Tuesday, January 13, 2026

The year of guitar and Taoism? A-sort-of-recap, from a blogless year.



In Christ There Is No East Or West, as played and taught by John Fahey.
This is the video that made me sell my banjo and buy a guitar. One day I will be able to play Fahey's version of this beautiful hymn.



(Written 29.12.25)

May I start by saying hello to any new visitors at The Main Stem. We are officially out of dormancy, for better or for worse. The calendar year is coming to a close, and by the natural turning of the day we will soon be back at January 1st again. It’s been a good year, in the end. There have been plenty of times where I felt uninspired or out of hope or directionless; but on the back end of these I am happy with where the year has finished up. I decided to write this post, not because I felt I had anything compelling to write about but instead to try and trim the old branches of the blog to make way for fruitful new growth. It's a new year after all, and this thing doesn’t grow unless you take care of it.

Click below for the rest of the post! Poetry, music, lots of my favourite things.