The first time I saw William Elliott Whitmore perform was at an alternative country music festival. He walked on stage before a crowd still worked up from the previous high octane act. He settled into his chair and launched into an a capella version of a song called Cold and Dead, a haunting meditation about
I love road tripping—when I plug in my iPod, the miles fly by and my mind feels unburdened. Right now, though, I don’t want to see the inside of my car again for a while. I’m back home after driving 1500 miles in 6 days and staying in a different bed every night. A trip
I’ve been in a funk. Work has been slow, and book signings and sales have been sluggish since winter started. With a lot of free time on my hands, I’ve been working on adding content to MississippiValleyTraveler.com, cleaning up some aesthetic issues, and kicking off a marketing effort. The work has been tedious and time
I have a hard time writing blogs while I’m on the road, because my days are packed from dawn to dusk. Yesterday, for example, I ran around Dubuque for about 10 hours checking out another church, 5 more B&Bs, some shops, and a library. By the time I finished dinner, it was 8:30 and my energy level was near
Justin was the 12th most common name for boys in the United States in 1980s, a fact I didn’t really need to look up after last weekend. In Chicago for a quick respite, I watched Justin Townes Earle perform at an open air festival in Oak Park – a spirited, rollicking performance with his buddy
Part of the reason I love being on the road is that I get to check out a lot of music. Even though I’m not a music critic – hell, I don’t have a lick of formal training in music - when I come across musicians that get me excited, I want to share the
