How about sailing away with me for a little July 4th getaway? Jimmy Buffett’s grandfather was a sailing man and obviously had a big influence on his life and his music. Jimmy wrote several songs about him, including this title cut from his 1978 album “Son of a Son of a Sailor.” Even for a landlubber like me, the notion of filling your sail and traveling where the wind may take you fits the romantic ideal of real freedom. I’ll handle the rudder if you’ll cast off that forward line and hoist the mainsail!

When you go all-in with alliteration on a song, it could get silly sounding (see what I did there?). Still, Stephen Stills managed to maintain (okay, I quit) the gravitas necessary for this song about unrequited love that Crosby, Stills & Nash released on their terrific 1969 debut album. I’ve wanted to learn and record this one for a while and finally tackled it. Hope you enjoy my attempt at “Helplessly Hoping,” and thanks for listening.

Memorial Day is over, so that means it’s summer, which means it’s time for some Jimmy Buffett. June 1 also marks the beginning of hurricane season. We don’t want any, so here’s “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.”

I finally watched the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (good movie) and then saw Dylan in concert a couple of weeks ago at the opening show of the Outlaw Festival tour, along with Willie Nelson and Billy Strings. Obviously, I’ve had Bob on the brain lately, so I thought I’d give you all a piece of my mind. I tried to reach back to Dylan’s first release of this song and get somewhere close to his sound without lapsing into mimicking him. He strummed it, but I’m fingerpicking, just ‘cuz I ‘druther. Here’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.”

And now for something completely different. Sometimes you have to say “yes” to the goofiness. The other day this TV theme song from the 1960’s popped into my head and I was actually able to sing almost all the words from memory (a sad waste of brain space, I know). For those of you who are unfamiliar with “Gilligan’s Island,” it was a very silly sitcom that lasted for three seasons. “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island,” written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle, was probably the best thing about the show (other than Mary Ann). As I told my friend Randy Valdes, the whole time I was learning and recording this song I could hear him singing along with me, so I was delighted when he agreed to join me! Now, those of you who grew up with Gilligan can join us in singing along, too. Go ahead. You know you want to.

Like much of the early folk music of the 60’s, Donovan’s “Colours” is pretty simple both lyrically and musically, which was why any grade school girl with a ukulele was singing those songs back then. Still, there’s a lot to be said for delivering a simple love song sometimes.

From the “best songs you’ve never heard” files. Actor Keith Carradine wrote this song and performed it in the movie Nashville back in 1975. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year and became a radio hit. Carradine recorded a couple of albums and tried to parlay his success into a music career, but I guess acting worked out better for him. I remember learning this song after seeing the movie but haven’t thought of it since the 70s. I think it popped back into my head because I’ve been watching Madam Secretary on Netflix and Carradine plays the POTUS in that series. I chose to slow it down some from its original performances because it felt right this way to me. Hope you like it, and, as always, thanks for listening and commenting when you can.

If you’re a Jim Croce fan, you probably know that his “sound” is inextricably linked with the incredible arrangements of his friend/sideman/second guitarist Maury Muehleisen. The story of their partnership is inspirational and worth looking up. Sadly, Maury died in the same plane crash as Jim in 1973. Jim was 30 and Maury was 24. Here’s “Lover’s Cross,” by Jim Croce.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my wife, Tina! She’s been with me “Through the Years”–42 of them, now–and she’s still the love of my life. Kenny Rogers recorded this song and it became a hit for him and a mainstay of his concert sets. Tina requested that I learn it for her, and how could I say “no”? Hope you find it as meaningful as we do.

“Secret Agent Man” was written by P.F Sloan and Steve Barri. The most famous recording of the song was made by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of the British spy series Danger Man, which aired in the U.S. as Secret Agent from 1964 to 1966. and it was one of his biggest hits. The Ventures also did an instrumental cover of it. The drum track for my cover is from Karaoke Version backing tracks. All other noise is made by me. I wore several hats in this one. 😄 Hope you have fun!