Today was a pretty good day

Today was a pretty good day. Well, it started off a little (a lot) too early, since Ella is now getting up two hours earlier than she used to. After that, though, a couple of the neighbors and I planted a tree in another neighbor's back yard. All together there were ten dogs whose fences met there. We could barely talk over the barking.

Later this morning I went to my first co-writing appointment since Randall and I really dug into the Caedmon's record, and it went great. I think writing for people who aren't me has been a more difficult transition than I expected, but spending so much time writing for other people who I know and love has helped out immeasurably. I just had a blast today on the tune we came up with.

I think the fact that I've been cranking just about a tune every other day for this EP has helped, too. I just feel like I'm in a groove with it and it's awesome. As soon as I finish up a couple more tunes and feel decent about the mixes I'll put them up for you.

When my writing appointment was done I was planning on dropping by the new Indelible Grace record. Cason and Will, Andy Hunt, Kevin Twit and my neighbor Justin are all working on it. They were having a late lunch at Calypse Cafe, though, and so I got there just in time to grab a sandwich on their tab.

Afterwards we all headed back to the Smoakstack, Will's studio he runs with Paul Moak, and I just hung out for a while. It was nice to not have the pressure on and just get to be with my friends because we liked each other and not because we were getting paid to be together. Though it is nice that it usually works that way. And I ended up playing bass on a song just because I was there. And yeah, it was fun.

We had our small group tonight then most of the guys headed to the 12 South Tap Room to celebrate Paul Eckberg, who's about to leave town for a month to work at Young Life's Castaway Club up in Minnesota. Probably twelve years ago I had one of the most intense and amazing spiritual experience there and I'm more than a bit jealous he's going. And Eric Peters is doing music all month, too. I mean, come on.

Tomorrow I'm going to write most of the day and take a break for lunch, where I'll let some good friends with a corporate account feed me as a business expense. We do work together and we will talk business, though, so it's legit.

Bo Dauster posted a comment a few days ago with a line he offered for the EP and today I had a melodic breakthrough with it. I'm hoping to finish writing that song tomorrow. Ideally I'll get it recorded too. I feel like it's going to be pretty strong. I can't wait to dig in on it.

Well, I've got to get at least a little sleep before Ella wakes up and we watch a little Curious George. Thank you guys again and again and again for dropping by and letting me bore you with my life. And even more and more thanks for the lines, thoughts, photos and the hat that you've sent me as fodder for this project. More so than ever I'm aware of just how completely you guys allow me to do this. I'm so honored and humbled by your support.

Anyway, enough gushing. You folks rock. Keep checking back because I've got an even more bizarre, and hopefully awesome, idea to share with you as soon as I've got the song far enough for it to work. Tootleoo!

Songs, Rules and Africa

I'm here in the Velvet Eagle today, trying to catch up on email and write and record more tunes for the EP. I've got three songs finished now, and a couple more started. I've had the most success with tying in single words and phrases that you guys have sent in, so feel free to shoot me more of those today. I'm having a blast doing this.

For now, anyway, I've been setting myself with these rules:

1. Only one guitar, an acoustic, per song. However, there is no limit to how many tracks of that guitar I can use.

2. The only other instrument will be my voice, and again, I can use as many tracks as I want.

3. No picks.

We'll see if I can keep that up for six or seven songs, but for now it's been fun.

In other news, Caedmon's just got booked for three shows in South Africa in Late July. The dates are :

7/27 Hillcrest, Durban, ZA
7/28 Moreleta Park, Pretoria, ZA
7/29 Bellville, Capetown, ZA

I'll have more information as we get closer, but I think all the shows are festivals. Am I smelling a road trip???

Things I do not understand about products for children

- Why do clothes for infants have so many buttons? Not snaps, but actual buttons? And why are they always on the back? I assume the designers of infant clothing have never actually raised children.

- Why does the man with the yellow hat continue to tell George to stay put and not get into trouble? George never stays put and ALWAYS gets into trouble. Just because it always works out in the end should not change this. The man with the yellow hat is such a pragmatist.

- We have a bus that sings "The Wheels on the Bus" and a table that sings the ABC's. Both of these singers have been horribly and terribly auto-tuned. They sound like square waves and not singers. I have to listen to them dozens and dozens of times throughout the day. Why? Why?

You're the Inspiration

Wow, thanks so much to everybody who has left comments and sent me emails regarding my EP idea. I've gotten so many already it's going to take me a couple days to get through them. And I'd love some more. Please keep it coming. I've already finished one tune and started a second. I think this is going to be a really fun project. You guys are awesome.

On an unrelated note, I wanted to see if anybody there happens to have any sort of Mac computer laying around. My wife's old laptop screen got busted and it was barely working before that anyway. We're not in a place to get a new one but we need to replace it with something. So if anybody has something they've not gotten around to putting on ebay and would make us a good deal, we'd be grateful. Thanks.

Ok, now it's time to watch LOST from last night and then try to get some sleep. Thanks again for all the "inspirations". Please send me ideas as you have them. Oh, and what would you think about an acoustic version of New Beginning on the EP? With the new third verse I posted a few months ago...

Let's make some music!

Ok, I have an idea. I was talking with some friends the other night who were telling me that they think people seem to really like my solo acoustic stuff, like the Souvenirs and Postcards EP. They threw out the idea of releasing another EP like that since it will be a while until I have a new record out and the Caedmon's one is still a couple months away.

"That's a pretty good idea," I thought.

I have a pretty light Summer. A few records, a couple one-off shows, and some writing but that's about it. I want to take the next week or two and try to write and record some new songs. And after taking eight months to write and three months to record for Overdressed I want to do this one FAST.

I've learned over the past few years, as well, that I make better music in community than I do alone, so I want to try an experiment. As much as possible I want to make this record with you guys.

Here's what I'm thinking: I'm going to write and record the songs, that's my part. What I would love for you guys to do is to inspire me. Send me ideas for songs, whether they're stories you've heard, a word you think sounds cool, an idea you've wished somebody had written about. Send me paintings or drawings you've made, a photo you took that you can't stop looking at, whatever you think could inspire a song. I'm going to make my goal for this project to base every song off something from you guys.

I'd love to take any artwork that would come in and use it for a "virtual booklet", a PDF file you could download with the lyrics and credits. So, you know, don't send me anything you wouldn't want to be used in that way. Or that somebody else owns a copyright for.

I think this could be a really fun thing to try. I'm really excited for what could come of it. And I really do want to do it quickly, it seems like more fun that way (and I could use a bit of extra cash during this "light" season.)

So what do you think? Sound like something you'd like to be a part of? Feel free to leave ideas in the comments section or just send them to me at andrew(at)andrewosenga.com. Let's make some music!