Almost Back, Really...In the Meantime Listen to the Music

The air is heavy, wet and too damn hot outside the air-conditioned windows in the Elmora section of Elizabeth, New Jersey, this evening. The sun is still blasting through the closed blinds. What better time to get back to this little blog deal here?

Guess I should explain a bit about my silence here this summer. In a nutshell, I've been busy leaving journalism after 15 years. I now work for a local government in New Jersey in constituent services. And of course, I am the photographer there.

This means, besides other things, I will have to change the front of this here web site. I am no longer a photojournalist and I now longer live in Jersey City.

And it is amazing, this public service--like doing an intense masters in civics, government and politics.

But more about that, my new home city, my new used car, driving, the blackout, news, photo pals some time real soon.

More importantly, I need to talk about Ken Layne's music right now.

When I came home from work there was a little box of Ken Layne CDs waiting for me outside my door. Out of the work clothes, into a cold beer and crank up the old tunes. Simply Brilliant!

Ken traded me a few CDs for my photographs of his new band.

Anyway, KEN LAYNE THE ANALOG BOOTLEGS is good listening. I know just about ever song on the album and even had copies of most of them at some point. But to have them all nice and together on a brand new CD is amazing. Besides the fact that they are just great songs, listening is bringing back memories. I think I was sitting with Ken and Matt in the Bartok Bela flat in Budapest when they recorded part 1 of "I SHOULD BE THAT GUY" and to hear it blend into the live version with TSAR behind it blows me away.

Damn, they are all wonderful, fun, sad, twisted, thoughtful songs.

So, go buy Ken's CD. You have to for no other reason than “Springtime in Budapest” and “National Day of Mourning.”