Sometimes, you find yourself in a place where everything just seems to work. Like you fit in, you belong. I get that feeling at the Trinity House Theatre. The Open Stage there on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th (if there is one) Tuesdays of each month is hosted by Steve Kovich, who does a fantastic job of keeping a balance of low-key vibe and straight professionalism. The people that turn out to play are a great bunch with wide ranging influences and talents. I played there this past Tuesday, March 15, and as I was waiting my turn to play, I was so hoping that this super-great multi-instrumentalist, free-range genius, Gary Cooper would show up. I’ve played with him before and he just seems to turn whatever you’ve got into something special. I recently wrote a song inspired by a friend of mine, Brian Delaney, who asked me to “write a song about the people of Flint, Michigan”. I did, and it came out in a very simple tune called “One Water”. So, I’m sitting there waiting and two minutes before it’s my turn to play, Gary appears! I ask him if he’d like to play with me and he said yes. Joe Judge, who is a great guy with a big heart and a beautiful soul took video of our improvised collaboration and sent it to me. I think it turned out kind of cool. You can see it on my video page. Thank you, Trinity House Theatre, for all the good things…

Last night was crazy. I’ve always liked to talk about songs to let the listener inside a little bit, but for some reason this show just went totally off the deep end… Philosophy, comedy, random takes on anything and everything, (how did I ever manage to get to the point where I mentioned that the first dead person that my youngest boy, Milo ever saw was Ernie Harwell?…) singing my dinner order, (meat lasagna), and having to stop a song on account of laughing… It was so much fun. Thank you, Sunday Morning Light for having me on the show, and thank you to everyone that came out.

Photo credit –Michael Snyder-Barker