I'm finally getting over my MP3-phobia, and listening to iTunes on "shuffle" mode right now. No, it doesn't sound as good as my vinyl, or my CDs, or even my cassette tapes, but, man, it's fun to get the se,,quencing surprises. Just heard Dylan's take on "House of the Rising Sun" (amazingly emotional vocal), followed by Farmer Not So John's "Paperthin," followed by Emmylou and The Band doing "Evangeline," followed by Tom T. Hall's "Thank You, Connersville, Indiana," followed by Zevon doing "Lawyers, Guns and Money."

So that's where we are right now.

And where I am right now is home, with some shrimp/calamari salad cooling in the fridge (rice vinegar, fish sauce, soy, cherry tomatoes, spring onion, Powers whiskey, and aforementioned shrimp and calamari, plus a few other whimsical ingredients).

Oh, there goes Webb Wilder singing "Poolside." "It's a wonderful world we live in/ Just a few basic, commonsense rules/ No running, no pushing, no profanity and no dogs, no dogs, no dogs, no dogs!" And now here's Foster & Lloyd doing "She Knows What She Wants."

Nothing huge to report to you. Eric Brace and I had an absolute ball in Europe, gigging and sightseeing through England, Holland, Germany and Belgium. Precious memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul. Wait, someone else already wrote that. It's okay, they got it right.

Last weekend, Eric and I were glad to be able to bring a full band up to Wisconsin with us, to stay in New Glarus and play Belleville's Bastille Day festival and the one-year anniversary party for The Americana Gazette. With all these music mags going out of business, it's cool to see a startup publication going strong. Plus, the Gazette has been super-nice to me in terms of reviews and write-ups, and...

Hey, Steven Bruton is doing "Ordinary Man."

Sorry, just trying to make sure you're up-to-date. Anyway, I like the Gazette. They've done pieces on Tom T., Emmylou, Todd Snider, Kieran Kane, Nanci Griffith and others of my faves. And so Eric and I were happy to play for 'em, and we were especially happy to have Tim Carroll on lead guitar, Jimmy Gray on bass and Paul Griffith on drums. Lots of smiles that weekend. Then I went to the White House (yeah, the one in Washington, DC) to cover a country music celebration there for The Tennessean. No, I did not meet Obama. But I was in the same room with him for awhile. And I was working in the Press Room in the afternoon and was disturbed to hear someone giving a freakin' tour of the Press Room while I was trying to meet a deadline. "This is the James Brady Press Room, where the President's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, gives daily briefings..." Blah, blah. Then I looked up, and the dude giving the...

Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge are singing "I'd Rather Be Sorry."

Anyway, I looked up, and the dude giving the tour was none other than Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel. I guess he had some bigwigs there or something. Rahm Emanuel: Highest paid tour guide in Washington.

So, that was cool. And then I flew home, and then Eric and I went up to New Hampshire to play the Burritoville concert, which is just about the coolest thing you can imagine. We're talking about green, rolling New Hampshire hills, singing outside...

Greg Trooper doing "I'll Keep It With Mine." Yes!!!!

So, singing outside, and there are actually donkeys walking around. Real, live donkeys. And people, too, and they're listening and being nice and sharing drinks and food and buying CDs and such. Wow.

As I'm sitting here, I'm feeling a little like it's Thanksgiving. Here are some of the places I've been in the past week (I'm going with the Beatles' definition of "week," as in "Eight Days A Week"), none of which I would have been able to visit this week if not for music.

The Swiss town of New Glarus Wisconsin (look it up!) and the New Glarus Brewery.

The French (kind of) town of Belleville, Wisconsin.

The Old Town Ale House in Chicago.

The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

The Washington Nationals' park in Washington.

The East Room of The White House.

The corner of Fayette and Monroe in Baltimore, which I've been reading about in the (highly recommended) book, The Corner.

The O'Brycki's crabhouse BWI location, where I bought six crab cakes to take back home to Nashville. They were great.

The Red Arrow diner in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Fenway Park (Red Sox beat the Orioles, 3-1 on Friday night).

Keene, New Hampshire, and the Burritoville show.

And now I'm in East Nashville, listening to Neil Young singing "The Painter." And dinner is cooling in the fridge.

We'll make some additions to the tour schedule in the next day or so. Heading into the fall, I'm excited about opening four shows for Nanci Griffith, and three for Chris Smither, and I'm glad to be holding down the bass end of the equation for Todd Snider's "Elmo Buzz & The Eastside Bulldogs" band. Russell the Dachshund and I will be taking a week off in August, to head to the beach and work on some songs. The great thing about writing with a dog is that the dog doesn't demand co-writing credit. And then, Eric Brace and I are going to finish recording an album that we're working on with some of the greatest musicians in the world: Lloyd Green, Mike Auldridge, Richard Bennett, Pat McInerney, Dave Roe, Jen Gunderman are some of these folks. That one may be out next year. In the first part of the year, I'm looking forward to releasing a duo album with Lloyd Green. It's finished, and I hope you'll like it. Kim Carnes, Rodney Crowell, Julie Lee, Richard Bennett, Pat McInerney, Jen Gunderman and Eric Brace are on that one. Title and release date are to-be-announced, which means that I am still - right now, while I'm listening to the Stones do "You Got The Silver," I'm trying to figure out a title. And then Lloyd and I have to get our pictures taken, and then we can get a release date and such.

And now, as Eric Taylor plays and sings the brilliant "Visitors From Indiana" - "My wife loved the pretty little pillbox hat/ The children thought Texas had snow/ I told 'em 'Life is full is disappointment" - I bid you a good night.