Please have a listen to the title track from my very first CD (1995): "Roll Out, Cowboy."

I reference MJ, wild berries, Bob Dylan, my dad's bus, and my love of the open prairie.

My appreciations haven't changed much.

If you'd like to hear a cut from my latest CD, All the Things I Done Wrong, here's a timely one: "Michael Jackson."

"Michael Jackson" was produced in 2007, by Shawn Parke, as a demo--as were all the songs off of All the Things I Done Wrong. This CD may, now, due to lack of funds, be released in a more raw form. Shawn made the funky beats.

Death came knockin'. Sad times in Dunn County.

My upcoming CD has a song called "Michael Jackson," dedicated to him:

"Michael Jackson it's a long ride back home
Chi-town, Motown, I found your crown
In the middle of a Montana pasture
And that sound was the sound of rapture . . ."

MJ RIP.

It's country livin' these days for old Sandman. Rhubarb's thick. Summer has arrived.

Thursday I went to the Dunn County Historical Society meeting. Helen McMahen retired as secretary. In honor of her thirty years of service, they served Koolaid and cake and gave her a plaque.

Friday I partook in a Burnin' Daylight Adventure at Ted and Dawn Kupper's ranch. After a meal of burgers and beans, Shawn Goodall, with his girlfriend Laci's help, loaded sixteen of us into a sturdy wagon hitched to his Belgian draft horses, Ram and Rod. We rode for two hours through some of western North Dakota's most breathtaking breaks and badlands. Laci got the gates. Upon return to camp, I sang songs such as "Home on the Range" and "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" next to the campfire, while the little kids made s'mores. [Plug: you should join us on one of these adventures--they are very affordable. A wagon ride alone is priceless. Click on the above link for more info.]

Yesterday I performed at the annual Pit Barbeque in Manning in exchange for supper and a rugby-sized chunk of buffalo meat. The meat was wrapped in denim and bound in wire. It was dragged out of a dirt pit full of dozens of other denim-wrapped, wire-bound hunks of cooked pork, beef, and bison. A highlight of the event for me was having Grandpa join me with his harmonica on "I Ride an Old Paint."

Happy Father's Day, Dad (pictured), and Happy Solstice, everyone!

Yesterday morning Mom and I walked the Lake Ilo trail and marveled at its lushness.

Lake Ilo--only a mile from my house--is a prehistoric paradise this month. Blue herons, like neutered pterodactyls, honk from their high perches in the cottonwoods, while looming buzzards, like teratorns, attempt to snatch fuzzy chicks from under them.

Decomposing carp, like coelacanth fossils, line the shore below. The air is humid and dank. Large white toadstools populate the forest edge. Turtles, like children of Egyptian pharaohs, sun themselves on naked logs next to half-baked frogs.

Lake Ilo is well-maintained but rarely visited. In my eyes, it's a hidden treasure as precious as Manhattan's Central Park Lake.

This is my kitchen. I eat salads with cheese here.

Cheddar.

I don't know what to write about anymore.

I watered the grass? I ate a salad with cheese? I petted the horse?

Lots of action in Sand Land with a week of family fun. Grandpa's 90th birthday party went swimmingly. He drank a few, then sang a few, and then he danced a few, too.

The snow has melted.

My first nonagenarian grandparent:

Happy 90th, Grandpa! I wrote you a song.

Sandy Bob

It's cloudy in the west and it's lookin' like rain
Your durned ol' slicker's in the wagon again
Sandy Bob

On a ten-dollar horse and a forty-dollar saddle
You set out punchin' them Wolf Point cattle
Sandy Bob

There's a lot of things a lot of people might not know about you
You don't like to brag, you just don't seem to need to

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa, Sandy Bob
You built you a cabin with your own two hands
You found you a woman who would share your brand, Sandy Bob

There's a lot of things a lot of people might not know about you
You seek the truth and you just don't like to be lied to

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa, Sandy Bob
You built you a cabin with your own two hands
You found you a woman who would share your brand, Sandy Bob

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa
Cowboy, boxer, horseman, carpenter
First lieutenant and a parole officer
You're good with leather and you're good with words
You walk with God and you talk to birds, Sandy Bob
Oh Sandy, Sandy

(whistle outro)

Notes: Cousin Jenny took the above picture. Yesterday, Grandpa and Grandma were given an honorary plaque in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame. Tonight there will be a birthday bash at the Buckskin Bar in Killdeer--everyone's welcome. It's currently snowing outside and the ground is white!