Fred Eaglesmith

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"Eaglesmith delivers passion like few singers since Woody Guthrie...We know that's a comparison not to be taken lightly." - New York Press

I saw Fred Eaglesmith in concert Tuesday night at the Mucky Duck.

I arrived early for the standing-room only show and found a booth of Fred's cds and other merchandise set up outside the Duck. Little did I know that the nice woman working the booth (from whom I bought the "Milly's Cafe" cd) was Audrey Auld Mezera who opened the show.

A few people had previously recommended Audrey's music to me so I was pleasantly surprised to be able to hear her perform. Audra played a short but well-received set of songs including: "I'd Leave Me Too", "Nashville", "Bread and Roses" and "40".

Next Fred and his band took the stage. I am still fairly new to Fred's music but I was surprised at how many of his songs I already knew by way of other artists' cover versions.

Fred played a great set that included a lot of jokes and humorous observations about the differences between life in Canada, the United States in general and Texas in particular.

Fred played a number of songs from throughout his long career. Some of the highlights included: "18 Wheels", "Tired", "Cumberland County", "Freight Train", "Georgia Overdrive", "Carmelita", "Indiana Road", "Wilder Than Her", "Pontiac" and "Water in the Fuel".

You can sample some of Fred's music here.

Bad Day for Scruggs

Yesterday was not a good day for Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.

The Judge in his bribery case ruled against all of the defendants' motions setting the stage for a trial to begin next month.

This post from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog has all the details.

The WSJ Law Blog also provides this FBI memo.

The memo details allegations that Scruggs paid two associates to influence the current Attorney General of Mississippi in his investigation into State Farm Insurance.

Icon Exhibit

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An Icon Exhibit is being held this weekend at my parish St. Jonah Orthodox Church.

This is our 4th annual exhibition of Russian Orthodox Icons.

The Bookstore and Tea Room will also be open.

The Schedule of events for the Exhibit can be viewed here.

More information on Icons can be found here.

Scruggs Transcripts

Today Federal Prosecutors released transcripts of wire-tapped conversations in the Scruggs bribery case.

The transcripts are of conversations between Timothy Balducci and Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, his son Zach Scruggs and Sidney Backstrom.

Timothy Balducci was acting as a government witness at the time the conversations were recorded.

The transcripts can be viewed here, here and here (courtesy of the WSJ Law Blog).

More information on today's revelations can be found in this article from LegalNewsline.com.

Kosovo

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"We are all expecting something difficult and horrible..." - Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal on Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

The Serbian population of Kosovo has good reason to fear "something difficult and horrible" given the persecutions they suffered during the March 2004 pogroms at the hands of the majority Muslim population.

More information on the historic lands of Kosovo and Metohija can be found here.

Blog Links

I've added more blogs to my "Blog Links" section.

There are some very interesting blogs in every category.

For example, I recently discovered the Setting the Woods on Fire blog that contains this great post on the Townes Van Zandt song Pancho and Lefty. The comments to the post are also worth a look.

Eric Taylor

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Saturday night I saw Eric Taylor in concert at Anderson Fair.

Eric was performing in conjunction with a cd release of his new album Hollywood Pocketknife. This is only Eric's sixth album in 26 years!

He was joined on stage by Susan Lindfors on vocals and guitar and James Gilmer on percussion.

Eric played a great show and the new cd is one of his best recordings.

He played almost every song from the new cd as well as a number of songs from his earlier albums including: "Two Fires", "Where I Lead Me", "The Great Divide", "Whorehouse Mirrors and Pawnshop Knives", "Manhattan Mandolin Blues", "Shoes", and "Brand New Companion".

Eric's in-between-songs banter and stories are usually worth the price of admission alone. This night's performance included humorous stories involving: Guy Clark, David Olney, Townes Van Zandt, Kate Wolf, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.

You can listen to more of Eric's music here.

More information on some of Eric's performances at Anderson Fair can be found in this article from the Houston Chronicle.