In no real order, here is what’s going on in the life of Andy O right now:

- My parents have been in town this weekend.  It’s been a good visit.  Today we all went to feed the ducks at Radnor Lake, which is gorgeous and only three miles from our house.  Sadly, it’s the first time I’ve ever gone.  Perfect spot for a run or time with the girls, though, so it won’t be the last.

- Matt and Kristen Odmark had a little neighborhood house concert Saturday night.  Randall Goodgame, Billy Cerveny, Mandy Mann and I each played little sets to about 100 friends and neighbors.  So fun.  Hot cider, smores, popcorn, old friends and new…  I sang the song “Baby Mine” from Dumbo for Ella, my 3 year old, and I got one of the words wrong.  From Matt’s balcony-like back porch she loudly corrected me.  It was awesome.

- I’m reading “Hannah Coulter” by Wendell Berry and it’s stunning.  Every time I read him I wonder why I don’t just read all his books in a row.  They’re so amazing.  ”Amazing” is not close to describing, actually, how great he is.  Beautiful, poetic, epic, real and honest.  Just so good.  Reading one of his books is like eating steak at a REALLY nice restaurant.  It’s so good you can’t really do it every day, but you’ll remember it and think of it often.

- That makes it sound like I care about steak far more than I really do.

- I’m excited to play another Andy and the Andys show this weekend.  Georgia.  Bring it on.

- Any of you graphic artists out there feel like helping me out?  I need to make images for Letters 2 that can sit in the center of the main page and the top right corner of all the pages on this site.  I’d love any thing anybody could send my way.

- I just discovered the game “Scramble” on facebook and am currently losing all sense of self-confidence by playing against my friend Shanin from high school.  She’s got the gift.

I guess that’s about it.  This week is a busy one in the studio.  I’m mixing and producing a few different artists, co-writing with a few folks, and working on some new solo stuff with Cason at the helm.  I’ll try to keep you updated when I can.  (I always keep up on facebook and twitter, by the way.)  Thanks for caring and supporting me doing what I do.  

QUESTION FOR MONDAY:

Where do you go/What do you do to find moments of quiet and solitude?  What do you do with that time when you find it?

Every city has a better restaurant than Chili’s, The Olive Garden or McDonald’s.  Who knows about it?  The people who live there.  There might be a better hardware store, record shop, or place to get your car fixed, but you’ll never know it.

Unless you do your homework.  Ask around.  Google.  See what else is out there.  Give them a try.  You may find that thing that is better.  And then you’ll want to support it.  One conversation, one dollar, one choice to go here and not there.  These are our simple votes against the landscape of our domination.

I’m ashamed to say I just started doing my homework tonight, with 14 days to go before the Presidential election.  I want to help you do yours.  Let’s all take half an hour tonight and spend five minutes on each of these sites.  Read their stances on the issues.  Find someone you might be able to vote FOR, something besides the lesser of two evils.  It’s not a wasted vote if you can sleep well for casting it. 

These people won’t win, not this year, but they’re each trying to make this country a better place.  For that we owe them five minutes of our time to hear what they have to say.  There are more than two people running for President, so let’s do our homework.  You may be surprised.  (I was.)

Ralph Nader

Chuck Baldwin

Bob Barr

Alan Keyes

Cynthia Ann McKinney

Are there others we need to know about?

Tomorrow night, at 12th and Porter here in Nashville, at 7:30:

Andrew Peterson’s CD release concert, with me playing guitar.  It is also:

Randall Goodgame’s EP release concert, with me playing guitar.  It is also:

An Andy O “Letters” solo set, with me playing guitar.

Love to see you there!

Oh, and CLICK HERE for the free Letters 2 EP.

So I posed a question yesterday which got some very interesting, poignant and startling answers.  I was going to put in my two cents but I took NyQuil before I started typing and realized I was making no sense.  And I just took some more tonight, so I’ll postpone entering that discussion until a later date.

This week I’m having to learn a bunch of new songs.  I’m playing with Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame Sunday night at 12th and Porter.  They’re each releasing new projects this week and I’m excited to get to play on such wonderful tunes.  This is the best stuff Randall has done yet, I think.  You can’t really make that statement about the guy who did The Far Country and Love and Thunder but Andy P’s new stuff is just as good.  Which means it’s amazing.  I’ll be doing a short set that night as well.  But between learning and rehearsing twenty new songs and the day job at the studio, I’ve been a little busy.

Yesterday I took a day off, intending on being with the girls and helping Alison out, but I got really sick and laid a little more low than anticipated.  Today I felt just as bad, but you’ve just got to get back to work, you know.  I think it’s gotten a little better tonight, though.

Anyway, yesterday I was cleaning a bit and I found the cover for a mix tape that my friend Matthew Smith made for me a decade ago.  He lived directly across the dorm hall from me, three years before we found out we were cousins and before either of us had careers in music.  I always dogged the music he liked (if it wasn’t Toad, Pearl Jam or Sixpence) and he made this tape to try to convince me that these artists were good.

Matthew, you may now leave a comment stating “I told you so*.”

*except for Vertical Horizon.  You’re still wrong on that one.

Are you proud to be an American?

Should you be?

I have a cold.  I woke up this morning from a fitful sleep with half a kleenex in my right hand, the other half rolled up and shoved into my left nostril.  Good morning, honey.

There is a thick pressure throughout my head, from ear to ear, reaching up to my forehead and down to my nose.  I have found the best way to relieve this pressure is to take my thumbs and press into my eyes as hard as physically possible.  I have a thought that I can relieve this pressure forever if I can just pop my eyeballs out the back of my skull.  At some points in the night this seems like a very reasonable idea.

I should have seen this coming.  Why?  Because I’m taking the day off.  Whenever I work too hard for a season, pile up my days off and actually use them, I get sick.  This was probably helped along by the flight schedule for our Caedmon’s show this weekend.  We played in Harlingen, TX, which is basically Mexico, and the flights going in and coming out were either very early or very late.  So Saturday morning I left my house at 4:30 AM, and Sunday morning I left the hotel at 3:45 AM.  I was lucky to get a decent nap each day, but it just messes with you anyway.

So here I am, sitting on my couch, typing away, enjoying my cold, with Ella sitting next to me watching Curious George on PBS (which is the only little kids show I actually enjoy).  I’ll just hang out today, play with the girls, lay around and read.  At some point I’ll head to the grocery store and get some medicine, and then I’ll probably feel better.  But for now, I’m going to sit here and feel my cold, really get to know it.  Except for cases of accidental amputation, sometimes not feeling too well can feel just right.

I went for a nice run this morning. Usually I only get to go at night, but this morning it worked out, and it was wonderful. The leaves here in Tennessee have just started changing, and it’s that barely-rainy-slightly-overcast type of day that’s just gorgeous.

As I was running the song “Sure Don’t Feel Like Love” from Paul Simon’s Surprise record came up. There’s a line in the first verse that I had never understood, and neither had Cason or Jason Gray as we discussed this record the other night on Andy P’s bus. And today I got it, it’s so simple I just didn’t see it.

I registered to vote today
felt like a fool
had to do it anyway
down at the high school
the thing about the second line
“felt like a fool”
you know, people say it all the time
even though it’s true…

By “the second line” he means the second line of the song. Duh. Brilliant. Again, this is the best record of the past few years. Buy it.

Speaking of good records the past few years and buying them, I just did an interview with Russ Ramsey over at the Rabbit Room about free music and what it actually costs. Love to know your thoughts, here or there.

And finally, for those of you who say there’s no justice anymore…

CLICK HERE, scroll down and vote for Blood:Water Mission (or anything else that seems worthy). Seems like a pretty great thing.

Heard a good joke tonight.

“What makes a Unitarian move out of the neighborhood?”

“When somebody burns a question mark in their yard.”

Don’t blame me, blame Garrison Keillor.

In other news, there’s an interesting post and discussion going on in the Rabbit Room, subtly centering around my Letters to the Editor projects and the notion of FREE music. Love to know your thoughts.