We do not imagine

We do not imagine the death of a thing at it's beginnings. We do not envision the demise of a great structure when the smell of oak is still in the air. Perhaps we should; then we would not be quite so taken back by a sunken place...long forgotten. Perhaps we would be less haunted by the voices that once called down each corridor. Perhaps then we would shudder less at the breaking down of the great halls within each of us.

"wanna buy five copies for my mother..."

Look ma! I'm in Rolling Stone! ...kinda. :)

After a random call from my friend Phil, B&N ended up using a quote from me re: the first time I heard Joni Mitchell in the latest issue of Rolling Stone (the one with the Mad Men cast on the cover! yessss). Phil asked me for the quote as I was in the boarding line of a plane bound for Milwaukee and needed it by the time I landed. So, this was my quote:

"As a child, I had never heard anything like (nor did I quite know what to do with) Joni Mitchell's wild contra-alto vibrato. I like to think Joni would've preferred it that way; I had to work for it. And now I can't imagine life without such a remarkable soundtrack. I can't imagine falling in love without "A Case of You" on repeat, or staring out a window thinking back on my life without the distant sound of "Both Sides Now" playing low & wild in the next room."

I guess they decided my middle name was more marketable and the quote needed some work, so they printed this:



Either way, it's was a pretty random and fun happening. I do so love Jones. And....I just realized... am I subconsciously trying to cut my hair like her??

only living boy in new york

Driving over the George Washington bridge in New York this morning on our way out of town; it’s raining steadily, but the leaves are bright through the sheets of water. It’s autumn in New York.

The show last night at the Mercury Lounge was a good one. Natalie came out with a friend and it’s always great to see her…I always wish I could spend more time. Ben Soliee played right before us and I really enjoyed his set. Just him and his cello. Great voice. Great playing. AND he’s from Kentucky. ☺

Looking at the calendar, we’ve basically been on the road with little reprieve since September. It looks like we’ll get home a few days before Thanksgiving and I’m really looking forward to going home to Kentucky; seeing my dog, the parents. Even though it’s not my house in Nashville (and thus still requires me being “away”) I’m looking forward to it as if it were.

more updates soon.

of all the nations

Well, we're in Washington, D.C. We got in last night, driving from our show in Knoxville, so we actually got a few hours to walk around the capitol today and see some sights. I've always wanted to do that on the road, but we never seem to have time. I'm trying to get better about making smaller, more digestible video blogs. I'm determined to get some up before week's end.

We're crashing with my friend Beth Chapman here in D.C. It's always great to see Beth and she's exceedingly gracious about letting us crash with such late notice. With the election so close and politics palpably in the air, it's kind of crazy to be here. We even walked by Capitol Hill and they already had the yard blocked off for the presidential inauguration. We get so caught up in the RACE of the presidency, that it's difficult to spend much time thinking about the actual day-to-day nature of having the candidate in office. Might be a healthy mental exercise. :)

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray posted a new video of "Finlandia" that it brought it back to my memory. It seemed achingly timely. I SO long for a time and a nation who would tout this as their anthem:

this is my song
oh god of all the nations
a song of peace
for lands afar and mine

this is my home
the country where my heart is
here are my hopes
my dreams my holy shrine

but other hearts
in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams
as true and high as mine

my countries skies
are bluer than the ocean
and sunlight beams
on clover leaf and pine

but other lands
have sunlight too and clover
and skies are everywhere
as blue as mine

oh hear my song
oh god of all the nations
a song of peace
for their land and for mine

better from above

just home from playing french horn for Brooke Waggoner's cd release show at the Belcourt. It was a fun show with a lot of fun production and Brooke was stellar as always. Save a few flubs on my part and fairly dreadful sound engineering, it was a great night. Lots of good friends, new and old.

By no fault of any current circumstances, I'm thinking a lot tonight about being away; away from home, from friends and family. Often a huge part of playing music for a living means being gone a lot. There's something about moving from town to town like that that seems at times lovely, but often quite (albeit poetically) melancholy. If it's a town that's dreadful, boring or just a bust in general...no great failure. lesson learned; avoid Leiben, Arkansas next time. But, if it's a town you immediately fall in love with, your bags still get packed and you're still leaving. For some reason (probably because i've been home for almost a month) I'm ready to have a solid run of shows again; ready to be gone. Not because i don't love being here...i do. and i actually LOVE having a routine at home that i can never quite get into on the road. I don't know. I suppose it's the greener grass...but that's not quite the full picture either.

If you're lucky enough to find a place that feels like home, you've got to leave to keep it. Which especially makes this time in life an interesting one. There's a part of me that's always invested in people, but (to awkwardly quote myself), "kept my suitcase small". I'm suppose if i was married or just more settled in general, i'd feel differently about leaving. More to leave behind i suppose. Though, i can't imagine any 180s on the subject. who knows?

I heard two people talking tonight about returning from the road recently and it just made me wonder...Is it easier to be the one leaving home or to be the one left at home? I tend to get in my own world on the road and. Contrary to what we often feel like, we return home only to find life has continued in our absence and people have ceased keeping up with your comings and goings.

I think there's probably something in us that's attracted to that loneliness...or solidarity. Whatever you call it, I think David put it well in "Astronaut" when he sang, "couldn't tell you for sure the view is better from above i'm not the first of the astronauts to leave the place i love " I've always loved that song. NPR It's a painful roundabout admission that, while the places we leave exert a gravitational pull, they can never miss us the way we miss them."

for now, i'll just stick to being home...and maybe...just maybe..."spend a lot of time finding out just where that is".

these dreams go on when i close my eyes

woke up this morning around 4:30am stressed out over a dream. In the dream, Matthew Jones, Katie and a few other people and I were in this play. It was almost felt a bit medieval in the time period of the play....at least the costumes looked as such, but could have just as easily been 17th century garb. In the first part of the dream, we were at the dress rehearsal for the play. I'm not in the first part of the play, and it is not until I am backstage during this part that I realize I haven't even looked at the script and no none of my lines. I read from the script and no one really mentions anything about it.

This may have given my dream "me" false confidence b/c....fast forward to the next night (opening night) and i suddenly realize i know no more of my lines than i did the day before. AND i'm walking around backstage making small talk as the first act is starting. A woman I knew as I child in Kentucky is apparently the stage manager in this dream and she grabs me and inquires as to why the hell i haven't been to makeup and wardrobe yet. I don't have an answer. How the hell am i going to get through this? I know NONE of my lines and it's an entire play that has just started. I start frantically memorizing my first line as a woman layers stage makeup on my face. By the time I've nearly got the first line, I realize this is not going to work. Even if i get the first line, there's still a whole freakin play i DON'T know. I start thinking of escape options....throw up (this might happen whether i plan it or not), migraine (they'll never believe it...besides...not dramatic enough to merit my absence, probably)... gosh. i better think of something...and how!

it's about this time that i wake up, look at the clock and realize it's 4:30am. ugh. I try and go back to sleep and eventually do, but spend the rest of my next dream trying to explain the dream to a cafeteria table full of the people who were in the first style. (not unlike Dorothy's "you were there...and you" speech. Only in this 2nd dream, I recover a document that can help me explain the dream. I can actually picture it right now, but it's difficult to explain as some of the "letters" look like xeroxes of a cartoon keyboard square. so weird.

so, here i am... up at 7am. maybe i can get some work done before we head to Pickwick this weekend. Annie, Raina and Brandi flew in from Colorado yesterday for the very long weekend. I'm so glad they're here. we went to las paletas last night. i got lime and loved it, but as one who loves trying many flavors to determine my favsies, it was exponentially enjoyable as everyone got different flavors. highlights: pistachio, coconut, strawberries w/ choco chips. mmm. see? does that look delicious? As we were leaving, the owner was pulling up with fresh produce (i saw a lot of peaches) from the farmer's market to use for tomorrow's popsicles. doesn't get much fresher or awespome-r than that.



(L to R from bottom): me: lime, Brandi: pistachio, Raina: plum, Annie: Strawberries & Chocolate Chips, Katie: Grapefruit, Natalie: Coconut) mmmm


aight. off to give scout a bath and clean the house a bit before i start the work train. happy friday.

what they say i am, in brief.

INFJ - "Author". Strong drive and enjoyment to help others. Complex personality. 1.5% of total population.

and I'm a type 2 on the Enneagram. http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/TypeTwo.asp


Should I be concerned that Enneagram 2s aren't supposed to be introverts? http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/typecorr.htm



Introverted (I) 56.76% Extroverted (E) 43.24%
Intuitive (N) 55.56% Sensing (S) 44.44%
Feeling (F) 67.65% Thinking (T) 32.35%
Judging (J) 53.13% Perceiving (P) 46.88%