February Greetings Everyone!

What a time we're living in. Will we ever forget it? 

Got my first Covid shot yesterday, and here's how badly I've wanted it... 

Last week I drove five (5!) hours round-trip to Natchez only to be informed that I had arrived exactly one week early. Ugh. Oh well, I'm already scheduled for shot #2 a short month from now. 

Here's hoping WE ALL are immune to the Covid bug in SHORT order. 

So... a couple of things here to share, plus a new poem and some excellent food for thought. 
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CONTENTS of This Newsletter 

1. New TK Concert on YouTube 
2. Just booked for March 16: virtual ITR with Johnsmith & Friends 
3. What I'm up to in the studio... 
4. TK Poem of the Month 
5. Recommended: a TV show and a yoga playlist 
6. February Food for Thought... from W. Somerset Maugham 

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1. New TK Concert on YouTube 

A couple of weeks ago I played a MOST enjoyable concert in for a masked skeleton crew  in Florida... and now it's available on YouTube (video and high quality audio). 

To watch and/or listen, click HERE. 

—Big thanks to Mike & Maggie McKinney (AKA the soulful duo "Lucky Mud," for hosting), Marvin Holdman (for the excellent sound), and Courtney Harper and Friends of Camp Helen State Park. 

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2. On March 16: A virtual in-the-round show with Johnsmith & Friends 

The lineup: Johnsmith, Kitty Donohoe, James Keelaghan & me. 

The link for the show is not quite ready, but it'll be part of the Music My Mother Would Not Like Showcase Series. 

I'm very much looking forward to that one, and I'll be giving you a heads up on it in my March newsletter. 

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3. What I'm up to in the studio... 

a. Pre-production on an EP for a new duo in Nashville. (More on that as we move along.) 

b. Collaborating on guided meditations with my sister Molly Fleming, who is a therapist in Memphis. (Molly's lovely voice, my soundtrack.) 

c. Inching toward finishing an EP that will accompany a handmade book of art prints by Tupelo artist Ke Francis (based on my song, "The Last Time I Saw Cain"). 

FYI the title song (book & EP) is a re-telling of the Cain and Abel story. I wrote it with Michael Lille, and the lyric begins... 

Well the last time I saw Cain 
He was passed out in the bar 
Like a baby in a cradle 
His troubles seemed so far away 

(I'll be keeping you posted on all of it.) 

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4. TK Poem of the Month 

Note to Self 

When there’s nothing to say, 
don’t say it. 
When there’s nothing to do, 
don’t push. 

When there’s nothing to listen to 
don’t fill the space 
with bad news and cheap drama. 
Let hardness rise to fullness 

and softness to tears. 
And when hurt returns, 
let it have its days 
and nights until it disappears 

of its accord, beneath the waves. 
No matter what, there’s air enough 
to breathe around it, peel away 
the onion layer of self-pity 

and the urge to make it something 
it was never meant to be: 
the face of other, other’s body, 
other’s right to live in peace. 

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5. Recommended: Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)... and my Spotify Yoga playlist 

a. Ted Lasso 

I'm hesitant to recommend anything you can only watch or hear via a subscriber service... 

...but if you happen to have Apple TV+, I highly recommend the10 episodes comprising the series Ted Lasso. It's not a highly original story or premise, but it's a sitcom with depth, and I greatly enjoyed it. (Heck, I needed it.) 

HERE is a review, in case you're curious. Or just watch it. 

b. My yoga playlist 

One very unexpected benefit of the pandemic: Stranded at home I've become an early riser. Most every other morning I get up before sunrise and do a little yoga. Over time I've put together a Spotify playlist I enjoy listening to while I'm going through my routine. It's seriously laid and good for SLOW movement and contemplation. 

If that sounds appealing, click HERE. 

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6. February Food for Thought... from W. Somerset Maugham 

“You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.” 

—W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), playwright and author 

Till next time, Maximum Peace, Love and Understanding, 
TK

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