John Wesley Harding (not the Dylan album)

I got a real big puffy head for a few seconds when I saw that John Wesley Harding had included my blog site address in one of his web forum posts recently. And under the words, "I would recommend the following blogs," no less!

Then I realized that he had written a line for everybody that had signed up (and included a web address) for the new forum so far.

So rather than being wonderfully interesting or wickedly amusing or devastatingly clever, I was merely... early.

The fleeting illusion of fame was nice while it lasted.

I've got a postcard that I need to find, to show the other JWH-aholics.

It's the result of the last fan letter I wrote. The last one on paper anyway - I've probably sent a lot of little "like what you do" emails to various people over the years.

Actually the letter to JWH wasn't exactly a fan letter as such... As I recall it was more along the lines of a complaint about the (then recent) lack of witty liner notes.

To me, liner notes are half the fun of music sometimes. All of his had previously been witty and then all of the sudden they were... not so much. Just regular liner notes, like everybody else's, and geez didn't he know how good the previous ones had been?

I don't know what I was thinking though - musicians are always getting fan mail so they probably need some complaint mail...?! Believe it or not I was well past my teens.

He was nice about it though, and sent me back a witty postcard.

I'll try to get a picture of it soon, to show the other JWH fans who might end up here.

This was all back in the early to mid-90s, so I can't say if letters of complaint to JWH will still get you postcards.
He's probably a lot busier nowdays, what with the upcoming book, and preparing to be a major literary figure and all that.

If you are not a JWH fan already, you should be! He always has some free MP3s on his website, so go there to check him out. Or just listen to the Amazon.com snippets.

He has also written a book that's due out in April, called Misfortune. Since he writes the best Tour Diaries in the universe, I'm sure the book will be good too. It'll be under his real, non-Dylan inspired name, Wesley Stace.