You know how at the end of “Car Talk”, Click and Clack say, “Well, you’ve wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk”? We seem to have wasted another perfectly good year without posting a website news update, so here goes.

Our musical and personal lives continue to bring changes. We’re excited to tell you that we’ve recorded our first studio CD in five years, Higher Ground. As this administration’s tenure comes to an end (God willing) we figured we’d get in our last jabs and rays of hope, at least for the time being. We stuck another toe in the technological ocean and posted all of our self-produced recordings on the Internet so you can download individual songs and entire CD’s. We’re about to add two more musical U.S. history workshops to our repertoire. Charlie had a very busy and exciting touring season with some great musician pals, including a 30th reunion tour with his old band Bright Morning Star, while Karen kept the home fires burning and spent more time with her ailing mom.

On June 19, 2007, the 54th anniversary of the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, we were honored to participate in “Celebrate the Children of Resistance” along with Angela Davis, Eve Ensler, David Strathairn, Howard Zinn, Martín Espada, Camilo Mejia and others. We provided some of the musical backdrop to a dramatic reading of Julius and Ethel’s letters and to stories of young people who receive grants from the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

In August we traveled to Gorham, ME, for a house concert at the Pine Crest Bed and Breakfast that included a three night stay in a beautiful room and walks on the beach. We were lavishly treated by hosts Matt Mattingly and his partner Amy and recommend the place highly to anyone traveling in the area.

Late September we had one of those experiences that reminds us of the blessings of doing this work. We went into the Warren State Prison in Ohio, and spent a couple of hours with the Umoja Chorus, a chorus led by Cathy Roma. We sang for them, they sang with and for us, and for the first time ever (and maybe the last!) we played guitar backup to a hip hop performance, because they couldn’t get the tape player to work. We were touched by the spirit and camaraderie of these men who welcomed us into their world.

In October Charlie spent 17 days touring Texas with the Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing (JOH), working to abolish the death penalty. By Texas standards there would have been three executions during that time, but because the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case about the “cruel and unusual” nature of lethal injections as a method of execution, there was a de facto moratorium. Charlie sang in a concert with Nanci Griffith

November brought another southward tour heading to the SOA Watch demonstration at Ft Benning, Columbus GA. Each year more students and more musicians join the thousands who gather at the gates, and we look forward to the time when our gathering will be a celebration of the closing of the School, and the musicians’ collective will sing only songs of joy.

December 10 we began our work in the recording studio, accompanied by Charlie’s old musical colleague, Tex La Mountain. It has been five years since we made a studio recording, and this one is simple and elegant. It was a treat to be working at a studio close to home, and with local musicians. It includes many of Charlie’s new songs, as well as songs by some of our old and new favorite songwriters and features guest vocals by Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers. Speaking of whom...

We began 2008 by doing two “Duopalooza” concerts in Albany, NY and Greenfield, MA with Claudia and Sally, longtime friends and wonderful singers.

Charlie’s solo tour to AZ in Feb. had him teaming up with Pat and Sandy of emma’s revolution in Phoenix and long time friend Ted Warmbrand in Tucson.

After an enthusiastically received reunion performance at the Peoples Music Network gathering in Philadelphia in January of 2007, Bright Morning Star booked a reunion tour for March 2008.

They performed in Boston, Western MA, New York, Philadelphia, Bethlehem PA and Washington DC. New fans and old packed houses to see one of the most original and creative political music cabaret groups around! Their most recent recordings, Sweet & Sour (now available on CD from this web site) and Live in the US (soon to be available on this website.)

Charlie toured the Midwest with guitarist/songwriter extraordinaire Jim Scott,

And now we’re downloadable! You can now download individual tracks and entire CD’s from 10 of our duo and solo recordings. Once again we’re right there on the trailing edge of technology.

Our summers are often spent learning new repertoire, catching up on administrative tasks and getting some R&R. This summer we’ll also complete two new musical history workshops, one on the history of nonviolent movements in the U.S., and one on the decade of the 1960’s. We look forward to presenting these workshops to community groups and schools in New England, hoping to stay closer to home in the coming years and reduce our ecological footprint. These hour long presentations combine Powerpoint images, dramatic readings and lots of singing to make movement history come alive, and are followed by engaging discussions with audience members.. See the list of workshops on our website and let us know if you’re interested in bringing us to your area.

In October, the Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing is taking its death penalty abolition message to the great state of Montana, and we plan on accompanying the Journey for the 11 days they’ll be there. November will take us to the School of the Americas Watch protest again, doing some concerts along the way. January will see the annual winter gathering of PMN/SFS come to Greenfield MA. That’s practically our hometown, the only sizeable town north of the Tofu Curtain, just down the hill from Shelburne Falls. We’ll play a key role in convening and organizing the gathering and although this is the smallest town to host a PMN/SFS winter gathering we plan to dazzle attendees with the musical and social wealth of Franklin County. Ya’all come!

Staying at home more means I have less “new and exciting” things to report on life, which is how I like it. Though I’ve only taken a few djembe lessons, I bravely played on three songs at our concert with Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt.

For the first time in my 53 years, I have joined a synagogue. I finally found a good match, a lovely small, rural congregation in Southern Vermont that incorporates lots of singing, encourages active member participation, shares my politics and is led by a wonderful man who has an eclectic spiritual background. I’ve been warmly welcomed into the community and look forward to being more actively involved.

I paid another visit to a pen pal on death row in Florida, and I was so struck by this visit that I wrote an essay about it. I write to one man and two women on death row, and it has been a profound and rewarding experience. If you’re interested in doing the same, see http://www.brethren.org/genbd/witness/drsp.htm.

One of the projects I enjoyed working on last fall was writing a manual for members of the Nonviolent Peaceforce as they prepare to return home after their service abroad in countries at war, particularly about how they can care for themselves, what they can expect in terms of reverse culture shock, and what resources are available to assist them in that process. It was great to work with the staff, and I’ve already received very positive feedback from returning field staff who have read the manual.

I gave an all day workshop on doing spiritual direction with activists of faith to a group of spiritual directors in New England in mid-March, and participants got a lot out of it. I had an article I wrote published in the June issue of “Presence” Journal, the professional journal of Spiritual Directors International, about the work I’m doing with activists. On another spiritual front, I completed a 10 month training program offered by a dear friend on “Focusing”, a therapeutic/spiritual technique developed in the 1960’s by Eugene Gendlin, and I found it tremendously helpful.

I’ve had a number of interesting and worthwhile Spanish translating and interpreting jobs come my way, dealing with issues of fair trade, the damage Occidental Petroleum did in Peru, the progressive U.S. labor movement, and indigenous peoples of the Amazon. I love doing this work and being a bridge between cultures.

Finally, there’s the situation with my mom. It has been quite a roller coaster. I’ve continued to travel to Philadelphia every three weeks, and recognized that I couldn’t make regular commitments to concert tours and be physically and emotionally available to my mother at the same time. Last October, Charlie and I negotiated my taking a year’s leave of absence from touring with him, which is why you don’t see my name on our touring schedule very often. Some people have already inquired – please note, this doesn’t mean that we’ve separated or that there are problems in our relationship. To the contrary, Charlie has been a great support to me through this. My mother was in the hospital twice at the end of 2007, and entered into hospice care on December 26, going off most of her life-sustaining medications and spending 24 hours a day in bed. She is very eager to die and her body is not cooperating with her will, so she is also quite depressed. I now spend more time there, rotating the night shifts with my Aunt. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

As my hairline recedes…
I think it was Betty Friedan who offered this advice to fend off senility – “Use it or lose it!” To be specific I think she recommends learning Greek. My main intellectual stimulus for the past year has been keeping up with a constantly changing repertoire. That’s ‘cuz I’m continually changing musical partners and they keep me on my melodic toes with new songs, harmonies and arrangements. The many wonderful singers and songsmiths who shared the stage with me are listed above in “What’s Happening.”

And as a matter of fact Betty, I AM learning Greek, or at least I bought the books. Specifically New Testament Koine Greek. Semi-retirement has spawned a renewal of study in theology, an academic fascination that dates back almost 40 years to my days at Stonehill College and NY Theological Seminary. Last summer Karen & I spent an intense 8 days studying with Jews, Christians and Muslims at Hartford Seminary – an interfaith, inter-cultural, international exploration. This summer I re-upped by signing up for a 5 day intensive on the Synoptic Gospels at HartSem. The course was cancelled due to a last minute faculty illness but the advance reading list and the curriculum have provided me with hours of solo study, a solitary snare I mean to slip before summers’ end by enrolling in a 5 day course with Ched Myers. Ched is a long time friend, social activist and wondrous scholar. The class should be great, the short term community nourishing and the chance to vent this head full of ideas welcome. The Greek comes later…

The Big Event…
The trail that started in October in Texas wound endlessly through 22 states and culminated in the event of the season, the marriage of Jamie McGloin-King and Jessica Anderson in Crestwood KY (make that 23 states). Jessica is the most wonderful gift our family has ever been blessed with and her family in Kentucky went above and beyond in generosity and hospitality to make us welcome and to make the wedding a thing of love and beauty. Here’s a shot of Karen & me with the happy couple

Nell took time out from her Masters program in Art Therapy at Albertus Magnus College (Go Nell) to sing a solo piece at her brother’s wedding and to put together a whimsical musical trio with Karen & me for the rehearsal dinner. Her field placement for grad studies has her working with veterans recovering from PTSD, work she feels especially called to do. Work which will have a never ending supply of patients unless we find a way to stop the endless war.

Speaking of which…
Best read of late has been Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. As cheery as the name suggests, it is nonetheless a sweeping and cogent analysis that at least lets us know what we’re up against - highly recommended. For a touching and marvelously acted film about music, immigration and how meeting one person can change our lives, see The Visitor. I guess that’s all for now.