YEAR END THANKS

Here we are again in the revolving door between the old year and the new. And before we all hop out again, I'd like to offer a note of thanks, a bit of news, and a lyric for the next big occasion.

THANKS:

Thanks to my partner, confidant, advisor, sweetener, and love: Camille.
Thanks to Camille's family, (and you know why).
Thanks to my own family for their avid interest in my doings, and for not doing in my avid interests.
Thanks to my magnificent patron and mighty producer: Mark Perna.
Thanks to my traveling companion and bold partner in the newly formed Panther Hollow Records: Robert A. Wagner, and to his wife Rosa Colucci, for supporting our efforts.
Thanks to old and new friends with whom the year's burdens and dreams were shared. I have sewed our moments into the lining of my heart where you glow like vermillion, like sun-drenched honey, like luminous moths.
Thanks to Doug Wilkin, Stacy Mates, Jeff Berman, Art Gazdik, Mark Perna (again), and Mark Weakland for performing with me. And to all the other greats I had the opportunity to share stages with, including Eve Goodman, Heather Kropf, Rick Malis, Brad Yoder, Jay Hitt, Sam Flesher, Dave Wells, and so many others.
Thanks to Anne Feeney for taking me on a mini-tour, and including one of my songs on her latest CD, If I Can't Dance. And thanks to all the great folks I met along the way, who put us up for a night, fed us, and rekindled our faith in certain basic causes.
Thanks to Maree Gallagher for her efforts on my behalf.
Thanks to everybody who took any sort of interest in my music this year.
Thanks to everybody who bought, downloaded, or freeloaded a copy of Pumpkin.
Thanks to all y'all who came out to Shootz to support The Talent Pool!, whether as a listener, a walk-on, or a featured performer. And thanks to Patty and Antonio Jiminez for the steady gig.
Thanks to Anthony Frazier for having me on The Acoustic Hour and giving me a performance shot in Indiana, PA.
Thanks to Renee Rosensteel for getting me into WYEP's press kit before I'd ever actually performed there.
Thanks to all the DJs who played various of my tracks.
Thanks to all the genuinely passionate, intelligent, and caring folks I met at NERFA this year, including Greg Greenway, Sherri Powers, and Sonny Ochs who suffered an impromptu performance of Let Their Heads Roll.
Thanks to all who offered constructive criticism, and all who withheld destructive witticisms. (I know how hard it can be!)
Thanks to all the senior citizens for whom I performed at various assisted living care homes, and for their invaluable sing-along suggestions.
Thanks to Calliope, WYEP, Ron Esser, Stephen Hirtle, who also granted me performance opportunities.
Thanks for memories, for beautifying even industrial places, for encouragement, for love, for an enlivening exchange of ideas, works, and poesy.
If I have forgotten anybody, I presumptuously thank you for your forgiveness, and for accepting that it is only because it's late and I'm tired.

NEWS:

We're hard at work on the next CD, Mystery Sandwich. The CD Release Party, which will also serve as the launch party for Panther Hollow Records, is already in the planning stages. Look for it to be a heady, near-mystical, theatrical, and triumphantly musical -- not to mention amazingly brief -- event.

Oh, and this story just off the wire: I'm hoping to have a Christmas CD out for next year. If you know me, you've already assumed that it won't be very traditional. And you're right, for the most part. I'm opening the lines for suggestions of songs to cover, though, so please don't be shy with your ideas.

LYRIC FOR THE BIG OCCASION:

NYE 2023

It was New Year's Eve, twenty twenty-three
We rolled out an old New Year's video
From nineteen ninety-three
On the wide screen time machine:
A mosh pit of happy young idiots.
"Well, would ya look at me."

We laughed at the way we danced.
We laughed at the way we dressed.
But when, through the windows,
We saw the clear night sky,
We sighed.

There's Eve with a sewed-up shirt sleeve
And now, with her lifelike robotic arm
The sight is strange to see
Young Ray with the flaming tupee.
And new Ray looks on in sympathy
And shakes his shaggy mane.

We laughed at our frailty then
Those pawns at the whim of fortune.
But when, in the close-ups,
We saw the clear, bright eyes,
We cried.

Falling down, we've fallen down inside (x3)

High overhead, the Milky Way hung
A canvas of cosmic mistletoe
To make us kiss and hug
Till there were no words left to say
(The Auld Lang Syne dispatched)
One final round-robin eye-to-eye
As if from far away.

And we all know why we came
(Send in those reinforcements)
We all know why we're going
(Back to our secret fortress)
And we all expect the fear
To find us just outside.

Falling down, we've fallen down inside (x3)
Between "dream" and "decide".

And as I lay alone in the cathode ray glow
Our laughter rang out through the audio
From some lost overflow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But for all that, HAPPY NEW YEAR!