Greetings from Cow Creek, Texas,

The family got me a laptop computer for Christmas so I am obliged to enter the 21 st century whether I like it or not. My old Smith Corona Word Processor has served me well over the years. That's where I wrote all those mail-out newsletters of days gone by. Lots of folks tell me they miss getting those in the mail and how they enjoyed reading them. "Why did you take off your mailing list? I don't receive your newsletters any more." I have to remind them that if they read the last two or three we mailed out carefully, they would have read the part where I made announcements that we were discontinuing the hard-copy mail-out version and it would be posted on the website. I do understand that folks like to get things in the mail and I do miss writing them the old fashioned way, but Ruthie doesn't miss putting on 10,000 labels and stamps or the expense involved. I had my mailing list stored on an old Apple. One day I went to view the mailing list and it had disappeared. That's why I am a little reluctant to put all my stuff in the hands of an electronic devise that I am totally unfamiliar with. Paper, though messy, is always there, unless there's a fire...

We finished up 2003 with a bang and hit the road running with nary a break as Christmas and New Year's fell in the middle of the week. There was a time when the Christmas holidays would have found us on a ski slope somewhere in New Mexico; Santa Fe, Taos, or Red River. I really miss those days when the kids were small, and we had more time to relax, but it seems the farther you go, the more time it takes to get there. "Chasing that neon rainbow means the road goes on forever", to quote a couple of quotable lines. To quote Willie Nelson, "It beats working", and Hondo Crouch, "having fun can be hard work sometimes"! We won't complain cause we're, "working steady and life is good". Our newly formed relationship with our booking agency, Austin Universal Entertainment, and Lead Dog Management, is showing immediate results and we're so happy to have them helping us with the many.phpects of the music business that are essential, and we are looking forward to working closely with them

I have been very much occupied with the making of the new CD that is forthcoming. I had procrastinated taking on a new project, waiting for everything to be exactly right; the right producer, the right studio, etc. etc. There has been mounting pressure from fans to get a new product out there, so one day I told the Bunkhouse Boys, we're going in the studio and make a new CD. There was an extensive list of songs available as my publishing company is loaded with good songs, and my songwriting buddy , David McKnight and I have been collaborating and have completed several. David was the co-writer of "Friends For Life", which has become a favorite of our fans, especially the Tejas Vaqueros who have adopted it as one of their theme songs. I ended up producing it myself. One of my most successful and popular CD's, "Totally Guacamole" is one I produced and though the technology has advanced light years since I produced that product, the advances have made it easier and less time-consuming. It was a pleasure to work with Pat Manske, a talented young engineer working at The Zone Recording Studio where we cut the tracks. An equally pleasurable experience was working with Larry Seyer at Electric LarryLand Studios during the mixing and mastering process. Larry is the consummate pro and has lots of skins hanging on his wall and I am pleased with how it sounds and excited about the prospects of having it out. Now that I am back in Texas, I hope and plan to do much more recording and producing. There remains a vast supply of great material available, written by great songwriters, and I can't wait to get them recorded. I have procrastinated too long already.

On the home front, we are getting settled in nicely here at our newly built home on Cow Creek in Burnet County, Texas. We're about one hour from downtown Austin and a good 4 hours closer to 99% of the shows that we play. It relieves me of a tremendous amount of "windshield time". Ruthie is planting trees which will mark passing time as we watch them grow. She still is very active in our business but since we signed the management agreement with Greg Henry and Chad Kudelka at Lead Dog Management, Ruth is relieved of a great deal of the day to day. Julian is fully immersed in college life at Texas State at San Marcos, and has taken up rugby. Every game he gets banged up and I encourage him to take up golf and tennis. They will serve him so much better later in life than rugby or football. So far he hasn't taken my advice. Besides, he has a very expensive set of teeth I don't want to see broken. Son Lukin, and grandson Sylas came out for the Christmas holidays and we really had some quality time together. We all went out to Luckenbach, Texas, for Cowboy Christmas Ball and Sylas was beside himself playing with all the other kids on the bridge over Grape Creek. He stayed up till past 2:00 AM with a little girl whose mom was serving food out of the cookhouse there. I overheard the little girl say, "I'll be the mommy, and you can be the daddy". Sylas took her by the hand and said, "no, I want to be the kid". He's of the impression that it's more fun to be a kid than a daddy! We had a great crowd that night and it was a most memorable show.

I had the great pleasure in November to go on a musical cruise out of Galveston on the Carnival Cruise Line with Tommy Alverson, Brian Burns, and Nathan Hamilton. The cruise was sponsored by Y-95 in Plano, Tx. and we had about 120 friends and fans book the musical tour and join us. We had a ball and I got to meet and get to know lots of new folks. These guys are some of my favorite songwriters and favorite people involved in the Texas Music scene. I have recorded several of their songs over the years and it's some of my very favorite stuff.. They're talking about doing it again next year, but minus the ship. Just fly to Concun and spend 4 or 5 days. Stay in touch and I'll keep you informed about that.

Hey, I've got to get out of here. I'm running way over. It's so good to hear from so many of you who visit our guest book and leave such really nice messages. I haven't been responsive cause I didn't know how to turn on Ruthie's computer, but now I have my own and I can reply more as I have the time. Please continue to visit us and leave your notes. I would like to invite you, as well, to sign up on our e-mail list to receive the updated newsletters via e-mail. I have to get up now. My rear end has gone to sleep. A-O, and may the Good Lord shower you with blessings. Love, Love, Love. Gary P. Nunn