Gig at Ryles on Friday was a revelation. I played with several guys I've never worked with before. Greg Hopkins, who I have heard described as "world-class" and "the best trumpet player in New England", Dino Govoni, who plays positively Brecker-ish tenor saxophone. Then the phenomenal electric bassist Fernando Huergo and rhythmic wizard Bertram Lehmann on drums. And of course Shark Milansky on piano. 

Desafinado

Having a fantastic time here in Stanford, California rehearsing with Cut Circle for the concert at Memorial Church on Wednesday. Hope you can make it! The music is from the 15th century, and it is POWERFUL. It makes 8 singers sound like an amplified guitar playing open 5ths with the amp turned up to 11.

I went to my 20th high school reunion last weekend. It was cool to remember all these fresh-faced Nebraska kids and then FAST-FORWARD 20 years and see that we have become fully-formed human beings. We have been shaped and molded by the joys and tragedies of these two decades, but even more than that by our own will and determination and individuality. In 1988 most of us didn't know who we were. Now we do.

The highlight of the weekend for me was performing at the Museum of Nebraska Art on Thursday. I brought in Ben Markley, a blazing and sensitive pianist from Denver, and we played some standards and some of my original songs. As a singer and songwriter I have been striving in recent years to wear my heart on my sleeve more, so to let down my guard in front of people who have known me and my family since I was two years old was an experience I will not soon forget. It was a more public version of what everybody was doing at the reunion: saying to each other, "This is who I am, now".