May greetings!
My first manager gave me two great pieces of advice that have served me well over the years.
1. A sport coat dresses up anything. Check!
2. Don't say anything political unless you want to run off half your audience.
Sweet Jesus, I've tried, but right now I'm having a world of trouble with #2. Our state legislature here in Tennessee just voted to redraw our state voting map, and an awful lot of us are now essentially disenfranchised. That is, if you're Black or Democrat, or both, your vote in Tennessee means nothing.
Well it's wrong. It's bad. And, for me, it's heartbreaking. Everyone's vote should count.
OK, I hope you're still reading. I’ve got a little news, a link to several stories I've written since last newsletter, a new poem-of-the-month, a never-before-heard-song-of-
Thanks for hanging with me. I'd love to hear from you (even if you cuss me). You can reply to this email.
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Contents of This Newsletter
1. My 2027 Ireland tour update (It's full, but...)
2. New stories on Substack
3. Poem of the Month: Mama Said
4. Song of the Month: House on Fire
5. Wisdom for our time from Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai & old friend George Orwell
Graceland photo courtesy of Richard Krause. Follow Richard on Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos
1. My Ireland 2027 tour update
Hard to believe, my 2027 tour being so far off, but as of now all seats are taken. At this point, however, there's not much of a waiting list, and it's always possible we'll get a cancellation or two. So if you've been thinking about it, now is the time to visit the Inishfree Tours website 2027 schedule page here:
https://www.inishfreetours.
Scroll down to my tour, click ENQUIRE, and Ms. Vicki (a lovely person) will get right back to you.
The tour runs July 18-27, 2027. For particulars on the trip, visit my Ireland page here:
2. New stories on Substack
Here's my secret plan: I'm a storyteller, and over the years stories and poems have become an important part of my shows. I've written many poems, and now I'm writing prose that will perhaps lead to a memoir of some kind.
Why has this taken me so long? Because—I understand now–I was afraid. I wanted to be good at it immediately, and of course that's not the way it works. But the truth is I'm feeling more creative now than I have a very long time.
If you'd like to read my stories, you can read them for free at Substack. The one I'm finishing now is called “My Summer on a Chain Gang.” Believe it or not it's a true story, and I just posted the fifth installment of its six part seried. To read any/all of my stories there, visit my Substack page here:
If you simply like to read without subscribing, no problem. Just click on "No thanks" and you're in.(And you won't get any of those obnoxious pop-up ads afterward.)
Or, you could subscribe for free, in which case you'll get an email when I post something. And if you'd like to contribute to my work, there's a paid option too ($5/month). No pressure whatsoever there!
Drawing courtesy of James Polk. For more about about James: https://www.
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3. Poem of the Month: Mama Said
Mama
said
I
smoked
and
drank
right
up
until
t h e d a y y o u
w e r e b o r n
a n d y o u
turn e d out
a l l ri ght.
5. Song of the Month: House on Fire
The other day I was scrolling through my back catalogue and ran across this one. Can't remember the last time I heard it. I wrote it in the early 90's with Stan Lynch, drummer for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (and later producer for Don Henley).
We wrote it in the morning and recorded it in Stan's studio in the afternoon. (No time to overthink it!)
BTW it was a single for Australian pop star John Farnham. He changed the title to "Heart's on Fire." (I told my then-publisher he was welcome to call it “Pants on Fire.”) And he later recorded a live duet with Olivia Newton-John.
Hope you enjoy it! Feel free to download from my website, scroll down and you'll see it…
https://www.tomkimmel.com
…and share as you like.
BTW an easy way to share it is with this QR code:
6. Wisdom for Right Now…
"From the place where we are right, flowers will never grow."
—Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000), Israeli Poet
“If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950), author & journalist
Till next month, Maximum Peace, Love, and Understanding,
TK
PS Thanks always to the folks at Elixir Strings for keeping me playing the world's best strings for 30 years.
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