My new book is now for sale!

I'm very happy to announce that my collection of tour reports “Reports from Out West: On Tour with Jeni & Billy, October - December 2014" is with the printer and will be delivered to Nashville next Friday, so I will be able to bring 12 copies with me to Britain! They are very heavy, so that’s all I can manage with the new CDs, too! They’ve come out very nicely and I am so grateful to everyone who encouraged me to collect my reports into a book!

So, if you are in Britain and would like to buy a copy, they will be £15. But since I will only have 12 of them, it would be great if you could let me know that you would like to me to set one aside for you in case I won’t see you until the end of the tour. OR you can even pay in advance by sending $22.50 (US Dollars) to jeniandbilly@gmail.com via Paypal. Either way is perfectly fine if you’re not keen on Paypal.

Folks worldwide can order a PDF version for $10 that you can read on your computer/tablet/iPad (wherever PDFs are supported) online at Blurb. It looks fantastic in this PDF format and you can handily EXPAND the type for easy readability. I did try to keep the type fairly large throughout the book for ease of reading. eBook format is still in the works due to a technical glitch on their end.

Friends in the USA can order their own printed copy of my new book directly from Blurb by following this link: http://blur.by/1DokXJx

I may order some more to bring to shows in the fall . . . but if you’d like one now, just follow the link. That link is also good for purchasing the PDF version.

HOORAY! 

P.S. If you pre-ordered (THANK YOU!), I sent out an email today with a link to my Dropbox where you can download the PDF version. I will mail your print version on Monday, April 20. Let me know if you didn't get the email. I used the email address connected to your Paypal payment.

Arizona sunset makes Narcie's poinsettia

Short report from Pecos, Texas: This Arizona sunset in December reminded me of the pink poinsettias my great grandmother, Narcie, favored. Christmas songs in Spanish completed the circle perfectly.

The Days of the Blue Tattoo

Special Report with musical gift from the Triple T Truckstop just east of Tucson, AZ: Being a woman with face tattoos in the 1850s caused quite a stir. Even today, when tattoos abound among the most provincial-seeming folks, full face tattoos are rare. But when Olive Oatman believed that her whole family was dead, when she lived with the Yavapai for a year as a slave, and lived with the Mohave for two years as a daughter to "chief" of the tribe, she asked to be tattooed by her Mohave family so they would recognize her in the afterlife. And the afterlife was very present to her, since her entire family had been massacred by the starving Yavapai and she watched her sister die in captivity.

But quite unexpectedly and reluctantly, Olive re-entered "civilized" society and eventually died the wife of a wealthy Texas businessman. She wore a veil over her blue tattoo.

Last May, we found a book called The Blue Tattoo in Sallie Sue's Gift Shop at the Triple T Truckstop just east of Tucson -- which has a selection of books on the southwest rivaling any university bookstore. For many years, we'd passed the Oatman/Shinarump exit on I-40 just inside the Arizona border. That's when I first read about Olive and her blue tattoo. But last May, everything fell into place.

We wrote the song near Bend, Oregon. We played it first in Summit, Oregon, for Karl Smiley at his dinner table. We recorded the song with the Big Picnic Band in November. Today, we delivered the CD to Debra, the cashier, at the Triple T and sang her the chorus of the song. She took our picture in front of the books with tears in her eyes. "Don't lose your innocence," she said. "Stay just the way you are. Keep being happy. Be safe." Such a lovely person, Debra of Sallie Sue's Gift Shop on I-10 just east of Tucson.

And here it is streaming for your consideration: The Days of the Blue Tattoo. 

http://jeniandbilly.bandcamp.com/track/the-days-of-the-blue-tattoo

Go West with Jeni & Billy

Our friend, Anne, asked us to re-post this photo of the Airstream in the forest. It's so good to be headed out west again.

We're off to California via the southern route, naturally! We get started tonight in Conway, Arkansas. I've got a little musing in here about fall and, if you click the link on the far left hand side of the newsletter for Billy's blog, you'll hear a swell new tune he wrote called Goldie's Chase. 

http://tinyurl.com/pba3b4q