Blog

(big thanks to Rotarian Shawn Hamm for this clip!) A few months ago, I was invited to speak at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This was an extraordinary invitation, and I was beyond thrilled. I am grateful for the chance to hold the good work Rotary is doing in the world up […]

Every Monday, I send out a video of a song to the folks who are a part of my digital community at Patreon. This was kind of a special one from Robert Lake Park in Montreat. We played this traditional piece, beautifully arranged by Mark Britt for one of the services at the 2025 Worship and […]

I’m writing from somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean on my way back from an amazing trip to Scotland, organized by Raven Sinclaire of Traceless Tours. We traveled to three towns/cities, had some grand adventures, relaxed, enjoyed, and laughed a lot. We visited castles, saw an extraordinary sheep dog demonstration, heard six different concerts and some […]

A little over a month ago, I was sitting next to my amazing mother when she drew her last breath. Dad was asleep nearby. My sisters had both spent the whole day looking out for her, and had each left to get some sleep. They have both shouldered so much of the caretaking over the […]

I’m deeply honored to be a featured keynote speaker for the Opening Plenary of the 2025 Rotary International Conference in Calgary, Ontario, Canada this June. Since my second TEDx Talk came out this past summer, amazing invitations keep coming. This is, by far, the biggest one yet. Rotary International has a membership of about 1.2 […]

Last week marked the six month anniversary of Hurricane Helene. Over a hundred people were lost to the storm, and so many structures, livelihoods, and personal possessions that held particular value for folks. My immediate family was very fortunate, though so many people we love were hit hard. One thing of mine washed away, though, […]

2024 was quite a year. Here in Western NC, it will always be the year of Hurricane Helene, but there was so much more, and so much of it was wonderful. It does my heart good to remember. Like the very last thing that happened, for instance. I spent the last weekend of 2024 in […]

Thanks for being interested in my Patreon community. It’s now been over five years since I decided to experiment with it, and I can’t tell you how important it has become to me, in terms of my art, in terms of community, and in terms of keeping me going professionally. I was looking for a […]

I will not soon forget this past weekend. Deanna, Mason and I road-tripped to NYC to see Our Town, the classic Thornton Wilder play, in a contemporary interpretation on Broadway. A song that I co-wrote and sang with my brothers from Abraham Jam, Billy Jonas and Dawud Wharnsby, is used at the opening of the […]

I’m thrilled to announce that registration is now live for our 2025 Roots & Branches retreat, Oct. 2-5 in Montreat, North Carolina. Please check out the details below. I look forward to spending some time together!

It has been quite a year for me, with the release of the new TEDx talk and a beautiful calendar of events. I’m deeply grateful, and somewhat baffled, to find that my career seems to be on an upward trajectory here in the second half of my fifties. But Broadway? That wasn’t even on my […]

Dear friends, It has been an extraordinary couple of weeks in Western North Carolina. The destruction has been incomprehensible, and the community solidarity and compassion overwhelming. My family and house are fine, and so many friends are not. Power came back yesterday, and I put together this music video to my song, Here for You, […]

We are in countdown mode for the release of my TEDx talk, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like it or Not, and excitement is building. We have a great team working on putting this together, we have launched a whole new website, and we are planning and rehearsing for the online Launch Event on Tuesday night, July 30, […]

I’ve been a fan of Christine Lavin’s since I first discovered her music in the early nineties. She’s insightful, sings and plays beautifully, and she is incredibly, side-splittingly funny (often ending her concerts with a baton-twirling routine).  A great entertainer, and, as I’ve discovered more recently, a wonderful human. I kind of guessed that last […]

I got the word yesterday that my song September Me is a finalist for the 2023 USA Songwriting Competition in the Folk Category. The winners will be announced on Nov. 22, and there are some great songwriters on the list. I’m honored to have made it this far. Below is the Folk finalist list, if […]

Such a delight to have a good long conversation with my friend Alonzo Johnson about changing the world, on the occasion of my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, being published on Chalice Press.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.

powered by Crowdcast (note that David and Hannah have created a web page that goes into the details of production and other aesthetic choices they made in the making of the Look Away video. Check it out at www.LookAwayProject.com) Join Hannah Garrity and me this Saturday at 2PM for the release of the new music […]

Hey friends, I’ve got some exciting news to share.  The release date for my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, has been set!  It will be out in bookstores on July 25, 2023, less than three months from now.  Foreword by Brian McLaren. What’s more, you can now […]

In 2004, Deanna and I got married. Being a fairly nerdy pair, we couldn’t think of anything more fun to do on our honeymoon than go to Guatemala, stay with a family in a homestay, and go to language immersion school for two weeks. It was a blast. We made some friends while we were […]

Hey friends, I’m taking an amazing trip with good friends this summer.  You’re invited. My dear friends Gareth Higgins and Brian Ammons lead retreats in Gareth’s native Northern Ireland, and they have changed a whole lot of lives through that work. Here’s a bit about their retreats from their website, irelandretreats.com: The story we tell […]

As the world continues to gradually reopen, I’m so enjoying being back on the road. To facilitate that process, I’ve just begun working with not one, but two new booking agents to help me organize the calendar and connect with the venues who might value what I’m doing. In the early part of next year, […]