Greetings friends...been a while since an update...oops!...just back from the first weekend (of three) at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas...what an astounding collection of songwriters and performers...if you're an aficionado of original acoustic music, this is the Mother Ship and a must-go at some point in your life...besides seeing many old and new Texas friends (I've been going since 1985), hearing 32 fabulous songwriters in the New Folk Competition, I also got to spend some time with amigos Joseph and Jan Redman (the former is the subject of "Those Two Times" on Irreconcilable Similarities). I opened my set on the mainstage with the following (to the tune of "Yellow Rose of Texas"):

There's a deck of cards in Texas
There are fifty-one, that's all
And each one has a picture
Of some Democrat with gall

They took off to Oklahoma
They were nowhere to be found
When it came time to take a vote
There weren't enough around

The Republicans got flustered
They were chomping their cigars
Their plot got filibustered
By two buses and three cars

So they sent the Texas Rangers
Off they rode to catch the cons
God, it's great to be in Texas
Where redistricting is gone

(wild cheering!)...in case you hadn't heard about this story, look it up on the Internet...made the national news...

     In April I spent a week in Northeim, Germany, invited to record 14 songs for a CD on the European Stockfisch label (www.stockfisch-records.de)...what an experience...producer Gunter Pauler (who’s busy re-mastering projects for up and coming bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Dire Straits when not working with singer songwriters like yours truly) and second guitarist Chris Jones were my Dream Team, and we laid the foundation for the project in 4 days - finishing guitar duets and all my lead vocals in record, uh, CD time. This audiophile recording will be released in Europe sometime in the fall, and I’ll make copies available on my website for any of you interested in hearing what we did over there with some of my older songs including Rising in Love, That Kind of Grace, Just a Wall, Lullaby, Before I Die, John & Josie, and “Vincent” by Don McLean.

     Got home. Gotta wonder about freedom of speech in our country. First Michael Moore gets slammed for speaking out against war as he accepts an Oscar for Best Documentary (“Bowling for Columbine” which, by the way, was about guns and violence in our culture)...then actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are UN-invited to speak at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY (they were both in baseball movie “Bull Durham” which was to be celebrated at this event) by the president of that facility, nervous that the two would make it their opportunity to speak out against war (due to the ensuing public outcry and public relations disaster, the baseball executive apologized). On April 15th at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Robbins was invited to speak. If you’d like to read something concise, personal, sensible, straightforward, and poignant (no matter what you think of our recent activities around the world), the speech can be found at

     http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030417~tm.asp

     "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than before." - Leonard Bernstein

     Harcourt School Publishers has included “Nine Gold Medals” in their new “Reading Program, Grade 3” textbook, to be in schools all over the country. And in a recent issue of “New Directions for Student Services” another academic publisher Josey-Bass has included excerpts from “I Have Learned” - the journal contains reflections from nine student affairs professionals on the subject of practical wisdom and leadership...interesting reading, and nice that both deem song lyrics educational! But we knew that, look at all WE’VE learned from songs over generations.

     New double CD (#7/8) well underway (25 or so songs, late summer) along with retrospective songbook. Wind River will release the former, I the latter.

     In addition to concerts, a lot of camps, workshops, and ”Team-Building Through Humor and Song” trainings are coming up this year. Check in at "tour dates" link for details and updates or get in touch with Pam (agent ~ pam.rivers@verizon.net) for more info/availability if your organization is in need of some inspiration and/or “infotainment”. Take care. Peace.

     -David