Listen (2:30)

August 10, 2026

Lunassagh, often rendered as Lughnasadh, is celebrated on the first day of August and begins as a festival of first fruits, the moment when the land’s long patience finally tips its hand, and its people…

Listen (:39)  

June 29, 2026  


I’m still of the mind that reaching the halfway point of the year is a good time to reflect on the books that have influenced, shaped, and highlighted the past twenty-six weeks. This is my…

Listen (2:02)

June 22, 2026

Unpaged

discontented,
circumvented,
whistling past the graveyard,
collecting words that weigh more than they burn.

apprehension,
surface tension,
consorting with the lost,
sequestering the lines I failed to learn.

bought low (it seemed like a…

Listen (2:34)

May 11, 2026  

Some fears are irrational, but fear itself is not. In that first inaugural address, FDR was onto something: panic, softened to “fear” in his 1933 speech, was a greater obstacle to recovery from the Great…

Listen (2:40)  

May 4, 2026  

The first Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy of the United States, were held on May 4, 1959, casting a new national spotlight on several musical achievements from 1958. They were originally called the…

Listen (:56)

April 27, 2026

Pen(z)ance

the idea of a stroll through the garden gained currency
as other aims waned and withered,
yet her penchant for distraction often spoiled such a ramble.
today’s turn could forgive others, though,
and the…

Listen (3:33)

April 13, 2026  

George Frideric Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742, 284 years ago today, at Neale’s Music Hall in Fishamble Street, and was a significant event in the city’s cultural life at the time…

Listen (:50)

March 30, 2026

Occam’s Razor

it’s terrible when the knick isn’t mutual,  
and the left won’t get on a plane and stay  
out of sight, out of mind, out of time in  
a place where leaving is an…

Listen (2:31)

March 23, 2026

An American Reader

520 Chestnut Street
 (exterior park bench)
Philadelphia, PA 19106 

23 March 2026

Mr. George Orwell
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Argyll, PA60 7TW  
Scotland

Dear Mr. Orwell,


Many thanks in advance for reading…

Listen (4:18)  

March 9, 2026   

Indeed, but you can never leave. Messrs. Henley and Fry were on to something with that sublime turn of phrase in the little song inspired by goings-on inside the once-iconically pink hotel on Sunset Boulevard…

Listen (3:27)

February 9, 2026

In 1705, the English astronomer Edmond Halley published data on 24 comet trajectories. His calculations revealed that comets observed in 1531, 1607, and 1682 followed nearly identical paths, indicating they were the same comet returning…

Listen (0:38)

January 5, 2025

New Year  

I went around the back of myself
looking to hitch the cart to a cause
whose truth is as fantastic as 

my imagination might be.  

I don't want to end up at the
…

 Listen (3:08)  

December 8, 2025 

Officially dedicated on October 9, 1985, the 45th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth, Strawberry Fields, Central Park West, between 71st and 74th streets in New York City, stands as a living landscape memorial, one…

Listen (3:28)

December 1, 2025   

I'm cribbing James Taylor this week, specifically the title of my favorite song of his, 1997’s ‘Enough to Be On Your Way,’ which features an achingly poignant cello performance by the inimitable Yo-Yo Ma in…

Listen (1:15)

October 20, 2025

West Penwith

I follow the old trail,
where the path is dense beneath,
and the crisp lunge of autumn charges the air.
It begins proud of the churchyard,
where the gravestones stand like silent sentinels, …

Listen (3:28)

September 22, 2025

At exactly 2:19 PM EST this afternoon, it will be autumn in my neck of the woods. Opinions vary regarding the official start and end of the season, of course, as astronomical fall is based…

Listen (2:55)

August 25, 2025

It’s been five months since I stopped wearing a wristwatch. As a kid, I briefly owned a couple of digital watches and wasn’t a big fan. I’ve never been interested in owning a smartwatch, which…

Listen (3:47)

August 11, 2025

It’s been another enjoyable week of guitar tracking here at the studio, with an eclectic mix of songs and cues going out to clients, both old and new. I feel fortunate to still be able…

Listen (6:13)

July 7, 2025

Part two of two in reading order from April 1 to July 1, 2025.    

29. Time of the Child by Niall Williams
 Dr. Jack Troy and his eldest, unmarried daughter Ronnie, find their world turned…

Listen (6:19)

June 30th, 2025

Reaching the halfway point of the year is a good time to reflect on the books that have influenced, shaped, and highlighted the past twenty-six weeks. This is only my second year doing this, and…

Listen (3:19)

May 12, 2025

The Living Wage for Musicians Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 7763 by Rep. Rashida Tlaib on March 20, 2024, remains at the "Introduced" stage in the legislative process. This means…

Listen (4:00)

April 14, 2025

One hundred thirteen years ago, just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg approximately 400 miles from the Newfoundland coast. Two and a half hours later, at 2:20 a.m…

Listen (3:06)

April 7, 2025

I’ve been ruminating lately on my favorite question: Why? It seems odd to have a hierarchical order for questions, just as it does to have a favorite among them. Does one question prove more…

Listen (2:22)

March 31, 2025

Today, 340 years ago, in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany (21 March 1685 O.S.) Johann Sebastian Bach was born. I will celebrate by playing the Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro…

Listen (2:44 )

February 10, 2025

On this date, 98 years ago, "The Shepherd of the Hills" became the first song performed on two continents on the same day. Even more remarkably, the performances happened just after the song was…