I was surprised and delighted to be awarded the Maple Blues Lifetime Achievement Blues With A Feeling Award this February. I thought I’d embrace this auspicious occasion as a time to post a new video of my original version of the African American spiritual song You Better Mind. The song appears on my newest Borealis release, Calm In The Eye Of The Storm. For the album I recorded it with sacred steel sensation Nikki D. Brown and the Sisters of Thunder. The video however is very much a product of this year of the pandemic. On it I sing and play all the parts including bass, lap steel, percussion, etc. Mako Funasaka masterfully crafted the video from my own shots of me busily recording all the parts.
On February 19 I will be part of the Virtual Winterfolk Blues and Roots festival. It’s a great line up and you can watch it by registering here. I do a set with Ben Whiteley accompanying me on mandolin, guitar and harmony vocals.
Then on Monday, Feb. 22 I’ll be doing a live stream concert for the virtual North American Folk Alliance conference at 8:30 EST. Of course you can register for the conference (with a sliding pay scale) and see a lot of great workshops and other concerts, but if you want to watch my show you can do it here.
Whether you believe that we’ll all have to “give an account in Judgement”, call it the law of karma or accept that our actions can have consequences, I hope we all remember to put a little love and kindness out there and spread some light.