“The first new store-bought shirt I ever had of my very own, I got for Christmas when I was 10 years old. It was good flannel, white and dark gray and purple, really pretty. I really liked that shirt.

“I might have had other store-bought shirts before that, but they would have been hand-me-downs from my brothers.

“Mama used to make almost all our clothes. She was good at it, too. You couldn’t really tell the difference between her’s and store-bought, even though my shirts were made out of flour sacks.

Soon after taking down their Christmas decorations, Special Consensus band members will be packing their bags for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

“We are preparing to embark on our bi-annual tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom,” said band leader, Greg Cahill of Chicago.” I have been completing this tour (which has grown considerably in the past decade) since the early 1990s and always look forward to seeing our many friends and fans in the region.

Jerry Douglas stopped recording CDs for the masses several albums ago. Not that any were destined to go platinum since Douglas and his jaw-dropping musicianship, on any solo project, will be aimed at dobro fanatics and others who slobber over intricate instrumental work.