What a May it's been! Iowa City, Columbia MO, Omaha, Madison & Sparta, IL were all great (and recording River City Folk in Omaha was as much fun as going out with Tom May, his engineer Clint and their wives afterwards). Our episode of River City Folk will air the week starting Sept. 12 (in the Chicago area, on Tues. 9/13 at 9pm Central on WDCB 90.9 right after Folk Festival with Lilli Kuzma from 7-9). We had a great, diverse, touching and enthusiastic audience at Uptown Bill's in IA City--they stuck around to hear us after the open mic. Shook things up a bit and challenged some assumptions about how entertaining two geezers can be when we were at Barley St. Tavern in the Benson area of Omaha. Made some great connections and will return late in Aug. to play the Benson Farmers' Market (and hopefully Benson Grind and the PC Collective there that week). May also do the IA Old Time & Bluegrass Fest the following week--still working on it. Sep. 9 will be joining Stephen with his political-song side project The Outside Agitators (who do our co-write "This is What Democracy Looks Like" as well as Tom Kastle's "Whose House? Our House" and maybe my "They Don't Care About You") at Wild Hog in the Woods in Madison. but I'm getting way ahead of myself! We learned about the true meaning of Tornado Alley that mid-Apr. week when multiple tornado watches had us huddled beneath an overpass bet. Omaha & Wichita as we witnessed at least half the ten Biblical plagues (hey, just before Passover)--dark skies, howling winds, wedge clouds on either side of the freeway, pouring rain, locusts (ok, bugs smushed on the windshield), murrain (aka death of animals, to wit: road kill), boils (found a new zit)..... Then next day en route to a gig in Hays, KS we had to cancel due to ultra-high winds (50MPH. steady-state, 75 MPH gusts), NWS warnings to stay indoors; turns out they were relieved to be able to close early since they had the same conditions (plus a snowstorm two days before). Ate BBQ till we could take it no more. Had gracious hospitality, fun & friendship with Gary & Roberta Gordon at Gordon House before & after our concert at the Sparta Library (which raised a total of $2200 for the library even after we got paid, playing before a near-capacity crowd despite storm warnings and high winds). Recorded the rough live tracks of "Body Scanners," starting on our next CD! (Look for a teaser download soon). "This is What Democracy Looks Like" is going viral and will be screened at the San Francisco Labor Film Festival in July! And we've gotten rave reviews of the first two episodes of The Andina & Rich Comedy Hour (7pm Central Sun. on justin.tv/reddragontv). Threw out my back last Sun., but still had a magical week first at the Local 1000 retreat at the history-steeped, Smoky Mt-nestled, welcoming and inspiring Highlander Center in New Market, TN--birthplace of the fusion of folk music with the civil and labor rights movements. Then the sun came out for our wonderful weekend at SERFA in the gorgeous Blue Ridge setting of Montreat Center in NC near Asheville. Drove up through the Blue RIdge--NC, VA, WV. Weather held up till we emerged from the tunnel into WV--been stormy ever since and promises to be till we set out for Chicago tomorrow. (Our drive from Charleston-Cincy-Indy today will be a challenge). Tomorrow night (Tues. May 24, 7-9pm) we'll be on the special Dylan Birthday tribute radio concert on Folk Festival with Lilli Kuzma on WDCB. Gotta send this out as a Sandygram now, so catch you later!