As others have said, there were no politics involved, just circumstance.

There are a lot of folks who could have participated - Jody and Kate chief among them. They were, as Jacqui said, tough to get hold of - apparently our initial attempts at communication just never got through . By the time we finally did, the CD was already stuffed to the gills and the hour was late. They were nevertheless very generous in donating the songwriter's royalty from "Miner's Lullaby," which they co-wrote, to the cause. I'm glad to say they understood completely held no hard feelings about not having a song of their own on the CD. Everybody was SO gracious.

I have a fantasy that some time in the future there will be another CD, one of Utah Phillips songs that have never before been recorded, or that he never wrote melodies to and that some of the folks who didn't get back to us in time or who we didn't end up having space for will be on that one. But one thing at a time.

Andrez, I'm glad you like the CD. And I was sad too that we didn't get through to Jody and Kate in time - I love that Heart Songs CD.

Personally, I think Singing Through the Hard Times is as much a concept as a collection of performances. It's not about the individual musicians; it's about Utah and his legacy. As we start having some concerts associated with this CD, there's no reason at all why they should be limited exclusively to the musicians on the CD - especially when there are so many good folks singing and recording his songs - folks like Jody and Kate, Laurie Lewis, Kuddie, Anne Feeney, Bob and Diane Suckiel, and so many others.

Dan