KIN-tucky

Had a great time this weekend in Elizabethtown, Ft. Thomas, and Murray. Concert Thursday night in Elizabethtown was with MATT AND JOANNA BLACK. That’s them in the picture singing some gorgeous acoustic bit of joy. Fort Thomas is just outside of Cincinatti and it was fun to catch up with students I’ve met two different summers doing camp. We had a huge snow Saturday (my first BIG snow of the season). Saturday night everything was wet and frozen but by Sunday morning there was a nice layer of powder to cover up the ice and it was just beautiful. The drive south was a little depressing. The wintery white slowly melted back into greens and browns the further I traveled. Had a good Cincinatti Coney at GOLDSTAR CHILI on my way out of town. Should have added the hotsauce. Monday night was an odd little show in Murray. It was fun to catch up with Jared, Stacie, the Staley’s and some new friends I met in Fort Thomas. Bo Harris did a great job opening. This will be a relaxing week as we prepare to get in the studio next week and start working on the new record. It feels like I’ve said “next week” fourteen times about this record. But I’ve been told the studio is booked. We’ll see. Keep praying.

New Music Recommendation of the Week

House of Heroes – House of Heroes. These guys have a remarkable melodic sense. Instead of a three-chording their way through stock rock they’ve built interesting songs around melodic guitar riffs. A great windows-down, volume-up listen. Click on the album cover to check it out in iTunes.

Also out this week (and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum) is Mark Lowry’s southern gospel release “Be The Miracle.” I wrote the title cut with Jeff Silvey a couple of years ago. If you dig your SoGo go grab some copies of Mark’s record and share with your friends.

January Update

January has proved to be an exhausting but invigorating month. February looks to be the same. After six weeks off this Fall because of Katrina I felt the need to say yes to every booking request and the result has been very little free time to be quiet and rest and dream. BUT it has been an exciting start to the new year. Shera and I saw our first Nashville snow. You can tell from the picture we had a good time playing in it. Fortunatley for Shera, the snow thawed the next day and she was finally able to remove her tongue from the mailbox. Made some new friends this month (and visited with old ones) in Mandeville, LA, Decatur, MS, and a crazy bunch of Vandy students that almost killed me playing Ultimate Frisbee. Okay, I almost killed me…but there was almost death involved!

Many of you knew we were scheduled to get into the studio in December to start working on the new record. We had to postpone twice, once for money, and once for scheduling trauma. Now it looks like the pieces are back in place for us to start recording next week. I’ve written a bunch of new songs this Fall and I’m eager to give them some oxygen. The INFAMOUS Monroe Jones is producing. He’s not just famous…he’s in-famous (watched The Three Amigos this weekend . Sorry). We have no idea yet about distribution or even the final song selection. People much smarter than I are arguing (I mean discussing) those issues even as I type.

I’ve launched a new podcast (explained in detail in a PREVIOUS POST) as a way of letting you inside the songs that we’ve recorded as well as the ones that are in progress. The second episode should post next week. Hope you enjoy that. My favorite part of the songcast is the ability to give you snipits of songs in progress. I write 30-40 songs a year and most of them will never be recorded by me or anyone else so it’s fun to get to share those.

I have set aside the second week of February to relax a little. I found the Lost Season 1 onsale at OVERSTOCK.COM and bought it. I am determined to sit on the couch in my pajamas and watch it all day for a couple of days. It may ruin my social life but It’s Worth It!

If you’ve taken the time to read this far why not jump over to THE CONTACT PAGE and write me a quick hola. Hope to see ya somewhere along the road soon.

Peace,
James