saw this on myspace today

Amen.

Also, for those of you who like to know that I don't make up everything I put in my songs, check out this link Curt sent me this morning...

Tonight at the Radio Cafe

It will probably be past midnight by the time this posts, but tonight was really another blast. If you live in town and you haven't come out to one of these Square Peg shows, you've got to come down. We won't be doing them forever, and it's really a fun time. I brought my camera tonight so I could show you what was going on. The lights were off, so I tried to use the flash or the weird "night" setting on my camera. It makes it look light in there, but it wasn't, it was a cool vibe.



Here's Matthew Perryman Jones playing a song that is better than any of mine. He is honestly one of my favorite artists. He played a song tonight that didn't make it on his new record, and it really blew me away. I mean, it was kind of dumb in how great it was. I felt like I was 12 and trying to find a rhyme for "monkies" in my bedroom when I had to play a song right after him.



Here is one of my two green shoes. I have two because shoes are usually sold in pairs. I wore my green ones tonight because it just felt right.



I didn't think I would have any pictures of me to share with you, but somebody must have grabbed my camera and snapped a few of my (and my shoes) while I was playing. That was very kind of this mystery friend. I bet it was Eric Peters.



I played three songs tonight: Santa Barbara (acoustic! Aaaahhh!!), my new one Between the Good and the Normals' tune I'll Be Home Soon.



Again, the greenies.



Matthew, Sandra, Billy and Chris making big plans while Andy Peterson sings about the lady pope. Sandra asked me to get up and play and sing her song Gypsy Flat Road with her, a song which I don't think I've ever played before. It was really fun. She's really great and her new record, which comes out in two weeks, is really, really strong. Chris played a couple of songs from his EP Six Songs which Cason and I produced. It was fun to hear those songs live. Chris has really grown as a songwriter, but I think he's grown vocally more, and he really did a great job tonight.



Andy P.



Billy Cerveny offending as many people as he possibly can with one song. About a cow. Who predicts the outcome of presidential elections by pooping on a picture of the winning candidate. It's a true story.



Oh, and I should say Eric Peters rocked my world tonight with a couple of songs off of his new record Scarce. I played the song Squeeze with him, it's one of my favorites of his, and he also did You Can Be Yourself which has one of the greatest melodies I've heard in a long time. Why he's not huge is a total mystery to me. He writes some of the best pop songs I've heard in a long time. Infinitely listenable.

All right, I need to go to bed. I've got to be back at the studio in the morning. Thanks again to all of you who came out, especially to those of you who drove a long way to be here (Alabama, Georgia, Chattanooga...).

After the show I hung out for a while, just catching up, with Matthew and Billy, then Cason and Jonah Sage, an artist he's producing. It was just great to hang and spend a bit of time together. I drove home and both Alison and Ella were asleep, so I went from bedroom to bedroom kissing foreheads and gazing at these people who I'm so lucky to live with, love, and have love me. After the time tonight playing music I love with friends I love in this city I love, to come home to my beautiful family...

I do not deserve it. I am a lucky man.

Don't Try This At Home

Two things:

1. Square Peg show tonight at the Radio Cafe! I'm playing tonight as well as...

Sandra McCracken
Billy Cerveny
Andrew Peterson
Chris Mason
Matthew Perryman Jones

The show's at 8 and it's free (unless you're under 21, then it might but $5. It was a little weird that way last week. The show will be great, though, I'm sure, and I'll be debuting the new, as of yet untitled, song.

2. Yesterday, over here at Sputnik, I got paid to do this...

[audio:http://www.andyosenga.com/files/whacked%20Andy.mp3]

And even weirder, within the context of the song everybody seemed to think it was pretty cool.

I love my job.

Early in the Morning - Live at the Radio Cafe

For those of you who weren't able to come to the Square Peg Alliance show this past week, Geof Morris over at SquarePegAlliance.net recorded this great-sounding performance of my song Early in the Morning. I love how you can hear the crowd singing along. What a great night.

[audio:http://www.andyosenga.com/files/Early%20in%20the%20Morning.mp3]

True or False 2

All right kids! Tonight we're going to play another round of True or False, the game where I give you a statement, you write down whether you think it's true or false, and then I tell you the answer. Remember, it's only opinion, and mine are right. Here we go...

1. James Taylor is awesome.

2. Joan Collins is scary.

3. I am terrible at maintaining a lawn.

4. AndyGullahorn.com is a waste of your time.

5. There is no secret ingredient in McDonald's fries.

6. Plastic surgery is rarely noticeable.

7. I can't wait to go to bed tonight.

And now the answers...

1. False. He's boring. Most of my friends think he's really great, but I pretty much can't listen to him. Especially "shower THEEEEE people you love with love, show them THEEEEE way that you FEE-HHEEEL." Painful.

2. True. And very. Alison's watching the Emmy's right now. I don't really know who she is or what she's done, but she'll probably come at me with a knife in a nightmare soon. A Zombie nightmare.

3. True. I just mowed and did some weed-whacking. I need to call my brother, who is a part-time landscaper, to tell me what to do past that. And I probably won't do what he tells me because it all sounds frightening. And, you know, the toe thing...

4. False. AndyGullahorn.com is one of my favorite websites. Not only is he a brilliant songwriter, which he unarguably is, but he's freaking hilarious. His site has a review of each his concerts, in the form of a haiku, an opinions page, where he rates things from 1 to 5 Gullys, and a pretty great picture of Carman.

5. False. The rumour is that the secret ingredient is sugar. Think about it. You can't deny the sweetness. And the addiction.

6. False. It is VERY noticeable. Especially in every person who used to be a Charlie's Angel. They were just on the Emmy's. They look like nylon cats. Stephen Colbert, though, was just pretty brilliant in announcing the best reality show and lamenting his loss to Barry Manilow. I love that guy.

7. True. Because I am very tired.