These past couple of weeks have been really eventful ones for me. I know you've seen some of it if you've kept up on facebook, but here's a recap:
Wildflower Festival was awesome! I got to participate as finalist in their songwriting competition. There were around 600 song submissions from around the country, and I made it into the top ten. This got me a spot in the songwriting competition onstage and also an hour set at the Wildflower Festival. So we packed up and headed to Richardson, TX (a close suburb of Dallas). I lined up a coffee shop gig for that Friday night, and spent all day Saturday doing music stuff. Here's some pics. The first was the awesome auditorium for the competition and the second is the stage out at the festival:
My family lives pretty close to that area, so a cool thing that happened was that my Dad was
able to come out and back me for my set. He's a drummer who played in a lot of bands during his college years (country, 70's rock, etc...) and had even organized the praise team that I played in during my youth group years. So it was really cool that he could come out and play some cajon with me. You can see him in the pic there.
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| Kansas |
It was awesome getting to play, but getting to meet the songwriter's there was just as great an experience. There was some serious talent there from all around the country. At the end of the festival, we were all invited out for the after party. It turned into a song round. There was a lot of inspiration happening in that room. It was one of those moments where you can sit back and appreciate something you've worked hard to be a part of.
I would be remiss, if I didn't throw in a quick mention of my favorite act of the weekend. Kansas has always been a favorite band of mine (ever since I stole the Kansas cd we got for my Dad on Father's Day...I stole it that day upon hearing it). Since then I've tried to see them in concert, but it never panned out. A ride would cancel, or it would rain. So finally I got to see Kansas that Saturday night. It was amazing. I could sing along with every song. :)
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| After Party |
Oh, also, I did get an interview right up where I was able to talk about my thoughts on songwriting and my personal approach to my art. It's not often that I get such a forum, so if you're interested, here's a link to it: Every Word Counts. I have to give a big thanks to Erica Mueller for the interview and the write-up!
Shortly after getting back, I went down to Huntsville, AL for an interview with music blog Spice Radio. I met with Ben there and recorded a few songs and did an interview about the songs and what I'm up to these days musically. I had a blast with them and hope to be back there soon to talk about the EP that I'm working on (when it releases! :) ). Here's the link for that interview: John Carroll @Spice Radio.
I know, that's so much information! And there's even more I can tell you about, but write too much in a blog posts and it becomes too hard to fit into peoples busy schedules. So check back here in about a week or so, and I'll post more. Talk to you soon!
