A Ship at Sea.

Man, is it gross outside today. Bad way to start a blog, I know...but the weather here is gray and blah. Totally depressing. I hope it's sunnier where you are. The long, wet Nashville winters can really bring you down. It's funny how the weather can make you feel different ways. Oh well.

It's been an interesting week so far. First off, Kierstin's been a little sick and I've been taking care of her as best I can. We're ready for her to start feeling better so if you could keep her in your prayers we would appreciate it. Thanks.

I've also been working on some tracks for my friend Lance Brewer who is an artist from Cincinnati. He came down last week and spent some time recording with myself, Andrew Osenga and Cason Cooley. We tracked six songs and had a great time. It's dark stuff to work on-- the lyrics are heavy listening. A lot of pain in there but there's redemption to his story too so it's going to make for a compelling project. I'm proud to be producing it and I think Lance is a great songwriter who tells the truth. I'll let you know when it releases so you can check it out.


Other than that...I've been listening to Blonde on Blonde pretty much non stop for a week now. I'm addicted to it. (Again). Dylan knows a lot about freedom. I love his stuff, especially Blonde On Blonde, because it feels so loose...so in the moment. Other than Dylan, I'm listening to some Kanye West, the new Cardigans record and a recording downloaded from iTunes of David Gray live.

The last two days I've been working away on my new songs. It's going pretty well and I'm making good progress. I know I said it here in my last post, but I'll say it again-- I love having my own creative space to work on something other than booking concerts. Last night I worked on a song called "Drifting". A pretty simple arrangement of just a basic beat, some acoustic guitar and my vocal. It's based loosely on a quote from CS Lewis about the death of his mother as a child. I'll post lyrics here in the near future. I'll be working on this and another couple songs ( "Hypocrisy #785" and "Distress Signal") the rest of this week. I think the total number of songs for the new record will be close to 14. But only if they are good enough in which case it could be 11 or so. Argh.

Well, I'm off to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market to get groceries with my wife. When we get back i'll brew some coffee and jump into the songs for the rest of the day.

Stay out of the rain....talk to you later.