El Weekende de Cason y Katie

One of my dearest friends, Cason, got married this weekend. It was way too big of a time to do a play-by-play, but here were a few highlights...

- After quite a long round of toasts during the Rehearsal dinner Cason got up and spoke for a few short minutes about the people in the room, love, Katie and a few other things. Some of what he said was truly amazing. I realized it was the first time I'd ever seen him formally speak in front of a crowd.

Cason's a talker, and a good one at that, but for the last ten years he's sat next to me on stage while I've talked, or Jeremy or Derek or Mat or whoever. If I'm ever accused of saying interesting or meaningful things, a huge part of those thoughts would come from conversations with Cason, and I know that's the case with all those other guys as well. It was a cool moment to see and hear him so eloquently and powerfully speak himself.

- An odd variation on the band that used to be The Normals tends to show up at the receptions of certain weddings and they (we) were there in full force last night. We call ourselves The Prenuptial Agreement. In no real order the band was: B.J. Aberle on bass, Mike Taquino on drums, Randall Goodgame on keyboards, Mark Lockett and myself on guitars, Matthew Perryman Jones, Billy Cerveny and I all singing. During "Play that Funky Music, White Boy" B.J. led us in a little breakdown where we sang the chorus of Cason's lone Normals tune, titled "King". Oh, and Matthew and I sang Bruce Cockburn's "Southland of the Heart" as the first dance.

- Kevin Twit was the officiating pastor. He walked in shortly before the ceremony and realized that he had "married" seven of nine groomsmen, Alison and me included. Standing there listening to him preach what I've heard so many times, I still found myself saying "huh" under my breath and hoping that I'd remember the wisdom and truth had just said later on.

- Katie is an event planner, and a good one. I'm a picky eater. I'm always scared when I'm hungry and I go to a formal event that dinner will be long on titles and short on actual food. Not the case. The food was fancy and cool-looking. It was also amazing and were it not for the booty-shaking of the Prenuptial Agreement I would have gained ten pounds this weekend.

- We got to spend good time with so many old friends. And so many of their new children. What a huge blessing to see friends grow older and watch families almost literally springing up in front of your eyes.

- It was great to have all five Normals together for a few brief moments. Talks of an EP surfaced again and I've already got a verse and a chorus written this morning in effort to actually make it happen.

- Jeremy Casella and I were co-best men. Four and a half years ago Cason and Mark Lockett were the same for me. I got to stand there right beside my brother Jeremy as the beautiful harmonies of Derek and Sandra sweetly singing welcomed Cason's bride down the aisle to meet him.

Overall it was just a wonderful time. We are so happy for Cason and Katie. We were so grateful for the moments we got to share with dear friends. I wish every day could be spent in the company and celebration of love and friendship and family. Soon every day will be spent like that. That's what weddings hint at after all, isn't it?

First Dance

Quick question: If you're married, to what song did you have your first dance?

If you're not married, what song would you like that to be? If you've been married a couple times, which song was the best? And lastly, if Matthew Perryman Jones and I were going to sing that first dance song, like we did last night, what would you like to hear?

Cason's Wedding...

has kept me from having time to post the last few days. Stay tuned for an update by Sunday night.

Ben's dare

I have a sleeping baby in my arms, so I'm doing the one-finger type. This will probably be a short post.

We were working on a piano part today. Josh was playing wonderfully, as he always does. We got to one section that required some delicacy and he informed us that he was going to "channel Ben Shive". Ben, as some of you may know, is best-known as Andy Peterson's sidekick, but he's one of the best piano players I know (and songwriters, but that's another post). Most piano players I know wish they could play like Ben.

A few minutes after Josh's take was done we heard a knock on the door. It was Ben, dropping by to say hello. We decided to give him a dare. We handed him Aaron's chart, basically shorthand music notation, and said he'd get two takes, without hearing the song beforehand, and we'd see how amazing it was.

It was very amazing.

Not only was it beautiful and brilliant, but he and Josh played THE EXACT SAME MELODY in the chorus. It was freaky. We all got chills. We decided that on the record we're going to use both Josh's and Ben's parts and pan them, one all the way to the left, one all the way to the right. I can't wait to dig into editing that stuff. You won't believe it when you hear it.

In other news, Derek Webb, a former member of the band (the one I replaced) came to the studio today as well. It was good to hang out. He just finished a new record and it's sounding really great.

All right, it's almost 2 am, my gear is finally all back home in my own studio and tomorrow I'm taking Ella to the zoo. I love that year-long Family pass. I think we'll try and see the tigers this time.

Quote of the day

"I've never seen a fat skeleton."

- Andy Hunt