My Paris Review 2026

Paris, France is a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, for a long time, it was merely the city where they filmed Ratatouille (which I rewatched on both the flight there and the flight back). Now, of course, I recognize that it’s much more. Rachel and I just got home from six days in Paris, the first time there for each of us, and in case anyone is interested, below are a few photos from the trip and my Parisian hot takes:

1. The Eiffel Tower is huge. Like, really huge. And yet, the elevator going to the top is surprisingly smooth and comfy. It was raining as we started going up. It stopped around the time we got to the top. We saw a rainbow. A+ experience. Would recommend.

2. Recorded sound was invented in Paris by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and we got an incredible private tour of the Musée du Phonographe by owner/curator Jalal Aro. It’s really great! On one wall he had hanging a rare 1951 Saturne picture disc 78 of the Tour de France song. I told him it was the most French record I’d ever seen and he told me that he just recently found a duplicate. After some friendly negotiating, he agreed to sell it to me. Best Paris souvenir ever! Upon close-up inspection, I even discovered that it’s autographed (but by whom, I know not)!

3. Dogs in Paris are everywhere. I suspected this, since our own sweet Gidget is part bichon frisé and part poodle (the national dog of France). Super French! What I didn’t expect was how many well-behaved chiens would be walking around the streets of Paris and hanging out at cafes off-leash. Many were just waiting patiently on sidewalks while their friends were in shops or boulangeries. Totally cute but also somewhat confounding. How did they learn to do this? Renoir portrait of an off-leash dog at cafe for reference.

4. Paris is often called the City of Love, but I think that is because many Americans are mispronouncing Louvre. The Louvre is huge and takes up more square footage than most small-sized townships.

5. I had heard that Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is smaller than I think it will be, but I think that’s only because they won’t let anyone within 100 feet of it. It's probably really big, but everything looks small from that distance.

6. The Paris Métropolitain is astonishingly efficient. If we ever missed a train, there was another coming in just 4 or 5 minutes. And there would be a sign near the tracks letting us know that. And the signs were always right. And they were easy to follow. And on some trains, you could open the doors while the train was still in motion, which is pretty fun. But if you are running late, and you stick your hand or shoulder inside a closing door, do not expect them to re-open like a Boston subway car. They do not. And it hurts.

7. All the guidebooks and YouTube videos we watched said there would be pickpocketers everywhere. Rachel made me buy a wallet chain and a cell phone chain before we went so that they were always attached to my pants. She bought a Pacsafe with cutproof straps and locking zippers. We were READY! But in all of our Paris travels, not only were we not pickpocketed, we never once saw or even heard of anyone else getting pickpocketed. We did, however, see lots of heavily armed paramilitary folks walking around with machine guns. Some folks told us they were there to intimidate potential pickpocketers. I was a bit scared of them, but several let me take their picture when I asked.

8. I ate a lot of good food in Paris, even when I didn’t want to. Towards the end of our trip, we went to a nice restaurant (Le Cabanon de la butte) near Sacré-Cœur Basilica and I tried to order a burger. The waiter was horrified and told me there would be plenty of burgers awaiting me in America. He insisted I eat either the duck or a swordfish. I ordered the swordfish and it was delicious. Photo not at Le Cabanon de la butte, but here for reference of us dining outdoors.

9. Green ring-necked parakeets fly free and make pretty noises in Paris. On our way back to the States, there was a sign showing the many things tourists are not allowed to take with them on the plane. Green parakeets were on that sign.

10. The Versailles Palace is a beautiful, albeit non-critical look at the consolidation of wealth and power by 17th and 18th century French monarchies. The gardens were particularly stunning and we had a ball driving our rented golf cart through the miles and miles of pristinely plucked plumage. The Petit Trianon home of Marie Antoinette and the Queen’s Hamlet were exquisite as well. It's the perfect place to leisurely stroll if you like dancing water fountains set to the sounds of light opera and Vietnam war movies. We heard non-stop, close-range gunfire throughout our hours-long stroll. We never did figure out why, though they must have a military training field directly next to the gardens. Still, everything there was truly beautiful. Though frankly, seeing such gaudy displays of extreme wealth is quite off-putting. I guess I’m glad that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s monarchy was ultimately crushed, though I wouldn’t have wanted to attend their public beheadings.

11. The Palais Garnier opera house is beautiful, as are the many extravagant costumes on display, but the real entertainment is provided by the thousands of influencers and content creators blocking the stairways and hallways at every turn. Next time I go it will be to create some internet content about the internet content creators. That way, no one will be in our way as they will instead be the focus of our content creation! This is a million dollar idea.

12. We went to Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle and both were gorgeous. The stained glass was particularly pretty. Each holy place had a holy gift shop. I bought an eraser for 3 euros.

13. As we walked through the many museums, we saw lots of art that l learned about in high school–Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, van Gogh’s Starry Night and various self-portraits, the Venus de Milo, Rodin’s The Thinker, Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters, the various Manets, Monets, and Renoirs at the Musee d’orsay, and the many freelance artists painting in Montmartre. It seems obvious to me now that my high school art teacher must have spent a lot of time in Paris.

14. We went on a riverboat dinner cruise along the Seine at sunset. It was magical. The Eiffel tower sparkled at 10:00pm. The “other” Statue of Liberty waved to us. Hundreds of picnickers lined the river. Rachel looked beautiful. I drank the citrusy champagne toast and experienced excruciating heartburn for the next two hours. I still recommend the tour, but bring Tums.

15. The weather was in the high 60s or low 70s all week. Perfect! Every day I wore Al Hawkes’ fringed leather jacket, cuffed Japanese selvedge jeans, blue suede Pumas, and my Stetson Open Road, because they look great and I care about fashion. I changed shirts and underwear daily. One guy told me I was the most American-looking person he’d ever seen. Another man asked me where my horse was. A third person expressed shock that somebody in the northern United States would dress up like a cowboy from the West. It seems as though cowboy couture does not exist in Paris and I left wondering who could have dubbed Paris the fashion epicenter of the world.

But in the end, we had an amazing adventure. Thanks to everybody who sent us their recommendations and reviews. Rachel did a TON of advance research and put together an incredible itinerary for us filled with museums, delicious restaurants and cafes, beautiful walks, park picnics, record stores, and flea markets, too. She had English-language audio tours at the ready, pre-purchased tickets to many of the attractions, and navigated us through the city with grace and patience. We ate amazing food. We met a bunch of super kind folks. We walked more than 50 miles. And we can’t wait to do it again! Au revoir for now, Paris!

K-Ark Special on WORT 6/17 @9am

Howdy Friends, I'll be back on WORT FM tomorrow morning from 9am-noon and I'm excited to share some of my K-Ark collection with y'all. K-Ark Records is one of the strangest record labels out there and one of the most fun to collect. Starting in St. Louis in the late ‘50s and then moving to Nashville around 1965, John Capps revived his custom vanity label in Tennessee to primarily recruit mostly unknown regional country singers. 

In the mid-60s, K-Ark offered these bright-eyed hopefuls a Nashville recording experience and a stack of 45s for $600. If the artist had $2,500, they could record a full-length LP and get 500 copies of it AND 100 copies of a 45. Much like Cuca Records in Wisconsin, K-Ark had their own pressing plant, so printing costs were low. They paid Nashville’s top session men under the table and were eventually shut down by the musicians union in 1971 for underpaying and skimming union wages. Shady as all that is, for record collectors like myself, that all boils down to some really great musicianship, coupled with some super scarce pressings, and some insanely weird records!

Most famous are Eddie Noack’s deranged murder ballads, “Psycho” and “Dolores,” which are both great and truly strange. But there are also songs about living on the lam because you slept with your mother-in-law and your father wants to kill you (a Wisconsin country masterpiece!), about being too drunk to watch your son’s football game, about the various warnings that should be on cigarette packs, and a whole lot of epic and forgotten trucker tales. K-Ark made some of the earliest recordings of Tony Booth, the Dillards, Karen Wheeler, and Doug Kershaw's first solo recordings. They recorded country veterans, too, like Benny Martin, Onie Wheeler, Jim Eanes, Buck Trent, and Hylo Brown after they had been dropped by the majors. K-Ark pressed a lot of great country fuzz guitar records, two great singles by my pal (and Stonewall's older brother) Wade Jackson, and a whole mess of really cool steel guitar-dominant country rockers. They were so good that even though Cuca Records offered free recording services to regional bands, many Wisconsin singers made the trip to Nashville to record for K-Ark w/ the A-teamers and I’ve got a bunch of those, too!

There were hundreds of different K-Ark records pressed over the years. Some are gold. Quite a few are pretty amateur. But fear not! I’ve got ‘em all sorted out and I’ll be playing three hours of the very best from my collection. As an added bonus, years ago I found a super rare 7” by K-Ark label owner John Capps narrating his sales pitch for why artists should come to Nashville and record with K-Ark. It’s an amazing 10 minutes of K-Ark history and I’ve never seen another copy! Rare gems galore on Back to the Country, W-O-R-T 89.9FM Madison, community-sponsored radio. Wednesday 6/17 from 9am-noon CST and streaming via wortfm.org.

The Madison Record Club Tours Mills Music Library and the Cuca Collection

One of my favorite things to do is giving tours of Mills Music Library and the Wisconsin Music Archives, sharing our musical mission while also getting to talk about our amazing collections. This week Jody Berndt of the Madison Record Club asked me to give her club members a tour of Mills and to specifically focus on the Cuca Records Collection–among my favorite collections I’ve helped guide to the WMA and one I have continued to grow over the last decade. Last year, our music technical services librarian Matt Appleby completed the online collection guide (https://cuca.library.wisc.edu/) and we currently have two exhibit cases full of Cuca gems on display in our reading room.

In addition to the online and cased materials, this tour was a rare chance to get up close and personal with many of the Cuca 45s and LPs as well as the publishing contracts, pressing orders, artist photographs, newspaper clippings, release index cards, processing metadata, as well as unique artist puppets and various ephemera from Jim Kirchstein’s collection. We even had a few minutes to listen to some of the rarer recordings in the collection.

Not only did the Record Club bring a record turnout (get it?) to the event, we also had TWO Cuca recording artists and their wives present–Marcus Sullivan of the King’s Men Five AND Jon Stanbridge of both the Changing Tydes Revue and Bill Allen & the Fugitives. And if that weren’t exciting enough, we were also joined by Cuca Records founder Jim Kirchstein’s daughter, Vicki Widdecombe and her husband, and we were treated to several fun stories of having sleepovers in the Sara Sound Studio and working on the LP assembly line at Cuca!

Many thanks to everyone who came out to take the tour and spend a few after-hours with us in the library! It was particularly great to see fellow Stardazer Jamie McCloskey, who says he is onboard with working up a new Cuca Records tribute show with me, and Bob Koch, who has contributed several 45s to the Cuca Collection over the years! It was a special event, indeed! [for more info on the Madison Record Club, check out https://madison.citycast.fm/best/madison-record-club]

Post-tour Photo-op with the Madison Record Club [photo by Tom Caw]

Jim Kirchstein, Raylene Bartel, and myself 

Cuca Records founder, Jim Kirchstein, and his collection of Ken Vogel puppets

Some of my favorite Cuca Records

ARSC2026 in Memphis Was A Great One!

I just returned from a week in Memphis, TN and as one might expect, a wonderful time was had. I figure now is as good a time as any to share some pics and gratitudes.

My primary reason for going was the annual Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference–a unique gathering of a-v archivists, audio preservation engineers, meticulous record collectors, and some of the world’s best music researchers–and spent my week studying up on the latest copyright and fair use legalese, enjoying Robert Gordon’s thoughtful plenary on Memphis music, listening to Frank Bruno and Trey Brown’s Memphis small-label history, Craig Maki’s deep dive into Vic Gallon (w/ Starday connections!), David Evan’s and Kip Lornell’s insightful presentations on university-based record labels, Richard and Meaghan’s Archeophone collaboration with the Library of Congress, Patrick Feaster’s hilarious and fascinating research on the earliest phonographs, the history and scope of the National Recording Preservation Act with Matthew Barton, Patrick Midtlyng, David Seubert, and others, as well as papers and advice on moving archival collections, advocating for audio preservation to university admin, exploring audio survey and assessment tools, the roles of AI within some archives, and so much more. I also particularly enjoyed the collector’s roundtable on Friday night with Mark Atnip and Martin Fisher’s brilliant cylinder recording demonstration on Saturday afternoon. It was an honor to get to sing and play Don Gibson's “Sea of Heartbreak” along with my pals Craig Maki and Frank Youngwerth as Martin cut a 2-minute wax cylinder of our performance. It was also a blast to hear and clap along to Filip Sir’s Czech-language, anti-Nazi protest version of “Deep In the Heart of Texas”--Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

As with every good academic conference, there was a lot of great discussion and camaraderie, a lot of communal meals, as well as the usual sharing of pet and recently-found record photos between presentations. There were far too many friends present to mention everyone by name, but it was truly great to see so many colleagues and pals in Memphis and to meet so many new folks as well. I loved chatting about record label obsessions with Jay Bruder, Cary Ginnell, Christian Stanfield, Lance and April of Dust-to-Digital, and so many others. I particularly enjoyed rooming with my old pal Patrick Feaster, former ARSC president, brilliant scholar, and all-around good dude. It was also a thrill to spend so much time exploring local barbeque haunts and talking music with my musical pals Craig Maki and Deke Dickerson. I will forever remember this conference as the one where Deke zipped away one night and came back the next morning to ask, ‘Hey, wanna play Grady Martin’s six-string bass?’ What?!?! The one that was played on the first ever fuzz record (Marty Robbins), and Johnny Horton’s best rockers, and just about every Patsy Cline recording? Of course, I do!! Many thanks again, Deke!

It was also the ARSC where I got to reconnect with my former high school bandmate, Matt Timberlake. What a joy to eat bbq and jam with the legend who invited me to join my first ever rock band–the Fuzzbuckets. Not only did we get to jam through several of the Fuzz’s greatest hits, I particularly enjoyed hearing him sing some Merle Haggard! I also appreciated him setting up a gig for me on Saturday night at The Cove with Big Barton, a 5-piece Memphis honky-tonk treasure! A grand time was had by all! There were several dogs in the audience. I was asked to play a 2nd solo set after my first one. I sold out of merch. And a kind couple at the bar even bought me a pizza.

And of course, Memphis was a great host city! I arrived early to check out Goner and Shangri-La–both awesome record stores (I even found an undocumented Starday custom 45 at Shangri-La)! I went to a Memphis Redbirds game and the first baseman of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AAA of the Florida Marlins) even pointed me out and threw me an inning-ending baseball! I randomly ran into some rockabilly lookin’ musicians outside the Sun Records studio and they invited me to their show at the HiTone Cafe that night–turns out, the Hotrod Hillbillies r-o-c-k and are coming to WI for Symco soon! Thanks again, Xavier and Angel! I toured the Sun Records studio again and appreciated seeing Dewey Phillips’ recreated radio studio, went to the Stax Museum for the first time and dug Isaac Hayes’ Cadillac and the Hall of Records, went to Beale Street with Patrick and Craig and drank a milkshake, ate some incredible BBQ on Deke’s recommendations (Payne's Bar-B-Q, The Bar-B-Q-Shop, Cozy Corner BBQ, Bain Barbeque, and more), and explored some of the historic sites including the Lorraine Motel (now home to the Civil Rights Museum), the Arcade (oldest diner in Memphis), and the site of Johnny Cash’s first gig to name a few. I also went to a garage sale and scored some great and local rock’n’roll records from Theo Dasbach!

Not quite sure how to top that for a conference, but Matthew Barton, ARSC and Memphis, y’all done well! #arscAnd many thanks to Memphis pals Matt Timberlake, Jeremy Shrader, Jesse Williams, Zac Ives, Christian Stanfield, Rockey the Rockin’ Redbird, and everyone else for the warm welcome and southern hospitality! #ARSC2026

Upcoming Solo Set at The Cove w/ Big Barton in Memphis, TN Saturday 5/16

Howdy Memphis Friends--I'm excited to share that I'll be doing a rare solo set at The Cove's Honky-Tonk Night along with Big Barton next Saturday, 5/16. 7:30 showtime. It's where rock and roll began!

Specifically, Memphis is where my friend Matt Timberlake now lives and he's the dude who first taught me about how to rock and roll. While we were in high school, Matt invited me to join his band, The Fuzzbuckets. It was my first time in a band and we had some pretty memorable gigs. We even won a HS Battle of the Bands. Matt introduced me to the Flaming Lips. And to Man Or Astro-Man? And to the New York Dolls. He also wrote some killer originals, rocked a sweet Gibson Les Paul, and even though I was just playing trumpet and keys and occasionally shouting along, it forever changed my life goals and trajectory.

Next Saturday he'll join me and we'll sing some Merle Haggard tunes for you! It will be epic. Hope to see y'all there!

Rock'n'Roll Banjo on Back to the Country (WORT 89.9FM) on 5/5

There are lots of different things you can do with a banjo. You could frail or clawhammer a banjo. You could put some picks on your fingers and pluck it in the ol’ three-fingered Scruggs-style. You could flatpick some big band and dixieland chords on it. You could strum it in a folk circle. You could write a dissertation about jazz banjo players or even use one as firewood. You could also play Elvis Presley songs on one for your friends’ wedding in the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, VA (though I’m still ashamed that NOT ONE PERSON told me that I wasn’t supposed to wear all-white to a wedding! Live and learn, I suppose.).

But if I’m being honest, my favorite use for the banjo is that flatpicking banjo twang heard on early '50s honky-tonk and rockabilly music. Before rock and roll was a fully-defined thing separate from country music, lots of western swing, honky-tonk, and rockin-adjacent bands featured the banjo. It’s a great compliment to thumb-picked electric guitar and even steel guitar. A few years later, lots of bluegrass groups began covering rock’n’roll songs–I’m thinking here of Jim & Jesse, the Stanley Brothers, Jim Eanes, Flatt & Scruggs, and many more, and that's always fun to hear.

And in the 1950s and early ‘60s, flatpickers like Joe Maphis, Arthur ‘Guitar Boogie’ Smith, Grandpa Jones, Grady Martin, Cousin Arnold, Frank Evans, Ronnie Dawson, and so many more were setting their five banjo strings ablaze with a pick. In recent years, the flatpicking rockabilly banjo torch has been passed on to players like Brian Setzer, Mitch Polzak , and Carter Logan to name a few. It’s a beautiful thing and worth celebrating. So that’s what we’ll do tomorrow (5/5) on Back to the Country. Rock’n’Roll Banjo! Tune in via 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin or stream via wortfm.org from 9am-noon (cst).

Air Travel on Back to the Country 4/8/26 9am-noon (CST) via WORT-FM 89.9

Howdy Friends. This Wednesday morning I will again be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM and this week's theme is Air Travel. Recent headlines have been dominated by unpaid TSA agents, overworked traffic controllers, planes being shot down, and long lines at the airport, so I decided to go back and listen to air travel representation in classic country music over the last 100 years to determine how the times have changed or stayed the same.

Of course, classic country music is known for its thousands of travel songs about trucks, trains, and the endless black ribbon, but there are a surprising number of great songs about air travel as well--high speed jets, tragic plane crashes, lucky cross-Atlantic flights, lonely airports, broken guitars, and numerous other airline-specific complaints. There were also several successful classic country musicians licensed as pilots (including Rex Trailer, the Calhoun Twins, Kris Kristofferson, Randy Hughes, Jimmy Kish, and more) and we'll hear from them as well. As usual, we'll be mostly looking at tunes from the 1920s-70s, but I'll throw in a few recent faves as well. The problem now is just halving the 100+ air travel tunes I've already picked out.

Get your seatbelts securely fastened, your belongings stowed, and your tray tables and seats in full upright position! Show airs live on Wednesday 4/8 from 9am-noon (CST) and heard via 89.9FM in southern WI or streaming via wortfm.org.