A couple of quick updates, and one lengthy, but important, item.

• the Atlanta CD release show for Blake Guthrie's first studio CD, Til I Reach the Light, is scheduled for this Friday, June 3 at the Red Light Cafe. Come on out if you're in the area. We had the Birmingham release a couple of weeks ago at the Moonlight Cafe, and Shana Alverson, David Stephens, Nicole Chillemi and myself had a fantastic time playing and hanging out with Blake's family.
• We had another huge round of studio renovations this Memorial Day weekend, and made significant headway toward getting the studio in its (hopefully) final form. Check out pictures here.

Speaking of Blake's CD, I want to give my good friend Ken Hutton some recognition (seen in this blurry, pixelated picture). I try to keep it professional and brief here, but I hope you'll allow me to lapse into the sentimental for a moment (or three).

Ken was one of the first folks I met when I moved to Atlanta- he had moved down here shortly before. He's a man of many talents - producer/engineer with more than a few big credits to his name, composer, percussionist, certified massage therapist, chef, drywall hanger...the list goes on.

But Ken's biggest and rarest talent is being a hell of a guy, generous almost to a fault, and the best kind of friend you could ask for. He somehow always knows what to say and do to keep the party going and really make you feel like a million bucks. He's always thinking and searching and learning, and genuinely loves to take you along with him. I'm not sure I've had a long conversation with him that hasn't resulted in turning my thinking in a new direction, from the mundane (if you put the computer in the closet, the fan noise won't get into your recordings!) to the universal (ask him about string theory or attaining a delta state sometime).

Ken was also there for nearly all of the first couple of stages of studio renovations, and stayed up with me until 3am the night before a big project getting the room ready to go (see "generous almost to a fault" above). Most impressively, through example and, occasionally, coercion, he has forced me to relax and take it easy once in awhile, something I rarely seem to be able to make myself do these days.

Two things are prompting my mentioning all this here now. Most immediately, Ken made significant contributions to the recording of the aforementioned Til I Reach the Light - specifically, lending some crucial equipment and giving some technical and musical suggestions in the mixing phase that vastly improved the sound of the whole record. In the sleepless stupor that I was in during the final push to finish the album before it went off to duplication, it slipped by me entirely that his name should go in the "thank you" section of the liner notes...an egregious oversight on my part, to say the least.

I'm also writing because driving with Ken last week to Turner Field to watch the Braves complete their sweep of the Mets, he told me that he was moving to Boulder, Colorado at the end of the summer. If you know Ken and you know Boulder, you know that that's the right place for him...but that doesn't make his leaving any easier.

So I figured it was about time to show the man some love. Ken, buddy, I'm sorry it wasn't on those liner notes like it should have been, but thank you. You will be missed.

More news is a-brewin, including stuff with Banjolicious and Arlington Priest, but I'll save that for next time.