This past Saturday night, I was hanging out at the world famous beach bar, The Back Porch in Port Aransas, Texas. It was so refreshing listening to Larry Joe Taylor doing a tropical infused set, which wafts across us and into the gentle breeze to be carried out to the Gulf of Mexico on an end of summer day. Larry Joe has become quite the entrepreneur with his festivals, the next one being Rhymes and Vines in Stephenville, TX coming up the weekend of September 16th. He has really captured the beach spirit and offers the perfect music for this night in Port A, where we are surrounded by yachts that are docked next to signs for Parasailing and Jet Skis...ooooohh can we go? I am thanking the sun and the stars for this weekend away before Music Fog heads to Nashville for the Americana Music Festival and Conference for what is sure to be a busy week. Right now, it is time to smell the roses, or the sand and surf, in this case. This doesn't suck.

I will share with you that we have a whole bunch of people set to play for us this week in Nashville. I am a bit superstitious about telling you who they ALL are, as there is always the possibility that someone will cancel, and we don't want to disappoint...but we are expecting Cindy Bullens, Jon Langford, Darrell Scott, Ray Wylie Hubbard (you might recall that he references looking like a Port Aransas dope dealer in the song "Screw You, Were From Texas." We need to get him to play that for us!) and Will Kimbrough is coming back, this time with his band! We saw Will most recently in Memphis at Folk Alliance, and he recorded this beautiful, count your blessings tune, "Three Angels," from his album Wings, on the Music Fog bus. You have to have your angels, you know...those friends and family that welcome you in. Treasure them. Treasure the moments.

- Jessie Scott