(yes, I know (now) it’s the 27th…)

I’m on an airplane from Houston to Dallas, on my way to tonight’s Caedmon’s show at The Door. I’m pretty excited to play this weekend, as I’m introducing two new elements to my rig. Fender sent me a Jazzmaster guitar, one I’ve been dreaming about for years. And it’s wonderful. So tonight will be the first time playing that live.

And I’ve got my new pedalboard finished up. I’ll have to do some final touches once I get to the venue today, but it’s been up and in use for a couple weeks now. Josh, uber-assistant at Sputnik, finished up rehousing my Space Station pedal last night (way too late, poor guy) and that was the last piece. There will be a learning curve to the new board, I’m sure, so I may be in for some surprises tonight, but I’m ready.

I was able to finish up a couple lingering projects this week, and it’s nice to not have stuff hanging over my shoulder when I leave town for a few days. Alas, I wasn’t able to take pictures of the pedals, guitars and etc. that I’ll be putting up for sale yet, so hopefully I can get that taken care of next week.

Well, the lady just told me to shut my computer off. Bye.

Yeah, I’ve started playing Scrabulous on facebook. It’s their version of Scrabble, where you get to play your friends. I’m not going to lie to you, people. I’m good at Scrabble. But this Scrabulous. I call it “Scrabble that lets you cheat” because, well, it lets you cheat. Or rather, the fact that you’re not at a table in front of everybody means you get to look up words (cheating) and try them out to see if they’re valid (cheating) and beat me (cheating).

I’ve been starting to write some new songs, which I’m really excited about. It’s interesting, I’ve been writing songs for a living for eleven years now and this is the first time that I’ve got a pile of music and not lyrics. Usually it’s been the other way for me. I’m actually feeling like I have a lot to say with my guitar this time around. I’m fluent there in a way I never was before, and I’m just bursting with melodies and sounds and things there that are itching to get out, but finding what the songs are about hasn’t come as easily.

I had lunch with Eric Peters yesterday, which was great, and he mentioned to me that he can’t write if he’s not reading, and I think I may be like that. I read so much and historically I’ve written so proficiently that I probably haven’t noticed a connection. But recently our girls have been getting up so early that my reading time has all but disappeared.

When I do get the time to read, though, I’m really loving what I’m in the middle of. That book about the Underground Railroad I told you about, and one Randall has suggested for our neighborhood gang to all read; a very old book about prayer by Madame Guyon. It’s a bit overwhelming in its simplicity. I think I’ve gotten used to shades of grey, and this book doesn’t have any. It breaks it down so simply that it kind of unnerves me, but in a way that I know is good. (CLICK HERE and you can read it for free.)

All that to say, I feel like the songs will come. I think a few of them are on the way now. I think the next step is to start recording what I have and building from there. My hope is that my records continually get better than the one before, but I think they’ve also gotten continually more me, and less me trying to be someone else. It’s going to be a good process, ever deeper in the search for my own voice and what I, and my guitar, really have to say.

So today it’s back to the studio to finish up a little pedalboard wiring (pictures when it’s totally done), sing a few bgv’s for Mitch, and dive into these growing songs. I can’t wait.

A few weeks ago I started reading a book about the Underground Railroad titled “Bound for Canaan”. (CLICK HERE for more information on the book.) The book starts off with a brief history of slavery and how it came to America. Then it goes deeper into the abolitionist movement, how it ebbed and flowed, before more and more people decided to take action and we find the birth of the Underground Railroad.

It is a fascinating and deeply moving story. And it has opened my eyes to things I’ve gotten sadly numb to.

I live in Nashville, TN, a very racially divided city with a lot of Civil War history. Last week I put down the book to go eat lunch with some family. We went to a burger place in a very upscale part of town. Every customer was white and every worker was black. It was so obvious, especially after reading what I had just read, and I’m sure most people thought nothing of it. It’s the landscape around us, in a lot of ways.

Rewind to our neighborhood group’s meeting a couple weeks ago where I heard that two of our women are going soon to a prayer meeting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where, 40 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his immortal “I have a dream” speech. They’re going to pray for how that dream can continue to be moved towards. They’re going to pray for a country that has never formally apologized for allowing slavery, and that is still very racially divided.

So this has all been rattling around in my brain when I ran across Barack Obama’s amazing speech on race last night. Whatever you may think about the man, his policies, his experience, you need to read/watch this speech. (And you can RIGHT HERE)

He talks about the racial divide in a way I’ve never heard. He looks at resentments and anger and the history that’s fueled them, without any anger or resentment of his own. He condemns racism from both the white and black communities as well as giving perspective on where both come from.

(Also, very interesting to note, this was the first speech by a president or presidential candidate since a 1969 speech by Richard Nixon that was NOT written with the aid of a speechwriter. Obama wrote the whole thing himself.)

I was deeply, deeply moved by his words. I thought it was, without a doubt, the most Christ-like way of looking at people I’d ever seen from a politician. If I’ve ever seen one at all. He gave great dignity to people, and instead of dismissing them as hateful or racist or arrogant or ignorant, he appealed to the fact that we all have good and bad within us, and that race is only one of the ways this gets played out.

But I’m not writing about how great his speech was. I’m writing about how it connected with me and the other things that I have to assume God is bringing up in my life. I have a desire to be a part of the healing of this racial divide, and these things have further encouraged this desire.

So here I am, in a hotel room in Atlanta, trying to make sense of it all. There’s no Underground Railroad anymore. I’m not in a position to give anybody a job. There are no immediate and obvious ways, of that scale, for me to act on this stirring.

But there are many other ways. I am a father, and a husband, and a man who prays to a God who listens. I’m a friend and a church member. In all these roles there are opportunities for me to try and help break down walls, both ones that exist out here in the world and the ones that more subtly exist in my own heart.

I’d love to know your opinions on this stuff. Read Obama’s speech. What did you think? In practical terms, is it disingenuous to try to seek out and cultivate relationships with people of other races? What do you make of “the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning”, and what can we do about it? Do you have stories of people who are doing things to start healing what is broken?

Not to be Captain Complain-o, but there are a few things in life right now that are just sort of making me miserable. Two things, actually.

1. Big Girls Don’t Cry by Fergie.

and

2. the theme song to the cartoon show Clifford the Big Red Dog.

For whatever reason I can not get either of these songs out of my head. It’s gone on for days. I think it might be a virus. Does anyone know any medicine that can cure me of these ills? I’m thinking of grabbing the cordless screwdriver and just doing a little surgery upstairs if I can’t get anything else playing on the FM up there.

Any suggestions?

It’s quarter after midnight and I just got home from a late-night mastering session with the great Vance Powell. I am so loving getting to work with people better than me. I feel like I learn about a dozen things every day I’m at the studio, and I know it’s making me better at what I do.

Vance just mixed the new record for the band the Raconteurs. Jack White, from the White Stripes, and three other guys, another of whom is also a lead singer/guitarist. I’m loving listening to this record. I can’t get enough.

It reminds me of the first time I ever heard Jeff Buckley. I just couldn’t believe that music like that could have been made. It changed everything I thought about the voice, the guitar, tempos, arrangement… I can honestly say that record made a fundamental difference in the type of musician that I am. The next day I was, very clumsily, a new guy. I had witnessed something utterly different and utterly wonderful and I knew I needed to chase it, I wanted to experience more of it.

That’s how I feel with this Raconteurs record. I’m older, more experienced, so it hasn’t hit me with near the same degree of radical-ness, but the feeling is there and I love it. There’s joy and abandon in the playing. And they just freaking sing. I realize that I rarely hear people really sing anymore. Vocals are tuned and nudged and edited together. They’re correct, but they’re rarely a performance. Not like a Beatles or Led Zeppelin record. That’s singing. That’s why I love music and that’s what I want to find for myself.

Anyway, enough of that tangent. We all know we’re really hear to see who gave the best quote for yesterday’s picture. As judge, jury, bailiff, court jester AND the guy who interviews the people coming out of the courtroom I’ve decided to have three runners up and a winner.

Runner up #3
Joshua Keel - Santa Claus’ guitarist brings Andy a much-needed ham sandwich and Coke.

Runner up #2
Rob O - You can have one too, just simply cut off an appendige and plant it in your garden. Two years later, and….. ta da!!
(this entry would belong, of course, to my brother. Who’s obviously disqualified. Still: valiant effort.)

Runner up #1
Danny - “you can’t run from jesus or your elf.”

And the Winner…
Wally - Andy saying under his breath, “Cliff, can you remind me again why we have to have the Guild Room at these concerts”?

Wally, email me your address and shirt size and a package will be winding its way through the United States Postal Service to you shortly.

Now I’m going to bed. I hope I have another dream with that crazy elf tonight.

I thought about explaining this photo, but I decided it would be better if you did. Free iLikeAndy.com t-shirt to whoever provides the best quote for this picture.

Today is a Monday, man. I had about six things planned for the day and never finished the first one, even though I worked on it all day. (In case you’re wondering, Yes, the first thing is a pedalboard…)

But it was a good day. I love my job. I love the people I work with, and I love the things we get to do. Today was a Monday, but that’s all right. I like Mondays.

Behold Nebraskans!! My friends, and fellow Square Pegs, Eric Peters and Randall Goodgame are heading your way this weekend. Click HERE for the dates. They’ll be in Lincoln and Omaha and I know there are a good number of folks from there who read this blog, and I’d love to know you guys are going to go out and support two very incredible artists who happen to be two very wonderful people as well.