To Live is to Fly

Guy Clark is one of Texas' great songwriters. He wrote "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train," "L.A. Freeway," "Instant Coffee Blues," and many other well-crafted songs. He also plays a touching, soulful cover of his good friend Townes Van Zandt's "To Live is to Fly." Incidentally, these are the very words that are found on Townes' grave, which is just a couple of miles down the road from my house.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjWeBpIbSE

Gillian Welch

Lately I have been listening to Gillian Welch. The song "I Dream a Highway Back to You" is just beautiful and desolate. I can almost see the landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvREUDH2BZ0

Texas Musicians Museum

We recently visited the Texas Musicians Museum in Irving. In my opinion, the crown jewel of the collection is a field recorder that was used by the Lomaxes when they were collecting songs for the Smithsonian. I would love to know where that recorder traveled in the years that it was used. I wonder if it was the machine that first recorded Lead Belly at Angola Prison or if Woody Guthrie ever stood in front of its mike.

http://texasmusiciansmuseum.com/

Many Rivers to Cross

These days I am reading Many Rivers to Cross by Thomas Zigal. After reading about a hundred pages, it was apparent why Mr. Zigal was honored with a Jesse Jones Award for Fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters. Mr. Zigal's characters have believable, nuanced inner lives, and the writing is clear, honest, and well-crafted.

I have no personal connection to Mr. Zigal, other than the fact that I spoke with him briefly at the Wildcatter Exchange in Fort Worth earlier this year, but I do want to let others know about his work. Here is a link to the TCU Press website, where his book is available for purchase. A sample of Many Rivers to Cross can also be downloaded there.

 http://www.prs.tcu.edu/book-pages/zigal_many_rivers_to_cross.asp

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's cover of "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead is a thing of absolute beauty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnKxnrDDWuw

Poet: David St. John

I recently read The Auroras by the poet David St. John. He writes about ghosts and razors and dulcimers and rain. He writes about Haight-Ashbury and Pere Lachaise and the Mojave. He uses words that satisfy my mind. He explores sentiments that I too have felt. A poet that can make you feel that his poems are your own is one for the ages.

Alejo Carpentier

I recently finished The Kingdom of this World by the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. Kundera mentioned him in an essay, and I was curious. Now I understand what Kundera was talking about. Carpentier packs a lot of punch into this short novel about Haiti, and his prowess is evident from the novel's beginning. It is said that Carpentier is the father of magic realism, and never before did I realize how much magic realism owes to the African tradition. I guess there is something new to be learned every day.