All you do is drive.

Which has left me with a lot of time to listen to music and podcasts and books on tape. Sadly, I have a pretty dang expensive pair of speakers at the studio that I rarely get to just listen to music on. And since my Toyota’s pretty loud I pop in my in-ear monitors (illegal Westone plug!) and have amazing listening experiences. I thought I’d share with you some of what I’ve been digging.

Music:

Peter Gabriel – “Scratch My Back” – Holy freaking cuss word I love this. The arrangements are amazing, the production and engineering are incredibly creative, and the whole is an emotional suckerpunch in the best of ways. Twelve cover songs, all piano and orchestra. He makes it thrilling and reintroduces some great songs. Early fave of the year.
Spoon – “Ga Ga Ga” – Fun, sounds great.
The Weepies – “Hideaway” – Great harmonies, chill grooves, kind of one song over and over, but it’s a good one.
Thad Cockerall – “To Be Loved” – Beautiful, chill, brand-new old-school Gospel songs. True and rich.

I just downloaded some new eMusic fair (The National, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend) and have only had cursory listens. Excited to dig in deeper. Though there’s a good chance I’ll listen to two songs and then hop back in to that Peter Gabriel record.

Podcasts:

Samson Society – Great, inspiring, and heavy. All about honesty, community and Jesus versus addiction.
Midtown Fellowship Leadership Class – From my church, featuring our resident yoda, George, as he states simply and clearly truth that is gut-destroying. Basically, he says something and people ask him to repeat it twenty times. It’s not enough.
The Moth – true stories told in front of an audience with no notes.
“You Look Nice Today” – Pretty much just a hilarious trio of morning show type people. They ramble, it’s occasionally dirty and pretty much always hysterical.

Books on Tape:

I’ve only listened to one so far. It was a Clive Cussler book about ships and spies and stuff. From what I hear each of his books are exactly the same. I’d believe and I’d listen to another. While being quite opposite of my worldview, it’s pretty entertaining. Think Jack Bauer and James Bond have a baby and it beats up the ACLU.

I’ve got an ipod of new podcasts and tunes and some new books on tape from the library. I’ll keep you posted after this weekend.

Quick tour rundown for this weekend:

Thursday: Charlottesville, VA
Friday: Teaneck, NJ
Saturday: Danbury, CT
Sunday: Gap, PA (Lancaster area)
Monday: Baltimore, MD

See you soon!

I can’t thank my amazing hosts enough. Five incredibly gracious people/couples/families who invited me into their communities, fed me, gave me a place to sleep and sent me on my way the next day with hugs and leftovers.

The highlight, besides last night’s amazing steak dinner, had to be my night in Charlotte. The evening was a benefit for a girl named Aimee Powell who was killed six weeks ago in an automobile accident. She was a young teacher who was enormously loved and loving.

I thought the night would be sad, but it was a real celebration. So many friends and family had come together for her funeral and then scattered shortly after. This evening they got to get back together, in a different mindset, and enjoy each other and get to connect in their love for Aimee another time.

The venue was fantastic, the air was charged with grief, but mostly joy, and I didn’t forget any words. It was one of the nights where it feels the songs come out of you like cold breath and you watch them change into something else before your eyes. It was really special.

But really, each night had such personality and I felt so loved and connected to the folks listening. I’m just so grateful for the years people have spent with my songs in the background of their lives and it’s been really exciting to get to be out there connecting the dots on my own.

So thank you so much to everyone who came to shows this past weekend. I’m so grateful.

I’m also hoarse. I got pretty sick the second day out and pretty much lost my voice the last three days. Thankfully, being alone in the car gave me time to conserve my voice and I generally had just enough to get through a show and a few hours of conversation before collapsing back in the Toyota, pop a few Advil and be glad for the next 16 hours of no-talking.

Still, I’m praying it gets better before Thursday’s show in Indianapolis.

Well, I’m wiped and we have a Modern Family on the DVR begging to be watched before I crawl into bed. Thanks again, and to the folks in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Elmhurst, IL, and Champaign, IL: I’m coming to town this week and I’d love you to join me!

I’m fairly certain the tour dates on the web site are currently correct, though if you see something that looks wrong, please let me know.

And now the most important note:

If you’re planning on going to one of the house shows we’d love to get a headcount.  Most of these rooms will be maxed out at 40 to 60 people and it would be a great help for the hosts to have an idea of what it’s going to look like.  So if you were thinking of coming to any of the following shows, click on the cities below for an email address or website for that person, so you can RSVP with them and make sure you have a seat!

March 4 – Birmingham, AL
March 7 – Knoxville, TN
March 11 – Indianapolis, IN
March 12 – Cincinnati, OH
March 14 – Champaign, IL
March 21 – Lancaster, PA
March 22 – Baltimore, MD
April 7 – Memphis, TN
April 17 – Lee’s Summit, MO

I’m getting really excited for this.  Almost giddy.  It’s going to be super fun for me and I think it’s going to be a really cool evening for those who are able to make it.  Email me if you have any questions about the shows, or any requests.  No promises, but I’ll do my best!

Thanks!  Can’t wait!

Also, if you would like to know more about any of the other shows on this tour, click on the cities to email those folks as well. Thanks!!

March 3 – Huntsville, AL

March 6 – Albemarle, NC
March 13 – Elmhurst, IL
March 18 – Charlottesville, VA
March 19 – Teaneck, NJ

March 20 – Danbury, CT

April 8 – Little Rock, AR

April 9 – West Monroe, LA

April 10 – College Station, TX
April 11 – Houston, TX
April 12 – Jacksonville, MS

Also, there are still some Nebraska/Iowa shows in the works for later April. I’ll keep you posted!!

We’re doing six, no seven, songs in a week.  We’re starting the songs, recording them, finishing them, mixing them and then moving on to the next one.  It’s been a super fun way to work.  Usually you do things a piece at a time.  Guitars one day, drums the next, etc…  This has been so fun, to just get the idea, do it, and then do the next thing.  I think it’s going to make for a really special and unique record.

I can’t wait for you to hear it.

In other news, the tour is a week away.  I can’t believe it.  My guitars are in the shop, my old Gibson Falcon amp finally got the time in the shop he’s been needing for about three years, and shirts and pint glasses have been ordered and are going to be here in time for the first show.  So excited.

Hopefully tonight I can make another post about the tour specifically.  But to answer a few questions I’ve gotten via email this past week:

Yes, you can come to a house show.  They’re open.  Email me about the specific show, because depending on the house, we’re capping attendance.  For instance, the show in Indianapolis is taking paypal (ten bucks) to reserve spots.  50 people total.  So email me if you’d like the info on how to get the tickets.

And please try to bring a couple friends.  The whole idea of the tour and the house show setting is to talk about community, and I’d love for the evening to be shared with friends.

All right, I’m actually at the studio now, typing in between takes, so I need to go.  I’m hoping to have time tonight to catch up on my email, so if you have any questions about the tour, please ask!  (And if you emailed me a week ago and I haven’t replied, I’m sorry and I hope I can get to you tonight…)

I turned 31 yesterday. I made a few strips of Benton’s bacon, had a heart attack, awoke from the coma and loaded the girls in the car to go eat Five Guys with Cason and his family.  My daughters are in love with their son Rowan.  He just started walking.  We talked about the Sixpence record he’d just been working on and ate burgers, while my children attempted to eat Rowan.  It was great.

The weather here has been awesome the past few days.  After the most snow I’ve seen in my 13 years in Nashville it’s finally back to being Southern.  65 degrees and blue skies in February.  Sign me up.

The girls rode bikes/trikes and we went to the playground.  We absconded a little birthday cake left over from the surprise party we throw Paul Eckberg Wednesday night.  Finally, sugar-crazy and meat-hazy we settled in for the night, and after the girls were in bed I watched a little ‘Lost’, folded some laundry, and read Leif Enger’s “Peace Like a River” until I fell asleep.

(Note to everyone: Read that book!)

Today was another gorgeous day.  We got home from lunch after church and were going to take naps, but the girls were immediately in the climbing tree as soon as the car had stopped.  They were having so much fun I just imagined up enough energy to give up my own nap (which I had been pretty excited about) and let them play.  I read on the porch in a rocking chair as the girls were laughing and doing something with their dolls and the swingset, I never figured out exactly what.

I couldn’t help thinking that 12 1/2 years ago I rolled into this city in a tired old Mazda with two cheap guitars and a box of paperbacks, feeling quite utterly alone.  I got a speeding ticket that first night, in the rain.  I was lost.

And now, in this same city, which I have grown to love, I feel completely at home.  I have been given such wonderful family and friends.  Life, for all its pain and confusion, is sweet.  And in this moment I really sensed it.

We drove seven hours to Normal on Thursday, then two to Kankakee (where the wedding was) on Friday, then another seven back home yesterday. And I must make this confession:

I’m scared of driving.

Not totally sure why. Always so close to being able to just run off the road, hit a bridge post, be sideswiped by a drunk dude, fall asleep and lose control. Any of these things are a possibility at any time and sometimes that can just put me in a complete panic. Especially now that I have a family.

My mind will start following the path of this or that little scenario until I’m sweating and heartbroken and so angry at how horrible life has gotten, though nothing at all has happened. The cruise is on and I’m just driving along, wishing the slow semi in this lane hadn’t picked now to try and pass the slow semi in the other.

In just under a month I’ll hop in my little Toyota and drive to 25 different cities here in America to play some songs. So I feel it’s time to deal with this fear somehow.

By dealing with it I don’t mean trying to “conquer” it. I don’t believe that really happens. I think that fear is not a thing in and of itself, but a symptom of a deeper disbelief. We go from thinking “this thing has power over me” to “I have power over this thing”. It seems to me that to “conquer” our fear is just to replace one half-truth with another.

The real issue is often control. Specifically, who’s in it.

And my friends, when I am driving I become more aware than at any other time of just how completely I am not in control of my own life. And also how fleeting this life can really be.

Chesterton talks in “Orthodoxy” about the sanity of the insane man, something about how it’s a preoccupation with a very real possibility, and therefore is quite a sane reaction to an insane world. The real craziness is being able to function at all in a world so bent on our destruction.

And so, driving down I-57 to I-24 yesterday with my wife and my youngest daughter asleep and Ella buried under a “house” of pillows and blankets she built around her car seat, I started to pray. Something akin to the Lord’s prayer, I realized later. “Let Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven, and give me today what I need to make it through…”

I have a feeling I’ll be saying that prayer a lot in the months to come, and I look forward to seeing the ways it gets answered.

Here’s how fun:

Many thanks to our friend, and neighbor, Suzanne Williams for taking that photo!

I’ve been having a great time working on the booking thing as well.  My eyes are a little sore from squinting at a combination of Google maps, facebook and my own awful handwriting, but it’s coming together.  I’m even thinking of adding another run out to Nebraska, through Missouri and Iowa in late April/early May.  Here’s the schedule as it’s shaping up now.

March 3 – Huntsville, AL
March 4 – Birmingham, AL (still open)
March 5 – Georgia/South Carolina (still open)
March 6 – Charlotte, NC
March 7 – Knoxville, TN

March 11 – Indianapolis, IN
March 12 – Cincinnati, OH
March 13 – Elmhust, IL (Chicago-area)
March 14- Champaign, IL

March 18 – Charlottesville, VA (still open)
March 19 – Teaneck, NJ
March 20 – Danbury, CT
March 21 – Lancaster, PA (pending)
March 22 – Akron, OH (pending)

April 7 – Memphis, TN
April 8 – Little Rock, AR
April 9 – Dallas, TX
April 10 – College Station, TX
April 11 – Houston, TX (pending)
April 12 – Lousiana/Mississippi (pending)

And then I’m toying with adding another run to the Great Plains. Once again I have folks in mind for each of these dates and will be in touch with them, but if you see a date here you’d like to host or help out with I’d be grateful! Just shoot me an email at: andrew(at)andrewosenga.com

April 28 – Ironton, MO
April 29 – Lee’s Summit, MO (Kansas City)
April 30 – Omaha, NE
May 1 – Lincoln, NE
May 2 – Cedar Rapids, IA
May 3 – St. Louis, MO

Also, with any of those “still open” dates, if you’d be interested in hosting a show in that area please let me know.  I was genuinely surprised by people’s response and how quickly folks got in touch to bring me to share with their communities.  It’s been a very encouraging couple days and I’m so grateful.  Thank you!!

More soon…

I know. Shocker, eh?

So I’ve decided I’m going to make the most out of my unexpected free time in March and book some house (or other structure) shows, play some new songs, see the friends I’ve missed while spending a year at home and put some food on the table back home.

I got a great response to my initial foray into booking these shows via twitter and facebook, so I’ll be following all those responses up with a link back here. Hopefully this will make sense.

I’ve mapped out four runs based on people who seemed excited to have me come play. This means I generally have somebody who’s already inquired about most of these dates. I’ll give those people first dibs if more than one person would like to host a show in the same area.

I thought doing house shows would be fun because A) I’ve never really done them and they seem very cool, intimate and loose, and B) it seems like a pretty non-threatening way to help people move from “I wish you played in my town!” to “I’m inviting you to come play in my town!” without having to worry about venues and sound systems and thick contracts and all that.

Following in the great footsteps of my friends Jon Troast and Andy Gullahorn I’ll pack up my little Toyota with some guitars, some CDs, some lyric sheets (those of you who have seen me play before know why…) and a couple changes of clothes.

What I’d ask of you would be to invite your friends, provide me with a clean, quiet place to sleep (like a hotel or a guest room) and an evening to hang and enjoy some music and stories. I think an asking price of $500 a night makes sense, enough to pay my bills and justify leaving my wife and daughters, but lower than a usual venue show. If that seems impossible let me know and we’ll figure something out. If you feel like paying more to help cover other shows, you would be more than welcome.

So here are the dates I’m thinking. If you see a date that looks like it would work for you, shoot me an email at andrew(at)andrewosenga.com and put something like “house show in Cleveland” in the subject.

March 3 – Huntsville, AL
March 4 – Birmingham, AL
March 5 – Atlanta, GA
March 6 – Greenville, SC
March 7 – Knoxville, TN

March 11 – Champaign, IL
March 12 – Chicago, IL
March 13 – Cincinnati, OH
March 14 – Indianapolis, IN

March 18 – Charlottesville, VA
March 19 – Teaneck, NJ
March 20 – Fairfield, CT
March 21 – Intercourse, PA
March 22 – Akron, OH

Weekend off

April 7 – Memphis, TN
April 8 – Arkansas
April 9 – Dallas area
April 10 – Austin/College Station
April 11 – Houston, TX
April 12 – Louisiana/Mississippi

So I think that’s about it. Thanks for helping me put this together. Booking is usually a backstage shroud-of-mystery bargaining type of thing, and thus it’s always seemed threatening to me. I hope putting it all out in the open like this makes it easy for all of us, and I hope to come play some songs for you soon!

(Quick note: I was just informed I was trying to book a show in Houston on Easter, so I moved the whole Texas run back a week. The dates should be better now.)

Mid-January, 2010. In 2007 I had almost 200 blog entries. In 2009 I had almost 20. This year I’ll aim for something in the middle.

First up, I’m going to try to put together a run of house shows in March and April. A record I was scheduled to produce disappeared and so I’ve got time to fill and bills to pay. In 2008 I felt a deep calling to leave the road and stay home in 2009. And it was awesome. I plan on staying home much more now, but that feeling of being called to NOT go on the road is no longer there. I’m actually kind of looking forward to playing some shows, then coming home and staying put.

I’ll try to do three or four weekend runs, one in the Southeast (Alabama/South Carolina), one Midwest (Illinois/Indiana/Ohio), one Texas/Arkansas and one Northeast (Virginia/Connecticut/??). I’ll post more details tomorrow, or maybe just here in a few minutes, but if you see yourself there and think “I’d like to have some folks over to my house/my friend’s house/my church/my coffeeshop/etc and have Andy O play some songs, hang out and send him back home with a little dough” then shoot me an email!

Like I said, more on that tomorrow.

Now, for a more traditional blog-type-thing:

Conan. Dude, I love that guy. Watching his last show was hard to do. You see somebody so good at what they do and you watch it get thrown away, it’s just sad. Like so many things in this world, you see something great unrecognized and wasted.

Sure, he’s not Beethoven or anything, he’s just a funny dude who is worth a ton of money, but to see a man handed his dream and then crushed, no matter the circumstances, is and should be painful to watch.

However, that last few minutes with the pseudo-all star band playing “Free Bird”? It was odd, no doubt, and felt like it wasted some precious time, but when Conan, who is NOT a lead guitar player started taking solos, I started crying. Freaking ZZ Top dude looks at this 45-year old gangly redhead who just got publicly humiliated and gives him the nod, the sound guy turns it up and this guy, holding back tears, just goes for it!

No one needs to tell me that playing a guitar solo is a holy moment. Few things in life are more spiritual, more honest or more fun. My perspective on this may not be universal, but just watching this guy miss notes left and right, bad tone, no phrasing, going out in his own bizarre blaze of glory? How can you not love that?

I ask you, America! How can you not love that!?!

I loved it, anyway. Obviously.

And I feel about Conan like I felt about so many bands I loved, who were truly great, and were misunderstood and cast aside for something that would make a company more money. I feel this peculiar sense of longing.

I’ve been cynical, and he’s right, it’s a waste of time. I don’t want to be cynical. I want to believe that there will come a day when the people who really put themselves out there, exploring their craft and their heart to the best that they can, will be embraced and celebrated. I want to believe there will come a day when we will all “get” the misunderstood genius and all enjoy the catchy pop hook with the same level of holy intentionality.

I saw in the last few nights of that show what I feel when I hear Achtung Baby or A Liturgy, A Legacy. I saw what I felt the last few shows we played as The Normals (not necessarily because we were so great but because of how fully “present” we were in those moments). I saw a glimpse of the divine that is so precious and so true that it reinforces my belief in a Holy God.

Rich meant to show me that. Conan didn’t. Who knows what Bono meant. But I saw it nonetheless, and my heart responds:

“I have seen Your creation amid the fallout, and yes, it IS good. Thank you. And come soon.”

Possible topics:

- songwriting with Jason Gray today and tomorrow

- March opened up, might try to play some house shows?

- Probably going to a YoungLife camp for a month this Summer

- released an album in December

- Conan’s guitar solo made me cry

- “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” was one of the best books ever.

- I love watching “The Soup”.

- Any suggestions? Anybody out there still see when I post stuff?

See you tonight.