Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold) by Balsam Range
This is my current favorite band of all time, and the singer, Buddy Melton, is my current single favorite artist of all time. He taps into such sweet emotion with his voice.
I got to meet him tonight after this performance (that I recorded with my own phone), where he stood around and casually chatted with me one-on-one for about 20 minutes, in no hurry at all.
One of the many things we talked about was my hometown, and I was shocked to find out that he used to hang out in my hometown when he was younger and knows it very well. Still has friends there. He’s from North Carolina, right around Andy Griffith’s hometown, but the music folks down there seem to be very closely involved with and familiar with my people.
We also talked about Hurricane Helene, which hit us the same as it hit them. (For more details on that, see The Practical Woodsman podcast Ep. 37.)
One of the best nights of my life. Enjoy.
Ps. He has a firm handshake
Gettin’ outta the glorious rain in the glorious backcountry with my glorious dog
I found this video interesting as it relates to conversations we have about the true nature of things, what is really important and what is not, and how little importance some things have depending on the needs of the moment.
For example, this guy and his fellow soldiers, while being shot at would just dump their blankets - the blankets were totally unimportant to the immediate goal of staying alive. This meant later suffering, but at least they were alive.
I think about this sort of thing all the time when seeing guys building elaborate, beautiful shelters in the woods. When you’re hungry and lost, or simply traveling through the wilderness, nobody is going to care about building an elaborate shelter. You’re only going to care about conserving energy and using energy for only things that are absolutely necessary in any given moment.
This means sleeping under a rock outcrop, or a fallen tree, or just trying to get through the night under your sweater and some leaves you scrounge ...
