Year-End Tidbits

I spent the end of the year out in California watching the tide's ebb and flow (and doing other things). While I was out there, some things happened.

1. Larry Hillberg at KVMR was kind enough to include Great Northern on his list of his favorite 2017 albums. I don't know Larry but he is a gentleman and a scholar.

2. Theo van der Horst and René van Schendelen included Great Northern on their ten-best lists, too.

3. Noel Casey in Dublin included Great Northern on his year-end list

4. Great Northern somehow insinuated its way into the December 30th iteration of the Top 50 Texas Album Chart and Contemporary Folk Album Chart on Roots Music Report. I have no idea -- like NONE -- how this happened. I'm happy it did.

A year ago today I was finishing up the second day of tracking. If you'd told me then that all this (and a lot more) would happen with this little record, well, I'm not sure how I'd have reacted. I always believed in the songs. But the players and Ron and Walt took them and made them into little worlds -- sad ones, funny ones, sparse ones, lush ones -- unto themselves. My initial goal was just to make a darn record (which recalls to me that my goal arguing before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York was to not upchuck on my wing tips). But at some point, and it may well have been a year ago on this very day, I decided that my goal was to make a record worth listening to. And you know what? I think I did.

Best wishes for 2018, y'all.