Hi all,

My six week sabbatical from my job has officially started. My wife and I have a small place in the northern part of Michigan tucked in the woods not far from Lake Michigan. So I've signed off StickWire (for the time being), packed the entirety of my studio, and have relocated here until early July. The plan is to focus on recording new material. I did come here with just a few pre-concieved notions of some tunes but mostly I want to come in with a blank slate and see what kind of material the surroundings inspire. Maybe something nice. Maybe nothing. Who knows.

In the mean time, I will likely do many journal entries while I'm here at my usual location (http://www.detroitstick.com/words/journals).

If you are looking for inspiration from your surroundings, go hike South Manitou Island. Deep forest, giant Cedar trees over 100 years old, lighthouses, shipwreck, and the biggest, windy dunes I've ever seen on Lake Michigan. You should find your inspirations there with no problem.

Yeah ... I've been out there. I even overnighted out there once with a mutual friend of ours. Great great place. You just need to avoid black fly season.

My wife and I sat on Good Harbor Beach last night and watched a storm role in over North Manitou Island. Stunning.

Glenn

The day those pics were taken my wife and I were stranded there overnight - we missed the boat The most memorable T-storm I ever witnessed was Whitefish point in the UP around 2002. Standing on the beach, a single clap of thunder come over the lake incredibly loud, but it had a metallic, hollow sound to it. Never heard thunder like that, incredibly scary. I went into the museum and within minutes the sky went black and thousands of lighting bolts where coming out of the sky all around, the thunder never stopped, and the rain and wind pounded the museum for a half an hour. Then the sun came out like nothing happened. I purchased the only CD they sold there in the museum: "Gordon Lightfoot's Greatest Hits", I wanted a copy of the the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", about the ship that lies at the bottom near Whitefish Bay. I actually witnessed the same conditions the song descibes.

That song and another tune called "A Thousand Words" by some guy named Glenn Poorman are my favorite tunes to listen to when driving through some of Michigan's scenery up North. It's always cool to listen to any local folk singers who do songs about the Great Lakes, anyone can actually see or experience what the music is about.