Dear blog reader, I hope you’ll forgive my long blogging absence. If you get my newsletter, you know that I had a personnel change in my band. The last few weeks were consumed by guitarist auditions and practicing. But things are getting back to normal now, and I have another video to share.
Here I am with one of my new guitarists, singing my newest song, “Garden Spider.” This song was inspired by a real-life spider who lived out by my parents’ pool. She made a truly magnificent web, ate all kinds of bugs, and kept getting bigger and more beautiful every day. But all good things must come to an end … click on the video below to hear her tragic tale:
She dangled, shaky, from a twig, started settling in
Garden spider on a thread while those
Worms turned the earth down below
She spun her web with precision and symmetry
The dew and sunlight lit up her craft and artistry
Garden spider spun her web while those
Worms turned the earth down below
She waited still above the marigolds and lilies
The orange blossoms brought the butterflies and bumblebees
Garden spider waited still while those
Worms turned the earth down below
She caught those hapless flying things and quickly they succumbed
As she wrapped them up in sticky silk and shot them up with venom
She feasted on antennas, wings, felt strong and justified
She knows that when you want to grow, something has to die
She ate the gnats, mosquitos, fireflies, and aphids
She ate the crickets, tiger swallowtails, and katydids
Garden spider ate them all while those
Worms turned the earth down below
Her stripes grew brighter, bolder, she doubled daily
The garden creatures trembled, humbled by her might and beauty
Garden spider, bright and bold while those
Worms turned the earth down below
But one day her web hung limp and vacant, center gaping, gone
A blue jay tittered on a treetop, the garden life buzzed on
You can work and build, get bad and big, progress and grow
But anyone who’s anyone eventually gets swallowed
Garden spider’s dead and gone worms keep
Turing the earth down below
by 
