Doug Spears

Hey Folks!  Hope your summer is going well and that you are healthy, happy and safe.  I've been busy as you might guess and I thought I'd send you my Notes from the Road to fill you in.  Read on for the following:

1) The new album, Blacktop Road, is in the news!
2) What's happening at my mountain home in West Virginia?
3)  A tale from long ago in Lake County, FL

Read on!

Early Reviews of Blacktop Road Are In!

     The Orlando Weekly has led the way with the first full review of the new album, Blacktop Road.  Long…

Doug Spears returns in fine homespun musical form with first new album in 15 years

Review of Blacktop Road - Bao Le-Huu, The Orlando Weekly (August 11, 2026)

"The Americana of Blacktop Road comes from a folk tradition near to the roots and has little to do with pop-gentrified commodities like The Lumineers. It’s got the kind of rural heart that comes from actual country people, not the lifestyle caricatures of the Nashville industrial complex. Moreover, the marrow of Spears’ music is even more specific to…

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and isn’t having too much trouble getting back in the groove in the New Year. Everybody wants to be in Florida in January. Record snow fall and freezing temperatures around the country makes that even more so this year. But, though there’s been no snow, it hasn’t been exactly balmy here in the Sunshine State either. More hard freezes than usual are not doing the citrus and ornamental plant industries any good. My tangerines in the back yard have done just fine…

Well, I’m sitting here in my “music room†with a cup of coffee gazing out at the sun glinting off of the fog over the lake through the cypress trees and Spanish moss and thinking about another year, another decade really, that has come and gone. Benjamin Franklin said “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.†With that in mind I look back at 2010 January 1, 2010 was the official release date for “Welcome Home,†which I say…

Notes from the Road - Day 2 - Saturday, July 24, 2010 Man is it hot! When I first started this annual SE tour part of the reason was to get out of Florida's heat and up into higher country. However, I'm rethinking the timing here. Not only is booking more difficult in the summer here (a lot of the established series shut down in the SE for the summer), but this year in particular the weather forecast for everywhere I'm going is hot and more hot.

I headed out of Bainbridge around noon after making some…

Notes from the Road - Friday, July 23, 2010. And so it begins. I hit the road about 10 a.m. - first stop Bainbridge, Ga. for a KOA Campground show. The new owners booked me for the date back a few months ago and were very enthusiastic. It was over a five hour drive from home at my ponderous 60 mph, plus stops for gas, food, etc. Though the "Navigatrix" on the dash wanted me to head west on I-10 from I-75 I continued north to Valdosta before turning westward. That way I got the benefit of cheaper Georgia…

The first formal written review of Welcome Home is in from Don Sechelski of "The Muse's Muse."

CD REVIEW: Doug Spears - Welcome Home
By Don Sechelski - 01/24/2010 - 08:32 PM EST

Artist: Doug Spears
Album: Welcome Home
Label: Cypress Moss Records
Website: http://www.dougspearsmusic.com
Genre: Acoustic folk/pop
Production/Musicianship Grade: 10/10
Songwriting Skills: 9/10

CD Review: Fourth generation Floridian, Doug Spears, knows the traditions and customs of Florida as well as anyone and he shows it on his new CD,…

Radio play for Welcome Home is cranking up - Thanks to: Steve Jerrett, KOPN Radio, Colombia, MO; Al Kniola, WVPE, South Bend IN; Taylor Caffery, WRKF, Baton Rouge, LA; Ken Batista, WYEP, Pittsburg, PA; Diane Crowe, WMCB, Greenfield, MA; Maggie Ferguson, WXOU, Auburn Hills, MI; Gerry Goodfriend, CKUT, Montreal Canada;  Bill Hahn, WFDU, Teaneck, NJ; Sonja Hedlund, WJFF, Jeffersonville, NY; Craig Huegel, WSLR, Sarasota, FL; Roz Larman, KPFK, Woodland Hills, CA; Eddie O'Strange, 
783 KHz AM, Wellington, New…

Notes from the Road – Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) Day 3

Saturday, October 17 – After having to get up early on Friday for the workshop gig I elected to sleep in Saturday and miss the first workshops. Around 10 am I wandered up to get some breakfast and a gallon or two of coffee. I finished in time to hear the closing minutes of the “road dog” workshop headed by Jack Williams and Still on the Hill. Next was the presentation by Still on the Hill and people from the Folk Arts Center itself about…