it's Friday night and the mood is right...

Man, it's almost 1 o'clock Saturday morning now and I'm about to head to bed. I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you guys know what was going on.

I've spent most of this week working on my record. I feel that it really turned a corner this week from being a work-in-progress to something almost finished. Most of the tracks are done and I'm about halfway through with the vocals. I'll have it done a healthy time before it goes to mix, which will be very refreshing for me. I'm almost always still recording while other songs are being mixed and I'm so glad to not have to do that on this one. It's really sounding amazing and I honestly can't wait for you to hear it. I think you'll really like it. I do.

A couple of days ago I was singing a vocal track for one of the songs and realized "I don't want to sing this." Some of the lyrics to these songs are quite personal and have been birthed out of things that aren't necessarily public fodder. Not that the thoughts weren't valid or worth writing about, but they all weren't the type of thing to put on a record and have to sing in two years in some club in Milwaukee. So I stayed up really late and re-wrote the lyrics for a couple different songs. I think (I hope) that they turned out even better than what I had originally, but it was a hard thing to do. Even though I knew I didn't want to use what I had, I really liked it, and so it was tough to let it go in hopes of finding something more, or at least equally, inspiring. The Lord provides, though, and I'm now more excited about both of these tracks. I won't have to mute the vocals when friends drop by the studio anymore. And Matthew Smith got his name in a song. Not "Smith" though, just "Matthew." In three months somebody will get to link to this post when somebody on a message board asks who they think that lyric is about, so I hope he likes it.

Today I worked on Matt Long's project, and we'll knock out a bit more tomorrow. Ben Shive kicked some major organ/piano butt and did pretty much the whole project in one day. For the recording enthusiasts out there I used a new preamp today, the A Designs "Pacifica", a new design based on the old Quad-8 boards, and I absolutely fell in love with it. A very up-front, punchy sound while still being very musical and full. A great counterpoint to the Neve's and API's I usually use. Anyway, enough geek talk.

I'm still on the hunt for a space to move the studio, though I'm chasing a few leads and hope to find something next week. If you're the praying type, I would appreciate your prayers for this search. I know it's going to be a great thing, but it's been a bit draining and frustrating, on top of trying to get so many other things done. I'm confident, though, that the right place will make itself known in the right time. Ideally, it will be accompanied by a choir of heavenly angels singing Handel's "Messiah" while a bright beam of shining sunlight comes to rest on a glorious "For Rent" sign. I'll let you know.

That's about it from the work side. I've gotten to hang out and catch up with a lot of great friends this week, Cason, Ben, Jason Feller, Billy Cerveny, Justin Rosolino, etc... and I've really enjoyed it. Chris and Bethany Mason spent the evening over here and just left about a half an hour ago. We had a great time. Jeremy Casella and I are meeting tomorrow to plan some upcoming projects and I'm looking forward to that time as well.

All right, it is way past my bedtime, and I'm almost done with the book "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" which is freaking incredible, and so I'll probably be up a little bit more. Good night and thanks for stopping by.

good to be back

All righty then, the holidays are over and we're all getting back in the swing of things. I have about six posts in my head I will try to sit down and write in the next couple of weeks, but for today I'll just give you the quickies.

The Osenga Project, the pre-order site, is now up and running. Currently up there is a live video of one of the songs, taken from the last performance at the New City in Knoxville, and an acoustic demo of another of the new songs. Members have access to (what they hopefully would deem) the goodness and can comment and talk about it with each other. If you haven't pre-ordered, now is the time to do it to get the good stuff.

In similar news, my EP "Souvenirs and Postcards" is about out. To my untrained eye it looks like I've got about twenty copies left. Unlike "Photographs" a re-printing won't be for a while, so if you wanted to get a copy, I wouldn't wait. I'll take it out of stock on the store when that happens.

Cason and I are in the trenches of the new record this week, pouring on the guitars, at long last, and the stuff is coming together really well. I've had these songs in various states of complete disarray for so long that I've kind of grown scared of a few of them, and to finally hear them getting finished I am able to breathe all sorts of sighs of relief. And they're all going different, and better, places than I originally expected. Methinks Cason has something to do with this...

And finally, because what's a blog without one, here's a list of my new years resolutions (which will really be mine this year, as opposed to the year I was asked to write some for publication in CCM magazine and they changed all my answers...)

1. use that elliptical!! Lose the ol' 20.

2. read a book that's not a novel

3. write a book that is

4. be playing five to six solo shows a month by the end of the year

5. get the Velvet Eagle to be a sulf-sustaining entity, and most importantly, get it out of the basement!!

6. learn to mix on an analog console (I just got one, more on that later)

7. return phone calls and e-mails

8. find a mentor

9. take my wife on a vacation

10. foster a daily habit of study, prayer and meditation

With that I shall leave you. Blessings to you all in this new year! Thanks for your continued love and support for me, my music and my family. Stay classy 2006!