car woes and amazing in-laws

typically at my shows, I'll give away a CD. sometimes i'll have a corny requirement for giving it away - like "the person who got saved most recently" or "the person who was pulled over most recently." so at the greenville show, it was tough to do the "pulled over" deal since i got pulled over on the way to the show.

i've been having bad luck with cars in general lately. what's worse is that they're not my cars - they happen to belong to my parents-in-law who are generous enough to let us use their extra vehicle to run around in every time we visit.

since i got here 6 days ago, i've run over flowers in their new landscaping, i've run over a raccoon (felt much worse about the car than the 'coon), and i've gotten a speeding ticket. still, they let us use it to drive to canton, OH today.

i think they're crazy or something. good-crazy though. the kind of crazy that gives you a glimpse of what real love looks like.

07.30.06 - new castle, PA

thus go-eth day two of thine divine OHPA! 2006 tour: wahba playeth. the people kindly support-eth. a thrice beautiful time was had by all.



shawn shawbroek (I know I butchered the spelling of his last name) played some monster bongos. the folks at the new castle church of god love to do some singin'. love you all!

07.29.06 - greenville, PA

almost one year ago today, I played my first gig at the mustard seed jamhouse in greenville (PA, not NC). today, I had the distinct pleasure of returning for a repeat performance. such a cool little venue. it sits in the basement of a bookstore in downtown greenville.


good vibes all around. great turnout and fun crowd. i introduced my 80's metal ballad medley (they're all in the key of G, so a medley was inevitable).

i also broke the news to my father in law, mid-show, that i was pulled over for speeding in his convertible on the way to the show. he was most gracious and waited till after the show to strangle me (kidding). more on the ticket later.

at the break, the jamhouse crew dared me to partake of some "after death sauce" - a hot sauce beyond all hot sauces. i declined, but then gave in after the show was over. someone took video of the whole ordeal. i was fine for a couple of minutes, then started sweating and hiccuping a lot. ended up downing some Tums later on. i did it all for my adoring fans!

much love, jamhouse. y'all rock.

vaca-tour & trailer trash

well, we're off for our 3-week, end-of-summer, mini-tour/vacation in pennsylvania and ohio.

already got to visit with Erica (jodi's cousin) and meet my new little nephew, Jackson.

spent most of today working on our new trailer. yes, I said trailer. it was inevitable. being married to jodi has made me trailer trash. pictures and the whole story later.

starting tomorrow, there will be a 16 day stretch in which I'll be playing 14 gigs in 8 different cities (columbus show was cancelled as of today - booooo!).

look for pictures and good stories from the road. say a prayer for us as we're oot n' aboot. hope all of you are well....

beautiful effect - now on itunes

despite my rants and complaints about itunes, they're now carrying my new songs!

for some reason, they listed the album under "alternative." they listed my old CD under "rock." but they've listed me as an artist under "inspirational." anyone have Steve Jobs email so I can tell him he needs to fix it?

clicky here for the itunes store link. and leave a nice little comment for me if it tickles your fancy.

shows i'm missing

here are all the great bands that are in or near phoenix this summer: Pete Yorn (intimate acoustic show), Ben Harper, and Toad the Wet Sprocket (re-reunion tour).

one problem - i'll be gone while they're here!

the only redeeming factor is that Guster will be in pittsburgh while we're out east. anyone have their new album?

he's supa!

jodi and I skipped visiting a new church last night in lieu of napping and seeing superman returns.

the movie was good. love that soundtrack. special effects were cool, but tasteful. kevin spacey rawked as Lex.

only thing that bothered me a little was all the Christ-references. they usually don't bug me. but then they're usually not so obvious. i won't say any more. don't wanna ruin it for you!

the superman myspace page is funny. you can upload pics of yourself in superman underoos (or halloween costume, or tattoo) for all to see.

ups and downs

well the past few months have definitely been a roller coaster re: the worship ministry. in December i hired a radio promoter to push a song from my CD to national radio in hopes of getting the thing some exposure. i was also approached by a record label with a contract for a new album, national distribution, and high-level radio promotion. things were looking up.

since then, the radio promoter has done very little to get my song to track and I've seen little to no results from it. I'd paid him $500 (which is actually cheap for national radio promotion) to promote me to radio after a trusted friend referred me to him. as of now, his website is down and he will not return any of my phone calls.

with the label, I finally received a contract in March and was having a really good (read: expensive) music lawyer from nashville look it over. when my attorney went to negotiate the contract, the guy at the head of the label wouldn't return his phone calls.

next thing I knew, we were hearing stories from bands who'd already signed with the label that he'd "run off" with their money. at present time, the label guy who contacted me in December has changed all his phone numbers and the label website is down. guess I should be happy I didn't actually sign with them!

but things are getting better as of yesterday. I'm signing on with indieheaven for a little radio promotion and for their new booking agency.

we also had a great gig opening for by the tree last night. me and my boys played our little hearts out. all the guys in By The Tree were so sweet. each one of them complimented our band's energy and songs. the lead singer and bass player offered to get a copy of my CD to their label rep.

I'm really thankful for so much that God's given me/us. just trying not to lose perspective. my close friend and (soon ex-) lead guitarist (punK!) suggested I take a fast from the whole worship thing. I'm praying about doing just that at the end of the summer.... would you hold me to it?

iTunes update

i've recovered all my lost files. as you may remember, when I reformatted my hard drive, itunes removed a bunch of songs from my library (naughty itunes, you're naughty).

i ended up having to download a 3rd party app called podutil. they have a free version of it that rawks! this thing looked at my ipod and my itunes library and automatically figured out what files were missing. among the 114 songs that were erased were entire albums by Copeland and Kings of Leon, VanHalen, the Strokes, Ryan Adams, Kanye West....

but they're finally back. my babies are back! and I'm still trying to talk my entire blogosphere (all 3 of you) into boycotting itunes....

back from vay-cay

so we're back from our trip to see my parents in Florida and our cruise to Bahamas. all in all a great, relaxing departure from our increasingly stressful lives. jodi did jab her fingertip while showing my mom how to work the food processor we got her (for christmas). and I did get a mild jellyfish sting on the nipple (the right nipple to be exact; and no, I didn't have jodi urinate on it to take away the sting). but it really was a bon voyage.

so we're back and refreshed.

BTW, have you seen this? keep watching till the end when he does the seizure-dance. we are witnessing a dance revolution.