whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie, the burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie. SPA FON! SQUA TRONT!! GASP!!!! CHOKE!!!!

james sez the place is an old speakeasy! they got food! they got booze! we got music! they got the unbeatable, unbearably smokin james & the blues express! we got fabulous phil hickerson & the dynamic dusk devils!
here's to a rockin good time for all, whether you're there or not. :)

the most amazing video ever made as well as another amazing road trip & tho overused here, amazing is a pretty apt & cool word.

- this sounds like pure boasting, & tho i never want to leave my house ever again (never meaning not tonight), i just got back from the coolest gig ever.
- a catastrophe went down (everyone's ok; don't worry) & candye kane put out a request & next thing i knew, she flew me out to green bay. outside the oneida in g.b., where they've had 3 awesome rockin' 50s festivals already, candye & co swung up as i stood there finishing a great quick read ("i'm not scared," by niccolo ammaniti). i jumped in their van (soon to be mine for 4 days), we took off north to marquette, mi & next day i got to go to a blues fest where candye headlined & i got to play bigshot-in-my-own-brain as folks asked if i was her manager & i nodded noncommitally, in what i thought might be a slightly mysterious, even possibly inscrutable manner, tho i maybe just looked dyspeptic & kind of like a freezing pocket mouse in my new-from-marquette-goodwill overcoat (it was dang cold!) & oversized shoes... then i got to see how festivals & fans treat well-loved, hard-working performers like candye: lots of well-deserved attention, adoration, everyone wanting to get up close to candye, dressed in her bawdy, pretty-peacock finery w/that big sweet smile on her heart-shaped face that just makes everyone love her, & then having to watch her have run-ins w/the occasional social retard... i guess there's no way to avoid such humans, no matter how much a person's loved... she took it w/grace & class, tho if i get to impersonate her manager ever again, i think i'll shut such twerps down cause candye & her whole dang band work too hard & are too nice a group to suffer fools...
- then we went in the trailer & ate some grub & candye unloaded about a recent entanglement in which she was treated really unfairly &amp by a know-it-all musician a**hole; said people were asking if i were her sister & then we found out we are both middle-named louise & she said some people you just have a connection w/ & maybe it's cause you knew them in another life & i was struck that someone else had told me such a thing earlier that very wk, & who knows? maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but in any event, i was flattered & also intrigued...
- next day they all flew home & my job began, so i embarked upon the rd to california, delivering the van home... it was a long adventure, but i had carl perkins, little walter, billie holliday, npr, weather, scenery, & my own meanderings to entertain me & continually was happy & stunned by where life can take a person, tho when i started talking to the van, i knew it was time to get this rd trip over & get back into the world of people...
- eventually i was sitting there in candye's beautiful old beachside home, an airy but cozy place filled w/funky antique & retro furniture, music, instruments, tchotckes, etc. & a sleepy ocean breeze that would lull me into near-stupor, if i lived there... generous, candid candye (you always know right where you are w/her; she is let-it-hang-out honest & a good friend, you can tell) treated me; her rmmate, artist mardi (who designs, cuts & builds really cool metal jewelry & place settings); & candye's best-bud, mischievous, quirky, gifted guitar genius laura c (she has an amazing face; someone should photograph her), to all-you-can-eat sushi (truly an american-japanese amalgamation, that). afterward, all were lying on the craftsman & googie couches & chairs & facebooking when laura jumped up & said, oh, i gotta show you something! this is so cool! and she then pulled up this incredible video... just wait til you see it. you'll be so happy; your life will be better. :)
- then my dear friend bill pulled up, he of the movie star looks & kooky smart-squirrel personality, & whisked me away to hang out w/him & my dear dear friend, his bride freddie... they are the happiest couple i know, funny & generous & so full of joy that they infuse everyone around them w/it. again, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude: such wonderful folks everyone is, from sturdy bassman kennan to candye's gifted son, drummer evan (he of the soulful eyes) to candye, laura, mardi, bill, freddie, & now i can't wait to see my family & loved ones & bandmates (once i sleep for about 96 hrs). right now i feel like my sponsor, who calls herself "the luckiest woman in the world," & in that ea person lives in his/her own world of subjective experience, i suppose i AM the luckiest woman in the world. it's a pretty dang good life, considering where it might've gone had i not been forced by the supreme spirit of the universe to put down the bottle & the hangover... ain't life grand? just to breathe air one more day, to not wonder why was i born, whywhywhy, to not hate anyone or oneself... ain't life grand?
- now am home & too tired to sleep, but to be home... home is the hunter, home from the hills, the sailor home from the sea... & the squirrel home from the tree, tho still w/plenty of nuts in her cheeks (whatever the heck that means. dang; it's getting late!).
- hope you love this video as much as i do. buona notte, buenos noches, bonne nuit... here's to you & me, may we never disagree, & if we do... ooh-poo-pah-doo (to quote jesse hill).