The winds in this part of the world spare us their sting during the winter, but come on strong in the spring. They will move your car to other side of the house and relocate large sections of your gutters to your neighbor's compound. If you have catchment barrels or buckets you better weigh them down and if your screen doors aren't latched you're likely to be reconstructing or replacing them. I've been off the road since the Cayamo Cruise except for some runs to Colorado. My first internet session came in from my friend Dustin Overbeek who emailed some files over from his home town of Nashville. Dustin is a great songwriter and was kind enough to let me work on his new album in my little project studio here in Taos and email the files back. Other than that things are pretty regular out here in the high desert. I'm doing some session work on Alison Kitchen's new CD up at Don Richmond's studio and I continue to host the Open Mic(rocosm) at the Taos Inn on Mondays. My trio has been working on new material and getting ready for the festival season. I've been doing some writing in the project studio and am working on some collaborations with my Taos pal Jimmy Stadler. The trio is confirmed for the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in July which is one of my personal favorites and not to be missed. Arlo just came through Taos for a few nights with Abe (my pal/Arlo's son), the Burns Sisters and a wonderful band and crew. The Burns' and myself made up brilliant (we thought so anyway) little songs about Abe (at his expense, of course) and Abe had me haul all my recording gear into his hotel room so we could solve a "little" software problem I was having in the studio. I've had more equipment failures and technical problems in the last 12 weeks than I've had in the last 12 years. I knew the whole digital recording thing was going to be tough, which is why I put it off for almost two years... but I had no idea it would be the hardest thing I ever did. The manual for the recording software is 641 pages long. The manual for the mastering software is over 800 pages long.  There are another three or four manuals involved for various other things that aren't quite as daunting, but you get the picture. Thank you Abe for saving my ass! If anyone out there has a 17" MacBook Pro that's cluttering up the place let me know. Meanwhile I'm up and running and putting out my shingle. If you want me to put some guitar, bass, vocals, electric or acoustic, 12 string, slide, lap steel, resonator, dobro, washboard, sneezes or hiccups on your recording email me at don@donconoscenti.com and let's see what we can work out. It can be as simple as you sending me an MP3 of the basic tracks and I put various additional layers on it and email back back the freshly recorded files. I can go into greater detail if you contact me.
  My problems are pale and trite compared to the immense struggles occurring all over the world and the momentous conflicts here within our own government and society. I hope we can find more equitable and honest ways to conduct our civil affairs from both/all sides of the political aisle... and get past the corporate media misinformation campaigns that are so divisive in this country. No one is going to be able to nail down one "truth" that we can all agree on, but we're all going to have to get a lot better at finding some common ground to work from. Our political leaders are not going to show the way. They just don't seem to have it in them as a species, with some notable exceptions. I take some comfort in seeing communities like mine here in Taos taking a more localized approach in maintaining control of their economies and political structures. If elected I promise less defense spending and more bowling! Wishing you all peace and joy.