My wife and I went to see a show the other night at one of our favorite Twin Cities’ venues, The Dakota Jazz Club. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with this place because it spoils you. When you experience great live music in an intimate venue like The Dakota, larger arenas seem like a hassle to get into and out of and the shows seem impersonal. Also, the Dakota even offers decent food—not just $18 hotdogs and $12 nachos.
When my wife bought tickets to this particular show I’ll admit I was only mildly interested in the artist but agreed to go because I enjoy discovering new music. I had no idea who the R&B musician, Allen Stone, was, nor did I know any of his music. What transpired over the course of that show was really special, more than mere musical talent. People in the entertainment industry talk about that difficult to define X-factor—Allen and his band had that in droves. The performance was completely genuine and compelling, pulling you in instantly and taking you on a 90 minute journey that sparked almost every human emotion there is to experience.
This original song, A Father’s Song, got me. I mean, this song really got me. During the performance I was transported back to my own childhood and flooded with memories of my relationship with my own father that replayed in my head like a movie. This video is really worth a watch/listen if you have the time.
I didn’t go into this show even knowing much about the artist but left completely blown away. As we were leaving the club my wife and I looked at each other and talked about how lucky we were to see that show in such a small venue. Allen Stone is also touring with Chris Stapleton this summer in his All American Road Show tour. I have a hunch as more and more people are introduced to Allen and his music through this tour the days of him playing smaller venues will be a thing of the past. Catch him soon if you can—I promise, you will not be disappointed. In this age of utter divisiveness it was food for the soul to hear music that dripped of the polar opposite.
Everything has now been handed off to the book designer and a late-September/early-October publication date seems extremely likely! To say I’m happy with this manuscript is an understatement. Over the past month I’ve curated what I feel are my strongest short stories from the past three decades and did a fair amount of revision to some of them.
So even if you’ve read a few stories in this book previously, the versions of these stories in Walking With The Muse might read a little differently, hopefully better. I would love to be able to start offering pre-orders but, unless I’m missing something, Amazon doesn’t allow you to do this for paperback books (just Kindle versions) so I’ll have to get creative and find another way.
I hope this book ends up being the career-comeback that it feels like it could be. I guess time will tell and I've enjoyed the process no matter what happens from here.
As we were heading to the car after the Allen Stone show I took this photo of the sun setting over the city. After I looked at the photo I noticed what appeared to be a UFO in the sky but then laughed as I realized it was only a reflection of the light fixture in the skyway behind us.
It was a fun ending to what was a completely unexpected experience.
All for now. Make this a wonderful day.
