more music

The callouses are coming back on the fingertips of my left hand, the skin hard and dark and peeling.

I haven't been playing much music the past few years. Much of my creative efforts were going into the book, after all. And there was that year I spent trying to get the finances of a Pagan organization straightened out, that can take the music out of you for sure.

It's not that I've been completely neglecting music; I've done a few shows, such as the various instances of Instant Gratification, and I've written a few songs. But sometimes weeks would go by between times I picked up the guitar.

I decided a few months ago that that has to change. I think I first actually articulated it at a little summer solstice ritual I got together with a few folks in Fell Point. We went around the circle and spoke our hopes and intentions for the new season; I said that I wanted to devote more time to music.

A few weeks later, I was at the Starwood Festival at the Wisteria campground and nature retreat, in eastern Ohio. I decided to follow up on a lead from when I was there last year for their Cornstalk Festival, and managed to talk my way into a gig at Cornstalk this year.

I suppose it will be a comeback show, in a way. I'm even trying to go through a bunch of old recordings of my shows and put together a little demo CD I can give out at the show for donations. (Yes, some day I need to actually get a studio CD together, but I've realized I need to spend some time just messing around playing in the studio environment before I can do that.)

But for now, I'm happy that my fingertips are getting scarred again, reminding me of when I picked up the guitar twenty years ago and started teaching myself the songs people posted on alt.guitar.tab. (The glory days of USENET!)