I am far along with a new book that I am naming CONVERSATIONS WITH ELLIE. Many of you have met her.

Her father was a black standard poodle and her mother is a golden retriever. 

She came to live with me November, 2007.

I have learned more since then than in all my life before.

CONVERSATIONS WITH ELLIE is a collection of stories: an anthology, so to speak, of things we have shared and conversations we have had.

This is not from a final edit. Things change. Things grow.

Enjoy,

Bill Worrell

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GOATS
 
         One summer day my sister called and asked if I would be willing to host some visitors.  A rescue dog trainer named Jan Stalder and her husband, Kelly would bring these guests to New Art.  They would be bringing firemen from Dallas and from Ground Zero in New York City.  My sister need not have even asked.  I would do anything I could do for these way underpaid people.  They place their lives at risk at a moment’s notice, as do police personnel, and in these day even teachers.  Although they do so, we consider professional athletes with far more amenity.  Yea, let us pay someone who can slam dunk a thump ball a few million bucks a year; then lets pay the firemen, policemen, and teachers about thirty grand.  Try to figure out which will come to aid you when the times get rough.
 
         I cooked barbecue, and I constructed a gourmet meal, served at a campfire by the Llano River.  I persuaded Jay Boy Adams and Sam Baker to join me and we played a concert for them.  I gave each of them a sterling silver spiral that has a cross incorporated into its design.  After dinner and the concert they went on to Ingram, Texas to engage in rescue training and I went about my work.
 
         Several of them attended my annual Christmas Party the following December.  One was a New York City fireman named David Raynor.  He was wearing the spiral cross I gave him (named “Symbol”.) and waited for an opportune time to get me alone.
 
         “I made something for you,” he stated.  He was very shy about endowing me with his work, but he handed it to me.  It was a thick steel cross mounted upon a fragment of heavy plate glass.  He had fashioned the metal cross with a cutting torch, and stamped on the front was this: “09/11/01.”
 
         “This was once a part of the World Trade Center,” he said.
 
         I cried.  I am crying now as I write these words: crying so much that I can hardly see to type.  Later that evening the music began in my studio.  There were some 300 people in attendance, listening to Jay Boy Adams, Sam Baker, Walt Wilkins, Tina Mitchell, Stephanie Urbina Jones, and other Americana artists.  I told the story and passed the cross around for each person to touch and hold.  There was not one dry eye.
 
         A few days passed and I e-mailed David, telling him that I had many connections with a lot galleries and if he wanted to make some of these crosses to sell and raise money for the NYCFD I would be glad to promote them.  His response was, “No matter how noble a cause this would be I could never make one cent profit from the deaths of my fallen buddies.  Not even for the New York City Fire Department!”
 
         In my days I have seen demonstrations of integrity.  Never have I witnessed integrity that surpasses that of David Raynor's.
 
         So, that is how I met Jan Stalder.  A reader probably wonders what in the world this has to do with goats.  It has a lot to do with goats.  Jan sent me a couple of stories about her rescue dogs, Eclipse and Pearl, and some of the amazing feats they performed.  Eclipse was one of the first called to Ground Zero on September 12, 2001.  Jan’s stories were captivating.  I could not put them down.  While reading them Ellie began some of the most serious barking I had yet heard her vocalize.  It was so intense I could not concentrate on the writings, so I walked down to the River to check out what was bothering her.  It was a bunch of goats: Spanish goats.  Billy Bode’s Spanish goats.  They were across the River, frolicking upon the rocks.
 
         “Ellie!  What are you barking at?”
 
         “Don’t you smell all those goats?  Don’t you see them?  Can’t you hear them?  They need a good dose of barking and by gosh that is what I am giving them!”
 
         “Look at them!  They’re almost as stupid as cows!  I bark my rear end off and all they can say is “Maahh!  Maahh!  Maahh!  They can’t even talk.  The only thing they are good for is eating weeds and making browse lines.  They’re probably good for barbecuing too, but I don’t know how to do that.”
 
         “O. K., Baby, you’ve done a great job of barking at them but come on, let’s go back up to the studio.”
 
         “You go ahead,” she told me.  “They need some more barking at.”
 
         A while later she came in, wagging her tail, and nuzzling my leg.  Seems Ellie May Lucille is always letting me know why I love her so much.

I made a special platform for the steel cross.  It rests upon it now, in my studio, less than two feet from where I am standing and typing.  It is my most favorite of all pieces of art that I own.

To All My Friends and Collectors,

My old Boy Scout, Jay Boy Adams and I have been collaborating on songs for a long time. Two of these are on my CD, Carpe EVERY Diem. Now we have a new one out and it will be posted on both my and Jay Boy's MySpace. It will play the song and there is also a studio video of the recoding session. The song is, ARE YOU VOTING FOR THE DEVIL? It is absolutely hilarious,

Jay Boy Adams, of course, is a master. His vocals are wonderful and his instrumental skills are outstanding. You will see his band, THE ROADHOUSE SCHOLARS backing him up, and you will see our incredible friend, John Holliday delivering the mini-sermon as a bridge. If this does not make number one on the Americana Charts it should. (Jay Boy has played Carnegie Hall and has opened for Joe Cocker, ZZ Top, Jackson Browne, Steven Stills and many others.

And speaking of music, Dr. David Brunner, professor of Music at Central Florida University informed me that music publishing company BOOZY & HAWKS will be publishing IF I COULD FLY this year.  This was last year’s show title.  The song is dedicated to the late Linda Yell, a dear friend to many of us.  This is the fourth Brunner/Worrell collaboration published by BOOZY & HAWKS.  Others are THEN, NOW & FOREVER, PAINTED MEMORIES, performed June 2005 at Carnegie Hall and A SONG TO END ALL WAR, performed by the 2007 Sing-a-Mile-High Children’s Choir Festival in Denver, Colorado and February, 2008 as the finale in Vancouver at the American Choral Directors meeting.

You will also soon see new work for this year's show, entitled MY WAY. It is dedicated to every dyslectic child. The poster will become the 2008 wine label for SANDSTONE CELLARS.

I will be posing more news in a few days. Right now I have to make a trash run to the dump. You know how it piles up after a lot of (welcomed and encouraged) company.

By the way, many people have asked me about land or property near my wonderful place on the Llano River.

There are a couple of places listed presently and they are lovely. One is on the Llano River about four miles downstream from me and the other is on Willow Creek about a mile and a half from me. There are 200-plus aces for sell behind me to the north. They are not on the Llano River.

I am not in the real estate business and I do not want to be. Any questions can be answered by Crockett Keller by calling him at 325 347 0055.

There is some other fun stuff to post. I will attempt to get this done soon.

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