Old, Paired With New, Is A Great Combination For Me

Last week, due to my own stupidity, I had to do without my iPad for almost a week. I was "jonesing" for it by the end of the 2nd day. If you've seen my show then you know I use a lot of old stuff as well as some "new" stuff. My iPad helps me plan for gigs, holds my set lists and even words to songs for the times I need to "pump the gas" to crank my old brain. I use it to respond to emails, research everything from equipment and restaurants to venues to play... I plan our trips with it, keep track of our expenses on it, do our banking on it as well as do all my morning/evening reading on it. So while on our trip to the coast it refused to restart to say I was lost is an understatement. When we got back home it was pretty simple to restore a backup and I was back in business.

As for "old stuff", besides me, I use an old hand-made Brazilian Box Drum to predates the popularity of today's Cajon drums. It has more dings and scratches than me but never, ever fails me.

Then there's my new best friend I purchased from my friend Jonathon Byrd... My 1965 Gibson acoustic. This awesome instrument was born in the US just a few years after I was... It is old enough to have been my first guitar, but I could not have afforded it then. I also have to thank my good friend and favorite luthier, Gray Burchette, for repairing this old Gibson. It made it nearly 50 years with nothing but scratches but made it less than 24 hours at our house. I left it in the case in the hallway and our excited granddaughter tripped and fell into the case... cracking the top of the guitar and the bottom of my heart. But, my buddy Gray patched her up and she plays even better than before.

Its funny how all the new things like my iPad and my Bose sound system pair up so nicely with all the old things in my life. Of all the old things in my life though, the one that's the most precious is my 4-legged son, Jake.

Jake and I spend a lot of bonding time snuggling on the couch and are literally "joined at the hip" most of the time. :-) He goes to shows with us, stands guard over the equipment or the car and generally is just thankful to be wherever we are, no matter where that is or whatever we're doing. I find I spend a lot of time and love trying to be the man Jake thinks I am and fear I fall way too short... but you'd never know it by his love for us. :-)