TomFlannery.com

After a while you forget what day it is.

Last night the awful news that this virus had taken the enormously gifted songwriter Adam Schlesinger from us. I’ve become afraid to refresh my Facebook feed. There will be more. This thing is creeping ever closer….to everybody. It’s not flat lining. It grows. Everywhere. Every day. Later on, me and some family got together via Facetime and we updated each other on each other. We’re all running in place. We’re all fighting panic with Netflix and old baseball documentaries and knowing our kids are locked inside with us. We’re marveling at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And trying to figure out how to create homemade masks.

I suspect you are too.

Today is Thursday. I know this because I just checked the bottom right of my computer screen. For the 2nd week in a row my recyclables went out the wrong night. One week a night too early. The next a night too late. I’ve been raiding my makeshift library for stuff to read. I’ve got insane amounts of books here….so I hope my eyes hold out.

Re-reading Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles”. On deck is Roger Angell’s “The Summer Game”, the greatest book about baseball ever written. Middle Middlebrook’s epic “The First Day On the Somme” sits on the left corner of my desk, on top of “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”, one of the most soul crushing reads you can imagine. Not sure my spirit could handle it right now. Another time. I’ve got an inkling that I should pull out David Mccullough’s magisterial “1776” again. Or maybe “Truman”. I find myself wandering into the large closet where my books are stacked to the ceilings. Part of the fun is they are in no order whatsoever, so if you’re looking for something specific you need to eyeball 1000 books, one at a time, and invariably you get distracted and forget what it was you were looking for in the first place. I love when this happens.

I think all music stores should be set up this way.

Speaking of, there’s always music on. Hefty doses of John Prine, a non-believer’s way of praying that he recovers. Last word is that he’s stable. When I think on it, I just listen harder. “In Spite of Ourselves”. Sometimes on repeat. I can’t listen to “Fountain’s of Wayne” today….it would make me cry. If you can, I would suggest their last 2 records. “Traffic and Weather” and “Sky Full of Holes”. Both power pop masterpieces that were pretty much ignored because we are a really really dumb nation with horrible taste in music. And for some reason I’ve been listening over and over to Uncle Tupelo’s “No Depression” a lot. I make sure to turn the thing way up for when “Graveyard Shift” fully kicks in. The Amazon echo I have is really small and not built for what I’m being pushing through it, so if it blows, it blows. Fuck Amazon anyway. What do you thing Woody Guthrie would think about Amazon? Think on that and then shop local once the coast is clear. Lots of folks out there gonna need you help way more than a shithead modern day robber baron like Jeff Bezos.

I’ve written a few new songs. Scratching out new ideas in a tablet…..mixing and matching and trying to keep the unrelenting gloom on the outside from infecting my fingers when scribbling and picking. It’s not easy. Right now I’ve got half a record of the most depressing dirges you’ve ever heard in your life, which is not what the anybody needs right now. On the plus side I’ve got some other stuff that might raise a few roof’s, if we’re ever allowed to play again under one that we don’t live under.

My friend and fellow musician Chuck Gudatis wanted to show his appreciation for the last few live virtual gigs that I did over the last 2 weeks, so the mad bastard dropped a 6 pack of Guinness on my front porch today. My dog caught him red-handed and started going crazy at the front door, but Chuck, ever the social distancer, was stealthy and made his escape. It was only later he sent me a note explaining where the beer came from. For a time I thought I had won some sort of beer lottery. And my kids thought I had found some sort of online beer delivery place.

Nope. I just got some badass friends. Just another NEPA musician doing what they do best. Giving. They don’t make ’em any better. Thank you Chuck! I promise you the beer will go to good use. Immediately.

Wind has been howling today. Even it seems pissed off.

What’s the use of blowing if there ain’t nobody out there to push back?

Stay safe. Stay home. We’re gonna get through this.

In a bit..

–tf