It's been a busy day, a lot of fun taking four dogs to the vet for their annual check up and then enjoying the nice weather driving around Houston putting up posters at coffee houses and record stores to let everybody know about the June 13 tour date at Waldo's Coffee House on Heights Boulevard here in Houston with Jimmy Baldwin of Mineral Wells, Texas and Nancy Apple of Memphis. I'm about to call it a night, but wanted to take a minute to write and let you know that I am signing on with Burnside Distribution Corp. in Portland, Oregon (http://www.bdcdistribution.com/), so my music will be available not only online but in stores from coast to coast, which is a good thing now that The Road Less Traveled has been released to radio. I would also like to pass along a review that was just forwarded to me. It is from this week's issue (#320) of "Top 21: A Weekly Guide to the Music Industry's Buzz and Latest Releases" by John Shelton Ivany, who founded Grooves magazine in New York and is the former editor of Hit Parader, Country Song Roundup, Revolution and Rock & Soul (all national magazines). Formerly the editor of the On Radio, Electric Village and Riffage.com websites, Mr. Ivany was also the President of Titanium Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Record Company. Here's what he has to say about The Road Less Traveled: "Country is at its best when it's simple, melancholy; something that stares you right in the eye without beating you down with force. It's not just that Ms. Bell's voice has that quality grafted to it; she knows how to dress it down without turning it all into one big gimmick. Just the right amount of echo, on her guitar as well as her voice, with lyrics that never overreach in their scope. The thematic territory is familiar, with heartbreak at the center of it all, but it is with honesty. Aside from a few slightly more lavish moments, this is sparse music with a void as its backbone, a void which pulls us in close to Ms. Bell and imbues her words with an equal gravity. This is a quality that cannot be faked or honed, it is intimate and honest without being simplistic or dumb; this is a sort of music that I'd feared dead." (http://www.jsitop21.com/) It was pretty neat to see such a flattering write up on the album alongside reviews of some established acts like Carly Simon and Whitesnake! Lots of good things are happening every day. You just never know. I was at one of my favorite places in Houston this afternoon--Sig's Lagoon--the music store next to the Continental Club on Main Street, and the first thing my eyes landed on was a record called "Yesterday and Today" by none other than Mr. Kenneth Threadgill himself--"the father of Austin country music." It seems to me that it was meant to be, for my Threadgill's debut is this Saturday night in Austin and now I'm sitting here writing to you and listening once more to those old-familiar songs of "yesterday and today . . ." Y'all come!