Christmas night. Finally all is calm, and the moon is winter bright. The wild halflings have settled down. Our family has again done as our family has always done since we were the children, returning to our parents' tiny home…
Dec 24 2018
Dec 18 2018
Passing Down the Picking in the Parlor
Dec. 19, 2018
I am so privileged that part of my life in music is helping others making music be part of theirs. While in some ways it's an accident that I teach guitar (someone asked me two decades ago…
Nov 3 2018
A Note to My Young Readers on the Eve of a 12-Year Election
November 4, 2018
This one is for my younger friends, those who have come into their own adulthood and all the craziness that goes with it. This Tuesday, it's again our turn as American citizens to have a say in…
Nov 1 2018
Thanking the Ancestors
November 2, 2018
Today is All Soul's Day. It's not a tradition that I grew up with; it is only in these past few years when I've become my family's "storytender" that it has taken on a deeper meaning to…
Oct 27 2018
Visiting Lincoln
October 28, 2018
People who've never been to Lincoln ask me what it's like to live here. A historic village perilously close to the ever-spreading sprawl of the rest of Loudoun County - with its wealth and high-tech modernity; the…
Oct 25 2018
A Family Union
October 26. 2018
When we first connected with my grandfather's sister Margaret's family in 2016, I never imagined that such a "family union" could ever take place, flung to the four breezes as we all are.
Carson and Jane…
Sep 9 2018
My Day of Social Media Silence
September 10, 2018
As has been my custom for a decade now to mark the tragedy of 9/11, I will refrain from posting on social media for the day. In these days where far too much of our communication consists…
Aug 21 2018
To My Daughter on the Eve of Middle School
August 22, 2018
I'll begin by saying I have no idea how this happened so fast. When we started our daily walks up our dead-end gravel road to the blacktop and the sidewalk that led us to kindergarten, it seemed…
Jul 31 2018
"Flipping the Odometer; Once More, with Feeling" (Essay)
August 1, 2018
A middle-aged guy who has a hard time throwing away things that still work ponders relationships in the social media age.
I'm one for getting the most out of the things I own. Maybe I'm just a…
Jun 27 2018
"A Little Wonder" (Essay)
June 28, 2018
A daily routine comes to an end and a new world of experience awaits.
So it came. The day I thought looked so far on the horizon back in August of 2012, and that I've been dreading…
May 27 2018
"Memorial Day 2018" (Essay)
May 28, 2018
We went to Antietam National Battlefield this weekend, not once, but twice. It was part family visit, to walk the steps of our ancestor Aretas Culver and the ill-fated Connecticut 16th. It was also the first visit…
May 23 2018
Behind the Veil into a Performer's Thoughts
May 24, 2018
Fun bit of performer insight - when you're singing songs from your earlier discography that you've done at most every show for the last 5 to 20 years, you don't really have to think about what you're…