Alison, the girls and I headed to a favorite local haunt, Baja Burrito, Saturday night to meet up with some friends who were briefly in town. Catching up on their story was inspiring and encouraging. I want to share it with you.

Ernesto and Angela (who I continue to call by different 6-letter names beginning with “A”) Alaniz are from Michigan. They’ve been a continuing presence on the road since I was back in The Normals. Ernesto bought “Coming to Life” in bulk as gifts for his groomsmen.

They always roll up with a giant van full of middle-schoolers to catch whatever show is nearby. After the show, the audience has cleared out, the band is packing up and Ernesto has thirty kids sitting in a cluster in the middle of the room and he is talking to them about what they’ve learned that night. This guy is awesome.

So the Alaniz’s came to a show on our “Share the Well” tour, an evening dedicated to raising awareness of a people group in India called the Dalit. These are a group of people larger than the population of America who have no civil rights, no chance for improvement, and who are considered less than human by the prevailing Hindu belief system. They are the most oppressed people on Earth.

Ernesto and Angela heard about these people and started praying for them, and for how they should be involved.

Meanwhile, in Andra Pradesh, India, a poor, struggling pastor decided he needed help, both financially and with vision. He pastors one of the 13 Christian churches in a region with a population of 60,000. Few of the pastors can read or write, and none have any money. He went to the big town nearby and his son, who knows some English, helped him use the internet to find an American. Because, as we all know, Americans have money. The name of their church is “Faith Baptist Church” so that’s what they Googled. One of the first things that pulled up was a church in Michigan where Ernesto was the pastor of youth and missions.

Now, two or so years later, Ernesto and Angela are getting ready to move to that impoverished village for the next five to ten years. They leave January 12. For the past two months they’ve been traveling America, speaking in churches and raising support to allow them to go.

They have sold their house, their cars, a quite impressive DVD collection and surround sound system. They are saying goodbye to their friends and family, including a brother who fights in the UFC under the name “The Mexicutioner”, which is awesome beyond measure.

You can find out more about them by CLICKING HERE. They are amazing people, who have supported me for almost a decade. I am honored now to return the favor. I hope you will, too.

Ernesto and Angela - Your picture is on our fridge, and Ella wants to take the rest of the cards to everybody on our street. You will be in our prayers. Send me updates and I’ll post them here so more of us can know what’s going on with you guys. It was great to see you, and to learn from your example. God bless you guys.

It’s Monday morning. The Fed has given away 3 times what they asked for (over 2 trillion dollars) and won’t tell us to whom, and I’m watching The Little Mermaid with my girls (fast forwarding the Ursula parts…)

I went with Nick Flora to play a couple shows in Arkansas. They were both fun and the people we spent our time with were wonderful. I haven’t had that much fun on the road in a good while.

Then I headed down to Dallas to play a Caedmon’s show. The band Poor Rick Folk opened and did a great job. I played some guitar on their latest record and it was fun to see them live. They have since added a keyboard player and another guitar player and their set had a much bigger sound than I expected. It was good to see them.

This week I’ll be playing a bit more guitar on Eric Peters’ new record, but mainly I’ll just be mixing a Christmas EP for Jonny Diaz, which is so far turning out great.

By the way, does anybody have a MacBook they’re looking to sell, or can hook us up with a deal? We want to get one for Alison so I can videochat with the girls while I’m on the road all December. Thanks.

Well, that’s about it for me. Sorry it’s just a play-by-play today. More soon. Happy Monday.

Mark and I started our first band back in high school. There were a few things that really fired us up to do this. In no real order they were:

- Pearl Jam’s “Ten” album
- one of Jars of Clay’s first shows, while they were still in college, at Agape 94. They were barely older than us, and they played at like 9 am. We thought “we could do that.”
- The Prayer Chain’s “Mercury” album
- early 90’s U2 and Toad the Wet Sprocket on the radio (though we had yet to really know the bands)

So we devoured those bands records, poring over liner notes to see who played what lick, who wrote which lyric. It was an exciting time, coming alive to not only hearing music but starting to learn the world in which it was made.

Well today I was working at Sputnik, as usual, and Jars of Clay was in the other room working on a seriously killer new record. It’s so good I’m sort of depressed. It’s a constant reminder of how far I still have to grow.

Over in my room I was playing guitar for a project Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd are producing. Steve was in The Choir, another of my all-time favorite bands since high school. Their album “CircleSlide” will always take me right back to my senior year. I listened to that thing so many times. I know exactly where every random cymbal hits in the long jam outro of “Restore My Soul”. Steve also produced that Prayer Chain album. And he called me to play guitar today.

My seventeen-year old self would literally not believe a day like this could be possible. My twenty-nine year old self tried to act like he’s not still that seventeen-year old on the inside and just play it cool. I doubt I pulled it off.

Who cares.

It was a freaking awesome day.

This is pretty incredible…

PatrickMoberg.com

Curse you, William Willett, and your infernal Daylight Savings Time. My children are now getting up at 5:45 am and it’s dark when I get home from work at 5:30 pm.

In other news, the Andy and the Andys show Saturday night was really fun. As is the case with shows like this, the bulk of our day was spent in the car. Usually that’s annoying, with these guys it was a joy. Here’s hoping we get to do more of these shows in the near future.

I decided last night to swap a few pedals around, so I think I’m going to sell my Line 6 DL4 delay, MM4 modulation thing, and a Sparkle Drive pedal. All the pedals are in good shape, all are often used. The Line6 ones will come with my settings programmed in if anybody cares about that. I’m thinking a hundred bucks for the Sparkledrive and $200 for the Line6 boxes. Just shoot me an email and we’ll work it out.

I have an early morning session with Steve Hindalong today, which is awesome, and then I’m working with Eric Peters and Ben Shive on Eric’s new record. I’ll be playing guitar, which makes me happy.

Lastly, would anybody be interested in Letters 1 & 2 on vinyl? Vol. 1 on one side, Vol. 2 on the other. Would this be something you might like to preorder? I’m thinking of getting them ready for the Christmas tour, but I want to make sure I can sell them. Love to know your thoughts. Thanks!

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.