Dear Board...
I know that its been a while -- too long probably -- since I've posted about my world. A lot has happened in the past several months, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to update even some of my closest friends and family members, let alone post on the board...I meant no ill will...
Well, first off, I no longer live in Nashville. I packed up my little '73 VW Bug with as much stuff as it would hold and headed back towards Colorado. May 9th, my twenty second birthday, seemed like a perfect date to make the move. You know...one door must close so that another can be opened. It was ceremonial, almost.(Before I forget -- many thanks to all of you who posted about my birthday! You are wonderful!!)
I headed north through Kentucky and into Illinois, and then...putt...putt...putt....
My little car sputtered to a stop.
Happy Birthday.
At the advice of a friend, I purchased a small AAA policy the day before I left Tennessee. She told me that you never know when your car will stop working and that it's better to be safe rather than sorry. She was right, and I'm glad that I listened to her. I called the toll-free number on the back of my temporary membership card, and the phone attendant said that she would send me a tow truck as soon as she could.
"Where are you located?" she asked me in a stiff, neon, office-cubby voice. For some odd reason I paid close attention to the green exit sign that I'd passed about a mile or two back.
"Vienna. Exit 14."
I sat down on the side of highway 24 and looked up at the blistering sun. I laughed. Some ceremony this was turning out to be.
"God has a sense of humor," my mother used to say to me. Hmm...what kind of joke was this? I wondered what, if anything did God have planned for me here. What was the punchline?
I thought about my new yellow pad that I purchased in a gas station at the last fueling. I got it out and started to write:

I'm sitting on 24
I just turned 22
I got some twenty hundred miles more
And my engine's out of juice

AH-HA!! A song! This would have to be a song!
So I wrote down little snippets of my day and night in Vienna (which I later learned from Philip, the tow-man, was pronounced v-I-enna, proving to me for certain that southern Illinois is, in reality, western Kentucky.). I started the melody the next afternoon while on my way to St. Louis, and played the song in its entirety to my mom once I rolled into Denver. I can't wait till you all can hear it.
I'll be doing some shows in Colorado during  the coming months, and I would love to see anyone who could make it.
...I wish that I could say that I will have a CD for you to take home with you, but I can't. I've got a whole bunch of songs, but no record yet. However, I am reconsidering the release of the Spanish songs that I recorded some time back. It would be an internet release only.
I have so many stories to tell, and I have this vision that one day, you will be in front of me and I'll be able to sing them all to you. I hope you stick around for that day. It's coming...I can feel it.
Congratulations to the graduates!! Feels good, doesn't it!
I send you all my love and blessings. Please, enjoy the hot months, write down your memories, and cherish those around you.
Matt