I road-tripped along last fall, from village to hamlet, subsisting on bananas and candy, hawking my book to the nation's passersby. I was joined by musicians in the various towns, who hauled out their steel guitars and mandolins and sundry other vehicles of entertainment, and the result was something we like to call The Bad Tuxedo Book and Music Tour. This phenomenon we've captured, like lightning bugs in an olive jar, on a CD. The very fine musicians, many with a literary bent themselves, all performed for free, for which I salute them. Now you can do something for free too: sign up for your very own free copy of The Bad Tuxedo Book and Music Tour Official Commemorative CD here. In the meantime, check out the song list and the websites of the various musicians below. (A note about the name of the tour: The broken-voiced piano lounge singer of the novel, Hud Smith, wears a raggedy circa-1970 tux for much of The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God .) (Another note: The Bad Tuxedo Book and Music Tour continues into 2006; check back often for updates. We might be coming to your town next.) (Yet another note: Not all the musicians of the tour are represented on the CD. Jim Eudy's Southpaw Bluegrass Band performed some festive and melodic tunes at the Reading Grounds in Omaha; Ruby Jane Smith, a 10-year-old fiddler, and the Peasall Sisters, a trio of God-lovin' girls who performed on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, joined me on the "Thacker Mountain Radio Show" in Oxford, Mississippi.) (Just one more note: Scotty Karate didn't actually end up performing with me in McHenry, Illinois, as initially planned. He didn't show, then afterwards emailed me: "I am so sorry. We left Detroit at 9 am, drove our asses off and ended up getting lost, fighting and injured." He later elaborated that the too-much drink was the result of a brewery where they've named a beer after him--Scotty Karate Scotch Ale--and that the fistfight resulted in him getting it "real good in the jaw.") (Okay, just one more note, then that's it, I promise: Supplies of The Bad Tuxedo Book and Music Tour CD are sadly limited, so act quickly. If you really want one, and the link above doesn't produce it, email me and I'll see what I can do.)