I could not be happier about the Gin Palace Jesters (with yours truly on plink plink acoustic guitar and songwriting) coming to Fairfest on June 22.

My band mates (who are from Chicago and Pittsburgh and parts unknown) are looking forward to seeing the town that hatched me and the people who raised me.

We hope to give you the very best in traditional and original country and western music on our dances (to quote Mr. Ray Price). I look forward to seeing you before and after the show.

You've heard me play his records a thousand times on the show. And you'll hear me play them a thousand more times. J.D. McPherson (and his partner in crime, Jimmy Sutton) has concocted one of those perfect perfect albums in "Signs and Signifiers." If all he had ever written and recorded was "Northside Gal" he would be guaranteed a place in rock history (like the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" or "Jump" by Van Halen). His music is honest. His talent is real. And America and the world are taking notice. I am super proud of J.D. and Jimmy (and Ray and Doug and Jason---his band). And I am super super lucky to call him my friend.

It appears that we have survived another winter. The little flowery things are beginning to rise out of my yard. The gnats and the mosquitos have yet to return. It is the perfect time of year...early early early spring. And nothing says springtime quite like another episode of "The Feed Store." Sixty minutes of half-baked memories of a pretty good youth spent in the city of Fairfield and the farm country of northern Jefferson County. That was my childhood. And I put it all on display on the radio. I have a gas telling these stories. I hope they make someone smile. 

I have lost a friend. I have lost the closest thing to a mentor I have ever had. I have lost the man who really really introduced me to Rockabilly and Chicago. Over the St. Patrick's Day weekend, Ron Cannon passed away in Champaign-Urbana. During the very early 1980s he roared across the Midwest with a five-piece rockabilly band called Big Daddy Sun and the Outer Planets. While I was attending the University of Iowa, I saw the band many times at the Crow's Nest in Iowa City. Absolutely true story---the first time I saw the band, I was wearing my hair in a shoulder-length mullet. The second time I saw them, I was wearing a greased back pompadour. Ron Cannon introduced me to real live rockabilly music. He took me to Chicago my very first time. He taught me about thrift stores and flea markets. He let my friend Bob and me sleep on his floor while we settled into Chicago. This man showed me most everything that I cherish to this day. And I will miss him the rest of my life.

It's a habit. It's a ritual. Every weekend I strap on the headphones, hit the record button and start flappin' my soup coolers.

And out the other end pops another installment of "The Feed Store." I really really love it. I both dread and look forward to coming up with topics and memories every week to fill the hour.

As always I really really thank you for listening to this red hot mess every week. Contact me directly at thefeedstore@kruufm.com.

Oddly enough, I've been at this Feed Store thing for two years. And only now is the show really find its way, its rhythm, its reason to exist. This program is my excuse to write the diary of my youth in Fairfield...a diary that I forgot to write while it was happening. I am getting stories and facts from other members of my family and I am setting straight my own personal history. Fairfield is my town. It's where I started. And this is how it happened. I hope that listeners can hear a bit of their own family history in my stories.

It ain't over yet! I am just not finished. Somehow--100 episodes or more into this tell-all memoir of my childhood in Fairfield--I still have more stories to tell. Week after week, I dig around in my brain for my shadowy memories of Fairfield. And I continue to find more. I am being re-contacted by Fairfield friends with more stories from those days. And that becomes more grist for the mill. Keep listening. And I'll keep digging. 

It's the bop that just won't stop. It's "The Feed Store." And the show is fast approaching a landmark...of sorts. Chances are I have kept really shoddy notes regarding the show. And we're not really approaching the landmark that I think we are. But I will be marking that land anyway when it happens. Keep listening to FS for more details. 

I spend nearly every waking hour of my life these days thinking about Fairfield. And I'm thinking about my time in Fairfield many many years ago. I am always trying to dig things out of my past that will make for good stories on the radio. I may be succeeding. I may be failing. How can you tell?!? Either way, thank you for listening to the program on the radio or on the computer. It's very good for my frail ego.

I may be the slowest guy in broadcasting. Strike that. I AM the slowest guy in broadcasting. I love being on the radio. I love putting The Feed Store together every week. I know it gets broadcast on KRUU. But I don't think I honestly realize and believe that folks listen to the show and read the KRUU website!! But they do. I can see the numbers on the website. It shows me that people are actually reading the blog and looking at the playlists...and maybe even listening to the radio show. Crap! Now I have to put some real thought and effort into it.