The music back home in West Virginia is just as interesting as it is here in Nashville. It's music for music's sake - a reminder that our best work comes from the fringes, not from proven success formulas.

I used to be a TV news director, and often thought about art's place in our image-driven consumer world. Sensation & spectacle sell better than substance. And who's to say that what sells is what's successful?

I'd love to be some great critic and deconstructor of all that, but in real life I'm just a nice-guy optimist. If our culture lacks substance, then I'll try to write something substantive & original.

Oh - and it’s “nicely.”