Lisa Lillibridge/Dakota 1966

Beginning about 540 million years ago, the first of many shallow inland seas ushered in the Paleozoic and later the Mesozoic eras.

Shallow ocean waters covered a significant part of the interior of North America, including the region we recognize as the Great Plains. —Encyclopedia of the Great Plains

I feel a certain soul-settling when experiencing the wonders of the PRAIRIE and the SEA. I’ve been exploring why I am so drawn to wide-open landscapes.

My ancestors left Europe, landed on the eastern shores of North America, and headed west, eventually settling on the plains of southern South Dakota. I moved in a reversed migratory pattern—leaving the plains and settling in New England after living and working in New Zealand, Australia, Tennessee, and Montana.

I think my inherent nature, choices, circumstances, travel, and understanding all have played roles in why certain landscapes speak to me so profoundly. My native Nebraska friend, artist Elizabeth Bunsen and I refer to this as our interior geography. LINK: elizabeth bunsen’s instagram

I will forever be gnawing on the bone of my genetic inheritance and wondering if my ancestors also needed a lot of space to feel settled within themselves.

Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion…the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

—Dorthea Lange, photographer/journalist/my hero

I don’t know if it’s being raised in a small South Dakota town, my Scandinavian roots, or that I have ancestors from the 1800s named Thankful and Plenty. I’ve actually seen their headstones in Richmond, Rhode Island. I worry about being too much, maybe that Puritan way of thinking is a factor.

Somehow is the soup of all of that, I felt it would be showing off to post about last year’s Newport Folk Festival where Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon were the freakin’ surprise guests. One year later this now seems a little kooky. Jeff and I are heading to Rhode Island tomorrow for Newport Folk Festival 2023.

Last year on Saturday night Nathaniel Rateliff put together an American Tune Review and welcomed Paul Simon onto the stage. He closed out Saturday night singing “Sound of Silence” with just him and his guitar. The whole crowd was mostly silent except for the crying and occasional sniffles.

So, here’s my humblebrag of photographs…

On Sunday evening one of my heroes, Brandi Carlile put together a Joni Jam like they’ve been doing in Laurel Canyon, CA the last few years helping Joni recover from her 2015 brain aneurysm. After Brandi’s amazing set, nearly shaking she told us that they need about 20 minutes to set up so something so unbelievably special. In Brandi’s memoir, she wrote passionately about Joni Jams.

Sharing our unique experiences has a ripple effect of joy out in the world.