speed of dark

"Omigah!" exclaimed my Vietnamese nail lady on Thursday in disbelief. "Tanksgribing in tree week? How dat hoppen?" How did the time go by so fast?

It IS hard to believe that the fall and winter holidays are quickly approaching when the high temps are still close to 90 and she's wearing a sleeveless top and I'm wearing shorts. In southern California it's hard to tell when it's fall. There is no frost to turn the leaves fiery colors. There ARE the October fires, and the smell of smoke is still in the air.

I can't think about spending a day focused on a hot oven, shuffling pies and turkeys around. Sweater sales and cards with pictures of snowmen seem totally foreign. Suddenly you have to get in the mood to buy Christmas presents when what you really want to do is laze around in the pleasantly warm sunshine. This is gardening time, and the summer tomato patch is getting its second wind.

I have always liked Gregg Allman's cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days," in fact it's the reason I bought Laid Back in the 70's. This album has been remastered, and I notice that for some reason the song order is different from my old LP. On the vinyl, "These Days" was the last song, the capstone on Allman's first solo album. Scott Boyer, Jimmy Nalls, and Buzzy Feiten share acoustic and electric guitar credits, and Tommy Talton plays the gorgeous slide guitar.

Gregg Allman: These Days (Jackson Browne cover) from Laid Back (1973)

Gregg Allman is alive and well and is scheduled to perform at the Love Ride Festival in Pomona this Sunday.

Gregg Allman Official Website | Buy the remastered CD at Amazon