It goes in...it must come out...

working on the show for this sunday after a two week vacation, it became even more clear to me how what i see and hear and experience becomes part of the show. caroline and i went through kentucky, tennessee, and the virginias during those weeks. we visited the carter fold, homeplace of the carter family, as well as bristol, tn., where the carters and jimmie rodgers first recorded. in the process we drove over 2,000 miles, mostly through the rural routes, and spent time in not only some of the economically poorest parts of the country, but also at the birthplace of our constitution, thomas jefferson's house. also, prior to the trip, i had some health issues that could have potentially been serious in addition to hearing about the death of ron rooks, so death was on my mind, too. once i finished selecting the songs for the show, i noticed how much the south had seeped in to the sets. even the first set, which is a requiem for ron, has songs by southerners lucinda williams and kevin gordon in it. the other sets about current rural life, downtowns, travelling, and the anti war set--which came from and was inspired by seeing thomas jefferson's home and realizing how far this country has strayed from his ideas and ideals--all had their genesis from the trip. when i'm in the car for long periods of time, i usually get ideas of sets or certain songs i want to use in the show. i came back with lots of scribbled notes jotted down when inspiration struck me. i think this is not dissimilar to what songwriters experience. they get input and then, after it gestates for awhile, it comes out as a song. for quite a long time now, i've thought of the show and it's various sets like songs, or as a poem, with each song being a line or verse, so to speak. if you listen to the whole two hours, if i've done my job, the show should be an organic whole--with some subjects and themes reoccurring and sometimes the songs within a set are a counterpoint to each other or relate to each other. most listeners aren't going to notice or care about this, but this is what i try to do each week, when possible. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. i like to think that by listening closely to each week's show, you can tell how my week went and what was on my mind. if the listeners don't want to go that deep, i at least try and make it entertaining to hear.