Last night we didn’t make it to the town patriotic celebration like Dad2Three and Sarah’s Small World did; in fact, we didn’t know about it. That is what happens when you get in a huff with the town’s newspaper delivery system and swear it off. And when your son takes your copy of the sweet free paper, Blount Today, and uses it for bird bedding before you get to it. And, when you are floating around in “moving” land and are plain old out of touch.

What we did though, after passing parking lot full of cars for said celebration on our way home from signing an extension on the house contract, was take our chickens home and let them stay up long enough to watch Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion show at the Tanglewood for Great Performances. We are GK junkies and every show feeds our appetite for quirky folk stuff. He does, of course, more than slightly resemble my paternal grandmother. And Meryl Streep was excellent; can’t wait to get out and see The Devil Wears Prada and A Prairie Home Companion. But the best part of last night was….

(drumroll)

the Wailin’ Jennys.  Three girls singing in prettier harmony (and more earthy) harmony than the Dixie Chicks. Kim would love ‘em but Kim’s up on some mountain in Washington right now playin’ in snow.

The night before I stayed up super late to see Ben Harper on Austin City Limits. Wow, wow, wow! He’s amazing. He’s beautiful. Whether it’s his funky, folksie, blues or the penetrating slow stuff like “Widow to a Living Man” he just stuns me. I keep hearing him billed as “gospel” but the gospel I grew up with is much more Lawrence Welk-ian than anything I’ve heard Ben do.  I need his boxed set. The Wailin’ Jennys are more of a download or a single CD to have in the kitchen while chopping herbs. Ben’s mor’n dat.