Hats

What is it about hats and musicians?  It just don’t seem right to play music with an undressed head. Mark Evans recently asked  why so many bluegrass bands wear cowboy hats with the one side pressed upward. Cowboys don’t wear their hats that way, because the...

Hats and Shades

I know. Bill Monroe wore a Stetson hat looking something like a cowboy hat as did Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. The Johnson Mountain Boys all wore cowboy hats. They’re traditional apparel for bluegrass bands. Of course, Monroe wore jodhpurs, too, in...

Have Yourself a Merry Little ArfMas

I received a lot of wonderful responses when I wrote about having to put my dog down about a year ago. I was thoroughly shaken by how tightly that dumb dawg wrapped herself around my heart, and shocked at the depth of my grief. Lots of folks helpfully suggested I...

Hats and Shades

I know. Bill Monroe wore a Stetson hat looking something like a cowboy hat as did Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. The Johnson Mountain Boys all wore cowboy hats. They’re traditional apparel for bluegrass bands. Of course, Monroe wore jodhpurs, too, in...

Hazel Dickens, a Christmas carol

There’s this guy I work with. I never much liked him. Sort of a buttoned down fellow…an analyticals’ analytical. Everything in it’s place. A business man always taking care of business. And me, well I’m kind of a child of the 70’s. Sort of free flowing,...

Heart First

My Uncle Ray, just fifty seven, died two days ago, early on Thursday morning. At the end of a grueling battle with cancer, he unexpectedly sat up in bed that Thursday morning and embraced his wife and son in a hug of grace. He died in their arms. When mom told me the...