The CD on repeat right now

is Jon McLaughlin's Forever If Ever. (You can listen to some cuts from it and learn more about McLaughlin here.) It is a strong album indeed, one that repays multiple plays.

It begins with this lovely tune.



Careful and regular readers may recall that I saw McLaughlin when he opened for Stephen Kelloog and the Sixers back on the first of October in Carrboro. The album ends with this song; the video is from the show I saw.



The sound quality for that fan-made video isn't very good, but you can still tell what a joy-filled performance it was.

They played this song in front of maybe seventy people. Seventy. Maybe.

Art you love is art you love, no matter how few or many other people also care about it. I don't know why this album didn't make any big noise last year, but I do know that it's big for me.

As artists, we have to accept that our audiences may not be as large as we'd like and still create the art we believe in. As fans, we have to support the artists whose work we love.

That's all we really can do.