I caught up with Howard Salmon at the TA in downtown Nashville a couple weeks back now — it’d been more than a year since the last time we’d been able to meet up, and he had much to tell.

His independent trucking business, hauling in a 1999 Kenworth W900 with a reefer and loading mostly brokered freight around the states, continues well, though like so many out there he’s put in long rounds without a lot of home time to take advantage of good rates where he’s found them.

Likewise his work writing and recording songs. He’s put together a CD/DVD combo of his “These Trucks Are Made of Gold” record now available at the Petro in Joplin, he says, among other places — keep an eye on his website for more on that score soon. (Find below one of the vids featured on the DVD, for the good-natured “Wishy Washy Woman” track, a duet, shot while Salmon was spending his time off at home in Hawaii. “Been there done that,” he says now: he and his wife are back living stateside in Northern California.)

And he’s got a new project underway, singing on a collaborative effort with a California artist. He’s not saying much about it now, but I got him to give us a brief run through one of the tracks — a vid excerpt follows. Enjoy, and I hope everyone had a great Christmas day, whether at home or on the road…