Just back from two trips to Nashville in two weeks. First, a couple of days of producing (and playing acoustic guitar on) song demos for New Yorker Dave Stewart, a superlative song craftsman. Another opportunity to get together with my musician colleagues, Chris Leuzinger on electric guitar, Jamey Whiting on piano, Wayne Killius on drums, the amazing John Vogt on bass, and genius multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke on steel guitar, accordion and… penny whistle! Also delightful to visit with singers Tim Buppert, Perry Danos and the effervescent Erica Alexander.

The legendary Studio 19 was the scene, and was again this past week when we assembled a smaller team (Chris Leuzinger, Jamey Whiting and John Vogt again,with Chris Brown on drums) for some heavy biker-rock songs for a movie pitch. Then, a great house session of reels, jigs and hornpipes with Nashville’s Irish A-team Bill Verdier, David Coe and Bill Wolfe. Don’t let anyone tell you Nashville is all country.

A beautiful time of year in Tennessee- cherries, redbuds and early dogwoods in bloom, but wonderful to get back to the NH seacoast salt air and a delightful recording session for fiddler Ellen Carlson’s upcoming CD release. We put together a set of jigs, with fiddle and DADGAD guitar, the Black Rogue played in a Martin Hayes-y mellow kind of mood followed by a snappy take on Buttermilk Mary. Spring is here!