Austin, TX
Well, here we are in Austin, TX. I’m sitting on the bus because it feels like the inside of someone’s mouth outside and there might be some sick pigs walking around. So far everyone out here seems really cool. I’m on the bus with the band guys and a few of the crew guys, so it feels like normal being on a bus. We’re still in the process of figuring out all of Billy’s web stuff and once that happens we can get organized and start putting up some cool stuff. In about a half an hour, we are heading to some radio interview/performance thing, so I will be able to take some pictures there and see what happens. I’m sure this is the mundane, play-by-play stuff that excites everyone, but I had a pretty rough night’s sleep last night…. you know the whole ‘first night back on the bus’ thing.
Anyway, tonight we are at the University of Texas with Sugarland. I’ve got my computer, my camera and my pass so I don’t get thrown out. I think I’m good. I’ll let you know.
Firekites – Autumn Story
Not only is this a great song for a little Music You’ve Never Heard, but a pretty amazing video by the Firekites. What are you listening to today?
Looking For Blogs
With this whole new wave of Twitter and the ‘micro-blog’, I have noticed that a lot of the blogs that I have in my reader have suffered. Many have gone un-updated for months, and others are simply extensions of their Twitter. Not all of them are like this, but there is a pretty big handful.
What I need is a few more good blogs in the ole’ reader. So here’s what I’m asking from you. What are your top five blogs that you are currently reading? Go ahead and put the links in the comments and I will check them out.
Yes, with five links you will get caught in my spam filter, but I will do my best to check that and approve them all.
Ready? Go.
Airplane Soundtracks
So, this morning Mac Powell, of Third Day and deep voice fame, Twittered that he was on an airplane and was hearing our good friends Addison Road playing over the speakers. I immediately thought about their current single “Hope Now”. A great song for sure, but I’m not so sure that as you are sitting down on an airplane you want to hear the words, “everything rides on hope now”. But maybe that’s just me.
Now, that gave me an idea for a post today, and since my other idea for a post was going to be complaining about something that’s been bugging me for a while now, I figured I’d go with this one to keep things ‘light’.
So here we go. The challenge today is this.
What song (lyrics or title) do you least want to hear when you are getting on an airplane?
Seems pretty simple right? And trust me, it’s better than me hopping up on my soapbox and complaining…. at least today.
Stats Suck Sunday – In Bullet Points
- Today we decided to skip church and hang out as a family. It’s been almost two months of me traveling, and us running in different directions, and it felt like it was time to do that.
- The Franklin Festival is amazingly expensive to ‘walk around’ at. Five dollar corn dog? Really?
- Last night with Billy went well. Completely out of my element, but I think that will only make me work harder.
- Working on my fourth cup of coffee today. Seems like I should be really awake.
- The garden Kristin planted a few weeks ago is starting to show signs of life.
- Still trying to figure out the whole ‘Cupcake Craze’. I think it bothers Kristin more than me, but we both think it’s a little silly.
- I’ve decided that this week is a week of getting organized, so we’ll see how that goes.
- Organization is not my strong point.
- It’s been a while since I have done a Stats Suck Sunday post, but it’s been cool to see both this and Positive Post Tuesday continue to some level.
- I wish the font that I was typing this in, actually showed up like this when I published it to my blog.
- Fresh basil is awesome.
- Seriously, who would have thought two years ago that Cupcakes would be the new awesome trendy thing?
- I’ve been really wanting to see the third ‘X-Men’ movie for a while now. I might need to go get that.
- Haven’t Cupcakes been around forever?
- I met Dane from The Biggest Loser last night. He looked good and supposedly ran a marathon yesterday. A marathon where someone died running it.
- I bet Dane from The Biggest Loser doesn’t eat trendy Cupcakes. I should have asked him.
- Two different ice cream trucks have come into our cul-de-sac in the past hour. I think we’ve been targeted.
- This list is long and probably pretty annoying.
Welcome to Sunday. Our stats will suck, but we all have random stuff to say. What’s on your mind today? The rules are simple. Write your bullet point random thoughts on your blog. Fill out the box below. Sounds easy right? Ready? Go.
Desktop
Well it’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘random question of the day’, and since I am sort of in between running around and sitting still, I thought I’d throw this one out for today. Not to mention it’s a weekend and no one is really reading blogs today. Are you ready?
What’s your current desktop picture?
Normally I have my computer rotating desktop pictures from a folder, but I’ve really started liking this one so until I get sick of it, this is the one I am going to stick with.
Your turn. Ready? Go.
And Now For Something Completely Different…
This blogging thing has taken me down some pretty interesting roads from massive tours, to being in a studio with people like Vince Gill, to backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, and everything in between. Since The Roadshow has ended, I haven’t really had a chance to mention what was next for me. Well, I thought I’d let you all know… Tomorrow starts something completely different all together, and I’m a little nervous, but equally as excited to see what’s going to happen over the next few months.
Tomorrow I am meeting up with Billy Currington to start working on a complete, much needed ‘online overhaul’. You country fans might know him, and he’s playing at the Country Music Marathon Post Race Concert and that will start my process of handling his web presence and traveling with him. Now, this is going to be something completely different than I am used to but I love the idea of a challenge, and can’t wait to see what happens in a different market. I’m currently not handling any of his websites or anything like that, but it will be cool to dive in to what they have going and see where I can help them out. There’s a lot to be done.
Billy is currently traveling with another country act you may have heard of called Sugarland, and I’m interested to see what this whole ‘Country Music’ thing is all about. Anyway, I hope you will all join me in this new little venture, and who knows, I might just have to buy some boots or something eventually.
The Dove Awards
Last night after the pre-show portion of the night, and after the award for ‘best packaging’ was called I was finally able to catch up with David Crowder and Shelly Giglio and talk to them about how we had just not won the Dove. Both of them mentioned how their plan was to have me do the acceptance speech in the event that we won that particular award. So in retrospect, maybe it is a good thing we didn’t win. No one needs that bad of a train wreck starting out the show.
I don’t even know where to start recapping the show. Kristin and I had a great time. I think the stress level was a bit high simply because we got there with two minutes to spare, and the whirlwind of it all, but once things settled down a little we were able to relax and have a really good time together. I can’t think of a better situation than to have my best friend with me at something like that.
The performances were awesome. Brandon Heath and Natalie killed it. MercyMe somehow managed to make two songs I have heard a couple hundred times live and make it more emotional than ever before and Steven Curtis Chapman left me completely speechless. Also seeing the Tenth Avenue North guys play and win New Artist Of The Year was great. And even though they aren’t a SkörInc artist (yet) and beat out two other bands that I work with, it’s awesome to see friends succeed and they deserve it.
And speaking of Tenth Avenue North, Kristin and I were able to meet Mike’s mom and dad (MrD and MommaD from the streaming chat) and they gave me a little gift. It’s something that deserves a post all to itself so you’ll have to wait, but it’s pretty amazing. Good people.
I’m sure there is more to talk about, but right now I’m only half way through a cup of coffee, so as the day goes on, I will probably think of more to say. All in all, a great night. Congratulations to all the winners, including SkörInc’s own Natalie Grant for Female Vocalist Of The Year for the fourth time in a row.
Anybody watch last night? What’d you think?
Tonight’s The Night
See those red seats? That’s where Kristin and I will be tonight for The Dove Awards. Not bad seats eh? Of course neither Kristin or I know how to really act at these kinds of things. Mostly because we don’t go to these kinds of things… and there’s the fact that we don’t really know how to ‘dress up’. And there we will be. Smack right in the middle.
We are both really excited to get to go. I’m probably more excited for Kristin to go than I am excited myself. She rarely gets to do cool things like this without juggling the boys at the same time. So tonight the boys are staying with Kristin’s dad, and we’re looking at it as a ‘date night’ of sorts.
Last year was my first time at the Doves and I was sort of taken back by the whole thing. A lot of people like to make fun of it or whatever and that’s fine. But growing up paying attention to everything music, including Christian music and knowing about all the folks I was sitting in a room with was pretty fascinating. That was last year. This year it blows my mind that Kristin and I will be sitting with them, and to be nominated, again, just kind of weirds me out.
I’m excited to be able to see Natalie and MercyMe perform, I’m excited that Kristin will get to experience it, I’m excited to see some friends, and I’m excited to see what happens with this whole ‘fluke nomination’ thing. Here goes nothing huh?
The Grand Ole Opry
So, funny story. The Grand Ole Opry is pretty tight with security. They run a tight ship and do things the same every time. Not only that, but backstage is a really small area and not a lot of people are let in there. Simple enough. Those are just always the rules.
The last time ‘MercyMe’ played at The Opry, it was billed as just Bart and they literally had to buy me a ticket to get in and take some pictures from the seats. We ended up with one or two decent pictures from the balcony, and that’s about it. This year we were determined to get some actual ‘backstage’ documentation.
There were three of us, Sam (stage manager on The Roadshow), Evan (an aspiring senior in high school looking to get into the music business) and myself. Getting three people in was going to be tricky….. Until we saw them loading in MercyMe gear in the back alley. Grab a guitar, and you’re in. We’ve officially ‘snuck’ backstage at The Grand Ole Opry. Only thing is, the MercyMe guys aren’t there yet. No problem, we’ll just hang out in that tight, small, crowded hallway that they didn’t want us to in the first place.
So here we are, taking up space, holding guitars that we weren’t there to be holding and down the hall walks Ricky Skaggs. Now, I’ll admit, at first I didn’t know exactly who he was, but I knew he was someone I recognized.
Finally the MercyMe guys get there and we head up to their dressing room, take some pictures, make some video and they head to the stage to play their three songs. Evan got to walk to out and switch guitars with Barry, a couple more pictures taken and then the building cleared out.
All in all a pretty cool evening for not knowing what was going to happen. Every once in a while I really start to wonder if this is really my job.
