the last2 weeks have indeed been some good times and adventures for ole mo, concluding in the 37th time around for mo, as his birthday was on 4/27.

good friend and ally, doug snyder, has indeed returned to his home town of silver city, nm, which is right close to where i'm workin in the lincoln national forest, centered out of cloudcroft,nm. doug came to visit alexis (my roommate and work mate) and i at the top of april, 08, and spent a day or so in comradary. then, alexis and i went and visited doug in silver city, weekend of apr 19.

doug has built a sweatlodge, you see. he's moved in to his grandfolks' old place. wedid some trackin' there in the house- some rough tracks for an album i plan tocut w/ doug, mid-may- hopefully the percussionists out of the hill country can make it out- and then i recorded some ponca prayer songs for doug's sweat lodge, 16 of them in all- they're called i ga zi ge waan- prayer songs. i called uncle smitty in ok to make sure it was ok to sing thesekinds of songs in the sweat lodge- you see, the lakota people (or dakota, nakota- i don't know the difference, sorry) have their own songs for this purpose, but i don't know any of those. uncle smitty said that was fine- but we should enter the lodge w/ purpose, and to be sure andcover our kneesas the rocks which doug had found (or purchased), being volcanic, river, nm rocks- may break (however, uncle smitty said they were the best rocks goin for this purpose.)

the sweat went well- i'mhappy for my good friend doug. he led the meeting like a sport. and congrats to him as well for being signed on a kids' record label! i think he may bein brooklyn as i write. check him out: google "the jellydots."

after this stay w/ doug, alexis and i returned to cloudcroft and "worked likehell" for the early part of the week: apr 21-24. we even saw a pair of owls on thur! that wasmostexciting, and i do believe will amount to some loggers being kept out of there- out ofwhere that owl pair may be nesting, mind you.

and, if you haven't figured out, i think my "space" key is goin' out.

the followin' weekend, the one prior to my birthday, was about the road, again. mr. thomas champage of champagne and friends, google both of those, invited me to share some bills w/ him- i'malso happy formy good old friend, thomas, who really has his thing goin on- it's this butt-shakin', funky, reggae thing he's got- and it's hot, man. mr. nick onbass, and mr. carlos lopez, of grass, on the drum kit- damn, has carlos turned into a road rat! good times- playin' the mine shaft tavern in madrid,nm (the place has no cops, i hear! the perfectartsy town- check it out-), searchin' forahotel after that in albuquerque, then the followin' nite (4/26) at the zinc wine barin said town. thanx fellas- i had a hell uv a time! we'll do it again, may 11, in taos, at the adobe bar.

i left early on my birthday, sunday, to meet a mescalero apache at the rest just north of where i live. mr. baldwin lester, said apache, said i may attend a meeting on the gourd dance- well, mr. lestershowed up, but that was it- as the gathering was happening in albuquerque, and everyone was there- still i learned that gourd dance is in nm and that i may be welcome to participate, which is very cool indeed! mr. lester had the appearance and eccentricities of many ok indians i know, which made me feel right at home, dig?

then, it wasoff to the "redhouse" in cloudcroft for a power nap (not b4 gettin' groceries in alamogordo, however), then to the western for my birthday gig- 5pm! that was a grand time- took many a request and stuck to the country/folk vein for sure. but, mr. fred, breakfast cook, said to come by the next morn and he'd fix me the best nm breakfast i could imagine- and he wouldn't lyin' i tell ya!