Wildflower Festival and Spice Radio Interview

Hey there -

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.

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. :)

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!

Heart to Heart Video Shoot!

Really exciting news!...we've been working with a video producer to put together a music video for "Heart to Heart"!  We were contacted by Jeff Swafford about creating a video centered around this song's story line a couple of months ago and have been working with him to put things together.  A little over a week ago, we got together and filmed everything.  It was a blast to record and a really incredible learning experience.  We brought in some actors to play the two main characters of the story.  I took some pics while I was there, and I wanted to share them with you.  Ha, I'm not in any of them because I was the one with the camera.  You'll just have to wait until the video release to see me. :)

The video is currently in post production now.  Stay tuned for more updates!!!

My Evangeline

Yes! More music! and so soon!  It's a folksy tune this time around.  The band liked it, so I'm sure you will hear a Man & the Mountain version of it at some point in the near future.  There might even be a washboard involved if you cross your fingers and wish very hard for it (I know I am!).  For you right now, though, I'm going to give you a stripped down version.  Just a guy and his guitar.

The idea came from a Longfellow poem.  I was going through trying to get some ideas ("A Boy's Will" and such) and came across this tale.  Originally its more from the girl's perspective.  It tells the story of two people who were destined to be together, except upon their engagement they were forced from their land.  The guy sends Evangeline first on a ship (ends up being a pretty big mistake).  They spend a lot of time waiting and looking for each other. I won't ruin the ending.  Go read it! I do like me some Longfellow.  The song switches plot points around a bit, but the names of the innocent were not changed for their protection:



We're talking to some sound engineers now about getting a studio recording of this which we can release soon.  I thought I'd let you hear it first.  A "behind the scenes" look, if you will.

Check out M&tM EP!

Happy New Year's!

I hope you're having a great one.  So far so good for me - though I did just spend the morning writing a song about the sun and how it brings to life and then burns up everything it touches.  It's really dark (figuratively).  But it's just a morning mood thing, it's really rainy and wintry outside right now.  Maybe I was just sun sick.

Anyways, this year is looking like it's going to be a big one for me.  I'm going to be able to step up my music game in a big way, and I'm very excited to share it with you!  We have a few recordings that my band M&tM is getting ready to release very soon.  I'll post links here along with my social media accounts so be watching for it.

Now, however, is a time to catch you up on stuff I've already released.  My band Man & the Mountain recently released our EP entitled "Songbird".  It's available for download now if you haven't been able to get a hold of it yet.  If you like my music - then you will definitely want to check it out.  Click on the cover and it will take you there.

VBS and More!

Fun news! It came time again this year to sit down and get a song out for Cornerstone Mesquite Baptist Church in TX.  Every year for the past 3 or 4, I've co-written the VBS theme song with Michelle Lenk.  This year was pirate themed, which was great fun to write and produce.  Michelle wrote the lyrics and emailed them over for me to write and record some music.  I immediately thought of a guy I knew here who plays accordion:

Gage Gleim

(Gage Gleim).  Had a blast bringing him in on it - it was my first go at recording accordion.  Also, for a fun note, you can hear everybody who worked on the project in the gang vocals (ahoy matey) with Darren (drums), Gage, and my wife Kat! They just finished up with VBS there with a successful week.  Here's the finished product.  Keep in mind this is different from my usual stuff - It's for a children's sing along.  Expect some silliness:

The Latest and Greatest

Hey everybody!

I wanted to drop in for a quick update about my music life here in Nashville.  Things are great!  I've been playing out around town - some solo, some with the band.  There are so many cool, different people that you get to meet at these writer's nights.  I hope to share that on this blog pretty soon.  If you're listening to my music, there's a lot of other writer's out there who haven't made mainstream yet that are still super talented individuals - and I hope to share that with you soon.  That's in your future.

But...the band has been recording.  We working hard on getting an EP together to get our sound set, and something to be able to put in people's hands.  I've put on my sound-engineer's hat, and I've been having a lot of fun with that.  There are so many more possibilities in song-writing if you are not only putting the time in on the lyrics and music but also on the production.  I'm really excited to be sharing that very soon.  We've already sent one track off to be mastered and should have it back within the week.  Two more are already in the process of being tracked.  We've been busy!

This is Waldon Rowe at our recent gig at Ugly Mugs:

Song Corner: Zeno's Fountain

Happy New Year's!

I know everybody says that this time of year, but I really mean it this time.  It's a rare New Year's this year in that I'm really excited about the upcoming year.  It's not that I'm usually depressed, but most of the time around this season I'm reflecting on the previous year wondering where things got off track and how I'm going to make things better.  This year I'm just excited about plans that are happening and the potential for the upcoming months.  So just believe me as I say "Happy New Year" to you all, because this time I really mean it. :)

Here's a song I wrote that I recorded with Nashville artist Eric Landshaft (check him out!).  He's a great vocalist and harmony genius.  He also gets cred for the ukulele playing on this track (I have to look that word up every time I write it out).  So give his name a click and take a listen.  He has some other tracks that he should be releasing in the near future for which I can vouch for their greatness, so give him another friend request on facebook and wait expectantly.

This song he recorded with me is one I wrote and produced as an personal experiment - like a mad scientist in the lab.  It's fairly abstract in content, and we made strong use of vocal harmonies (thanks Eric!).  It's somewhat based on Zeno's paradox (hence the  terrible song title) and  the idea that the main character feels that their not able to move on or develop their life.  Maybe something similar to what I might have written on a lesser New Year's.

Without further ado: