Yeah, crazy week, eh? You know something’s up when Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh agree.

It has been just as crazy on ol’ AndyLand. Caedmon’s played in Durham, NC Saturday and Lexington, SC on Sunday. Our show in Durham was actually at Duke University in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the basketball arena. That was pretty cool, though it sounded like we were playing in a giant metal swimming pool.

I brought my oldest daughter, Ella, with me this weekend. She’s three and a half and LOVES the bus. Three nights and two days on the road. No naps, very early mornings, and it was awesome. We got to hang out with her grandparents, go swimming at the hotel, read books, cuddle in the bunk and eat junk food the whole time. We’re very tired now, but it was a wonderful time. She had a blast and everybody was incredibly great with her.

In other news, one of my neighbors is a national and area director for YoungLife Capernaum, a ministry for kids with disabilities. A girl here in Nashville is a part of the program and she told our neighbor she wanted to record herself singing some of her favorite worship songs. Paul Eckberg started some tracks with her and tonight I started putting bass and electric guitars down on it. I haven’t enjoyed playing “God of Wonders” this much in, well, ever. It’s been amazing and humbling.

Oh. Today I found out somebody used a stolen credit card of mine to buy a membership at a 24-hour fitness club and a hundred bucks worth of makeup. Good-looking criminals…

Oh yeah, and this is the last thing, I heard today that they’re going to make Ghostbusters 3.

God really does answer prayers.

I’m sitting here with my girls, loving little kid cuteness. Yesterday was a great day. Cason came and picked me up a bit before midnight and we hopped on a bus with Andy P, Gabe Scott, Garett, Carrie, Ben Shive, Jill Phillips and Jason Gray. We played some of Andy’s Christmas songs for a TV show down in Atlanta.

Andy was busy with interviews all day so the rest of us slept in and hung out. It was as much of a day off as a musician with toddlers could hope to get.

I’m really excited for the Christmas tour this year. There have been times when the only thing you can think of by the end of the year is that year being over, and it’s hard to invest in something at that point. I think everybody’s in a good space this year, though, and I have high expectations.

I’m working at Paul Moak and Will Sayles’ studio, the Smoakstack, today. It should be fun. Cason and Tony Lucido are on the session as well. I’m really looking forward to it.

Thanks to everybody who has downloaded Letters 2, and more thanks to everybody who’s chipped in to pay for it. Last I heard, as of a few days ago, there were over 1400 downloads. That is awesome. You are awesome. Have a great day.

I had a great time last night watching Eric Peters, Andy Gullahorn, Ben Shive and Jill Phillips play an in-the-round set at 12th and Porter. So fun to see some good friends and hear some great songs. Tomorrow most of the Behold the Lamb gang will hop on a bus and head to Georgia with Andy P to do some songs for some sort of TV show. I’m looking forward to the hang most of all.

Speaking of Andrew Peterson, his other site, the Rabbit Room, did a nice little write-up about Letters to the Editor, Vol. II. Very kind.

In other news, the Caedmon’s show Saturday went pretty well. Cliff and Danielle weren’t able to be there due to hurricane damage in their neighborhood. Last I heard they’re going on day 10 without power. So I sang lead the whole show. Mandy Mann, who often fills in for Danielle was there and she did a fantastic job. Her husband, Kevin, is our road manager and he knocked it out of the park playing Cliff’s parts on acoustic while singing my vocal parts. It was confusing, but really fun. The crowd was great and it was loose, but fun, as you might expect. Does anybody have any pictures?

My daughter Ella is obsessed with Dumbo all of a sudden. She hasn’t seen the movie, she just has one of those little Golden Books about him. Alison sang her the song Dumbo’s mom sings him when she’s in jail and she rocks him through the window with her trunk. “Baby of Mine”. Ella can’t stop talking about that song so I bought Alison Krauss’ version on iTunes. Everytime Ella hears it she cries and she won’t stop asking me to play it. Girls.

I got home Sunday morning and spent the whole day with the girls. It was very fun. Ella on her tricycle and Sadie in the wagon. Fixing the swingset and looking at tons of books. It was good to spend a day like that.

It’s back to the studio today and to Andy P’s bus at midnight tonight. Hope you guys have a great week. See you tomorrow.

Wow, you guys are amazing. Donations have started coming in for Letters to the Editor, Vol. II and we’re really thankful.

I had one of those “stressful cause of a million things, but nothing in particular” weeks this past week and I sort of snapped out of it yesterday. Thankfully.

Then in the past 24 hours have gotten an email from two of my close friends, one whose wife, a first-year teacher, is getting called up for active duty, probably in Iraq, the other’s wife was diagnosed as probably having MS.

My week wasn’t bad.

There’s no gas anywhere in Nashville. A pipeline got cut off, Nashvillians freaked out and bought all the gas they could and now there are lines five hours long at the few gas stations who have one pump working.

Our sound guy, Harold, from Houston, has been without power or water for a week, his mother-in-law’s house is gone. Like, as in “what used to be on this slab of concrete?” gone.

My 1/4 tank isn’t that troubling.

There are a million things I can fixate on in my own life that aren’t just what I want, but to do that is to miss the things that are going on around me. I feel the past year God has been opening my eyes to the good things around me. Now maybe he’s opening them to what is not so good, somehow in the context.

Please pray for these friends of mine. I don’t know what kind of thing to ask you to pray for anymore, but I believe prayer has got to do something.

Thank you for being the people who are supporting and praying for me.

Well, a might thanks to all of you. Over the past two days there have been over 900 downloads of Letters to the Editor, Vol. II.

I’ve received some some wonderful comments and emails and I’m grateful. It’s always tough to put yourself out there when you release something new. It’s harder when you’re the only person that’s had a hand in it. You can’t blame anybody else. So thank you for your kindness and your open ears.

And many, many thanks to the folks who have financially supported me/the project. It’s very appreciated and very helpful. Tough times for us musician folk, so all the support is gratefully received.

Speaking of tough times for musician folk, Cliff and Danielle Young have spent the past week in Houston with no power and all sorts of other craziness. We get sporadic word from them, but it’s insane down there. Your prayers are welcomed.

They aren’t able to leave town at this point to do the Caedmon’s show this weekend, which is very understandable, and so yours truly will be taking the reins. Always a little scary, but it should be fun.

I guess that’s it for me today. Feeling pretty overwhelmed and pulled in a million directions, but also feeling like there’s a path around here somewhere that leads out of this wilderness. I’ve got a few non-negotiables, very few actually, and the rest is whatever it is. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Lord, give me faith, and thank you for these friends walking with me.

Well, I hoped to have a fancy schmancy page up here telling you how to do this and that, but the internet has gotten far more confusing in the past year and it’s going to take me a little while.

HOWEVER the EP is here, and it is available.

CLICK HERE to download.

If you like it, tell your friends.

If you like it, tell me. With your wallet.

I hope you enjoy it. It was sure a pleasure making it for you.

Yeah, it was a pretty fun show. Loud and raucous, like they should be. Thanks to everybody who came out and listened to us. And much thanks to MusicCityUnsigned for coming out to film and featuring me next month. Also, thanks to Zach Delph for unknowingly providing me with this photo via facebook.

And major, major thanks to my band, one of the finest in town: Paul Eckberg, Jeff Irwin, Nick Flora (as played by Kevin Mann) and the legend of Randall Goodgame, playing keys for the first time in a rock band in over a decade. Great musicians, great people and great friends. It’s a joy and an honor.

I’m in the studio today with Lindsey Jones and tonight I’ll be arm-wrestling with photoshop in hopes of having Letters 2 ready for you in the morning.

I grew up in a medium-sized small town (it makes sense, if you’ve been there) that is pretty much cornfields, State Farm insurance, schools and Illinois State University. At ISU there was a sort of famous professor. He taught writing, and he was a writer. He had written a few very successful books, and it was always cool to know a guy like that lived in our town, not New York or Chicago.

I played a show tonight here in town, it was good and loud, and I always have to take some time to wind down afterwards before I can go to bed. I was surfing the internet and found a headline about that author. He committed suicide two nights ago at the age of 46.

I don’t know him, never met him. He used to rent videos from my friend Billy, who was the guy who actually read all his books. I think I still have one of them. I should probably give that back.

It’s pretty weird. I wrote a little bit about it. Don’t know if it’s any good, but death always catches us off guard, especially a suicide, and I want to make sure I spend a few minutes with it, to give it the gravity it deserves.

David Foster Wallace lived in my hometown
he wrote novels, thick and heady,
that only my friend Billy
ever read.

the genius in our midst,
saw what we can’t comprehend
has made his final statement,
and I still don’t understand

MusicCityUnsigned.com is having me as their featured artist next month, which is awesome. They’re bringing a camera crew out to my show Sunday night at 12th and Porter. I’ve got a KILLER band with me, one of the best I’ve ever had, and I’d love to have a great old rock and roll party playing these tunes with and for my friends. Hope to see you there!

All right, it’s time to get back on the blogwagon (ha!). It’s an amazing night out and I’ve been getting back on the runwagon this week as well, and I’m about to head out again. I just made a playlist for my run, pretty stoked about it:

Wake Up – Arcade Fire – Funeral
Black Mirror – Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Keep The Car Running – Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
(Antichrist Television Blues) – Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
No Cars Go - Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles – Revolver
I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer – The Cardigans – Super Extra Gravity
Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds) – The Cardigans – Super Extra Gravity
Little Black Cloud – The Cardigans – Super Extra Gravity
You’re The Storm – The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
Live And Learn – The Cardigans – Long Gone Before Daylight

That’ll be fun. Anybody have suggestions for good running tunes?

Also, I’m playing in Nashville this Sunday night at 12th and Porter. I have a killer band (Paul Eckberg, Jeff Irwin, Nick Flora…) and they’re filming this show. I’d really like the “pan to the crowd shots” to not be totally empty, so come on out!

Lastly, I finished mixing Letters 2 today. I just had a listen-through, have a few tweaks to make, and will hopefully master it tomorrow. Then I’ll slog my way through some PhotoShop and get these tunes to you soon. I hope you like it.

I will leave you with a final question: Why does Oprah always end every sentence an octave higher than she starts? (Actually, I think it’s a fifth…)