News From Nowhere

Hey folks:
You're probably wondering why there's been no new content published here. I promised consistent updates, but honestly, there's been nothing to report since my last official studio post. Ben has been wrapping up a slew of other album projects (Sara Groves, Allen Levi, etc.) and has been swamped with that work. Myself and my family will be out of town the entire month of July where we'll be volunteering at a Young Life camp in Minnesota (I get to play my music). So, in essence, though Ben will be brewing up production ideas for the album and I will *hopefully* be writing another couple of new tunes while overlooking Pelican Lake, there will be very little, if any, actual recording done for the album. So, I guess I'm writing to tell you that I won't have much to offer you in the way of updates for the next month or so.

Ben and I will hit it hard in August and thereafter. I'm excited about what we're doing, though still in infancy, and I will be cautiously eager for you to hear these songs. Stay tuned to my website for the Album Patronage, coming soon. Thank you all, and to all a goodnight.

Ben Shive: The Ill-Tempered Klavier

A reminder to those reading that Ben's brand new album, The Ill-Tempered Klavier, releases today. It will be special. You can order it in the Rabbit Room.

Day Two : 6/12/08

Met Ben at 10am and we looked at You Don't Have the Strength (War of Wills), a song I had written on the 5-year anniversary of 9/11. I'm not much into politics, and I certainly don't appreciate mixing politics with entertainment or the arts, but this song is certainly a political statement of sorts, though mild in proportion and not laced with bile or anti-leadership venom as seems customary and trendy these days. It is more of a statement to America on the whole and our constant waffling on foreign and domestic issues. It's not that I'm trying to be a jerk in this song, but for a mild civilian like myself, this feels like I'm screaming at the top of my lungs the way Elisha, as bald as a paved street, might have done when he called down the she-bears on those cub scouts who were mocking him in the Old Testament story (2 Kings 2:23-24). I imagine that you might one day have more questions about this song once the album is released, so perhaps we could pick back up with this topic at a later date. Besides, maybe I'll later come to realize that the song is not at all a political statement, just my way of griping at the way things are, and issuing a challenge.

We ate lunch at The Copper Kettle, a superb little meat-n-three (apparently, this is an exclusively southern dining experience). The "meat" stands for meat; sometimes pot roast, sometimes chicken, sometimes meatloaf. The "-n-three" stands for the number of sides you get; sometimes actual veggies, sometimes mashed potatoes, sometimes salad, sometimes mac & cheese. Today was yummy coconut fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. None of it is good for your arteries.

Back to the Nest where I got Ben's remarkably astute opinion on some first verse lyric changes to better set the tone for the song, In the Movies. This song is about the vices that maim and destroy marriages. This is about some friends of ours who experienced this first-hand. At some point after I'd recorded the guitar part, Ben had to edit it, whereupon I "wrote" jingle #2 ("Editing in Pro Tools"). I should start recording these jingles for posterity sake.

We knocked off early since I had to drive out to the airport to pick up Danielle and Ellis who had been gone for the better part of two weeks in Louisiana where she was taking care of her ill dad. Our house has been way too quiet and I have noticed a growing loneliness in the plaster walls of our home while they were away. It is more than good to hear their reverberations echoing throughout the house again.