Hey, billybob:

How nice to see you. I hope that folks will stop by a make even a short post from time to time, just to keep this thread alive. I finally stopped posting last year bescuse no one else was, and it had become a vanity thread. I come in hear to listen, more than talk.

A lot of good things have been going on in my life, in the long stretch of time when I wasn't posting. It wasn't because I don't enjoy mudcat, because I still have many friends in here.

Probably the biggest thing that has happened in the last year is that I finally wrote a book. I have Mudcat, at least in part, to thank for that. The book is a collection of short chapters, and gospel songs I've written, titled: The Gate of Beautiful: Stories, Songs, and Reflections on Christian Life. Two of the chapters are stories I posted on here: A Bus Story and A Train Story. I used them as they were posted, with some additional reflections. There are other chapters that relate to folk music, but are not about folk music. One comes from a long letter that I originally wrote to Art Thieme many years ago describing an amazing experience that I had at a concert that I did.   There are 22 chapters in the book, and the last section of the book is composed of lyrics and commentary on 11 gospel songs I've written. The book itself is liberally sprinkled with lines from songs I've written, gospel and otherwise, as well as scriptural quotations. I am hoping to do a CD of the songs, as only two of them have been released on CD.

I keep writing songs, too. They keep coming, and I welcome them when they do. I make no effort to force them to come. These days, they're almost exclusively gospel songs, although one that I wrote sounds more like a country blues.

Writing the book has been a wonderful experience, and now I am exploring possibilities for having it published. Push comes to shove, I'll publish it on my own, but I am nowhere near that point yet.

The other connection is that the primary encouragement to do the book has come from none other than Elmer Fudd.

And the-the-the-the-thaaats all folks!

Jerry