HAPPY FATHERS DAY. Didn't mean to take such an extended leave of absence from the blog. Things just sort of get busy at this time of year. New writing projects. I moved my home office. My son the runner broke his left wrist, requiring a stream of doctor visits to get it healing right (and avoid surgery to put in pins). Which brings me to Fathers Day. My son's name is Alex and you might have good reason to believe that he was named after a certain other Alex. For the record, here's the real scoop. My wife and I were so certain that we were going to have a girl (we didn't do the boy / girl test...it was just a hunch) that for some reason we didn't even have a back-up name for a boy. But after a long and difficult delivery (my wife was 40 at the time), voila!, it's a boy. She asked me what we should name him. I told her that seeing as how she had just done all the hard work that I'd defer to her. And she said, "Alex." It immediately flashed through my mind that I might take endless ribbing from my friends for naming my kid after a rock and roll musician, something I would consider to be pretty bush league (it once crossed my mind that there's probably a kid somewhere named after Don Henley and that was frightening). But I didn't have the heart to protest, especially after a sleepless night, so Alexander Warfield Eaton it was. Thankfully, my paranoia proved to be unwarranted. Very few people conjectured any Chilton connection. We call him Al around the house, Alvin when he's being goofy. A great kid and I'm proud to be his dad. I brought up the name thing with Alex (Chilton) when I booked him at a jazz festival here in the early-90's and he replied in his inimitable soft drawl: "It's a good name. It's always worked well for me."

Okay, now here's something on the music front to look forward to. One of the highlights of my trip to Memphis last month was reconnecting with guitarist Jim Duckworth (Panther Burns, Gun Club, various Memphis bands). I've heard from Jim in recent weeks that he has been rehearsing with a band comprised of Van Duren, John Lightman, Richard Rosebrough, and Jim on guitar. There's something about this line-up that makes me think that it's going to be even better in reality than it looks on paper, which is pretty darn exciting to begin with. Details as they emerge. Enjoy the day.