As far back as I can remember, there was Ted. Soft southern accent, gentle spirit, always making people laugh. Sometimes raising hell, back in the early days. And always helping out our family. He had his own gig, too…something to…

The morning after, he woke to pale pink streaks slashing across the gray-blue dawn. He started the coffee maker, tugged on a jacket and shuffled outside to feed the chickens and the horses, then back inside to feed the dogs.…

I saw him this afternoon just outside of Stevensville, Montana. Young, baseball hat, goatee. His big black truck, with a big black dog’s big black ears flopping out the back window, had just pulled out of a parking lot and…

I almost didn’t go. The weatherman had called for strong winds out of the south and a potential small craft advisory, which meant the ocean was going to be a sloppy mess. Surfing was going to suck. But I went…

I see him every morning at the beach. Well, in the parking lot at the beach. Older guy, but probably not as old as he looks. George. A couple of mornings ago, I noticed that the rear window of his…

Over a decade ago, I got a moving, emotionally-charged letter from a fan I didn’t know I had. I’d had a rough summer, and remember thinking “t least I have one fan.” My friend Sean Watkins was living in my back…

The legend’s eyes vaguely focused on my fret hand, fingering chords to a song I’d recently written. His gaze, spilling from drooping eyelids, seemed to be born far away, and a twinge of alarm rode my breath as I started…

The little girl was telling some tall tales. Dreams, conjured from the depths of an innocent soul, about fantastical whales and maybe mermaids and other oceanic creatures. Hard to know…she talked so fast, scampering in and out of the shadows…

Rebirth. I suppose that’s where this Easter situation started. I’m not sure how a rabbit and eggs, unrelated to each other, made their way into an early spring resurrection Sunday, but a fat dude in a red suit falling down chimneys…

I watched the horses run, wild and free and unmoving across the stretched canvas. A young one, somewhere between foal and colt, led the small herd, her gangly, undeveloped limbs at odds with her dominance.  Wonder if that one is still…