Hey, Pete:

I've been under the weather, with a stoooopid cold, but tonight I finally felt almost human. I wrote the text for the back of the book cover, and now everything is done and ready to e-mail off to the publisher tomorrow. I don't believe that the turnover time will be all that long, as I am publishing with a print on demand publisher. All it will need is demand... :-) The cover still needs to be designed and the text laid out to their specifications.

I've been thinking alot about quietness these days, something that is hard to find. Lucy Simpson, who was a wonderful singer and a regular in the New England area loved to sing the song Blessed Quietness. She sang it like she meant it, very soft and flowing. A few months ago, I was at a small black church where we were playing and the orgnaist lit into a Fats Waller sounding, breakneck version of the song. Apparently, the message must have slipped by him.

These days, everything is at eardrum piercing volume, whether it's the soundtrack in a movie theatre, or music in churches (at least in many of the black churches.) When I pull up to a stop sign and there is someone in a car in the lane next to me, the sound is deafening, even though both cars have their windows rolled up. I can't imagine how loud it is in the car that's playing the music. I don't know how it's like in England, but I suspect that it's the same. You folks are picking up all of our worst habits!

Jerry