Reading · Rhythm Never Retires

After months of writing, editing, rewriting, and wondering if I’d ever finish, I’m excited to announce that my new book is finally available on Kindle!

Two Simple Rules: Finding Your Voice and Sharing It isn’t really about vocal exercises or music theory. It’s about confidence, connecting with an audience, overcoming self-doubt, and finding your own voice—not just as a performer, but as a creative person.

The lessons in this book come from decades of playing coffeehouses, wineries, festivals, restaurants, farmers markets, and just about anywhere people were willing to listen.

The Kindle edition is available now for $4.99 (and it’s included with Kindle Unlimited).

If you decide to read it, I’d be grateful if you’d leave an honest review on Amazon. Even a sentence or two helps other readers discover the book, and I truly appreciate every review.

The paperback is currently making its way through Amazon’s review process and should be available very soon.

📖 Get your Kindle copy here: Click Here

P.S. If you enjoy the book, an honest Amazon review is one of the best ways you can support an independent author. Thank you!

Thanks for Photo: Marti McCulloch Carter.

This past week I headed to the Good Old-Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in San Benito County, California.

My friend Bruce and I arrived Wednesday evening because we wanted to claim our favorite camping spot before the festival officially began on Thursday.

Little did I know I’d parked my little van directly over a sprinkler head.

Around 3:00 in the morning, I woke up to a strange hissing sound. I stepped outside and found water spraying everywhere. It finally dawned on me that the campground sprinklers must have been left on before the festival.

The sprinkler had popped up underneath my van and was happily watering everything around it.

Unfortunately, I had parked my pop-up shelter directly behind the van because I never expected to move it again until the festival was over.

So there I was, at three in the morning, dragging chairs, gear, and camping equipment around in the dark so I could move the van a few feet. By then my shoes and socks were soaked, my pant legs were wet, and the cool coastal night suddenly felt a whole lot colder.

In all the excitement, I grabbed my phone and tossed it into a duffel bag while clearing off the front seat.

Then came the phrase we all seem to say at least once a day...

“Where’s my phone?”

I was absolutely convinced I’d dropped it somewhere in the wet grass and it was getting a shower right along with my shoes.

By then Bruce had wandered over after hearing all the commotion. He helped me move the pop-up, then called my phone.

We both heard it ringing...

...from inside the duffel bag where I’d tossed it without realizing it.

Crisis averted.

Or so we thought.

About an hour later we heard another commotion farther down the campground. More sprinklers had sprung to life, and another group of campers was scrambling to rescue tents and gear. One poor camper hadn’t put the rain fly on her tent because the forecast called for perfect weather. She never expected rain from below!

Someone found an empty trash can and rolled it down the campground—clunk... clunk... clunk...—before placing it upside down over the sprinkler to stop the spray.

By sunrise it seemed like everyone who had arrived early had their own sprinkler story.

The funniest part?

When daylight came, I looked around and realized the sprinklers weren’t even watering much grass. They were mostly watering dirt.

Sometimes the best stories from a bluegrass festival happen before the first note is ever played.

The rest of the weekend…

The weather was about as perfect as you could ask for—warm afternoons in the 80s with a cool breeze drifting in from the Pacific. There was wonderful music, late-night jam sessions, old friends, new friends, and all the reasons I keep coming back year after year.

A heartfelt thank you to the Northern California Bluegrass Society and all of the volunteers who work so hard to make this festival happen. Events like these don’t happen by accident. They happen because people love the music enough to donate countless hours behind the scenes.

I’ve included a few of my favorite photos from the weekend below.