Harder than writing a book . . . promoting one.  That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a challenge to get people to jump from talking about a book to putting the money down and actually buying one.

Fortunately, I am still meeting some great Outlaw country fans.  During my trip to Ohio to do a book singing with Dallas Moore, his followers were exuberant about his music and about the book and especially kind in helping me promote it.

Bert David Newton and his fans in Fort Payne, AL couldn't have been nicer as we sold copies amid rain storms and tons of mud during an outdoor show.  At one point I felt like doing a Woodstock takeoff and sliding through the muck, but I decided my bones were too old for the acrobats. Bert kept calling me "hippie," though, I think that's what fueled my imagination.

I got together with J. B. Beverley in Valdosta, GA, at a small venue.  Yet several people there were eager to talk about the book and one young fan in particular said he felt it was a long time in coming.  Moreover, J. B. later posted a favorable review of it, and I got to once again meet Buck Thrailkill, a tremendous banjo player and exuberant supporter of roots country.

I will do a few more book signings this summer and fall, and hope to meet more Outlaw artists and fans.  The road won't be going through Nashville, but it will be winding amid the terrain blazed by Steve Young, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Paycheck and company.