The Camera That Does It All...

It focuses automatically, while counting down from 10, to give us this stunningly clear and beautiful portrait of a rock band who, tonight in rehearsal, put five sets of earplugs to very good use...



That's Matt Odmark, on guitar, to the fuzzy left. To his blurry right stands Jeff Pardo, on the keyboards. We are anchored, as usual, by the hazy cloud of drummer Paul Eckberg, who is, of course, being "Chorus-Lined" by Chris Weigel, our foggy bass player. On the right, having tripped over two chords in a hurry to get in the picture just in time to be near enough the others to communicate the idea that "I think these guys are cool and I wish they liked me" stands yours truly, indistinctly orb-faced. To my right you will notice a very pristinely focused mic stand.

The shows are going to be great. I think they'll also be mostly in tune. This will contribute to the greatness (by not detracting). Ok, I'm obviously too tired to be writing anymore. If you're in Nashville, or near Nashville, or thinking of moving, or thinking of a friend who thought of moving, you should come to the show.

Thursday night, 3rd and Lindsley. Five bucks. That'll break down to something like $.60 a song, give or take. That's a deal. And I promise, tomorrow I'll do my very best to finish my thoughts on the link from a few days ago. You guys are the greatest, thanks for coming by.

I wasn't lying...

So I wasn't lying a couple days ago when I said I had some thoughts to come about the U2 church thing, I just haven't had time to write them down. Pretty much since the moment I got home from our trip this weekend I've been with a baby or working on songs. We start the final pre-production next week for Caedmon's and Randall and I are trying to get all the tunes in order. Of course, we ended up writing about four more in the last week, but you know...

In a little bit I'm heading over to rehearse for my next two Nashville rock shows, which you all should come to. I'll try to remember to bring my camera and post a few photos. More soon...

Hope to Make it Through

Cliff and Danielle had to head back to Houston this morning and the rest of the band and I had to do a few songs this morning at a conference. We did fine with songs for people to sing along with, but they wanted us to do a Caedmon's song at the end.

This was not a good idea.

I don't sing lead on any of "the hits" (at least, not yet) so we tried the song Hope to Carry On. Our road manager, Kevin, played acoustic and sang harmonies. I've played this song hundreds of times, however, I always sing a harmony, not the lead. After three and half minutes of me starting a verse on one part only to squirrel down to hopefully find the other we were finished and walked off the stage.

If I were to sum up my vocal performance with a familiar three-word phrase it would have to be "puberty-strewn donkey".

Also, here is Cliff juggling and eating an apple. Thoughts on the U2 church to come...

So last night I wrote about distraction...

Everybody knows I love U2. Well, apparently not as much as the folks at this church. They had a U2 Christmas Show!!.

Check out the clips, and let's discuss this. I have a hundred thoughts and I don't know where to begin...

I always wanted to play professional background music

I lost a best-of-3 rocks, paper, scissors contest with Cliff tonight, so in a few minutes I have to play background music while somebody prays.

I never know what to do in those moments, because, personally, I don't like to hear music while people talk, let alone pray. I usually find it really distracting.

Also, as a player, I always start out playing some hymn and end up in a (very prayerful) Zeppelin tune. Or possibly "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago.

Thoughts on this? Or requests?