Greetings everyone, 

I’m on the road a good bit this year with Tony Trishcka’s Earl Jam, supporting his Scruggs tribute album of the same name which is due out in May or June. We did two Southern swings in January with the amazing Casey Driessen on fiddle (Sparrow Quartet etc) and Jared Engel on bass which were tons of fun. In between was Tony’s epic 75th birthday bash in NYC featuring special guests Steve Martin, Bela Fleck, Noam Pikelny, Ed Helms, Michael Cleveland, Bruce Molsky, Joyce Carol Oates and more. What a great celebration of Tony and his music! Thanks to all who came out to all of these shows - it was great to see friends, family, and students out and about. There are a bunch of dates in the works so I hope to see more of you.

As you may know, I had the honor of getting to play on two tracks for I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100, a beautiful and wide-ranging tribute album deftly produced by Matthew Stevens. One of those, The Last Thing On My Mind, sung by Dolly Parton, was up for a Grammy this past weekend for Best Solo Country Vocal. The award ended up going to Chris Stapleton (for White Horse) but there’s no question Dolly sang a version for the ages here. I wasn’t in the studio with her, but when I heard her performance over my guitar backing I almost fainted. She could have phoned this one in but no way - Dolly really brought it. It’s SO FREAKING GOOD!

The other track I played on was backing up Steve Earle on Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor. Steve also delivered a great performance, and was a hoot to be with in the studio. We nerded out over vintage guitars and shared Doc stories. Also, I’ve never heard such colorful profanity coming in through my studio headphones as on that day. There were several takes I almost ruined for laughing. Everyone involved in the project knocked it out of the park. It’s a really interesting and enjoyable record featuring many amazing artists and many Grammy-worthy performances - I hope you give it a listen!