I know a lot about the history of Cleveland, Ohio

Writing from Sputnik today. About to finish up some mixes for Owen Pye, who's doing a split EP with Nick, whose songs I recorded and produced.

I'm doing writing sessions all week, something both exciting and daunting for me. I love songs, but the writing is still something personal and hard for me to really invite others into. I was able to do it with the Normals and I've been able to do it with Randall, but those were both time-tested relationships. To walk into a room with a stranger and try to come up with something that will mean something is very different.

I learn a lot from these sessions, though. I learn that I write in chunks. I'm this way with my blog too. I rarely write little snippets to use later. I write three verses in three minutes. Then I spend the most of my time "writing" actually editing and trying to find any more inspiration that might be left for any other sections that still need to come.

If you were to compare me to a woodworker, I'd say that I start with an axe. The whittling comes later. Randall, on the other hand, starts whittling at the beginning. It takes him longer, and his songs are often more intricate than mine. I've learned a lot from him, though, and I continue to, and I see how I'm starting to feel those impulses as well.

That's the best thing about music in community. By learning how other people do things we become more free to be who really are. This is a lesson that can be applied in many other areas of life, most of which are more important than songwriting.

Born After Vinyl Show

So I know, I'm a few days behind. But I'm catching up. Josh, our assistant at Sputnik, is a great photographer (who finally got his camera back from the shop) and took some great shots of my set at the Born After Vinyl release show.







The show was really fun. I did four songs. High School Band, Wanted, Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates and "Early in the Morning. Alison sang harmonies with me, very wonderfully, on the new EP tunes.

The other artists there did a great job, but I was most intimidated by the folks in the front row. Phil Keaggy and Jimmy A. Guys involved in a lot of the records that made me want to move to Nashville in the first place.

The event was a fundraiser for Eric Volz, a Nashvillian who is being held in a Nicaraguan prison on false charges. His mom spoke a bit about his story and it was just crazy to hear. CLICK HERE to find more information on him and what you can do to help.

Card-carrying Republican...

(This post is about politics. I don't want this blog to become super political, I want it to make you want to buy my records, but it's something I care about and want to share. I promised I'd talk about Iran. I didn't get to it in this one, but I'll try to tomorrow. Ok, you've been warned...)

So I almost became a Republican last week.

I've been getting more and more into reading the news, following the war, watching the candidates for the Presidency... I wrote about him once before (and link to him on the main blog) but I really like this guy named Ron Paul. I mean, I really like him.

It's the first time in my very short tenure as a voter/citizen where I feel like I actually want to vote FOR someone, not just the lesser of two evils thing.

For more info on him you can CLICK HERE and go to his main website. CLICK HERE to see where he stands and why I want to vote for him.

I almost became a Republican because that's where he's running, and I want to vote for him in the Primary, to get him the party nomination. If he was running as a Democrat, I'd join that party. Turns out that in Tennessee you don't need to join the party to vote in the Primaries, though, and I felt no further desire...

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Ok, all stumping aside, it's been really interesting to watch how people get from wanting to run, to running, to actually being their party's nominee. It's actually a very sad, discouraging process, to be honest. To me, anyway.

It really comes down to two things: Money and fame.

Really? Money? Fame? What do those have to do with being a good, wise, responsible leader? Nothing. They have nothing to do with it. That's why I believe we're in the situation we're in now.

I don't think George W. is a bad guy. I feel pretty bad for him, actually. It's obvious to me that he's in way over his head. I think he means well, but he's just not President material.

Unfortunately, he was campaign material. He had fame and he had money. Lots and lots of both. People don't vote for who they don't know. Fame means people know you. Money buys ads which get the people who don't know you to, you know, know you. (That was an awesome sentence.) And with ads you can let them know the "you" you wish you were, or think you are, or whatever. You get people to believe in you. That's called "campaigning". It's why candidates who have less than 5 million dollars at this point are counted out over a year before the election.

George W. had the right gifts for campaigning. So do Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guiliani. Which leads to my other big, sad realization about this process.

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The media controls the elections. Almost completely. How do people hear about you? The media. How do people hear what you think? The media.

Something I've noticed since I've been paying a lot more attention to the news is how much the news talks about the people who deliver it. There are always headlines about Katie Couric and Dan Rather. Why? They're not news. Not to me, anyway. They're just the people who read it.

Ah, but you and I are not the people who write the news. Just like a story about my friend Jason only really interests the people who know him, the media like to talk about the media, because it's who they know. Katie Couric is far more important to an Associated Press writer than to you or me, I assume. Am I explaining this well at all?

Either way, the same thing is seen with campaigns. Most of our major media outlets are based in New York. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, all the big TV headquarters. And who gets the most coverage, thus becoming "the frontrunners"? Hillary and Rudy. From New York.

The media is reporting what seems most important to them. I don't completely fault them for it, though I believe it's very poor journalism. But the problem is, that sets the pace for everything else that will happen. There may very well be better candidates. People with better records, more honesty, interesting ideas... But without the fame and the money, and without the NY media knowing about them, they may never really get heard.

And so democracy takes a major blow. Our freedom to vote is severely limited by what the media decides we get to know. And by a two-party system, which is a terrible, terrible thing, but another topic entirely.

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What's been exciting me recently, though, is that Ron Paul, while being pretty much completely ignored by the major media, and without the fame, has been raising money. Pretty much just like me, people hear about him, like what they hear, and send him a few bucks. All of a sudden he's got 5 million bucks and is starting to have to be talked about by the media. Which I'm sure they hate.

But I'm excited. He may not win the election. He may not win the Primary. But he says good things and other people than me are obviously responding. And that gives me hope, when the government I see leading us now gives me none.

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I'm glad to know that no government will ever fully succeed. No group of sinners will ever usher in a utopia. But if I really believe that Jesus commanded us to love others, and if we are a part of our nation's government (which I don't always think is true...) then we have a responsibility to try and make that government as good as it can be.

So vote for who you want, or don't vote at all, but I encourage you to become aware, if you aren't already, and to seek out good in an overwhelmingly sad and broken system. To encourage that good to grow and spread, and to pray for it, and for the healing of the bad.

And to wax philisophically on political tangents when you should be going to bed...

Fun with PhotoBooth

All Apple computers with the camera included come with a little program called "PhotoBooth". Alison's parents have one, but they didn't know about this little gem. So I showed them. Many, many, many times. Here are a few fruits of the labors...







I feel weird posting many pictures of my family, but there are a few that are just too good, so CLICK HERE to see the rest...

Glen

Glen Phillips is great.

He ended being the de facto headliner of a festival I played this past weekend. Due to sponsors pulling out, lack of publicity and a host of other issues, a few artists were asked to not come and the attendance was spotty at best.

So there was Glen all alone on this huge stage in front of a thin, scattered audience. And he was awesome.

Back in the 90's he was the lead singer/songwriter of Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my all-time favorite bands. He's since been making great solo records, though I admit I haven't followed them religiously.

Well, he was all pro this weekend. The barriers between him and the audience were fairly great and he just didn't let it affect him at all, or let it show anyway. As an encore, he just walked out and stood in front of the stage while about a hundred people crowded around. He probably played five songs, got folks to sing other parts, made a few jokes. It was really great.

I was glad to realize that I liked some of his new songs as well, if not better, than a lot of the old Toad hits. It's hard to keep up that consistency, and it was an inspiration.

I don't know why we as an audience always seem to focus on the newest, hottest thing and leave behind the artists who are growing in their craft, their wisdom, their abilities... Not that Glen's old or anything, he's not, but he's a decade past Maroon5 or whatever boring band is on the radio now. It's our loss. So I'm excited that I have three or four records of Glen's I can explore now.

Anybody have songs or albums to recommend? Of Glen or other artists that you feel may fall in that same category?