Bonnie, I made it home today at about 6 PM. I never left the Mudcat gig until after midnight. Thank God for The Johnson Girls!! I know you have heard it all before, but that is one of the most enjoyable CD's I have purchased in a long while. And my 8 year old daughter, Ciara, is sitting in the living room listening to it now and telling my how much she likes it. I had better hide the damn thing or I will never see it again.

The Getaway...........just like fine wine.........better year after year. In fact, this was just flat out a joy, a blast, very cool, hip to the max. You cannot imagine the good feelings that are generated by this event. I will get the only criticism I am going to mention out first so I can get on with the superlatives. Where was the friggin heat??????? That gym got a little chilly at the concerts.

Sandy Paton taught me something. He gave me one of the most profound moments ever during the Songs of Struggle workshop. He will probably get pissed at me for giving this so much space, but I MUST offer up my observations on what transpired. As was mentioned above, Sondra did one of the most moving renditions of Phil Coulter's The Town I Loved So Well. For those that don't know the song, it tells of the sweet town of Derry, in the North of Ireland, and what the troubles have done to the town and its inhabitants. It is a moving song to say the least. I have probably sung it 250 or 300 times, and heard it sung another 500 or so times. I have never heard it done better, with more conviction, than Sondra did. It affected me deeply. When she finished, I turned to Sandy and asked him to do a song. As I did so, I realized how profoundly Sondra's rendition had affected him. I tried to move to someone else but Sandy went ahead and started singing My Old Man. As the song progressed, and started to tug at the strings, my friend was overcome momentarily by it all, sobbed, apologized, then (like the consumate pro that he is) finished it up. Think on it, my friends. In that one moment, he summed up for me his true love of the music. Can you imagine, a man who has spent his entire life collecting music, recording some of the greatest singers ever, has sung the most heart rending stuff a 1000 times, seen it all...............but still able to be touched to the deepest level by a wonderful rendition.......still listening to every word. I started thinking about my time with him and Caroline, and realized how very lucky I am and how God has blessed me with the friendship of these two. I was sitting with Sandy humming one thing or another, and he would tell me the version it reminded him of. The moment during the workshop, when Sandy showed me the depth of his love for our craft, he revealed himself for the true Bard that he is. Thanks, you old Folk Phogey.

Ya know, you meet up with your friends...one from Boston, one from NYC...........you only get to see them once a year or so.......drink a couple of jars of the vile black stuff......do a little Pointer Sisters style harmony and choreography to everything from Shantey's to Gospel to Yodeling, and right away everyone wants to criticize..........hmmmmmppppppppphhhhhh.

Dan went down and caught the only damn bass in the pond, so we went ahead and caught as many sunnies as we wanted. Let's go fishing for real some time, my friend. And I loved singing with you.

Hey Rick Fielding..........thanks for writing a wonderful song. It set my workshop up perfectly...........remind me to tell you sometime about the panic in the morning.

One of the funniest moments for me came when, after the fabled singaround............it was way after 1 AM, and we all came back to our quasicommunal cabin...........I still had a song or two left in me and I picked up the aul bodhran and quietly...........honest..........I started singing a song with it..........in comes Lani and asks me if I my big ass would prefer to die inside the cabin among friends or outside with the squirrels. I guess wanted to go to sleep..............LOL............my big ass put the bodhran away and climbed in bed. Then we listened to these maniacs in the next room giggling incessantly. Such good feelings..........camaraderie........These are such good friends...........I hope that all of you will try and find a way to this gathering next year. In fact I am beginning a year long, being a pain in the ass campaign right now...............YOU LISTENING, 'SPAW, YOU HORSES PATOOT.............to get you all there.

I am not going to mention specific Catters, as I would be afraid of missing someone, or hurting feelings. You know who you are, and you know how I feel about you, the hugs should be evidence of it. The only exception I will make is to Rita Ferrara, Bill Day, Charlie Baum, Jennifer and any others who worked so hard to pull this off. Rita, I am glad I did the workshops and the mini-concert. Thanks for cajoling me into it. You all are the best.

Mick