Jefferson.  Sometimes I take pictures the way I play guitar.

We had a great time putting three songs down.  The lyrics of one of them is on a post here somewhere.  I wrote it early in the year.  A second song we did was written a few weeks ago.  The third song we did was written last Thursday to be beat of the ocean.  My guitar waves are a little choppier than the ones that inspired the song; I am still happy with the result.  It is a bit of a different sound and tempo than I usually bring with a song.

I will premier these songs for my dear wife, Carrie, after I finish here.  She inspired a great deal of the lyrics.  She always inspires the music.  She is the one that got me playing this stuff in the first place.  I can’t thank her enough.  I met Jefferson and Tim Krekel and Jim Baugher and Barry King and John Burgard and John Hayes and Jeff Guernsey and Rod Wurtele and all the ones I am leaving out here thanks to my dear Carrie.

This past Saturday night, Carrie and I attended a concert by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues.  He was playing in a shoe box…an elegant shoe box.  When I think about the outdoor barns and larger indoor arenas I have seen the Moodies play in over the years,  that is what I felt like I was in…a shoe box.  The Newberry Opera House (built in 1882) in Newberry, South Carolina seats about 430 people.  Carrie and I were there.

Justin sang songs from his new solo album and some obscure Moodies songs and a Blue Jays tune…and the obligatory Moodies songs like Nights in White Satin, Your Wildest Dreams, and I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.

Justin was joined onstage by Julie Ragains, a regular Moody Blues backer on the road, and a young English fellow named Mike Dawes.  Dawes opened the show.  If you Youtube…look him up.  What he can do with a guitar is phenomenal.

As I drove home this evening, I thought about the premier of Justin’s and fellow band mate John Lodge’s duo album called Blue Jays.  The album playback party was at Radio City Music Hall in 1975.  They had 2800 people there by invitation only to listen to the music.  The guys didn’t even play a thing.  I laughed to myself as I was thinking I probably couldn’t get 28 people that would want to listen to my 3 new tunes…and that is just fine.  I enjoy them nonetheless.

I also enjoy football.

My picks last week did not go as well as they did the week before.  I picked 7 winners and 3 losers this past weekend.  The season total for the speaktherights.com College Football picks stands at 64 winners and 16 losers.   Iowa  was my biggest disappointment.  I figured they would beat Maryland.  Notre Dame should have won.  They got hosed a bit with that penalty in the end zone there at the end.  Had a flag not been thrown, nothing would have been made of it.  Florida State had the option to have a better defensive scheme.  I also missed the Baylor-West Virginia game.  Thanks a great deal, Baylor…now the ozone layer is suffering even more thanks to all the couch burning that went on in Morgantown after the Mountain-people finished their shine and took to torching!

I just heard Mr. Spurgeon say it:  “Be Nice!”

Hey, Mr. Spurgeon, I’m just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson