Mmm... Turkey Coma

I'm over at Paul's studio today, engineering a project Jeremy Casella is producing. Mark Polack is playing bass and Garett Buell is playing drums. I'm just setting up mics and turning knobs. For giggles we've got a 58 behind the drums going through a Jekyll and Hyde distortion pedal. Pretty rad.

Yesterday was a nice laid-back day. We ate way too much and the furthest I got from my house was the walk around back to put some garbage in the can. Nice. Even better? I went to bed at 7pm. Woke up at 9:30, read for an hour, swept the kitchen floor and went back to sleep.

I lost my ongoing game of Super Text Twist Wednesday night. At level 170, with 897,320 points. Not quite a million. Dang. The word was: towpath. I'm slowly building back up. Never worry, folks, I'm not giving up yet.

After the session today we're going to get out the Christmas decorations. People always say Christmas seems to come before they expect it, but me? I was hanging sleigh bells in July and had mistletoe up since Labor Day. I'm just that kind of guy. (Not really.)

All right, I should get back to work. Andy Peterson's Christmas Tour bus leaves tomorrow night to get to Houston. I'll post again on the drive.

if he were still in office, I'd vote him out

People often come up to me and say, "what can you possibly have against Ben Franklin?" And I tell them, just as I tell you now, it's because he won't let me sleep.

My first question is a tangent, let's get that out of the way. When ol' Ben tied a key to a kite, sent it out into the stormy sky and learned that lightning had electricity, did he get the snot shocked out of him? Seems like he would have. How come nobody ever writes about the three days he spent in the hospital with third degree burns in the shape of the key to the city of Philadelphia on his palms?

I digress.

Ben Frankling harnessed electricity. This was a huge thing. It allowed for the invention of the light bulb. I forget the source, but I believe it was the Smithsonian Institute, that said the light bulb was the single most life-changing invention since the wheel. Bigger than the printing press, the airplane or the internet. Why? Because it changed the length of the day. Because of the light bulb businesses can run at night, people can stay up later, our streets are bright at night. Sure, candles did that stuff, but apparently there was no comparison between the before and after. Interesting, I know. Somebody feel like googling that study and linking to it?

Ben Franklin also came up with Daylight Savings. This was a great invention for people who live on the Western half of their respective time zones. Here in the Eastern half, the daylight shows up at 5:30 am and it's dark, and I mean dark, by 5 pm. This is very lame.

The daylight we saved is the daylight I don't want.

This phenomenon has been making Ella wake up a good hour to two hours earlier than she did a couple weeks ago. I'm a musician. Before I got married I used to wake up at around 1 in the afternoon. I got married and it shifted to 11, then as the studio took off, it got closer to 10 and then 9:30. Well, now it's 8 and I want it to stop.

I realize most of you get up at 5, go to the gym, eat breakfast with your kids and are at the office by 8. But you have benefits and a retirement plan. Musicians don't have that stuff. We get free gear and the bragging rights of sleeping in. In my eyes, this makes us even.

Well, now I'm staying up til 1 or 2 am, which used to seem early, trying to write songs and get to a million points in Super Text Twist. And I'm waking up with Ella at 6:30 or 7. And I'm tired.

And it's all Ben Franklin's fault.

STT: 753,860

Behold the Rehearsal

Here are some shots from today's rehearsal for Andrew Peterson's Christmas tour. New Nashvillian Hitoshi Yamaguchi took most of these, since, you know, I was playing guitar.

And here is, um, me playing guitar... with the pronautilus Gabe Scott


The exterpable Andrew Peterson


The ubflorious Ben Shive


The pontabular Derek and Sandra Webb (McCracken)


The diswailishlable Gabe Scott and Garett Buell


The forliceous little pedal board I built for the latribious Andy Gullahorn to use after I leave the tour


The gilmishlior Fender ProSonic amp the rehearsal space had. I'm in love with it. I almost bought one, also red, at the late, great Broadway Music, but didn't and have regretted it ever since. If you see one somewhere, you can get it for me as a Christmas gift. I will thank you often and truly.


The extlivious band playing a song, or piece, or whatever you kids call them these days


Cason's playing bass on the tour. He and I were standing on stage talking when Gabe came up to inform us that for about twenty minutes we had both been noodling around on our respective instruments, through amps, at large volumes, in completely different keys and tempos, and hadn't noticed at all. Gabe thought that was pretty funny. I agreed. And now I'm going to bed. Happy Tuesday.

STT: 566,030

Top 12

Well, this is pretty rad. Christianity Today just published their list of Top 12 albums of the year, and my album The Morning is on it. Number 11. Not too shabby. What's even cooler is that a few of my friends, Derek Webb and Bebo Norman, also made it on the list. Here's the link to check it out...

Here's another link, in case you've got the "Thanksgiving can't come soon enough" boredom. This is the audio and a slew of photos from my solo show last month in Marysville, WA. Many thinks to Tony Kevin for his help both putting on the show and making it available on the web. You can find the goods here...

I just got back from the rehearsal for Andrew Peterson's Christmas Tour. I have some pictures and will post them in a little bit. Right now, I'm really hungry...

STT: 452,340

PrePro Video

Apparently, I'm making up for a low-blog week...

Here's a video of some of last week's highlights with Caedmon's in preproduction. I'm new to iMovie, so forgive the editing. Also, I felt bad about the fake clip I posted last week (even though I still think it was funny...) so I put a little bit more of a new song on here than I probably should. Enjoy...



STT: 339,310