photo by Rob DeMartin - (Chicago, IL; April 29, 2026) - used with permission May 4, 2026 Happy-birthday wishes go out today to Sister Soozie Tyrell, fiddler extraordinaire and - as an essential member of the current Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour - now freedom fighter, too. The late, great Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "First fight. Then fiddle." ends as follows: "...Rise bloody, maybe not too late For having first to civilize a space Wherein to play your violin with grace."

photo by Brian Samelson - used with permission May 3, 2026 Almost three years ago now, when this website was launched, I wrote an introductory "welcome" message as its editor/publisher. One of the things I touched upon was why Bruce Springsteen was and has remained such a significant and important musical artist for me. The penultimate reason, I asserted, was that in addition to my having been deeply affected by all of the artistic qualities in Springsteen's own music, Bruce

May 3, 2026 As per the official announcement, "Due to the NBA and NHL playoff schedule, the Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert at Xfinity Mobile Arena has been rescheduled for May 30. All tickets for the previous date will remain valid for the new date."

April 27, 2026 "Good evening, Austin! It's great to be in Texaaaaaaaaas! Welcome to The Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. We begin tonight with a prayer for our men and women in service overseas. We pray for their safe return. We also send out our prayers of thanks that [neither] our President, nor anyone in the Administration, nor anyone attending was injured in last night's incident at [The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.] We can disagree, we can be cri