I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to spend this past week in the bucolic hills of south-western Scotland with 9 other songwriters -- writing, performing and socializing. A friend of mine -- a fellow songwriter himself -- once said in reference to a weekly songwriter night that he hosted -- "When you get a bunch of songwriters together, they're like geese. They're loud and squawky and they s#!t all over each other." Well, I'm here to tell you that was not my experience at all!

Went for a walk today and stumbled upon a St. Patrick's Day Parade. Apparently the good people of Baltimore have been celebrating this year's St. Patrick's Day for two to three weeks now. This being the final weekend, they finally decided to have a parade. Had some friends in from out of town too. We stood on the corner and drank Guinness. Just like every other weekend in Baltimore EXCEPT the parade of costumed people walking by was actually sanctioned by the city AND I got to play the drum in a piping band. (Piping is a brotherhood, and I did not enter into this lightly.

So I've always found advertisements for food that feature extremely happy cartoon representations of that food really funny. I thought it was just my own weird little fascination, but recently I've learned that my friends Cory Branan and Nels Andrews also find great humor in these advertisements.

After a hectic week at Folk Alliance, I'm back in the hobbit hole -- my tiny underground apartment here in Baltimore, MD. I've been living here in Baltimore (that is to say, my stuff has been here in Baltimore) since September of last year, and I'm only now starting to feel a real appreciation for the city. When it was warm out during the fall, I never really left my neighborhood. I was new to town and was of course interested in getting to know the people and the happenings in my immediate area, but failed to really venture outside of a 10 block radius from my apartment. In my defense, I live downtown, so that radius includes parts of downtown, the Inner Harbor and Mount Vernon, so there was no shortage of things to explore.

Well another Folk Alliance Conference has come and gone. These things just get more fun and more productive every year. We've come a long way since the days of the miserable failure of the 'Hobo Prophets' showcase*.

The only real disappointment of the whole conference was that the Marriott in downtown Memphis has removed their schvitz. There used to be a really nice sauna in the spa area for the guests to enjoy. That thing really got me through the last couple of conferences, but it has been turned into a towel room. A travesty really...

I made it. After two straight and nearly uninterrupted days of travel, I'm here in the Highlands of Scotland. One of my favorite places to be. It's rainy, very overcast and a bit chilly. Ah, Scotland. I drove up to Fort William from Glasgow earlier today. In and out of sunshine, narrowly missing certain death by head on collision with buses or lorries or motorcycles or whatever else came at me around a blind curve on roads originally made for the single-file transport of grazing animals. Taking the Great Western Highway up from Glasgow to Fort William, one passes directly through the heart of Glencoe, undoubtedly one of the most magical and beautiful places on the face of the planet. My ancestors hail from here originally. It's a strange thing to feel so at home in a place where you've only ever been a brief visitor or a passer-through. It's a very real feeling though, and you can't dispute that. At least I can't...

There's a Jesse Winchester song called 'A Showman's Life' -- If you are a fan of great songwriting, and you're unfamiliar with Jesse Winchester's work, then you really should familiarize yourself as soon as you possibly can. He's a personal hero of mine. I got to meet him once, briefly... He probably has no recollection of what to him was the very definition of a non-event, but to me has become no less than a turning point -- um.. right. Sorry for the distraction...

Tomorrow I head out to Scotland. I have to make a quick stop first in New York City, but I arrive in Glasgow on Wednesday morning. Then I head straight for the Highlands. I'll be doing a few solo things before Sidette and Sidey join me at the end of the week. The Scottish Highland country is one of my favorite places. It reminds me so much of my home in Virginia. It's beautiful, and I always have the best time there. I can't wait. Once again, I'll be on the lookout for the Loch Ness Monster, but once again I don't expect to see it. Too far into tourist season now...

Today was a day off. Sandra set up an appointment for us with her friend, Boudewijn, who is the carillon player for 14 different bell towers throughout Holland. For those who don't know (I didn't know until today), a carillon is a piano-like instrument consisting of wooden baton keys each connected to a large metal hammer that strikes a bronze bell when the key is pushed. Many of the towers in Holland (and indeed throughout the lowlands and around the world) have such carillons in their belfries.

Yet another radio show... I guess we're getting pretty good at these by now... Tonight's was very cool though. We did this same radio show last time we were over in June of last year. It's called Desmet Live. It's a show about culture and politics among other things I guess. They broadcast it live from a little cafe in Amsterdam. Very cool. There's a small audience there in the cafe, and of course they have a loyal listenership over the airwaves and the internets.