I am honored to be included in these showcases at Southwest Regional Folk Alliance 2026:
9/25 4:20 Tuesday Song Circle, Rm 709 Thank you, Tracy Weinberg!
9/25 10:30 Desert Firefly, Rm 721 Thank you, Jana Laven!
9/25 12:30 People’s Republic of Austin, Rm 804 Thank you, Jan Seides!
All at the Marvelous Holiday Midtown in Awesome Austin, TX
https://www.swfolkalliance.org
The mountain dulcimer is a traditional instrument of the Appalachian and Ozark mountain regions of the United States, and was played by the older generations in Jenni’s family. Olaf and Orilla Pinkston, of Cave City Arkansas, helped found the Ozark Folk Center and mentored their first cousin twice-removed, Jenni, in the regional songs of the mountain dulcimer. It has such a special, delicate sound that she only plays it in concert or educational shows and only solo. All of her children’s shows feature the instrument, because it is so easy to demonstrate and see.
Here’s a sassy song I wrote for my Flood album, while I was still living in Austin, around 2001. Nine Eleven caused fear in the capitol area where I worked and difficulties with flights I depended on for my job. At that time, I worked for the Texas Education Agency as a Special Education Monitor. And to top it all off, a few weeks later, I thought I heard that my old musical friend Bob Williford in Dallas had taken a trip to Australia and loved it so much he moved there. Still don’t know where I got that idea; maybe it was a bad dream. I loved my five years in Austin, but I missed my friends in Dallas, where I grew up and where I had started my musical career.
In the song, the character is a floozy who likes to hang out with muscular truckers. It’s one of my over-the-toppers that amuses me so much. I hope you like it.
The real Mudflap Bob:
From 1992, here’s fiddler Linda Relph, accompanied by Rupert Crabb on bodhran and Jenni on rhythm guitar. We were Pegasus Project and we were getting ready for North Texas Irish Festival about this time back then. “Stray Away Child” was one of fourteen songs we arranged for our album Pegasus Project: Ascension, recorded in Dallas at Big Time Audio, with production help from Ann Armstrong.
