Thanks for the welcome back, everyone. And Moe, just consider Michele my alter ego... it's my middle name. I just felt that Faith was a little too cliched/obvious for country music.

manX, definitely upbeat and feelgood. And duh, Day in the Life, of course. I can't believe I didn't think of it as a model!

William, I, of course, am very familiar with Lightfoot and Tom T Hall. I haven't felt directly influenced, but they keep company with my primary influences, for sure.

The best advice I've found so far re: the pychedelic style is this: "Psychedelic rock has a way of staring intently at just one chord and going Woooowwwww, duuuuuuuude, and never feeling the need to go to another one."

That's helpful. I'm hopeful that someone here will have some additional pearls of wisdom.