Looking For Pants

I've been off the road for just over three weeks now and will be leaving today for NYC to kick off my tour, which will keep me out until the end of April.

This last week I was moping around the house with way too much time on my hands when had the genius idea to go into town and buy a new pair of pants. I was looking for a pair of black slacks with thin red pin stripes. I traveled around Northampton in and out of thrift stores, The Gap, and a hole in the wall by the name of "Uncle Margaret's." I seemed to have forgotten that I'm 5'1'', 130 lbs, & NOTHING comes even close to fitting me.

While walking back to my car I heard a voice come from the other side of the street. "Seth?" the voice called out. I looked around for a bit and finally saw a tall, thin, homeless man sitting under the town's overpass. I walked over and suddenly recalled playing guitar with this man on the street sometime over the summer. He introduced himself as Andy and we shook hands. I noticed his hands where dry and cracked, really cracked, & he had a guitar. "What axe are you playing man?" I asked. "Check it out brother, do you have any Vodka?" he said to me. I picked up his Hohner guitar and quickly noticed that it only had two strings,  two sticks for a bridge & nut (usually made of bone), and its back was being held together by several strips of duct tape. I handed him the guitar and asked him to play a number. His timing was questionable & his voice was like sandpaper but it was his smile and passion for music that hit a real chord in me.

I just recently got a brand new guitar sent to me from the fine folks at Martin Guitar Co. Instead of wood-shedding in my basement and writing, I was out in town looking for a pair of pants to wear. Thank you Andy for reminding me of the obvious places we tend to keep our joy. I went out looking for pants and returned home with a whole lot more.

Love,
Seth