Flying home after a weekend in Arkansas (shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights)...a three-hour layover here at the Charlotte NC airport...”Diamond Girls” by Seals and Croft is playing in the terminal...I’m reminded how much I loved that album when it came out a million years ago...haven’t written to “notes from the road” for a while, so this weekend seems as good as any to describe...Thursday night, up til 11:30 PM ...EARLY for me, except that I need to get up three hours later (2:30 AM Friday) to shower and drive from Cape Cod to Providence, RI for my 7 AM flight to Little Rock...this is the price for living in paradise...roll off the connecting plane in the early afternoon on Friday, pick up rental car, drive to Mark David and Catherine McKinnis’s house where we spend about 45 minutes videotaping a couple of songs (on short sleep, of course) and an interview for his “Spotlight on Performing Songwriters” cable series (www.spotlighton.tv)...beautiful equipment and studio, and Mark and Catherine couldn’t have been more gracious, just before THEY were heading off to Nashville to document a music conference for the weekend...on to Second Presbyterian, home of the Acoustic Sounds Cafe...Joe Henry and crew have been running this fine venue for years now, and this is my third time back...a basket of fruit and platter of sandwiches in my dressing room, which they also use as the bride’s parlor when I’m not there...Joe, a staunch supporter of the singer-songwriter, is as organized as they come in keeping the evening crisp and well-run, and I take the stage after Vikki McGee and Pat Henry open the show with a fine set that ranged from Nat King Cole to Sarah McGlaughlin...I’m armed with a new song that I want to try out, and the tape is rolling back by the sound board, so about 4-5 songs in, here goes...

There are lots of words in English that go well with one another
Like Abbot and Costello, salt and pepper, bread and butter
Mom and Dad, or Mom and Mom, or Aunt along with Uncle
Soup and sandwich, Will and Grace

Simon ... and Garfunkel

But other words might not as ably coexist in tandem
Thus care should be applied that they’re not coalesced at random
Jumbo shrimp, computer jock, good riddance, plastic glasses
Airline food, same difference

Synthetic ... natural gases

Living dead found missing in a sanitary landfill
Pretty ugly, business ethics, twelve ounce pound cake, tiny mouthful
But of all the words in history that should never go together
Soft rock butt head small crowd tight slacks...

"Governor Schwarznegger"

     Goes over. Whew. Maybe a live cut for the new double CD. Back to Judge Vic and Susan Fleming’s house afterwards where I’ll spend the night after the show...Vic’s a traffic court judge in Little Rock, and old and good friend of the Clintons, and we’ve had a few adventures together over the years after he tracked me down from hearing “Thank You Mr. Ryan” on the radio in Arkansas some years ago. Besides referring me to Joe which GOT me to Arkansas in the first place, I’ve sat in his courtroom, gone to “jail court” where he makes “house calls” to get the judicial process going for people arrested on the weekend, attended his “Alcohol Awareness Program” with groups of at risk teenagers, and co-facilitated a workshop WITH Vic for attorneys on how to lighten up a bit and reduce stress. You get the idea. A different kind of judge.

     This time he’s off to play golf on Saturday morning, so we say our goodbyes (before we’re out the door he’s burned me a CD of some of his original songs), and his equally wonderful wife Susan then takes over “Dave-sitting”, and we drive about half an hour out of town to Ferncliff, a Presbyterian camp and conference center, where I’m meeting up with the director David Gill for a quick tour and to find out more about summer camps he runs for yet more at-risk kids...he gets them out in the country and offers creative programs that include high ropes courses, magic, music, creative expression, building stuff, tours to the city (where they may be serving homeless people at a shelter one day or going behind the scenes at a local factory to see how something is made the next)...great, inspiring work. AND the Arkansas Razorbacks (some kind of hog) are beating the Texas Longhorns (some kind of cow?) in college football that very minute...people are happy. David drives me out in his little golf cart to a tiny secluded chapel on the grounds, what he calls the “soul of Ferncliff”, and just outside the open-air edifice is a large labyrinth surrounded by five old tall trees...this particular walking meditation path was built by kids from schools where shootings have taken place (Columbine CO and Jonesboro AR among them), and in the center ARE rocks from those schools...I walk it before David sends me on my way, a very powerful stroll given the background of the spot...I pause in the center to soak in a bit of the energy and emotion of those who built it...Susan and I stop at a Wild Oats Market on the way back into town so I can get a few snacks for the 3 hour drive I’ll make to Yellville that night, where a house concert awaits...a couple of young girls are in the parking lot of the health food store, giving away puppies they’d rescued...one is a salt and pepper mutt without a tail who’d be in our house tonight if I weren’t in Arkansas.

     Yellville...following an elaborate set of internet directions from host and Buffalo River Concerts cosponsor Rick Hinterhuer into the north central part of the state, I arrive at a spectacular home in the woods that Judy Loving has been building for some 30 years...this is the first time they’ve had one of their events (spanning ten years and featuring a who’s who of singer songwriters) out here, and somehow 35 people find their way to our little secret gathering, replete with food and beverage, sound system, swimming pool, and more rooms in a semicircular circular house than I could figure out in the whole 20 or so hours I was there...in case the evening might not have been exciting enough, one of the guests slipped out of the room during the second set and had a medical emergency that had the EMTs and ambulance show up after the concert...happily this person was up and about the next morning, returning for her truck. I used to describe a successful evening of folk music as one where “no one got carried out on a stretcher”. Have to find another description now. Some much needed sleep is followed by a big pancake breakfast with Rick, Judy, Alex (her son), and Zack (his friend). DaVinci’s Notebook is playing in the background. Suffice it to say it’s difficult to have a conversation when an acapella song about a large part of the male anatomy is playing in the background. We surrender to the music. Would that all the commanders, generals, and soldiers of the world do the same. After a great final chat with Rick and Judy, I maneuver a curvy two-hour one-lane journey west to Fayetteville for the last of the three weekend shows.

     Host Mike Shirkey (with Butch the dog) and buddy Mark are setting up his living room for the evening...in fact, he has no furniture at all in there except for the chairs facing the stage...that’s right, a stage right there in his living room. Concerts are ALL he uses this room for, and one whole wall is mirrored, a sweet remnant of what he’d done to support his daughter practicing ballet when she was young. Tho we’d e-mailed several times, this is our first meeting, and it’s like finding a long lost brother, an old friend. Mike’s been playing folk music for more than 25 years on his radio show, and producing concerts along the way. Dan Hicks (one of my early heroes) is from Arkansas and first played publicly in Fayetteville in this very room! Mike, a fine dulcimer player, and I are getting acquainted when who pulls up but Vic Fleming, driving in from Little Rock (3 hours) for one more dose, and bringing two local friends along for their first taste...forty more folks show up including the great Emily Kaitz, who plays several of her fantastic songs on the front porch swing as people are coming in...I could have listened to her all night, and did get her up in the second set to play a song. The crowd is very responsive, so I try my new opus once more, and we sail through a couple of hours...when the night is done, Mike and another friend and I play “Heartaches by the Number” and a Jimmy Rogers tune (complete with yodeling) before Vic and I caravan back to Little Rock (I have a flight home the next day), arriving at 2 AM. He’s presiding over traffic court at 8:30 AM, so I sleep fast and do a quick packing job in order to join him in the courtroom for a while. Outside the courthouse he introduces me to Lenny, a parole officer who also happens to be the franchise player for the Little Rock arena football team...his bobble head doll is sitting on Vic’s desk in the judge’s chambers! Cool.

     Vic takes a recess, we say our goodbyes again, vowing to have more future fun together, and I head for the airport.

     I’ve got a bit of a headache from all the excitement, lack of sleep over the weekend, and bad Chinese food in Charlotte, but I get Tricia on my cell phone, and my headache starts to go away. I'll be home soon.

     -David