back to Normal

It's Wednesday afternoon, about 5:30. Kevin Twit just left the studio, where we've been working to finish up Indelible Grace 4. It's sounding really good, and I enjoy this collection of songs quite a bit. It's a challenge, but so much fun, to have so many different people involved. Alison's parents are getting in tonight for the weekend, so we'll be getting ready to hang out with them, and I've got to mow the lawn (eek!) and make some audio clips for the Elloree guitars website of the instruments they've built me.

Today, at about 11:30, our good friends Chris and Megan Weigel gave birth to their first little, baby girl, Zoe. Wow, she is so cute. We went and visited about an hour later, and that child already had a full head of hair. Our baby is almost five months old and still looks like Telly Savalas. With Winston Churchilll's cheeks. Anyway, it was a real joy to get to hold her and welcome little Zoe into the world. Please keep them in your prayers as these first few days (and weeks and months) are pretty tiring. Oh, and some of you may have seen Chris before, he was filling in for Caedmon's on bass for quite a while, and he also plays Andrew Peterson's Christmas shows, if that helps put a face to the name.

Our weekend trip to Normal was very good. (For those of you that don't know, Normal, IL, is the town I grew up in. No lie. And we've heard all the jokes, yes, we ARE Normal. You're not funny.) We stayed with my folks, and they loved getting to play with their new granddaughter. Ella got to meet my dad's parents, and my friends Bobes and Ken. We spent a good deal of time with Mark and Dawn Lockett. Mark was in the Normals with me, and they live back there now. They have a little daughter, 13 months old, named Eleni, who is hilarious and beautiful. The moms had a good time being moms together, as well.

On Saturday night we went with Bobes to see his dad's new country band, Sidewinder. They were great. His dad is the guy who gave me the guitar I used to write and record "(early in the morning)." They played at the VFW and man, we had a good time hearing them, just Alison and me, Bobes and his mom. His mom and dad came and met Ella, too, the next day, and that was nice.

Bobes just started at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, where he is having to learn Greek in 12 weeks. That is crazy. I tell him that often. But he just got back from spending a year in North Korea, so maybe Greek is nothing. We hadn't seen him in a year and a half, he'd never even seen Alison pregnant. Weird. We had a great time, though, and appreciated him making the drive from St. Louis to visit.

It was nice to spend some time with my family, as well. My mom and dad were around all weekend, as were my brother, Rob, and his wife, Candice. Rob just started a new job as a teacher for students with autism, and he's really enjoying it. A far cry from the landscaping he was doing a month ago! Candice is an audiologist, and Monday night she took molds of Alison's and my ears for some noise-plugs. She works with Westone (www.westone.com/music) who made my in-ear monitors, that I love unceasingly. It will be nice to have a set of these for loud wedge shows and hanging out at festivals when we're not playing. And probably for loud hotels and buses, as well! Anyway, we don't get to see them too much, so it was nice to have that time.

We got back late, late Monday night, and I worked a little on Tuesday, but I got to feeling pretty sick, so I just hung out with my family and waited for the flu to kick in. I woke up this morning feeling fine, just a funky throat, so who knows what that was. The four-hour flu? Do they even make that?

Ok, so here's a question that I really would like some feedback on. The guys and I have been talking back and forth about this, and we're ready to let people know what we're thinking. We'd like to play a Normals show again, somtime in the next few months. It's been a few years, and we just really miss it, and miss eachother. We're thinking we'd try to book it for some Saturday evening in October or November, here in Nashville. A lot of you have told us over the years you wished you could have seen us play, so if you're interested, we probably will. We'd like to make it as easy as possible for folks to roadtrip out, have time to get there and back, and make it a really great weekend. Some of our old friends, and openers, will probably join us as well, at the show. So yeah, any weekend events that we should schedule around? Would you even want to come? Also, we're going to try and record a couple more songs to release for free, to help get the word out and people interested, but mostly for fun. So yeah, that's our idea. Let us know what you think.

Well, that's about it for me. Off to go brave El Toro the Toe-Muncher.

miracle in Memphis

So I'm pretty sure that when I asked you to pray for my standby flight situation, a few of you did. I had an airport experience yesterday which has never happened to me before, and am quite sure will never happen to me again. Let me start at the beginning...

After a very interesting, Josh-played-bass, set at Estes Park, Cliff, Josh and I hopped in Cliff's rental car to drive two hours back to Denver, so that we could catch early morning flights. Well, being the three most directionally challenged people I know of, we obviously got very lost. On top of that, every hotel within a half an hour of the airport was booked solid. We ended up driving around for a few extra hours, then getting a room at a LaQuinta in a neighboring town. It was a fitting end to a pretty frustrating day (see my last post).

So I get up a few hours later, and get to the airport. The flight I was attempting to get on was going to be very late, so they put me, still standby, on a different flight, this one connecting through Memphis instead of Minneapolis. This flight was supposed to leave at 9:35. There was some weather in Denver, so all the flights kept getting pushed back and back. The 9:35 became the 10:00 became the 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, and finally the 11:00. This would put us in to Memphis at 2:00pm, they said.

The flight had finished boarding and they started calling the stand-by people, and thankfully, I was the last name called. I sat down and pretty immediately fell asleep. When I woke up I looked at my watch. It was 2:05. We were supposed to land at 2:00, and we were definitely still in the air. My connection flight to Nashville was supposed to leave at 2:30, so time was of the essence.

We finally landed at around 2:20, and I got off the plane at 2:26. Carrying a large bag and a bass guitar over my shoulder I took off at a gimp-footed sprint from gate C10 to gate B30. Holy cow. I am out of shape. I get to the gate, and see a closed door and no people anywhere. I look out the window to watch the jetway pull away from the plane, and the plane slowly rolling away. It's 2:31. Dang it.

Breathing way too heavily, I pulled out my phone to call Alison, to tell her I was going to have to rent a car or I would get home at 9, an hour after our dinner reservations for our Anniversary date. As I was walking down the hallway, a janitor with a radio came up and grabbed my arm. "What are you doing? Get over here!" he yelled at me.

I was confused.

He took me to a lady from the airline. "Where have you been?" she asked and opened the door to the jetway, barely looking at my standby slip. I walked down the jetway, and there was the plane, its door still closed. The lady had followed me down and began to knock on the door. A stewardess opened it and let me on the plane. "Just take any seat," she said.

I sat down and the plane immediately pulled away from the gate. I had been on the ground in Memphis now for seven whole minutes. So I get home in time to play with my daughter and take my wife out for dinner. My baggage even made if home. Remember, the plane had left the gate, and came back! I have never seen that before. It was like a movie. Thank you God for getting me on that plane, and thank you folks who prayed on my behalf, I am sure it was an answer.

Our date was great, and we are now packing up to visit my family in Normal. We're going to leave in the early evening, so hopefully Ella will sleep for most of the drive. This will be our first road-trip with her, so we're sure it will be interesting.

Thanks again for your prayers and well-wishes, and thanks to the folks who came up and said hello at Estes. Have a great weekend and I'll write more soon.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

So here I am, August 3, my third wedding anniversary, on a plane to Denver to play at some Christian Music conference. Bummer. I’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll celebrate then, but I wish the miscommunication hadn’t happened and we hadn’t gotten booked today, that’s for sure. I was home all yesterday, though, which was great. The air-conditioning went out in our house while I was in California this past weekend, and one of our toilets sprung a leak, causing some nice carpet mildew. It’s all taken care of now, but I played handyman all day yesterday. Still, I got to hang out with my wife and hold my little, baby girl, and nothing makes me happier.
Once I get home tomorrow, though, I’ll get to be with them for quite a while before I have to travel extensively again. This nomadic traveling life is getting harder, not easier, though, with a family. Oh well, it won’t last forever… I’ll be traveling about as soon as I get home, though, but with my family. We’re going to visit my parents in Normal this weekend. We’ll get to see Mark and Dawn Lockett, their baby girl Eleni, my brother and his wife, and Bobes, as well, so it should be a lot of fun.
This past weekend was crazily hectic, but we played some fun shows and got to see some beautiful country. We did our first show in San Diego, then slept a few hours, got on a plane and flew to Washington, got in a van, drove three hours to play at Creation West at a place called “The Gorge�, which is easily the most beautiful music venue in the country. Then we drove back three hours to Seattle, slept a bit more, hung out a bit the next day there, enjoyed some fine Alaskan Amber, then got on another plane back to California, this time to San Jose. From there we piled in yet another van to drive a few hours to Monterey, where we played two shows over two days, at the Spirit West Coast festival and then the Monterey Presidio Military Base.
The latter was pretty interesting. The base holds the Defense Language Institute, where soldiers go to learn other languages for their assignments. Depending on the language, they have to be fluent within six to eighteen months. Most of them were learning Arabic, getting ready for Iraq placement. Pretty heavy stuff. And we got to meet some real, actual spies. At least, we think. We really wanted them to be spies. Just because that’s a way cooler story.
Ok, so I had to shut off my computer after that last sentence, because we were about to land. Now I’m in, wait for it, wait for it…. another van to another show!! Anyway, back to Monterey. I did not get to go to the Steinbeck museum, but that’s ok. A girl named Bethany Dillon opened both of our shows, and she was really good. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a new Christian artist that I actually enjoyed. I’ll be excited to watch her in the next few years. Good hang, too.
Well, I guess that’s about it. Just been playing shows, and waiting to get back home. Tomorrow, I was supposed to stay here in Colorado for most of the day, for an interview or something, but I told the band that I needed to get home to take my wife out to dinner, so I’m going to head to the airport very, very, very early tomorrow morning. I’m going to try to get home flying stand-by, so please say a prayer for me that I’ll be able to get a seat, and get home quickly and safely. Thanks again for all of you that came out to the shows and said hello. It was great to see some old faces, and meet some new ones. I’ll let you know about my flight tomorrow.

Busy Days

Hey everyone,
thanks for the e-mails and comments on the new site, I'm glad you're all liking it. I think Chip did a great job. (Insert plug for Chip and his webskills right here) Anyway, this will have to be a quick update. It has really been crazy around here the past few days. This weekend I traveled out to Ft. Collins, CO to play a Caedmon's show at the Campus Crusade leadership conference. About 5000 people, and all very cool. One of the best audiences we've played to in a while. I also had some of the best pizza I've ever had in my life. A joint called "BeauFo's" or something like that. I' know I spelled it wrong. If someone knows, tell me and I'll fix it. Anyway, that pizza plus a Fat Tire on tap in its hometown: GOOD DINNER. The show was really fun as well.

Today was a pretty crazy day at the studio. We're inches from finishing the recording part of Greg Adkins' record, and we invited Ben Shive to come in and play some keyboard stuff and Andrew Peterson to come and sing on a song. Somehow that led to Chris Mason, Randall Goodgame, plus the above Ben and Andy, and Paul Eckberg and Todd Bragg, David, my intern, a guy with a great voice who I met today for the first time, Arthuer Alligood, and Greg and I, all in the basement at the same time. We got Andy, Chris, Randall and Ben to add bgv's, all around one mic, on both Greg's song "Heavenly Descent" and on my album recording of "early in the morning." What they did on that song just gave me chills. And I haven't laughed so hard since I saw episode four of "the Office."

We should finish up on Greg's album tomorrow, and then I'm off to California and Washington state for a LONG Caedmon's weekend. It will be a fun trip, we're going to a few of my favorite cities (Monterey, Seattle), but I really don't want to leave Alison and Ella for that long. Five days. That will be hard to do. I'm hoping the Steinbeck museum will be open while we're in Monterey, because I'm dying to go, but I've always been there on a Sunday, when it's closed.

Tonight was a fun little time as well. A few of my cousins and my Aunt Paula are all in town, from Kankakee, for a missions trip. They invited me to come and play for a little worship service they had tonight. David grabbed his djembe and came with me to play. I had to print out some lyrics, so I went to Paul's, because he's my neighbor with a printer, and he decided to come too. He played some perc on my songs and then guitar when we led worship. It was a really fun time. Both Paul and David are great musicians, good hangs and good friends, and we got to see some of my family and meet some of their friends, so it was a good time. Ella was up way too late, though. Ella, who, by the way, has started rolling over now, is I think, the cutest baby who ever lived. Just so you know.

Well, it's 12:30 and our session is starting tomorrow at 9:00am, so I need to get to bed. Thanks again for all your kind words and encouragement, and I hope to see some of you this weekend.

New Site Up Today!!!

Hey everybody,
welcome to my new website. Chip at Submerge Media has helped me with it all week, and I think it's fabulous. I won't blab much here right now, cause I have to be on a plane to Colorado in six hours, and oh, I should sleep a little before then.

BUT, there is a new new song up on the Drawing Board. Yes, I meant to say "new" twice. There is also a new free downloadable single. Please grab these tracks and pass them on to anyone you think would enjoy them.

I have wasted hours of my last two days going through my iPhoto for new shots to put up on the photos page, and Chip added a great new interface, so please don't let our time-wasting be in vain and check them out.

The album page now has clips for every record I've considered "my own" and has a discography of a lot of others I had a part in, at least that I can remember. If you know of others, please remind me.

< ------The links for my website are here on my left

and waaaaaaaaaaay over here on the right ------->
I have links to other websites, of my friends, gear I like, music I listen to, people who like my bands....

There is a new bio, updated tour dates, a working store, and, sorry all you mail-order Russian brides who were the only people besides Bobes and Phil to post on my message board in the last year, there is no longer a message board. Instead, you can post on these blog topics, and we can keep it nice and informal. (and spam-free!) To inspire conversation, I'll be posting a weekly, or pseudo-weekly discussion question on this page.

Check out the link to "my ebay" to see the pedals and accessories that are going in about two days. Somebody's missing out on a scream of a deal on that Chorus pedal.

So that's about it. When you have a few spare moments, please sit back, relax, enjoy some free tunes and explore... If you have any questions about the site or notice any bugs, please let us know.

As always, thank you, from my family and I, for your continued support, prayers, record-buying and concert-going. I'd be back at the temp agency if it wasn't for you guys, and I don't take it lightly. Grace and Peace to you all...