I'm sitting in the back seat of Andy P's van, heading North from Austin to Dallas, where we'll hang a right and head east over to Louisiana for our show tonight in Ruston at Lousiana Tech. Cason's driving, Will's running shotgun and they're playing The Band's "Songs from Big Pink" which easily holds the record for the thickest grooves white people are legally allowed to play.

We played Jason's show in Austin at University of Texas last night. It was fun, a beautiful night for an outdoor event. Jason did six or seven band songs and I played two: "Kankakee" and "House of Mirrors". We didn't get to eat dinner until around 10:30 or so, but thankfully the place we went had Fat Tire on tap, so it was worth the wait.

We left Nashville on Tuesday afternoon and drove straight to Austin, getting there at 6 am. That hurt. But we didn't have to drive anywhere yesterday. Today we'll get to Ruston, play there, then head up to Arkadelphia, where we'll spend the next two nights. We'll get to spend two days where we can sleep in a little bit and hang out, but today is pretty much all driving.

This is about the most fun group of guys I could imagine hanging out with. I drove the last leg to Austin and Cason was shotgun. Andy's van is the same model we had in the Normals and we started getting all "remember the days" and listening to the tunes we always played on our trips. The Samples, Lyle Lovett, good times...

We're listening to Ben Shive's working rough mixes right now. Cason's co-producing that record and Will and Jeff laid down the basic tracks. It is fantastic. Ben is probably one of my favorite songwriters I've ever heard, and I do not say that lightly. I've told him for years that whenever he releases an album of his songs it will be my favorite album of that year, and I think I was right. I'll keep you all posted so you can support him when it comes out.

Speaking of releasing records, I have a release date for both "The Morning" and the "Photographs" re-release. May 2. Mark your calendars. HA. That was a funny joke. I thought releasing them the same day would be pretty fun, not to mention a lot easier, so that's what I'll be doing.

Rick Felkel from Elloree is coming to our show today and he's going to bring Cason and I the guitars he built for us. I can't wait. I'll make sure and get some photos and post them tomorrow.

And speaking of photos, here are a few of our trip so far. Here's Jason in the back seat working out a new tune...



And Jeff waxing poetic about tofu...



SAMPLE CONVERSATION

Andy : Jeff, what IS tofu?
Jeff (a vegetarian) : compressed soy curds (or something like that)
Will : what does it taste like?
Jeff : it depends on how you make it. It doesn't really taste like anything by itself.
Andy : is it good for you?
Jeff : it's a superfood.

Here's Cason and WIll practicing great driving safety activities. Notice that the whole time Cason is not looking at the road his hands are at 10 and 2. What a pro.



And here's me blogging it up...



And while we're on the camera phone picture tip, here's one Ella took of herself the other morning when she was playing with my phone (possibly her favorite toy)



Well, that will be it for me today. I'll post again tomorrow about tonight's show. Also, extra rock points for the first person to comment on what they saw about yours truly and um, this website's truly on page 38 of this month's always interesting CCM magazine.

these are a few of my favorite things

I've been having a pretty good time these past few weeks and thought I would do a nice stereotypical blog thing...

Things that have made me smile recently...
(in no particular order)

1. playing bass
2. Ella reaching out both her hands so I'll hold her
3. Andrew Peterson
4. Scrubs, season 3
5. a 57 through a Neve
6. cheesy science fiction novels
7. Alison's unique personal dialect
8. my Les Paul
9. South Park vs. Scientology
10. Paul Eckberg
11. seeing squirrels in my front yard
12. Jason Feller and his songs in my head
13. Ella's laugh
14. t-shirt sheets
15. Apple store refurbs
16. Cason Cooley
17. "The Morning"
18. setting up chairs early at church
19. Led Zeppelin IV
20. the Will Power of Will Sayles
21. my annoying neighbors who blew up their house
22. my Strat
23. Jeff Irwin and his new myspace group
24. my new cd's artwork
25. my BadCat amp
26. Todd Bragg
27. my wife's blog
28. The Cardigans "Long Gone Before Daylight" album
29. walking down to the studio and finding an empty room
30. naps
31. my neighborhood
32. Josh Moore and the band The Valentines
33. Ella thinks her rubber ducky talks to her in the bath
(it's really Alison or me. Rubber ducks don't talk.)
34. The Bar-B-Cutie

rock and roll week

Thanks to everybody who left comments about the cover and title for the new record. I really feel great about it all, and think the ideas have been pretty well captured by the artwork. I should have an actual release date for you in a day or two, but it will be around a month or so. We're finishing up the mastering and artwork this week.

I'm playing four shows this week, in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. The dates are on the tour page. I'll be playing new and old songs and hope to have some limited edition pre-release cd's, featuring some of the new songs, available. I'll know more tomorrow.

The band has changed around a bit since ol' Paul Eckberg had to go and get the chance to play for Amy Grant, thus paying his mortgage well into his 50's. The indubitably spectacular Will Sayles is going to play the run instead, and that will be a blast. He and Jeff Irwin played the drums and bass on the bulk of The Morning and they, as well as Cason and Jason Feller, will be with me all week. Oh man, we're going to have a loud, fun time. I'll try to update daily from the road, so keep checking in. We're rehearsing a bit tomorrow and then heading out for Austin on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to a bit of rock and roll this week.

In other news, the Pantagraph, the newspaper in my hometown of Normal, IL just did a story on The Normals, my old band. I think it turned out pretty well.

I guess that's about it. I actually had a day off this past week and it was great. I hung out with the Ells, who's such a blast these days, and just rested up a bit. I've sold off about half of the gear in the studio and will probably put the rest of it up on ebay after this week's trip.

Oh yeah, I played bass at church again this morning, and I just have to say. Bass is the most fun instrument in the world. I am totally not good but I have such a blast playing.

Well, have a great Monday everybody. If you're near Austin, Ruston, LA, Arkadelphia or Little Rock, come on out and support us at our rock and roll shows. Take care and I'll see you out there.

cover and title

The Eagle Has Landed

So I've been talking on here about my search for a new place to move my studio. You probably also know that I've had a few promising things fall through. About a week and a half ago I got news of yet another idea crumbling apart and finally just spent some time in prayer about it. I felt like I knew pretty instantly what I needed to do.

I've decided to close down my studio.

I'm going to finish up the projects I have on the books and that will be it. I'm going to sell off all my gear but a few necessities for demos and the occasional overdub.

There are many reasons that make this somewhat abrupt change seem like the right one, the first of which is how clearly I feel I'm being led. This is also going to give me more time with my family and time for rest.

The studio requires a ton of time to keep going, and frankly, I'm just worn completely out. To move it out of the house would take even more time and also more money, and this fact grew more evident with each passing day. And it's money I don't frankly have (as all you pre-order folks know...) If that was the only thing I wanted to do for a couple years I could probably make it work, but it's not, so I'm really not in the position to make that move.

This will give me a lot of freedom, freedom to spend more time and effort on my solo career (i.e. booking and playing more shows), on becoming a better guitar player and on writing more songs, both for me and other people.

It's not that I'll stop working on records, in all honesty I'll probably work on more. The weird thing is that the studio kept getting more successful, so when I would get called to do guitar work on other records or asked to help out writing songs for other people I had to keep turning them down. Frankly, these are things I enjoy more than recording acoustic guitars in my basement.

I'll still try to produce a couple of records a year, but not twenty, and more importantly, NOT IN MY HOUSE! I'll just freelance at other studios for this season, and that is all right with me. The important thing is not owning gear, it's knowing how to use it and knowing the purpose behind using it, and I feel I've learned that over the past four years of owning my own room.

I've gotten to make some incredible music with some incredible artists and it wasn't without some sadness last week when I put everything in boxes. I don't regret the time I've spent pursuing this direction and I don't feel I'll be gone from it forever. I'm really humbled and grateful for all the amazing people that decided to put their hearts to melody and place the scalpel in my hands. I hope I've done a good job for them.

So, yeah, that's my big news. I'm not scared about the future, a little curious, perhaps, at how it will all come together, but I trust it's the right thing and I'm truly excited about the opportunities this will present. Again, the gear for sale is here, and if you see something you want, just send me an e-mail. It's a first-come, first-serve deal and I'm just hoping to not have to take much to ebay. Too much hassle. I just want to get it out of here, so I'm not tempted to take another job, and move on.

Thanks to all of you for your prayer and support for us as my family and I take these steps. I'll start trying to book some solo shows here soon, so if you have or know of a place that has folks like me in, please let me know. Thanks again to all of you and I'll keep you posted.