tired

It's only quarter after midnight, but I am so beat. Just a quick update for the week. I've been at Paul Eckberg's house all week, where he just finished building his drum studio. We recorded drums and bass with he and Aaron Sands on both Greg Adkins' and Kevin Lawson's records. Paul also played a track for Chris Mason's EP and threw down some love on my new tune "white dove" after the sessions were over. We had a great time. Paul's new place is killer and we got great sounds. Aaron and I actually went to the same high school, but never met until years later here in Nashville. We got to know each other while I was touring with Jars of Clay and he was playing bass with them. Both great guys and we had a lot of fun. Now we're back at my studio and tomorrow will be working with Greg Adkins again, starting the guitars and keyboards.

In other news, The BBC version of the Office is amazing. I'm only four episodes into it, but I've watched that fourth episode five times. I can't stop. I'm going to Houston for two days this weekend. Caedmon's will be a part of Second Baptist's Missions Weekend. We'll be putting in a few appearances on the behalf of the Dalit Freedom Network. Speaking of, I just put some gear up on Ebay, and they have a new option where a portion of your final price can go to a charity. So part of all my auctions is going to Dalit Freedom Network. I was pretty excited to see they were a part of it.

Other than that, I go to the toe doctor again in the morning. We'll see how I'm shaping up. I'm getting around a lot better these days. I don't think of it unless I'm walking a good distance, on stairs, or at the end of the day. Oh, and last weekend, Garett wheel-chaired me through Midway Airport in Chicago. That was fun.

My dear, sweet wife is having an interesting week trying to teach our daughter how to nap. Unfortunately, we think Ella has some of her father's insomnia and she doesn't like taking naps during the day. Alison has been great, putting her on a nice, tight schedule so she'll get in the habit of sleeping an hour or two every three hours. It's pretty grueling for Alison, though, and I hope I'm more of a help than a hindrance when I get off work and want to be with both of them. It's so amazing watching this new side of my wife develop. Even though it's really tough and tiring, she's such a natural and is so patient and loving with Ella, and it's incredible to watch. And for those of you who've had babies, we think Ella has started "finding her hands" this week, and that's been a blast to watch. "Hey, look at that thing! If I try really hard I can make it hit that other thing! This is so cool! I should stick it in my mouth!"

Well, I'm obviously too tired to be writing. Hopefully I'll see a few of you in Houston, you'll all go bid on my ebay stuff and we'll all have nice, restful weekends and easy slack-off Friday afternoons. Sleep well...

about to put some gear on ebay

This will be a quick little post. I've got a few pieces of recording gear I'm about to put on ebay, but I thought I would see if any of you wanted them, and I could avoid ebay. There are three pieces.

1. Presonus Blue Tube 2-channel tube pre-amp. it's got phantom and DI as well as just regular mic pre. It would sound great for home recording. I did all the electric guitars, and just about everything else, on "Photographs" through them. I'll sell it for $100 bucks, shipping included.

2. Lexicon MPX 110 effects processor. Here's a link to it: http://www.lexiconpro.com/mpx110/index.asp It's a GREAT sounding reverb, delay, phase, flange and other weird sounds. I know some people have used it in a guitar rig, but it's more well-suited for live sound or recording. It will also take MIDI in to sync with tempos. If you're using a hard disk, tape, or low-end digital recorder, this would be perfect. I just got some new plug-ins for my ProTools that do most of this stuff, the rest I can do with my pedal board. It's in perfect shape and I have the original box and power supply and manual and all of that. I'll sell it for $125, shipping included.

3. Yamaha D1030 Digital Delay Processor. This is one of the best delay units ever made. Here's a link to it: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/D1030/ It has one input and three outputs, each with its own delay time and EQ. They list new for $1400 and sell for $1150. This one is missing a button front, (the button still works) and is a little beat-up. I got it from a sound company after a tour. I haven't really used it, because I have so many delay pedals that I'm more familiar with, but it seems to work fine. And I'm sure it sounds way better. It would be great for a racked guitar rig, for recording, or for live sound. I'll sell it for $700 or best offer.

If you're interested at all in any of these, just send me an e-mail: andrew@andrewosenga.com Thanks so much!

first show in a long time

Well, I'm in a Holiday Inn outside of Chicago, about to go to sleep. Caedmon's played their first show tonight in over three months. It was a lot of fun. I was worried that we would be pretty rusty, but if came very naturally and was a really fun show. My parents drove up, and some other family, who I haven't seen in quite a while, came out. It was good see them. I played two songs in the middle of the set, High School Band, and New Beginning, which is a tune I'm working on for my next record.

It's always fun to fly to shows because you have to limit yourself to the instruments you can take on a plane and then use the amps provided for you. We request certain items, (drums, amps, Hammond organ, etc...) and probably get what we request 3/4 of the time. I used to always get a Vox AC30 and a Fender Twin, but I switched that Twin to a Fender Blues Deville on our newest rider. Tonight was the first night I played through one, and man, it sounded incredibly. So much warmer and deep than the Twin. I also got to use my new flight board for the first time. It all worked well and sounded great.

I had a great time playing. It was really fun to be with the band again. Cliff and Danielle's new baby boy, Benjamin, is six weeks old and he can't really be apart from Danielle yet, so he came with them. He is SO cute. It was kind of weird to see another baby's face. I'm so used to Ella's on a little baby body like that. He was really adorable, though, and makes the cutest little noises.

The church we played at tonight had a little pile of gear over in the corner of our dressing room. There was a Rhodes electric piano, a small 6-channel mixer, some speakers and a little case of Boss pedals. Ben Shive had left his Rhodes at my studio for a while, and I was using it all over the place. He came and got it last week and it got me started looking for one of my own. I asked someone from the church if it got used, and if they would think about selling it. He went and asked around and came back to tell me that it, and the whole pile of gear, was mine. I was pretty floored. Since my parents came to the show, I threw the stuff in their car and will get it in a few weeks when we see them again. I'm so excited. Todd is going to take the mixer and use it for some small recordings in his basement. I might use the speakers as amp cabinets, or playback speakers in my tracking room. It was a pretty huge gift, and I'm very thankful.

Well, I've got to try and get some sleep. We've got to get up fairly early to make our flight. Thanks to everybody who came to the show tonight, And remember, call your dad's today, it's Father's Day.

can't go on

it's 4 am. At midnight I felt tired enough to not take my sleeping medicine. I was wrong. Oh well. I'm a pretty great procrastinator, especially when I'm trying to convince myself to go to bed late nights have been a big part of my songwriting time. Unfortunately, I don't really have the luxury of late night writing much anymore, and my days are so much busier now with the studio, my family, life in general, than it was when I was 19. It's become very hard for me to write songs at all because of this, and when I get the time I can psyche myself out because I feel like it's so rare that it really has to count. Tonight, though, I wandered down, at about 2:30, and sat at the ol' blue piano and actually wrote a song. Now, it's not very good, but at least I wrote something.

I've been digging the sounds we've gotten with Chris Mason's EP, and I wanted to try to capture something else in that vein. I half wrote it as an excuse to have something to record with a mic'ing technique that I came up with the other day. I've been trying to think of creative ways of picking up a performance of a singer with his instrument. It's pretty easy with guitar, but piano is way harder. I set up two mics, each about a foot from my mouth and a foot in front of the hammers on the piano, and the mics were pointed straight at me. Well, it turns out, it sounds terrible, and it's 4 am and my voice was shot, anyway. And I didn't really have any chords or melody for the verses, just words and then a chorus part. I guess that means I didn't really write a song. Oh well.

The lyrics aren't the greatest, but they're not too bad, either. I think I'll write them out, just because it's late enough that I don't know better. Oh, and speaking of not knowing better. I think I might have insinuated in a post a few days ago that Chris didn't sing very well on his last record. At least, I think I phrased it awkwardly enough to make people think that. As my wife can attest, I am almost constantly offending people and also almost constantly unaware of it. You'd think I'd have learned after just insulting a church full of tons of people I care about, but I just like the taste of my own feet, apparently. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure and say that Chris sang well on his last record. Very well. It wasn't like it was awful or anything, at all. He's just gotten so much better that we were amazed at how little work we had to do this time. Compared to anybody. So, Chris, you're great, I meant it as a compliment, sorry if it didn't sound like it. Ok, so here are some mediocre lyrics, with a few nice moments. I just think it will be fun if some of these find their way into something that gets released and you can say you saw it here first.

can't go on

I've been an angry man,
I've been a bitter soul,
I threw away good things I had
for others I could not hold

and I trusted the wrong things,
I gave in so easily,
I don't know if I'm surprised
at what's really inside of me

but I can't go on,
I can't go on,
I can't go on like this

they say time is a river
of sadness and healing,
washes away the things we love
yet it cleans us when we're bleeding,

but I've been leaving the tv on,
cause I'm scared of the silence,
scared of what I will find,
of a raging, animal violence

and I can't go on,
I can't go on,
I can't go on like this

and if I'm here to die,
let my dry bones dance
under this breaking (wounded) sky
that has witnessed my forgiveness
cause I threw the game
for a worthless bet
but He who has begun it
will be faithful to the end

and I can't go on,
I can't go on,
I can't go on like this



I think I really dig that first verse, but not too sure about the second. The bridge interests me as an idea, but not as a finished product. I'd like to really bring out the idea that the chorus changes its meaning after the bridge, that because God is faithful to complete His good work in me, I can not help but be changing for the better. That's probably one of those over-thought intentions that only Bobes and Ben Shive will ever get, but hey... I wish I could just play you the chorus, because the music to it is pretty cool, I think. The piano just brings out such different movement in the chords. Even for people who play piano as terribly as me. I just love the seperation of right and left hand movement. Ok, it's obvious, to me at least, that I am officially in sleep-deprivation babble talk. I will now try to go to bed. Good night.

I don't want to come across as Capt. Brag-all-the-time, but I just killed a huge spider. Thank you.