merry christmas yall,

it is officially christmas,

i am waiting up for the man himself, and i hope he hurries,

last evening (eve to the eve) i had a few friends over here at my house,
casey cainan, and his family,
jermey lincoln and his family, aka chad posey
mr. kevin anderson, hooker, and a hand full of pop ins i'm having trouble recalling,

casey showed with an 18 year old bottle of scotch, hooker shows with a 5th of jack (complements of lp) that had frost all over the bottle, he just pulled it out of the freezer, he walks in my back door, and the first thing he says as he holds up the frosty 5th is " it helps it go down smoother"

there might have been 2 shots left in the bottle this morning when i awoke and walked in the kitchen, and over a big bowl of coco pebbles this morning, i had to walk back through the end of the night with hooker, he seemes to have lost it somewhere,

really was a great night, swapping songs with casey, and hanging out with good people, we managed 4 half written songs, but that means they only got half to go,


one thing that i will never forget,

there's only 3 of us left,
it's about 2:30 am,
me, hooker, and mr. anderson,
i'm playing the" rocket" by fred eaglesmith,
then hooker goes out...cold...dead to the world...no movement...head on the kitchen table,
me and kevin keep pickin for another hour or so,
then kevin leaves, so now it's just me,
and i decide to retire, so i try to wake hooker, to put him on the couch,
no luck,
i raise my voice, i use the pop on the head, and the hand full of hair head lift,
nothing,
so i just pick him up and lay him on the couch,
and just as i cut out the light and i'm leaving the room,
hooker sings "that's the saddest train i ever heard"

which for those of you who don't know, is the chorus to the eaglesmith tune i was playing an hour before hooker checked out


merry christmas yall
mo

how do ya do, and what's going on,

i got to missing the boys, so i called an emergency practice,
we haven't played since friday, as one oiled machine, i was missing that feeling, everybody showed and we worked up a brand new tune...as lp says "good for the soul"

these words ran through my head today,
i was reflecting on a time in my life (about 8 years ago) when i was kinda worthless, or at least more so than now, i worked construction, if that's what you want to call it, it was my best friends roofing company and we didn't do much roofing,

i recall lots of bad weather that year, that month,

i think i made about 580 for the month, we finished 1 job, (bad weather i said) out of the 580 i spent 280 because i did not want to sit in the county any more, and the remaing 2 bills were gambled away...

i know i learned a lesson in there somewhere,

a x-mas card
by me

money's short
and the times are hard
but i was going to get you
a x-mas card

on my way to the store
i got sidetracked
i went across the river (shereevport)
for a little blackjack

now i'm standing out front
and it sure is cold
i wish i could find someone
that might wage on my soul

so i think to myself
what would it bring
i guess it depends
on which side is seen

you see i've been up
and i've been down
but for the last few months
i've kinda hovered the ground

will it bring 20 bucks
or a room or a meal
or a ride back home
or a brand new deal

i guess it depends
on which side is seen
one side shines
and the other side screams

moneys short
and the times are hard
i swear i was going get you
a x-mas card

glad to be home,

me and abe taylor spent most of the day going from bench to bench in the mall over in plano, you know those benches out in the middle of the mall where you go sit when your ready to go home, but whoever is with you is not ready to go home, and their still in some store looking around, i guess for the next 13 or 14 years i got somebody to sit on those benches with me,


friday night was real cool at dillons, we played with some friends of ours, a real cool local band called miles from nowhere, had us a very cool crowd, once again thank you homers for coming out, i know we been playing paris a lot lately, and i was afraid the hometown folks might be getting a little burned on the mob, but we sure couldn't tell it, thanks a lot...

we will be at dillions again on new years eve

thank you mr john pittman
wayne broke his foot, he played on friday, but on saturday he had a football for a foot, so he says he has to lay up all night, so i get on the phone to try and line up a drummer, thank you john, you did a fine job,

saturday night turned out to be a real fun night,
and i don't mean because of all that crazy stuff that goes on in those hole in the wall east texas dives,
it was fun to me because i had a van full of good people, and a wounded band that held it together and got through another gig, leaning on each other, counting on each other, watching each others back,

casey cainan, i love to hear your stories,

jacob hooker, i love to hear you laugh,


peace
mo

news in the mob

me and the boys just jumped on board with www.alambarentertainment.com
this is gona be a good year

just got off the phone with mcclure
and it looks like march 20 thru 24
we will be down in austin at www.cedarcreekrecording.com
for the making of a new record

check out www.caseycainan.com he's got a killer tune on his blog, ( the words to one)

layin low for a couple of days
see ya
mo

3 really cool things that have happened to me the last 2 days

kinda things that give me chills

in a cool way,

1st
i was flippin through the tube the other night, and i caught some of the billboard music awards,
i seen mr. tom petty,
and he said
"the greatest complement i'd ever gotten, was when a fan came up to me and says, thanks for writing the soundtrack to my life"

gave me chills

2nd
my mother in law buys me this cool ass johnny cash book for my bday, books full of vintage pics of the man in black...and i can't help but remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i heard he had passed, he passed late in the night of sept. 13, 2003, i had to go to work at 5am the next day, so here i am, it's about 5:05 in the morning, i'm at work, i'm really not feeling it, and then i hear on the radio that johnny cash passed away in the night, i felt as if i was the first one to know, and i felt i needed to tell someone, or everyone...one of my earliest musical memories is hearing "a boy named sue" on the radio

gave me chills

3rd
i have several guitars setting around my house, all the time, at least 2, sometimes 5, and a lot of the time (if my chores are done) i will pick one up, well now that i have a little shadow (abe taylor) i don't get much pickin in before;
his little hands reach out and grab the strings,
or he tries to eat the strings,
he does this so often i have grown to ignore it, and just kinda quit for a minute, and then start playing again,well tonight, like the other nights, i sit down to relax, and i grab my ax, here comes abe taylor, and after a few seconds i notice my strings aren't muffled, so i look down at him,

his mouth is wide open,
his eyes are like 1/2 dollars,
and he's holding his ear against the guitar, (that's how to get the purest sound)

gave me chills

tomorrow night t-bones in denison
sat. night xwire with randy rodgers

may good gigs jump all over us
mo

hey hey, been a busy couple of days, had me lots of stuff to talk about...but no time to do it

so i stole me some

cause the next couple of days are gonna be that way too, busy that is

played mt. pleasant on friday, got paid, came home,

we did have some cool folks show up to hear us play, and i thank you

then off to l&w grapevine style, good to see the crew there, we had my buddy wesley joe sit in on drums, and done a fine job, after the gig a couple of dudes from austria asked me to play one more song, and they would buy me and my friends anything we want,

so i pulled my a stool up in the bar,
i asked jake (the sound guy) to axe the tunes runnin through the house,
and i played for about another 30 or 45 minutes,
me and jacob hooker hit the guy for about 5 shots each,

then we head to the motel rooms,
and here's the new rule

you can't sit in with the m.o.b.
unless your 30
and so is your gang

not 19

played toys for tots tonight, and had a good time, thank you cristy story for helping us out (by spinnin the tunes on the air)

then i played dillions, we had a good crowd, with lots of pickers, (the open mic monday night)
my friend sara coyle shows up and does a few tunes with me, it was wicked cool

adios
mo

hey jake, from l&w, you on our mind,
keep us on yours,
and informed

just got off the phone with wayne, and it looks like his dad is going to have major heart surgery on saturday, so please say a word for wayne and his family

mt. pleasant borrowed cash tomorrow night
love and war grapevine on saturday night

adios
mo