faith & heartache.

Fall is coming. By the calendar, it is still summer...but you can tell autumn is near.

It's getting cooler at night and the heat is less intense during the daylight hours. The trees are even hinting at the change of seasons with their leaves. It won't be until mid-October that the colors burst out in middle Tennessee but up north it is already starting to happen. The trees peak early in Vermont and a little later in Pennsylvania

If you travel by road from north to south, you can see the colors change in slow motion. I think everyone should do this at least once in their lives. Probably twice. I suggest the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. It's like the Grand Canyon. Pictures don't do it justice. You've got to see it with your own eyes.

We recorded Faith & Heartache in the fall. I wanted to make a record that sounded like autumn...you can sort of tell from the artwork. The themes of that album go hand in hand with the falling leaves and the fading colors. I had just started dating Kierstin and I could tell she was going to be my wife. Looking back now everything from the recording sessions to the photography for that record had everything to do with the woman I had just met and would end up marrying. What great memories!

God is so merciful and loving. It's not like I deserve any of this! During the fall in Pennsylvania, sometimes my mother would say, "isn't is amazing that God created all of the beautiful colors? He could have made everything black and white and we would never have known the difference."

I was in Delaware this past weekend playing a couple shows. It was my first official show of the fall touring season and it went great. We had 150 people jammed into this small coffeehouse style room. I played some old ones and a few new ones along with some material from the 10,000 Angels EP. It felt good to get out there again after the last few weeks of rest and preparation. Joe Bassett opened for me and did a great job. Thanks Joe and Rhonda for hosting me in your home! (..and thanks for Rhonda for the pot roast and brownies.)

I'm home for a few days this week and then Kierstin and I head out to Montana for a weekend of shows in the Billings area. This is our third trip to Montana and we've met some great folks up there so we are really looking forward to going back. It goes without saying that Montana is some of the most beautiful country you could ever hope to see. Big sky indeed.

I'm hoping Kierstin and I can sneak a few hours in for a trip to Little Big Horn where Custer had his last stand. I really want her to see it. I'm a history buff so she has to endure such things since she married me.

Thanks for reading. See you on the road...