Songs and stories

You can find more info on the new Allen County Photo Album blog.

Note: Just tonight, I realized that an essay that was first published elsewhere was no longer online. After some searching through the Wayback Machine, I found it again and post it here for posterity’s sake.

This essay is a response of sorts to a post on Scott Greider’s blog in which he criticizes a local Uno’s Pizzaria for looking like an old urban building but actually being a new suburban building. I agreed with Scott’s concerns, but offered a different perspective. The Uno’s in question has since closed.

My friend Scott is frustrated with a pizza place.

He enjoyed the food, he liked the prices, and he thought the service was acceptable.

But he still feels like he’s been lied to — by the building itself.

“What made this place so cool — primarily its atmosphere — was … well … inauthentic!” Scott said on his blog after his visit to Uno’s Chicago Grill in Fort Wayne.

“You see, this was a brand new building out in the sprawling suburbs on a lot surrounded by parking spaces that was intentionally trying to look and feel a hundred years old.”

He’s right, especially when he compares the Fort Wayne restaurant to the original Uno’s in Chicago.

My family and I ate at the original Uno’s last year, and while we ate deep-dish authentic Chicago pizza elbow-to-elbow around a table a bit too big for the tiny dining room, even the youngest of us knew we weren’t just taking in a pizza. We were taking in history.

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If you’re here looking for lyrics from the songs I sang at Angola UMC, below is the list with links to the lyrics:

• From Midnight to Daylight
• Relentless Love
• Widow Moon
• Hanging on His Word
• Come to Me
• River

Thanks to all the listeners at the Praisathon at Angola UMC who welcomed me so warmly! It’s always a pleasure meeting the saints in Angola.

If you’re here after seeing my short concert in Angola: Welcome! Let me tell you what’s going on:

• Download a couple of free songs on my Free! page.
• Listen to some songs from my instrumental album, “Wordlessly,” on the store page. You can also find out how to purchase a CD or find it on iTunes.
• Preorder my new album, “Daylight,” which will be released later this year, also on the store page.
• Look for me on Twitter or on Facebook. Links are near the bottom of the sidebar.
• And then be sure to sign up for updates, either by RSS or email. Look for the Get Automatic Updates headline at the top of the sidebar.

I hope to add more shows and more songs later this spring. Thanks!

I didn’t post this earlier, because I think people who are going don’t read this site, and those who do read this site live too far away …

But I’ll be playing a slot at the Praisathon at the Angola (Indiana) UMC on Friday night. If you’re in that area, stop by and give a listen.

Welp, it’s time to post an update on my next album, “Daylight,” which I began recording in earnest this week. I’ve already dropped one song, “Kiss the Word,” from the lineup, because it was by far the weakest of the bunch.

But most surprising has been two new songs that I began writing this week for the very purpose of filling what I could call “sonic gaps” on the album.

I’ve always felt the first two or three songs of an album should set “sonic boundaries.” In other words, those first couple of songs should somehow include enough of the variety that follows so that the listener can get a small clue as to the genre of the album.

My counter-example for good “sonic boundaries” is the otherwise excellent album “Drowning with Land in Sight” by one of my favorite bands to spring from the early ’80s: the 77s.

The first three songs on “Drowning” are Zeppelin-esque heavy rockers, and in my mind, they set you up for an entire album of Brit-guitar rock.

But then the fourth song takes a sonic left turn into a song heavily influenced by the Beach Boys, and it’s jarring to my ears. It’s a great song, but by this point in the album you don’t expect to go this far afield of what you’ve already heard.

So, for my own album, “Daylight,” I felt I needed a simple piano-vocal opener before getting to the next song, the fast-tempo-with-loud-drums “From Midnight to Daylight.” Thus, the bluesy “This Body of Death” was written for the album’s first slot. “Body of Death” plus “Midnight” pretty much sets up the listener for what kind of music will follow.

I also am writing a new song for the last slot, again a simple piano-vocal song called “When All Is Light.” It’s another song that falls within the album’s themes of light vs. darkness and life vs. death.

So then, here’s the new lineup for the album:

• This Body of Death
• From Midnight to Daylight
• Relentless Love
• Widow Moon
• Sunflower
• Hanging on His Word
• The Sins of the World
• Still Beautiful
• In the Morning
• Come to Me
• His Mercy Endures Forever
• When All Is Light

Thanks, and there will be more updates in a few days.

I’m taking a week off work to begin recording the piano parts for my upcoming album. After some thought and good advice from friends, I’m settling on the title of this album:

“Daylight”

Ah, simple and direct, and the idea of daylight is reflected in many of the 11 songs in consideration for the album.

The album will begin with these songs:

• From Midnight to Daylight
• Relentless Love
• Widow Moon
• Sunflower

Then I have a gaggle of songs to sort through in the middle:

• Hanging on His Word
• In the Morning
• Kiss the Word
• The Sins of the World
• Still Beautiful

And then I’ll end with these two:

• Come to Me
• His Mercy Endures Forever

Noticeably absent is “River,” which is available as a “rough draft” download on my free songs page. But to me, that song feels like it wants to be on the next album, with more personal songs I’ve written.

So anyway, I’ll update as I can next week, but I’ll be understandably busy laying down tracks in GarageBand. Thanks!