Ramblings 8-30-2007

So, I'm looking at a new t-shirt I bought that is the front cover of Abbey Road by the Beatles.

Have you ever wondered if it would be quite as iconic if, say, Ringo were out of step?

I'm guessing not.

The Choice

Since early 2001, I have focused on attempting to make music my career. In 2001, when I started, I felt strongly about Christian music and Christians being involved with Christian music. I was in love with the music of artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Chris Rice, Bebo Norman, Caedmon's Call, Third Day and many more. When I first started this journey, I was a straight up "Christian artist" whatever that means...to me, it meant I sang music that the mainstream or people outside the church wouldn't "get"

I got into Christian music as a teenager (behind my parent's back) and honestly believed in it at the time. It changed my life in allowing me to see that music didn't have to be crappy to be done by Christians; that lyrics could talk of a relationship with Christ without being stupid or cheesy. I always listened to mainstream music but my main staple was always CCM (Christian Contemporary Music). However, over the last few years, I felt that CCM had made a leap into more cheesy and un-poetic (if that's a word). There were bands that broke the spell of the typical, so to speak, but for the most part, I became fed up with CCM. In the mainstream, there's as much or more bad music, but CCM is such a small world that it created the problem of not being able to find great music as often as I was on the mainstream side of things.

My band began to take off and get noticed, we had record deals on the table, but never had anything actually work out, and after 4 years of doing everything I was told to do to make it in CCM, I decided to take my band into the mainstream. It was a tough choice because at the time we were pretty consistently making $1000-3000 a show, and in the mianstream we went immediately to making nothing or at the most a couple of hundred bucks.

But immediately the band began to gain traction. In 4 months from the time we started to play shows in the mainstream, we played more "big" shows than I had in the 4 years of working the CCM industry. Then my friend talked me into trying out for AI and after making it to Hollywood, I had one of the biggest managers in the mainstream (with a list of big discoveries a mile long) contact me about the band, and ultimately decided that AI was the way to go...if I did well on American Idol instead of being a bottom of the totem pole band, trying to make it, we or I would be at the top of a label's priority list to make sure I/we were successful.

So, when I started the AI journey, I was pretty decided on being a mainstream artist or in a mainstream band. As I made it further and further in the competition, instead of thinking about all the possibilities on the mainstream, my heart kept bringing me back to CCM. It was really strange. I didn't really want to be in the CCM market, but my heart kept on returning to having something to do with it. Originally, I thought I would have a mainstream deal and just siphon the record back to the CCM market somehow. But the more I thought about it, I kept feeling that I was supposed to be a CCM artist.

It was weird...I actually felt like I was fighting God on it for a while. I really didn't want to be a CCM artist. But as I surrendered it over to God, I realized that I was passionate about making great music within the confines of CCM. In fact, this realization has happened really in the last 3-4 weeks. I have become very passionate about making music that would be equal or better than I would ever do on the mainstream with lyrics that deal honestly and freshly with my relationship with Christ.

Many people who aren't religous and who aren't "Christians" will wonder why I made this choice. Believe me, if I couldn't I wouldn't have. At one point I had multiple mainstream labels involved in the chase, but I decided several weeks ago to move on from those labels and focus on labels that would allow me to focus on a Christian record. The label's that I'm excited about are all labels that will not only allow me to make this kind of record but will allow me to succeed with this kind of record.

This last week, I met with the team that will be mine for the next few years. My management is a perfect fit. My booking agent is someone I respect and am lucky to have on my team. My day to day manager is one of the most fun guys I could ever imagine having on board. And the producer I think I'm going to be using for this first record literally produced several of my favorite CCM records of all time.

Will I sell fewer records? Probably. Will I make less money? Probably. Will this allow me to fulfill my dreams? Definitely. Will this allow me to make a career in music? Well, here's hoping.

I am lucky to be in the position of having choices to make. It doesn't make the choices any easier, but the choice has been made.

And I couldn't be happier.

Thanks for the memories

Well, today is the official day that we are released from our contracts with 19 Entertainment. I actually got word of my release a couple of days ago, but today is the official day. It's excited to move on, but it's with whimsy that I look back on the last year of my life.

I am thankful to 19 Entertainment for a lot of things. I am thankful that Nigel and the judges gave me a chance. Before Idol, I was at a place in my career where I was frustrated because, though things had happened with labels, nothing had ever quite worked out. Now, because of the show, I am signing with management that I have always dreamed of signing with and I'm about 95% sure I'm signing with the label and A&R guy that I fell in love with 5 years ago.

There were some really great times over the last year and some really crappy times, mostly of my own doing, to be perfectly honest. I put myself in stupid situations and the last few months have been great to extricate myself from some of those situations. It's nice to finally be at a place in my life where I can make choices and stand behind those choices as my own and feel confident enough to allow disagreement with those choices without defending myself. It's a nice place to be, honestly.

19 and American Idol have changed my life for the better. And for that I am eternally thankful.

I am glad to have had this experience.

I am now looking forward to putting this behind me and making a great record and touring on the validity of that record. As I said in the previous post, I have 3 new demos up on myspace. Check them out and listen while I'm able to have them up there. Please continue to come here...I'll have new content up soon.

And thank you for being with me on this incredible journey.

Ramblings for the day (8-8-07)

So, 2 days ago, I started a ramblings about Chuck's. I think I'm going to make this a feature of my blog. Sometimes I just think of really stupid things and feel like making a blog about it. I'll call it ramblings.

Today's rambling:

Today, as Rich, Mindy Doo and Kiki were singing "I Heard It Though the Grapevine" I thought through the lyrics. The lyric on the 1st verse says:

"Oh, I bet you wonder how I knew
Baby, 'bout your plan to make me blue"

And it got me thinking about the word "blue". If I wrote a song today that included the word "blue" in that context, I think it would be thought of cheesy and over the top...I think mainly because the word "blue" is not really used in that sense in our vernacular today. However, I got to thinking...when Marvin Gaye wrote that song was it cheesy then? Or was it part of the common language, so it was accepted? And I wonder if blue will ever be vernacularized again in modern language?

Just rambling.

Happy Day

Well, as some might have heard already (it's posted on youtube and it happened in front of 15,000 people)...Gina got engaged tonight to her longtime boyfriend Joe. Joe is seriously one of my favorite people in the world, and he's marrying one of my favorite people. Congrats to Joe and Gina.

It was great to watch...good day for all.

The Tour

So, the tour has been going for a few weeks here. I am having the best time of my life. Everything about this reminds me that this is what I want to do for a long time. Obviously it's tough being away from Sarah - till Minnesota, we had been apart for over 3 weeks - but we just made a rule to not go more than 2 weeks without seeing each other anymore, so hopefully that will cut down on the feeling of missing her...though it is obviously different than being together.

But everything, from the performing to the interviews to the comradarie among all of us on tour....it's just all incredible.

I have the problem of focusing too much on trying to be musically perfect and forgetting the performance aspect sometimes. In college, I studied classically and was taught to never look like I'm straining or really even move around...it's taken a long time to get away from all that training. Classical training in this regard has held me back. The training has been great for my musicianship and being able to keep my voice through a lot of singing situations. But from a performance standpoint it has stunted me.

Also, as I moved into performing non-classical music, I was surrounded by conservative Christians who encouraged me to never allow my performance to take away from the words of the music. When I would really let loose (which for me might be jumping out of time with the music), I would have someone talk to me about really allowing God to come through instead of me. So, this was another thing that stunted my growth in this area.

When I moved away from this time of Christianity, I began to perform with musicians who were a little bit snobby and every time I'd attempt to go crazy on stage, they'd give me these high-brow looks like I was crazy. Yet another thing that stunted my growth.

Then about 2 years ago, I finally got with a band that really wanted to go crazy on stage. And I finally started to learn. I started to see bands in concert and watch how they moved, how they rocked out, how they went crazy. So, basically, in 2 years I've had to learn what most people learn from the beginning of their perfomance careers...and not only learn, but unlearn everything I've learned for 10 years.

So, with that said, I am having fun, learning from Blake and Phil...Phil lately has been watching my performance and critiquing me...it sucks because he usually tells me I sucked, but it is also great because with every show, I'm getting things to work on, and really working on them. I think that that is the thing that I am most excited about...I want for my life to be full of learning experiences and this tour is allowing me to grow leaps and bounds because of great interaction with people better than I. This for performing is kind of like what it was like hanging out with session musicians and producers in Nashville...I just watched how they worked and learned.

I have a long way to go to be a great performer, but I have the fundamental elements: people say I'm a good singer; I feel pretty confident in my musicianship; and reviews are saying that I am a great songwriter. Now, if I can continue to lose weight (I've lost 15 pounds on tour so far) and continue to grow as a performer, I think that I can become the artist that I really want to be. My goal is to be the best at what I do. I'm realistic enough to know that that will never happen...but striving for excellence will only make one better.

So, to those who voted for me...I thank you. Otherwise, I would not have the tour as a learning experience.

Ramblings (8-3-07)

Have you ever noticed that Chuck Taylor's have been the shoe of choice for the alternative crowd for forever. I mean, you never see preppy people wearing Chuck's. Why is that? Why has the cycle never come around to preppy kids wearing Chuck's?

Weird.

A question makes me think

In the thread below, a commenter (-Di) asked me a question quoted here:

"I have a question. It is in reference to your comment about making great music to sell records. How do you define success in the area of selling records?

The reason why I ask is because there are artist I like who have a modest core group of fans but their singles are rarely top 40 material. (e.g. Michael Penn, as far as I know he's a one hit wonder.)

If you put out an album that you feel is the best music since Mozart and for some reason it does not sell, in your opinion would that mean the song were not as good as you thought?"

And it got me thinking...in a very good way.

As a side note, just a little about me: sometimes I get a question from someone here or in real life and it gets me thinking. I can be overanalytical at times, honestly. But it some ways that can be a good thing. I want to be able to explain why I do what I do, and how I do it. So, the questions got me thinking about one thing, which lead to another and suddenly I have a medium sized blog post. Anyway, my mind works strangely, but maybe this will give you a glimpse into how I work.

Some of my favorite records of all time: Sufjan Steven's "Illinoise" (which I'm listening to as I write), Sigur Ros "Takk", even Mute Math's debut....they are not commercial successes (in that they haven't sold buttloads of records) but there is no question in my mind that these are albums that live up to every measure of artistry and songwriting that I hope to someday reach. Most people don't even know that names of these groups, yet they made albums that I would be proud to call my own.

However, if I do make an album that is commercially successful, it does not mean necessarily that the songs were good (do I need to actually point out crappy records that sold a ton of records? I think you get the point), and I would hope that with the next album I would challenge myself to write better songs than ever before.

On the other hand, perhaps I will make an album that is not all that great and it translates into a small amount of sales.

The final thing that could happen is that I make a great album and it happens to translate into commercial success. This is what I hold to...I have to believe that if I make a great record it will sell well because it gives me hope. However, the realistic side of me knows that great records do not necessarily sell. And there are so few spectacular albums anymore (in my opinion), that how realistic is it to think that I can make one of them?

And to be honest, over the last few weeks, I have been torn a tad. I feel like I have a niche that I feel comfortable in...I feel very comfortable writing songs I think that an audience can sing along with and have familiarity with early on in their listening experience. However, lately, I find myself messing around with ideas of songs that are completey non-commercial, experimental and raw. Songs that feel the best underproduced and emotional. So which side of me do I feed? Maybe both...I can always have songs in the bank for later use, or for side projects. But ultimately it comes down to the creative process for me.

So, my creative process, though cloudy of late, comes down to this:

1) Emotional connections are what tie and artist to a consumer for life. When and if I can connect on an emotional level with a listener then chances are that listener will buy my next album and maybe my next. How does one connect on an emotional level? I don't think it happens any other way than simply being honest and raw and dare I say emotional from both a lyrical and musical perspective. So, as I write, I attempt to force myself to expose myself in ways I haven't been able to before. So I hope to connect with you in a way that you can understand and feel as if you've experienced the same things perhaps in different ways.

2) Music, ultimately, is what will sell a song as a great song. You can have the greatest lyrics in the world but if the melody doesn't make sense and doesn't tell a story, then the point is lost. So, as I write, I attempt to tie the lyrics as best as possible with the melodies. Songs are stories...maybe not a linear story that tells of this person and this person and how they fall in love or how they make it (a la one of my favorite songs "Living On A Prayer"), but a story. Ultimately drama in the music is what forces the story forward. For some songs, the drama is a loud and soft dynamic change (think "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), some songs the drama is in a slow build to a climax (think Coldplay's "Fix You"), while others the drama is a small change between the verses and choruses. But ultimately the music will sell the song.

3) Production can make or break a song. I have heard songs of mine that I thought were okay songs turn to great songs because of the way the song is produced. Production is like onions...they both have layers (sorry, Shrek) My favorite productions are ones that have layer after layer of things that you find the more you listen to it. This doesn't mean necessarily that the songs must be over-produced...listen to a White Stripes or Racanteur record and you'll find how underproduction can still provide layers that suprise you in multiple listens. The way a song is arranged is important. Sometimes having an interlude between chorus 1 and verse 2 can hurt a song, while with other songs, the interlude is necessary to promote the mood needed in the songs. With the songs, this is one of the most important things. Instrumentation is also part of this: believe me, instrumentation can break a song...think if the Beatles "Blackbird" had been done with full band...the moment would not have been the same (same thing with "Yesterday"), whereas a song like "Mama" by My Chemical Romance could have been done with just a mandolin and been awesome, but there is drama when the full band comes in.

4) I just try to write what comes natural, then re-write, re-write, re-write to make it better. This is the tough part. Most songwriters will tell you that re-writing is the toughest part because it's easy to become married to certain sections of a song, even when those very parts are what is making the song not work. So, I try to force myself to rework and re-write and never become married to something even after it has been recorded (i.e., there are some songs from the HPF I will be re-recording and I am actually rewriting some lyrics and reworking some parts of songs). I actually think that these things kind of build off each other. None is more important than the other, but I usually start with #1 and move through #4. Hopefully, at the end I don't realize I've wasted my time on a crap song (that's happened more than a few times).

So, as I write, I try to make sure that all these pieces fit together to make a great record. What may come is a very uncommercial record that I love, a commercial record that I hate, or, hopefully the happy medium, of a record I love and the consumer loves.

Anyway, I understand that maybe this is a little more in depth into my head than what was asked, but a question was asked that made me think, so I thought I'd post a few thoughts. So, hope you like it. Sorry if you don't.

10th Place

So, I thought I'd share a little bit about what I'm learning. Obviously it's important to find what one needs to learn as they walk through life.

1) One thing that I learned over the last few months and am simply being reminded of now is that it is okay for people to be better than me. I have been a big fish in a little pond for a long time, and when I see that there are performers who perform better than I, there are singers who sing better than I...well, honestly, at first it was somewhat hard to take. It was a humbling experience. Every night of the tour is a humbling experience for me, and I believe that is great. It is also challenging to become better at what I do. And, instead of being defensive about someone being better I feel freed to support them in being better than I...it's actually quite a freeing experience.

2) It should be obvious, but it seems that people don't think of it like this: I came in 10th place...I am close to the bottom in popularity of the top 10...simple right? Certain performers get incredible responses every night. I feel like I am challenged to go out and make new fans every night. Then when I see, as I did in San Diego, a group of like 50 people all wearing Chris Sligh t-shirts, I am excited and feel lucky to have fans. The reviews that I've seen of the tour have all been very kind to me, but ultimately a review is just a review and one person's opinion. I just have to go out and play as well as I can for 10-15 I'm on stage every night and then enjoy the ride...and hopefully show people a glimpse of what's to come.

3) This is the most fun I've ever had. The one downer is that Sarah isn't a part of this. I feel like I get to make a living with no pressure. Some contestants have pressure to perform at a certain level. Most people don't remember me, or remember me vaguely from the show, so it's a blank slate...I just have to go out and do my thing. Others have expectations to live up to. I set up my studio in the dressing room in almost every city and during the show, when I'm offstage, I work on demos. So, almost every day, I'm being creative, working out song ideas, helping other contestants with song ideas, recording demos, then on top of all that I get to go out in front of a crowd bigger than anything I've played before and will probably ever play again. This is fantastic!

4) Ultimately, I have to make great music to sell records. Before American Idol came around, I had several labels after me. If I had signed with them a year ago and not had American Idol, what would have sold me was the music. Coming in 10th place is great because I have the experience of being a part of this whole amazing process and to make great friends, but there are no expectations on me, other than to fail. So, in September-October when I hit the studio, if I can make a great record, then it will be the music that sells itself, as opposed to hype from the biggest show on earth. Now, granted, AI has definitely aided in making great fans...but it's the music that will do that talking, I hope. And if I don't make a great record (God forbid) then Darwinism goes into effect.

5) I have also learned that there are going to be some ultra successful contestants this year. Just take my word for it...I have heard songs coming from people that I never expected. It's going to be huge!

Some New Music I'm Checking Out

Now, these are all pretty new to me, so I'm not completely sold on any of them quite yet, but I'll say this: on the first few listens they're all pretty great new bands.

RUTH - Secondhand Dreaming

Ruth is a new Tooth and Nail band. I'm wary of T&N bands because T&N usually takes the attitude of putting out as many bands as possible and seeing what sticks. However, bands like Anberlin and Mae have gotten me, and I've heard a lot of great things about this band, and they do not disappoint. The songs are pop/rock similar to what my band does. They are definitely influenced by Switchfoot (the lead singer's voice is so much like Jon Foreman's that I actually wondered if Jon was making a guest appearance). But the music is strong and the lyrics are thought-provoking and deep. Check them out on iTunes...you may like and love.

JONEZETTA - Popularity

Jonezetta is an older T&N band that I have been wanting to check out since they toured with Mute Math, but have never gotten around to it till recently. I am now officially kicking myself for not checking them out sooner. They write catchy, hooky, danceable pop/rock. Some songs are in the dance/rock vein like some of the Killers (without the synthesizers), most of it is just well-written melodic yet rhythmic pop/rock. Definitely check them out on iTunes.

PLAIN WHITE T'S - All That We Needed

I've listened to these guys the least. On first listen they are really, really great. They mix pop/punk with elements of alt-country - or at least that's how it feels to me. It's really kind of interesting. They never quite go to the pop/punk but they imply it, if that makes sense. Basically, they seem to be a great rock band. They are not my favorite band, but they are great. Again, check them out on iTunes...you may really love them.

PAUL McCARTNEY - Memory Almost Full

I bought Paul's last album and, though there were some moments, it was kind of a disappointment. I think I've made it clear that I am, however, a huge Paul McCartney fan...I still think he is what made the Beatles great. Anyway, my expectations were not incredibly high, but I started to hear a little buzz. Sir Paul left Capitol records to go with Starbucks new imprint (which is a genius idea, btw). I actually got the record at Starbucks. And it is a really, really good record. I am very pleased. I swear his voice sounds better than it has in 30 years. Weird, right? And the songs are all great. You don't even need to check this one out...go to Starbucks, buy a mocha frapaccino and this record. GET IN YOUR CAR NOW!

MIKA - Life In Cartoon Motion

I like this guy, but the record is very uneven for me. He is definitely a pop artist, but at times he is reminiscent of Freddie Mercury and Queen. Some songs are great. Some songs are very weak. Hopefully he gets to a second record because I see a lot of potential, but this album is definitely one you should buy certain songs from, instead of the whole album.

Now, go get some new music.

Discussion Thread

Discuss.

The Secret Brotherhood of Secret Brothers

Well, it's 8:30am. I haven't woken up this early in a while, except on Sunday.

Yesterday, the guys debuted their group number for the rest of the cast and crew. It was exciting, and it went really well. I think this section, being that it's something never done on the Tour before, could be a highlight. Then we basically went throught the entire set list in order.

It's funny because all season long, everyone involved with the show would talk about how great this bunch was....we genuinely like each other, we get along, we don't have a diva in the bunch (well, maybe every now and then, but for the most part no divas)...there just isn't a lot of drama in our group. We thought that surely past years were probably like that, too...that producers and crew were just being nice.

Then we got into rehearsals. Literally by the third day we were able to run the entire set from top to bottom. Our tour producer has been blown away...said usually it isn't till the second week that we can even get through the whole set. The video producer (for the little clips they show during the show) and I have gotten to be friends and he was saying that he's never had this much fun on an idol tour...that everyone is fun to work with, he hasn't gotten any divas, and, most of all, everyone is really funny. He thinking about putting together a 2 hour movie of outtakes from these videos.

Basically, the jist is this: we are having a ton of fun. Everyone is learning their stuff and the set is starting to gel incredibly well. I've heard that the first few shows every year are not too tight because everyone hasn't had a chance to run through stuff from top to bottom...we're running stuff from top to bottom 3 days into it. So, I think that the Sunrise, FL people are going to not only be the first to see the show, but they're going to get a good show, too.

Well, I'm off to a meeting about that big offer. Gonna investigate some more and see if it's truly worth putting off my record.

On that note, though, I should tell you guys that, for some odd reason, I've been writing a ton lately. I haven't had enough seperation to figure out if the songs are great yet, but the ideas are flowing. Now that I've got Pro Tools up and running, it's VERY NIIIICE! In betwen my songs, I run into the room where I have my studio set up and lay down demos for new songs. Yesterday, it was kind of cool - one of my frends was sitting at the piano in the hallway at the studio and was stuck on a chord progression he was working on (he's not really a piano player), so he asked me what I would do with it (he had like a 3 chord progression). We went into my studio room, laid down a drum loop and proceeded to put together a really good song. It will probably be on his record - we have to finish it, but I've written long enough to recognize a great idea.

Anyway, life is good.

And to the core group - I love you!

Lol

Rehearsals II

So rehearsals have been doing great. As we speak, I'm sitting in one of my friend's room with another of our friends watching Saving Private Ryan. Giovanni Ribisi's character just got killed. Such a great movie. There's a moral dilemma over whether to kill the German who killed Ribisi's character. Hmmm. Good stuff.

So, rehearsals are great. We're starting to get all the music down, now we're all just working on memorizing lyrics. I was lucky to have gotten to do several songs that I knew pretty well, so the lyrics have come pretty easy. So, I've been able to take time to work on stuff.

I recently purchased Pro Tools to record demos on tour. I've used Logic in the past, so it was a tough choice to move over to Pro Tools, but it was a necessity...it's the industry standard and everyone I work with uses it, so my demos needed to be on that platform. But I know very little about Pro Tools, so I've had to learn all the tricks to get stuff going. One of my friends has been a Pro Tools user for a while, so he's been helping me learn some stuff, but I bought a Pro Tools book and have watched the instructional DVD a couple of times. Basically, though, I've progressed enough to do the basics of recording.

So, today, we ran through the whole set, and it's a mighty fine set, by the way. In between the several songs that I get to be a part of, I set up Pro Tools in a little room and worked on several song ideas that I've had swimming around my head. It's great to be able to lay down ideas. I'm writing songs for several other contestants now, so that's kind of cool. I'll be juggling the tour with writing for me and writing for several other people. Who knows what songs will get used on poeple's albums, but I'm kind of honored to be able to write for other people.

Plus, I just got the biggest offer of my life a couple of days ago. Again, I can't go into details but it would includedoing somthing that will be a HUGE honor and it will be a great chance to raise my profile a little bit in the entertainment business. I don't know yet if I would take it because it would mean that I would have to put off my recording career for a little bit. So, it'll be a pretty tough choice. We'll see what happens. More on that later.

Anyway, the opening number is coming together quite well. It's crazy and stupid, but it get's the show started in a great, great way, and once again it is something never ever done on the AI tour, from what the tour producer says. So, that's pretty cool. It's one of the only group numbers that involves the whole group of 10. There are quite a few "group numbers" that involve a few of the contestants but this is one of the only ones that involves all 10.

The guy's number is being worked on all day tomorrow. We've got to work on what exactly we're doing, but as I said before, it's something that has never been done on the tour, so a couple of firsts this time out.

Finally, me and the two friends I'm hanging out with tonight are working on a new number that will possibly be added to the show. If it works out, it could be pure genius. In a very, very funny way. I think it could be really, really cool.

Anyway, more about the tour, etc. in a little bit.

Thanks for hanging out and sticking around, through all the stuff the last couple of days.

Peace and love.

The Dan Band, Part Deux

Last night a group of us went to see the Dan Band at the Avalon. There were six of us, plus one of the back ground singers from the show, who is also joining us on tour as a background vocalist. This is my second time seeing the band, and for the second time they were incredible.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Dan Band is a comedy band based out of L.A. There is a full band (drums, bass, guitar, keys) then the lead singer and 2 background singers/dancers. Dan is a normal looking guy who wears a mechanic's outfit, while his two background guys wear nerdy glasses, suits and ties. The band then performs all female covers, adding in dancemoves, hand motions and added lyrics. All for the funny.

The genius of the band is that the band proper is incredibly tight, the background vocalists are incredible and Dan, the lead singer has an incredible voice. And the 3 singers are actual really great dancers with inventive, funny choreography. It really is one of those things you have to experience at least once.

Anyway, it was a great night for all. One of the other contestants and I were very tired, so we went back to the hotel while the rest of the group went to a club for a few hours. I was a little miffed because my friends got to hang out with Paula and they met David Hasselhoff (gosh, I still want to make him cry). But, then I remembered that to sing you must have sleep and yesterday all day at rehearsals, I had a terrible headache, so the extra sleep was well-worth my while.

So, things are going great. Thanks for asking.

Rehearsals have started

I flew Tuesday to L.A. to start rehearsals for the tour.

La-La land is as beautiful as ever...I really love L.A....not sure I'd ever want to live here simply beacause I hate traffic and it takes so freaking long to get anywhere. The hotel we're staying at is nice, and for the first time, we each get our individual rooms, or suites in this case. We've all had fun hanging out and being back together. It really is cool to see how well everyone on the tour gets along with one another. We just really enjoy being together...it's rare you get 10 singers who are as talented as this group is and not have egos raging...but even the people who made it the furthest are just as normal as when we started all this 9 months ago.

I gave a couple of teasers before, but let me give you more to whet your appetite. Then you can discuss what you think the teasers mean.

The show opener is something that has never been done on the idol tour. I can't give details quite yet, but I'll put it this way, we are getting it started in a really hip, cool way...literally nothing like it has ever been done on the tour.

The guys are doing a group number doing another thing that has never been done on tour before.

So, discuss those two.

The way the tour works this year is a little different than past years. More on that later, but the solo sets are being done in a different way than before. I think it'll be much hipper the way we're doing it this year. There's also not a lot of group numbers, which I've heard there were several of in past years.

Rehearsals are going well. Everyone is pumped up and excited because forr the next three months 4-5 nights a week, we get to be with the fans.

It's going to be great.

What I Did On Summer Vacation

Well, I'm sitting in the Cancun airport typing on my MacBook Pro (best purchase I ever made outside of Sarah's engagement ring), getting ready to fly back to Charlotte. My wife is sitting beside me looking as beautiful as ever, with a dark tan she's quite proud of. We got to spend a lot of time in the sun relaxing, so it's been great.

We got here Friday a week ago. We landed in Cancun airport, got our luggage and then our rental car and we were off. One problem. Sarah, who was taking care of all of the traveling details, had forgotten to ask for directions to the house. She had gotten some basic clues from emails wih the owners of the house we stayed in (like what resorts the house was in between) but we had no idea how to get to the house. We had emailed the owners, but (we found out later) they were at a golf tournament for the day and missed our calls and emails. Just as it was starting to get dark, we decided to try down this little street beside one of the resorts and we lucked out! It was the right one. We went to the property manager's house, got the keys, and literally as darkness settled we got into the house. It would have sucked to try and find the place in the dark, so we were quite happy.

Most days, we just lounged around the house. The house is about 4000 square feet and is about 50 yards from the beach, and it was sunny every day except 1, so we would hang out at the house and just tan and relax. Every day, we would head into Playa del Carmen, the closest town (Cancun was about 30 minutes north of where we stayed) and got dinner at a nice restaurant, but for the most part we just stayed at home. Playa has a Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and several large Americanized stores, so a couple of meals we bought food, brought it home and I cooked. It was nice.

My favorite day was on Tuesday. We went to a water park of sorts called Xel-ha. Basically, it's a natural water park, right on the ocean. There's an inlet with coral reefs throughout, a river that empties out in the ocean, a place to swim with the dolpins, assorted restaurants and tons of stuff to do. The day pass that we got was all inclusive, so we got all our meals, free drinks, snorkel equipment, towels and lockers. We pretty much snorkeled the entire day except for lunch. It was great.

There were certain places where the fish were fed, so it was fun to swim there as hundreds of fish surrounded you waiting for food. We swam all the way out to where the inlet turns into the ocean and there were some huge Grouper fish that were bigger than Sarah...they were being fed, so they were swimming past us, brushing against us, getting food...it was awesome.

After lunch, we went up to the top of the river and snokeled down the river, stopping a couple of times to jump off 20-30 foot cliffs (that was fun). Then I talked Sarah into giving up her life vest so that we could dive down into the water. That was when the real fun began. The last 3 hours, we just spent out in the water, around the reefs and rocks in the inlet, diving down to find all kinds of fish and coral and cool stuff on the bottom (the deepest the inlet gets is about 25 feet, as far as I could tell).

So, that was a great day.

Overall it was a very refreshing vacation. There were things (like my iPod) that had been bothering me for a while that I got to take care of, finally. There was music that I had been wanting to listen to in depth for a while that I finally got to buy and listen to. From a creative standpoint, I was nearing empty...I was just tired and needed a break. Now, with batteries recharged, I'm all pumped up to write more new stuff that will hopefully make the record.

I'm excited.

I have said this before several times, but thanks once again for all your support. This blog has changed a couple of times, but I think it's changed for the better. I have decided to refrain from using names of fellow contestants, unless I receive specific permission from them. I may use general terms when talking about friends, but I think it will be best to refrain from names on the blog. Also, I will focus mainly on music stuff and personal stuff here. I may write about the tour, but I will try to focus on stuff that happened personally. There are a lot of people out there that feel the need to tear apart every word I write hear and attempt to use it against me. I could care less about them, but I would hate for their stupidity to ever get back to my friends and for my friends to question even for a second that what those people are accusing me of is true. So, from here on out, I will do things in a way to avoid questions. And eventually the tour will be over and life will go on and the people on here will be the fans, not the "haters".

I love you all and say it again: thank so much for your support and love.

Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long

I got the new Maroon 5 a little earlier than it's American release as a gift from a friend of mine who had received it from the band themselves. I got the Japanese extended version of the album, which I understand has 3 extra tracks on the record, so please forgive me if I speak about songs that are not on the American release.

On to the review:

I can still remember where I was the first time I heard "Harder to Breathe" back in late 2003. I was pulling out of my guitar player's driveway and had just turned on the car and radio was blasting B93.7, our local Greenville Hits station. As the song coursed through my car's crappy speakers, I knew that this band or artist, whatever it was, was something different. The song was funky and rocking, and I wanted to hear it again. As the song finished, the DJ said it was a band called Maroon 5 and I remember thinking that was kind of a weird name, but the next day, I went out and bought the album.

"Songs About Jane" was a good record but a little incomplete, in my opinion. It had hits and a couple of great songs outside of the hits, but there was a bunch of filler. Where that record failed, this album makes up for in spades.

It's rare that every track on a record is worthy of a listen, but this album comes through on that level. Starting off with the funky Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones infused "If I Never See Your Face Again" the band lets you know that it is at its funky best and really never lets up till the closing notes of "Losing My Mind".

I don't know that there has been a catchier hook in recent memory than the chorus of "Makes Me Wonder". The verses are weaker, but the payoff on the chorus is well worth the wait. The song also includes one of the best pre-choruses I can remember with the lines: "I still don't have a reason/And you don't have the time/And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a ____ about you" - the melody leading to the chorus is great, plus it adds a release from the tension created by the opening/verse chord progession. I won't say it's a perfect song, because the verses are a little weak, but there aren't a lot of songs in the last 5 years that got me like this one did, with the exception of maybe "This Love" from the band's debut.

"Little of Your Time", "Wake Up Call", "Can't Stop", "Kiwi", "Untill You're Over Me", and "Infatuation" show the band at it's funky best. I'm not a huge fan of funk, but Maroon 5's walking the thin line between funk and pop is reminiscent of 80's Michael Jackson, in that it's successful in melding the two while making it palatable to the mass audience. My favorite of the funky tracks (outside of "Makes Me Wonder") is "Wake Up Call". The song is basically the story of Adam Levine's (lead singer) character walking in to find his lover with another man, and how the character reacts to said developments. Not the brightest of songs, but if I'm guessing it will be a huge hit...strangely enough, the darkest song lyrically is one of the catchiest musically.

The band does stray away from the upbeat funk long enough to let loose several songs that are bound to be in 13 year old's mix tapes for years to come. "Won't Go Home Without You" is this album's answer to "She Will Be Loved"; "Nothing Last Forever" hashes out the chorus used on the Kanye West hit "Heard 'em Say" to make a song that I have a feeling will be a hit; "Goodnight, Goodnight" enters territory I haven't heard from this band before, starting off sounding like a Three Doors Down and moving into Coldplay-esque territory.

Some of my favorite songs on the album are songs that are clearly homages to the band's influences. "Not Falling Down" starts off sounding like a modern take on Sting and the Police, giving it a modern twist on the chorus. "Better That We Break" is an obvious homage to the Beatles, with it's "Hey Jude" rhythmic structure and chord change. "Back At Your Door", with it's 6/8 piano ballad feel and lush string arrangement feels like a 60's jazz-infused pop that Dusty Springfield or Smokey Robinson would have felt comfortable singing.

All in all, this record is an incredible record. I don't know that it will have as huge a hits ("This Love" is a tough act to follow), but in my opinion the record has more hits on it. Every song on this record is enjoyable on some level.

The album gets 4.8 out of 5 stars.

The Evolution of Robin Thicke

- Growing pains? I think not.


When I first made it to Hollywood, I became friends with someone who did pretty well in the competition. As with most friendships I've started with fellow musicians, it started off with a conversation about what our influences were. The first artist my friend gave me was Robin Thicke. I had heard the name but couldn't quite place it. So, in between Hollywood and top 24, I went to Best Buy and bought The Evolution of Robin Thicke, which my friend said was the better of Robin's two albums.

Now, I should start off by saying that jazzy r&b is usually not my thing. But going back to when I first started to discover music, BoyzIIMen, Shai, R. Kelly, Silk, Keith Sweat, etc. were my first love (along with a lot of rap). I know, you wouldn't know it now, but I actually learned to sing with r&b singers first. I would sing as loud as I could along with my mix tapes of r&b hits of the early 90's while delivering papers when I was 15, copying riffs, learning how to hear harmonies, etc. But by the time I got out of college, I had discovered rock & roll, and r&b kind of fell to the wayside (rap had fallen to the wayside when I was still in high school).

Anyway, all that to say - I'm not a huge fan of modern r&b. But this record is a great, great record. Robin is well-known in the pop/r&b world, writing songs for who's who of modern pop/r&b. But as an artist, he shines. Robin's silky falsetto is shown off throughout the entire CD, and his jazzy pop way of writing modern r&b is an interesting take on a genre. I didn't enjoy some of the collabarations on the album (with Pharell, Lil' Wayne, etc.), as they strayed more to the urban/hip hop vibe, but overall the album is a really fine record.

Lyrically it's sexy without being over the top or explicit. Robin's voice naturally lends itself to a sexy vibe, but there's more here than innuendo. Listen to what he's saying and he's talking wistfully about real love. Sometimes, he comes across as a little arrogant in his love (from the hit "Lost Without U": Lost without you/Can't help myself/How does it feel/ to know that I love you, baby), but overall he comes across with an earnestness that doesn't come out a lot in the genre.

A few of the songs seem to run together once you've listened to the album a few times, as the under-production of most of the songs (acoustic, rhythm progamming, bass, vocals) makes some of the songs indiscernable from each other. But there are some gems here. "Lost Without You" is a bona fide hit, "Angel" is a great song, and "2 the Sky" is a favorite. There are some misses, too, but for a second album, it's a great record.

I think that Robin will soon be known simply as an artist instead of Alan Thicke's son.

The CD gets 3.8 out of 5 stars.

Going through my iPod

I'm on vacation, getting a tan quickly (well, a burn, too), and one of the projects I have while I am here is to go through my 30 gig iPod and get rid of any music that I don't really care about. I just have not had time to do it lately because of being so busy, and this is a long job: I've been working for 3 days now and I'm only down to the G's. But it's been fun.

I started off by going through and deleting songs that for some reason I have doubles of. There are certain artists who I have their entire catalog on my iPod, so many times Greatest Hits collections will have songs that I have from the real albums. So, unless the greatest hits collection includes a new version or a new mix of the song, I have been deleting the greatest hits version. For instance, I have U2 and the Beatles full collection...so I simply deleted songs that were the exact same versions.

After that, I basically have been going through every single song and making sure I love the song and will listen to it at some point. Now, some stuff I'm keeping isn't necessarily stuff that I really like, but stuff that I want to have as a reference. Since I plan on moving into more songwriting for other people and producing other people there is stuff that I will produce and write that wouln't necessarily be something that I would perform myself. For instance, I'm writing songs for a friend who is a country artist right now. I would never sing country, it's not really my thing, but there are so many great country songs, so I have country stuff on my iPod to learn more about the genre and how to write songs for that genre. I have some pop stuff on the off-chance that I would someday write for and produce a pop act. But if it's stuff I could care less about, I just delete it from my iPod.

I have a 30 gig iPod and as of yesterday it was completely full. I have about 10 CDs that I bought recently that I plan on loading on, but I was out of room. So, the carnage had to happen to make room for new music coming in. I may have to move up to an 80 gig iPod, but for now I'll make do.

Oh, one thing that is making it easy to get rid of some stuff is the fact that I have on my iPod ever single song ever performed on American Idol. When I first made it to Hollywood, I went to americanidol.com and found what every single semi-finalist and finalist had performed on the show and put the original version of the song on my iPod. Obviously, a lot of that crap is stuff I would never have on my iPod, so that's kind of easy...it's like 600 songs...obviously not all of those will go, but a good majority of them.

So, that's what I'm up to on my vacation.

Well, there's a lot more than that, but the rest of it is really none of your business.

I'm smiling right now.

Last Night & Tonight

Last night, Sarah and I got to attend something called the Well Done Awards. Our friends Denny & Lisa Bellessi, who run an incredible organization called the Kingdom Assignment, held an awards show for people who are doing great things for the Kingdom of God.

Bebe Winans and Katherine McPhee performed. Holy crap, they were great. I'd never heard Katherine sing live, and honestly it was one of the best live voices I've heard in a long time. I give that girl credit...she deserved to win 2nd place last year. And she is honestly one of the nicest people you'll meet. Very down to earth and open about things she's going through. Her boyfriend Nick is really great, also. And Bebe Winans was incredible. Wow...he's a gospel legend for a reason.

The awards show included a performance by a dance troupe called the Groovaloos. Their dance routine included a story of one of the dancers being shot and how he recovered to be able to dance again. It was very, very moving. Obviously, being a big boy, I've not done a lot of dance, but working with our choreographer at AI gave me a greater appreciation for dancers, and these guys were incredible. They mixed Hip-hop and freestyle with breakdancing...it was really really incredible.

Afterwards, we met a couple of members of the Christian band Kutless. We went to eat with them as well as my friend Josh Griffin who is the youth pastor of Saddleback church. We had a great meal at TGIF. The service wasn't great, but I chalked it up to the fact they had given us 2 wait-people and they apparently always thought the other was taking care of us. No biggie.

We headed home and got some sleep.

Today, Sarah and I spent some time at Fashion Island. That was really fun. We headed back home and got some rest, then went to dinner at Gina's in Laguna Beach, a great Italian restaurant. I got pizza and Sarah got manicotti. Then we headed back to the beach house.

Denny and Leesa had a meet and greet for Sarah and I with people who were at the Well Done Awards. A bunch of people came over and we just hung around and talked. It was great to meet a bunch of interesting people.

We had a great time.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for our beachy place. I'm looking forward to rest and relaxation. It's going to be a great respite before the tour. I'm looking forward to the tour, but 59 shows in like 85 days is going to be tiring. This is going to be nice.

Peace and love

Vacationland

So, Sarah and I have the blessing to be able to take a little vacation. Finally. I've been saying since I got voted off that we were going to take a vacation, and we finally get to take it. And I'm excited.

A few weeks ago, we were contacted by a lady who owns a house in beautiful beachy location who was a huge fan of the show. She and her husband go to the same church (in a different location) as we do, and they offered us the use of their house for a vacation for free. We just had to pay for plane tickets. So, we of course took them up on it and Friday we'll fly down for a nice trip away. We'll be down there for about 9 days, hopefully recharging my batteries for the tour.

We had a huge tour meeting and I'm even more excited now about the tour than I was before. Obviously I can't give you guys specifics quite yet, but know that the tour is going to have some really, really great moments. I can't wait for everyone to see what Simon, the tour producer, has put together...it really is a freaking great show. And the stage set up is bad to the bone. And this year will feature something that has never been done on the idol tour before. Yes, I'm giving you a teaser. You need to get tickets to this...it is going to be awesome.

Anyway, back to my vacation.

Sarah and I are going to take some much-needed time away to recharge our batteries and spend some time alone. We need that. I've been sharing my life with the world for a few months - we understand that it comes with the territory, and we're both excited that we get to share my life with the world, but at the same time, Sarah and I need some time to recharge. The next few months will not be easy. The tour is going to be awesome, but we will have to be apart most of the time, once again, so that will be tough. She is going to travel to several shows here and there, but she'll be at home most of the time I'm on tour. So, this is our little fling before being apart.

I can't wait.

I'm in Laguna Beach now till Friday. We get a little vacation here, too, so that's nice.

Anyway, I'll try to keep up the blog as best I can, but I apologize in advance if I don't get to comments quickly. This is my time away, after all. Hope you all understand.

Finale Night

Finale night was incredible. It was an incredible, incredible show to be a part of. I didn't get to see it because of press and stuff after the show, but it was awesome to see from backstage and the group performances had an energy to them that they never had during the regular season...might've been that there so many more people at the Kodak than at CBS.

All the celebs were incredible. I love Kelly Clarkson and her band - in fact the keys player used to be in the original version of Sonicflood (one of the first rock worship bands to be popular). I hung out with those guys for most of our wait time (it was a long day). Her bass player Einar (I think is how it's spell) was the bass player for the Dan band I saw on Saturday night...he was really cool, too. Kelly was really, really nice, too - always taking the time to stop for the Idols and talk when she could.

Carrie's band was really cool, too. The guitar player's name was Ed and he was freaking awesome. We talked for a while about me moving to Nashville and writing songs, etc. I find myself having more fun hanging out with bands than I do with singers...don't get me wrong, I love singers, but my heart is with the band. I love bands.

Anyway, all the celebs were cool. The show ran really smooth. The group numbers were really fun. We all gave Sanjaya a hard time for forgetting some dance steps in the Smokey Robinson number....it was hilarious, Chris Rich and I were doing out little dance routine and we look up and Sanji is just standing there smiling. I almost broke out laughing but remembered the rest of my dance steps, thankfully, then we all died laughing off-stage. Sanjaya was a great sport about it - and we all laughed about different moves that we forgot. As a side note: I just watched the performance over at rickey.org and you can barely tell (unless you're looking for it) that anyone missed the steps, so the gaffes happened at the perfect times with camera angles.

I guess that's the cool thing about being in something like that is that you know all the little things that happen that no one else even notices or cares about. Missing dance steps was funny to us...most people wouldn't even notice it.

I have to say that, honestly, I was a little jealous of Sanjaya to be able to perform with Joe Perry. I have been a huge Aerosmith fan since I discovered rock and roll. But as Phil and I watched Sanjaya, I turned to Phil and said, "Dude, that guy has turned into the best performer on the show." It was a really cool moment to be able to realize that you've seen someone grow from a kid to a great performer. He's not Blake yet, but man he knows how to work a crowd.

The dressing room was a lot of fun. We got some cool clothes to hang onto, and we all had fun hanging out. Phil, Chris, Blake and I all bought PSP's and several games each so our 19 rep was making fun of us all sitting and playing video games every chance we got.

We pretty much watched the whole show from backstage. It was interesting watching Blake and Jordin running around back stage to change clothes.

My favorite moment of the night (outside of the group numbers) was watching Blake and Doug E. Fresh beatboxing off each other. I thought Blake outdid the legend, but I guess I can't admit that. He was incredible though.

The Beatles number was a lot of fun and I was so thankful to have gotten some solo parts...the vocal coaches were very kind to me. The Beatles are in my top 5 favorite bands of all time, so British Invasion was tough without them. But it was really cool to be able to do the medley, especialy some of my favorite songs from the Sgt. Pepper record. Anyway, it was great.

Anyway, the next few days are busy, so I don't know how much I can write, but know this: all is well and it's been great. I am having the time of my life. Thanks so much to all the fans who got me to the top 10. I am so thankful to you all for voting.

Okay, so I'm a fan

Before I talk about last night, I have to admit something. No matter how famous I ever get, if I ever get any more famous than now, I will always be a fan. I have people that I respect and love and I've gotten to meet some of them. When I meet people I still am a fan. What's crazy is when famous people know my name.

Last night was really, really cool because I was able to meet some really really cool people of whom I am huge fans.

After rehearsals were over yesterday, I rushed back to the hotel, took a shower and got dressed for a night on the town. Gina, Haley, Phil, Rich, Brandon and I had the chance to go see the Dan band, which is an awesome comedy band. Basically they do a bunch of cover songs (and a few originals) and do them with cheesy choreography and a really tight live band...it really is incredible. Anyway, we saw them at the Avalon.

As we were walking into the Avalon to get to our seats, Gina, Haley and I got asked by some fans for photos, so we stopped. One lady didn't have her camera ready, so as we waited, I see Kyle Gass (KG from Tenacious D) walking in. He stopped and called me by name! I was blown away! Then the lady with the camera turns to KG and says, "Can you take our picture?" I just about laughed, but held it in - I mean, she's asking KG to take our picture. The lady got her picture then Gina, Haley and I got our picture with KG. More on KG later.

We walked to our table and talked to several people in our area...we took a lot of pictures and then the show started. It was freaking hilarious. The band was super tight and Dan can really sing. The background dancer/singers were dressed like nerdy businessmen, but the dance routines and bgv's were awesome. It really was a great show. Gina is a huge fan of the band, so it was cool watching her get excited about stuff she had seen before (she's seen the band 4 times).

After the show, we were all able to go hang out backstage with the band, so that was a ton of fun. While up there, celebrities started to pour in. I got to meet Anthony LaPaglia (one of my favorite actors - you might know him from Without a Trace) - he was really cool. Dan is married to Kathy Najjimi (you might know her as the cute chubby nun from Sister Act or from Hocus Pocus), so we talked with her a good bit. Helen Hunt came up and knew our names! It was crazy. Gina went nuts because What Women Want is her favorite movie. Then KG came up and we hung out with him, just talking and hanging out while the Dan Band met everyone. KG suggested jokingly that I should form a Tenacious D tribute band and he'll come and be the guitar player. I thought it was hilarious to think of a tribute band with 1/2 of the original band. Then I told him he should break up his band and then hire me as his lead singer. He said he could probably do that. It was awesome just to joke around with KG. I am huge fan, so that was really freaking cool.

We left the Avalon and we were all invited to go to Ryan Cabrera's house for a party. Gina, Haley and I took a taxi to Brandon's house because Brandon took the guys to go pick up Blake. We met Brandon's roommate Steve, who apparently is a fantastic standup comedian. We hung out at the house, then Blake and the guys arrived. They proceeded to play several rounds of guitar hero as we all sang along to the songs as loud as we could. It was awesome! Then we loaded up the cars and headed to the party.

I'm not a big party person - I love to hang out in small groups of close friends and with low enough noise to hear each other talk. This party was not that. It was like 200 people with music blaring. Ryan's house is awesome. You walk up his very steep driveway to the house and you walk up these steps at the top to reach the back yard. The back yard is simply one huge pool and jacuzzi area, complete with a huge tile paved bar. He has a ping pong table and a pool table out there, as well as a lounge area. The pool, by the way is heated and the jacuzzi waterfalls down into the pool. Seriously, I was in awe of the house.

I'm not a huge fan of Ryan's but I always thought he was a really good songwriter with a great voice...his music just isn't my cup of tea. I remember thinking, though, while he was on the Ashlee Simpson show, what a cool guy he seemed to be. He didn't disappoint. He was awesome. And hilarious. Brandon and he are really good friends, so there was connection there that superceded any awkward stuff.

I got to meet the bass player (Bryce) and guitar player (Ben) from Lifehouse. That was awesome - they were really freaking cool guys. I hung out talking with them for like 30 minutes. Phil and I then met the lead singer of Yellowcard. That was awesome, too. He was a really cool guy and super nice. Side note here: it's so freaking cool to meet really famous people who are actually freaking cool people....you always wonder if someone's gonna be a butthole, but they're just normal people like you and me....they just happen to be more famous than you and I. Tony Romo was there and I got to meet him - he actually knew my name (that is freaking crazy!). He at one point was actually bartending...that was hilarious. Jesse McCartney was there, too...we said hello. He seems cool....I didn't get to talk to him much.

The best moment of the night, though, was meeting Gavin DeGraw. I'm a huge fan so meeting him was awesome! I think he is seriously the best songwriter to come out in the last 5 years. He's amazing. I can't wait for his next album - I know it's going to be great. He was super nice, too, so it was nice to see him in that light.

One of the things that was really cool to watch was how people reacted to Chris and Blake especially and even Phil. Those guys are stars and people love them. And you know what I can't wait to hear records by all 3 of those guys. I am a huge fan of all 3 and all 3 of them do different things and I can't wait to cheer them on. It's a weird thing to have friends who are stars and knowing that very soon they are going to be the hugest stars in music. It's a really cool feeling.

Anyway, the night was incredible. It just solidified in my mind, though, how much of a fan I still am.

Dinner with friends

So, we rehearsed most of the day yesterday. It was exciting and fun. It was new again, so that was great.

After we got back home, Phil, Gina, Haley, Stephanie and I decided to go grab something to eat. We started to walk up to Sunset when one of the AI cars screeched to a halt next to us. We looked up and in the car Sanjaya mashed his face up against the back seat window. We all chuckled. That kid is crazy. Anyway, the driver offered to drive us up to a restaurant, so we took her up on it since we're all lazy. We piled into the car and we start driving and I notice that Sanjaya is holding his mouth. I asked him what was wrong and he said that when he pressed his face against the window, he bit his lip. We all laughed really hard.

Anyway, we decided on a restaurant called Merabelles. It's this quaint little restaurant that has been there for like 40 years and the food was really good. We all piled into a table and ordered drinks. The group that hung out last night hadn't gotten to see Sanjaya and Jill, so we caught up with what was going on in their lives...obviously big things are coming to Sanjaya.

The food was really good and we all talked about the upcoming tour and how great it was to be back together. It is unbelievable how great it is to hang out with contestants when we are no longer contestants...stuff doesn't get read into and it's just cool because you can be just friends. That's the best part about being back - just hanging out and doing music with friends. Phil bought two entrees because he wanted to try both of them. So, naturally, I helped him eat his 2nd dish....it was this pasta dumpling stuff that was freaking incredible.

Apparently, the restaurant's owner's wife was a big fan, so they let us know they were giving us some free desserts, so that was really cool. Stephanie was tired, so she decided to walk back. Sanjaya being the gentleman that he is offered to walk her back to the hotel, so when the desserts came, Jill packed up one to take back to him. Sanji really is a great kid, as I've said about a hundred times - but for real, he really cares about other people.

After we finished eating, it was a nice little jaunt back to the hotel. I had eaten too much, so it was good to walk some of that off. We came back to the hotel said goodnight and I promptly went to bed.

In Rehearsal

So, I'm in rehearsal today. We're actually on a small break as I write this. Obviously I can't tell you guys details of what's going on, but it has been awesome to get together with everyone.

I got in last night and actually got to the hotel about the same time as Phil, Richardson, Gina and Haley. So, we all got settled into our rooms, then watched the show. Melinda went home. I don't know that I would be any happier for anyone going home than the other two...but it was awesome to watch how she has handled it - she seems really okay with not having the pressure on anymore.

Phil, Richardson, Gina, Haley and I went out last night and saw Storm Large at the Viper Room (our hotel is near Sunset, so we walked a little). Then we decided to go with Richardson to a club. Well, one club turned into 4 clubs. That was interesting. I've literally never been into a club and we were at 4 of them last night. It's a very interesting scene. I doubt I will ever do it again, but it was great to get in to a bunch of places for free.

Anyway, rehearsals are going great...we're doing some really, really cool stuff that I think people are gonna dig. It's really different for me in some places and really close to what I do in others...and all of it is great! It's fun to go a little outside my comfort zone on some stuff.

All I can say is this: getting back with all of my friends has been incredible. Everyone is excited to be back and excited to see what everyone else has been up to. Blake and Jordin are doing great - Blake is still as hilarious as ever and Jordin is just awesome. Whichever of them wins - well, they both are incredibly deserving and awesome. Anyway, off that rabbit trail...it's kind of nice because with the pressure of competition off, everyone can just be themselves and hang out and have fun.

It is great to be back.

The next phase of this blog

So, there were more posts here that I have decided to remove just for my own peace of mind. No, the producers of the show did not ask me to take anything down. I have taken stuff down of my own volition.

Over the last week or so as I've taken some time off from blogging (I had someone else administer the blog for a while) I have tried to figure out what the next phase of the blog is. Here are some thoughts.

When I started this blog, I was a nobody who no one knew. My blog was just a place for me to write and express myself and be stupid and attempt to be funny for my friends and family. I love writing, and am admittedly not incredible at it, but I love to simply write about life. As I came back from the show, I took the same attitude I did before, not realizing how many people were actually coming to the blog every day. So, I was writing for family and friends and instead ended up writing for a bunch of strangers who don't know me and don't know where I am coming from. It was naive and a little stupid on my part to write the same way I did before. So, over the last week it's been impressed upon me that I really must deal differently with my blog than I have thus far. I know, I can't win for losing - fans are gonna be upset that it won't be the same, and I'm really sorry for that, but I'm trying to make the best decision for me that I can.

The blog will still happen, mind you, but the content will be very different than it has been.

One thing, too, that has been impressed on me is this: I am writing about life. The contestants on the show and the show are a huge part of my life right now. However, as I talk about my friends, I have been accused of name-dropping and fame-whoring. To most people, they assume that the world has ended for me because I came in tenth place of American Idol. I want to laugh at those people because they don't know what's going on behind the scenes and they don't know me and the determination with which I lead my life and career. But at the same time, I have to stop and think.

A wise man once told me that perception is reality to the person who is perceiving it. I think it's hilarious that people think I'm name-dropping when I mention Phil or Gina because they are some of my closest friends in the world...but then I realize that they are famous, more famous than I, so if a person is trying to read into something it would be easy to read into that. However, in regards to this decision, I will not stop talking about life because of some people's screwed up misconceptions. Truth to those people is sad, but untrue. If I wanted to name drop I'd talk about the celebrities by name who freaked out when they met me. But those stories are not for the blog, they are for close friends, because they understand who I am in real life....not on blog life.

Another thing I've thought about is this: negative things that friends and family understand will not be understood by thousands of people reading it. It was my bad to assume that people would get my heart, but then I stopped and realized this - most people who are reading my blog have never met me and never will. They've never gotten to sit down and talk about life and love and people and just hang out. They don't get that bitterness is something that I overcame 7 years ago when I dealt through some stuff that had happened in my life. They don't know that my heart beats for friendships and relationships and connecting with people. And it is arrogant, in a way, for me to assume that people get that. So, this will change - I don't dwell on a lot of negativity, but I have been negative and it has been taken in a way that I didn't desire...but I realize that that is my fault not anyone else's.

Finally, I realize this about myself. For a long time, I could care less what people thought about me, except for fans. In fact, my whole life has pretty much been one long "I don't care" to a lot of people. Before the show, if you came to a HPF show, after the show, I would hang out for hours talking and hanging with fans. The fans are the most important thing...if I can connect in some way, then those fans are going to make it to the next show possible and they'll buy the next record and they'll tell friends about me. So, on a very small level, I worked hard to please every fan I could - I realize fully that fans are who make a difference...they are the difference to making dreams come true and me working at BMW. So, I've always gone out of my way to do what I could to win over people.

What I didn't realize as I went into the show is that I was taking the same attitude with now millions of fans that I took with hundreds (and I use the term fan loosely to define anyone who came across my blog or commented on me anywhere). I took the attitude of trying to win everyone over. It has been impressed upon me lately to simply go back to being myself and people can simply choose whether to support me or not. But me trying to win people over does nothing except waste my time and theirs. They will make their choice, hopefully, based on the music. Hopefully the music will be great. At shows, I will still work my tail off to hang out with fans afterwards and make them know that they are the difference.

But chasing down every bad comment about me is stupid, arrogant and just plan dumb. Thankfully, I haven't commented on every one, but I've commented on too many.

So, there will be some changes, but the next phase of this blog will be better and exciting.

Once again, thank you to the real fans for the support and love. I am undeserving.

I Felt Kinda Bad. But I Felt Kinda Good. (i.e., I'm Back)

Well, I weathered a great week and a tough week at the same time.

BEFORE I MOVE ON: IF YOU ARE NOT A FAN, PLEASE STOP READING THIS POST NOW. THIS IS A MESSAGE TO MY FANS TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY LIFE. I WRITE THIS TO LET MY FANS KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE IT OR YOU WILL TRY TO TAKE IT AS ME BRAGGING, THEN STOP READING NOW AND SIMPLY GO TO A DIFFERENT PAGE.

PLEASE. I BEG YOU. STOP READING NOW AND MOVE ON.

Now to our regularly scheduled programming:

The last coupla days were tough for reasons I can't share...but trust me, I'm wasted emotionally. Lots of stuff got cleared up over the last couple of days with business type stuff, but it wasn't without some hard emotional toiling. Thank God things are finally taken care of. Not much more I can say about that - it's a little vague, but know this: I had a rough coupla days.

On to better things:

Nashville was great and a lot of doors are opening very quickly. Without sounding weird, God has opened up more doors for me than I ever thought possible.

Here's a couple of stories: the other day I was meeting with a guy from a major label, eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Usually, no matter where I am I get at least 10-15 people who ask for autographs (please don't take this as me bragging, I'm just trying to tell a story), but that day I had a little respite. Until I finished eating. Suddenly, I had about 20 people all at once. I was thankful they waited till I was done eating, but a little overwhelmed. As the crowd started to thin, a lady walked up and said that she didn't know who I was but her boyfriend was crazy about me, but the boyfriend was emberrassed to come over, so she came over to get my autograph. I laughed because I thought it was hilarious. Then, after I signed the autograph, she slides me a card and says, "I work for x label as an A&R coordinator and we have a pop side to our label...I'm on the country side, but I called the pop a&r guy and we want for you to come in and talk with us."

As I'm sitting with an A&R guy from another label. I felt kinda bad. But I felt kinda good, too.

I went to a party for the Grammy's in Nashville (check out this website: http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/american-idol-contestant-stirs-buzz-at-grammy-block-party/94168.htm) that happens every year and met the president of a label group. I wasn't talking to his label group just because no one had contacted me yet. When he found out no one had contacted me yet, he freaked out, and actually called his a&r guy, had the guy come down to the party to set up a meeting with me, then leave to go back home.

I felt kinda bad. But I felt kinda good, too.

Finally, at the same party, a certain president of a label not based in Nashville happened to be in town. At first he didn't give me the time of day, and I was okay with that...he was kind of a big deal. He had heard my song "Know" somehow and thought it was pretty good, but apparently not good enough to really blink at. No biggie. Well, then he noticed me taking pictures with some big stars and the big stars were the ones coming up to me to take pictures - I had no idea they were big stars because I know nothing about country music, but people were telling me they were - you know, I'm an idiot. So, he comes over and gives me his card. Then he sees label heads coming up and giving me cards, so he comes back over and tells me to call him next week. Then I take more pictures, and he comes over and writes down his cell phone # for me and tells me to call him the next day. More pictures, then he brings over his a&r person and tells me to meet with them the next day.

I felt like I was the unwanted toy that got some attention and then the kid who owns the toy decides he really wants it after all. The label guy is the kid who doesn't give a crap about the toy till other people want it, then he decides it must be worth something, so he snatches it back up. Anyway, I felt kinda bad. But I felt kinda good, too.

I'm looking forward to spilling all the beans, but I am, at this moment, being pursued by 9 labels - literally 9 labels have contacted me now, some more serious than others, obviously, but all very interested. Some mainstream, some Christian, some indie, some major. I mean, it's incredible. Honestly, I never thought it would be like this. I mean, it honestly has to be a God thing...and I say that very, very rarely...I mean, this kind of stuff is just out of my hands and it's turning out better than I ever imagined.

So, basically, I'm putting together the dream lineup of label, publisher, manager, booking agent, etc....now all I have to do is make a great record. Will people buy it? Well, that remains to be seen. But the way I see it is this: with as many doors as are coming open at this point, if I can't make a career out of it, I'm an idiot. By August 23, when my contract with the show is over, I will have a dream team around me...it's crazy. Literally crazy.

Crap. I might be in trouble...since I'm an idiot.

Anyway, discuss away...I won't give you topics, since apparently in my topics I name-dropped (I found a blog that claimed as much). So, you can discuss what you want.

P.S. I will take this down later today, just because I do want this specific post to be simply for the fans, so by lunch today this will be down. I do this to simply re-iterate that this is for the fans.

Bigger and better things

While things in my personal career are going incredibly better than I could've planned, it's time to focus on what will happen between now and when I get to be on my own outside of American Idol again.

The American Idol Tour!!!

I know, I know - I've caught a lot of flack from certain segments of the population for actually wanting to be a part of this. I've been told it's cheesy. I've been told it's humiliating. Look, the way I look at it is this: anything can be cheesy if you allow it to be. I know nothing about the American Idol tour. I've never been to a tour date, I've never seen video except of Chris Daughtry singing "Wanted Dead or Alive" on last year's tour. I'm literally walking in with a blank slate for the tour. So, in my mind, this year's tour will not be cheesy. It's all in the mindset.

Plus, I happen to know a little bit of how production will be. And it's going to be really cool.

Will I do things that I normally wouldn't do (i.e., choreography)? Yes. But I actually enjoyed the choreography (not much, but a little) on the show. The only reason I didn't enjoy the choreography is simply because of time constraints. I'm chubby, so I'm not a natural dancer, so only have a couple of hours to work out a dance routine was a little scary for me. A lot of poeple thought I was hating on the dancing while I was on the show, but actually when I watch back the tapes I wasn't angry or pissed about doing choreography, I was just thinking really hard of what came next...it's hard to smile when you're thinking hard about "dance moves". Hopefully the several days of rehearsal we'll have before the tour will solidify any choreography in my mind. And it will be as fun as choreography for a non-dancer can be.

Honestly, from what I've heard from the production staff, this tour is going to be so different than past tours and the changes that are being made are going to make for a really great show.

Plus, you won't be able to see Blake or Chris, Cake fans, except for the tour.

So, c'mon out, people!

Tour dates are on americanidol.com

How to deal with celebrities

All right, so as a semi-F-list celebrity, I get recognized and mobbed a lot by people. Here in Greenville I can't really go anywhere without getting mobbed. Because of my experience as the "celebrity", I have come up with some rules that you should put to good use, are you to ever actually meet a celebrity. Like for instance, when/if I meet Dustin Diamond (Screech), I will put these rules into action.

(I decided to not focus on the negative btw, so the wall of shame is no longer)

#1 - Do NOT ask for an autograph while the celebrity is eating the following items: Baby Back Ribs, Buffalo Wings, Fried Chicken, Pizza, or anything where they use their hands to eat. Seriously, it's tough to have to wipe your hands 10 times during a meal to sign autographs. I'm really anal about my hands being messy so restaurants never give me enough napkins anyway. If I have to sign autographs, I make sure not to leave a rib juice mark underneath my sig. If you must ask for an autograph, how about bringing over a bunch of napkins for the celebrity? Actually...go ahead and ask for the autograph but bring napkins. Well...no, wait till they're done eating. Crap. Never mind....just do what you want.

#2 - If you want to take a picture with a celebrity, and they are eating something messy, make sure to let the celebrity know if they have something in their teeth or buffalo hot sauce ringing their mouth. Believe me, the celebrity doesn't want a picture on your myspace page that makes him look like a crappy eater. Crap. Hey, I like messy foods. What can I say?

#3 - If you ask a celebrity for an autograph, please at least know their name. If you don't know their name, then they probably aren't famous enough to deserve you asking them for an autograph. For instance, I have people all the time walk up to me and say, "Aren't you the American Idol guy?" To which I usually reply, "Yes I am the team mascot! Do you want to rub my belly for good luck? Go team!!!" And then I run off. If you don't know my name, don't ask for my autograph, because my autograph is unreadable and you'll never know how to prove you met me to your friends if you don't even know my name.

#4 - If you want to take a picture with a celebrity, please have your camera ready. We all roll our eyes when our mothers try to take our picture and can't get the digital camera to work. It's no different for celebrities. We don't want to sit uncomfortably with our arms around someone we don't know personally while the photo taker takes 7 minutes to figure out he's taking video of you and the celebrity with their arms uncomfortably around each other. And for goodness sake, save the freaking picture to your phone if you take it on your phone! Just hit save! I know you're excited, but rational thinking saves lives!

#5 - Finally, don't feel as though you have to tell a celebrity your life story. It's not that they don't care, but they don't care. I meet hundreds of people, literally, a week. I'm sure that most celebrities meet even more than I do. We are glad to meet our fans. We love to sign an autograph. We love to sign 5 autographs. We love to hear that why you love us. It boosts our ego. However, when I'm walking through the mall or trying to have dinner with friends or my wife, I honestly don't have time to hear you story of what you've always dreamed of and how I can help you get there. Now, I should note, that I have set up this blog to have a little different vibe than real life...here I have time to sit and think. In fact I've gotten to meet some of the posters and it's nice to have a connection. But honestly, when I'm walking through a mall, it's not the time to give me your life story. I promise I won't remember. I'm a reader. I memorize and remember by reading. So, save your breath and save the celebrity's time: tell them what you like about the music or the movie then let them go on.


NOTE: In case you didn't get it, there's a bit of sarcasm mixed in here...maybe a lot of sarcasm.

Let's talk music

Over at youtube, a "fan" calling himself JohnnieFab left this nice comment under Half Past Forever's "Know" video:

"This is exactly the kind of generic, effortless, meaningless faux-rock that keeps talented musicians, performers, and composers from getting main stream exposure. As long as this kind of music is being played by mtv and radio stations, kids will be robbed of the opportunity to hear music with artistic integrity. It makes me cringe."

This one actually made me kind of laugh. But then it made me kind of think.

What music will still be around thirty years from now? What is it about this music that made JohnnieFab have such a strong reaction to it? Is my music really robbing people of the opportunity to hear music with artistic integrity? Well, it's an age-old debate. Do you have to make music that sounds like crap in order to have artistic credibility and intergrity? Or do you simply try to write great songs? I would contend for the latter.

Radiohead is in my top favorite bands - admittedly I don't listen to them all the time because that can get boring very quickly. But, across the board, Radiohead is one of the most inventive, chance-taking and experimental bands of our time, maybe of all time. But as their albums have gotten weirder and weirder, fewer and fewer people listen to them. Some bands seem to brandish this about as a badge of honor, but is it really something to be proud of?

The very nature of music is that it is a language to be enjoyed by others. From the very beginning, composers wrote music to be enjoyed by the people they wrote it for. From the dark ages on really through the twentieth century, the whole art of composition was a wholly commercial endeavor. Composers worked for rich people and wrote music for their parties. Rich people were the original publishers and record companies - the rich people owned every song their composer wrote. The composer was, in return, paid handsomely for his efforts, but if he didn't play the political system, many times great composers would end up penniless and dying young (i.e., Mozart).

Now, jazz music was where things started to change. Jazz was a free form of music where, originally, African-Americans would get together and simply play. It grew from the Spirituals that were sung during the slavery days, and from "tribal" beats. Jazz is and was a free form - there were no barring rules as there was in classical music. In jazz, whatever comes and happens and feels good IS good. Suddenly instrumentalists were actually straying away from written music and "riffing" - of course classical musicians thrashed against this new form of music because it went against everything they had been taught. But jazz stayed and stayed and became more and more popular.

Soon, pop music (short for popular music) was jazz and off-shoots of jazz, and the revolutionaries like Miles Davis then became more and more experimental in response to jazz now being the pop music of the day. Then rock and roll came in. Elvis, Cliff Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more took pop jazz one step further and mixed in a little blues and a whole lot of backbeat. Then along came the Beatles and their incredible ability to write a pop ditty. But with the Beatles a lot of things changed, aside from the sugary sweet sounds of "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

The Beatles were one of the first artists to write their own songs. In the early 1960's an artist writing their own songs was relatively unheard of - everyone did covers of each other while Tin Pan Alley writers (like, surprisingly, Neil Diamond and Carole King) churned out cheesy hits for bands to sing ("I'm a Believer" anyone?). Not only did the Beatles write their own songs, but soon even they became bored with their success at writing hooks, so they became experimental.

And this is where I think the rub lies. If you listen to the "experimental" Beatles, and break the songs down to just the song themselves, they are simply pop songs. "A Day in the Life" or "Strawberry Fields Forever", though surrounded by interesting elements, they are simple pop songs.

The Beatles gave life to a whole lineage of bands that seem to lose the song and focus on the experiment - Pink Floyd (though I love a lot of their stuff, it sometimes is hard to find the song) on down to Radiohead. And somehow, this music is considered artful while a band who writes hooks is not artful.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love experimental music: I listen to Radiohead on a regular basis, I listen to Sigur Ros a lot, bands like Muse and Mutemath and Starsailor have littered my CD player for years. I love the experimental and off-the-wall, not-so-marketable stuff. It whets my appetite and makes me long to be a better musician, and to understand how the experiments were put together.

But as I kind of moved from being a simple songwriter to what I feel like is a genuine musician (no, I don't put myself in the class of some of these people I am speaking of), I started to wonder - do I want to make experimental stuff that wil never sell, but will make me very happy? Or do I want to make a living doing music and still create great art? And when I looked at the example of especially the Beatles, I understood that great art and marketability are not mutually exclusive.

So, here is the process of how I write songs.

#1 - I find a great tune. Usually, I'll sit around with an acoustic guitar (sometimes electric, if Sarah's not around) and just play around until I find a cool chord progression that I like. I try to challenge myself to use different chord progressions and, as my guitar playing skills have bettered, I try to mess around with riffs. Once I've found a great chord progression I will then begin to fashion a melody around it. I'm odd, I think, in that I usually write words at the same time as the music - many times it's just jibberish that I'm singing over the chords...sometimes the jibberish ends up in the song, sometimes I completely re-write the lyric.

#2 - I find a great subject matter. Wierdly enough, usually, the subject matter is decided by how the tune is coming together. I'd say over half the time, the jibberish that I sing while I'm riffing or jamming ends up being the lyric of the song, or at least the general idea of the song. I try hard to paint word pictures with my music, so the music and lyrics work very tightly with me...or at least I try to make them work very tightly together.

#3 - I then find the right setting. I am somewhat odd as a songwriter (at least the songwriters I know) in that as I'm writing a song, in my head I can hear how the production will be put together. With the album that is out now, I knew how nearly every song was going to be produced before I got into the studio...I just heard it in my head. This makes it easy for me, but tough sometimes for my band - but I think it worked out great. Some songs are just simple pop songs that don't need anything more - "Tunnel Vision", "Waiting", "Rise" and others are the kinds of songs that just need a simple arrangement (with flourishes I'll talk about later). Songs like "Convenience", "Naive", "Gone" and others needed complex arrangements. I always try to go where the song takes me - I do not like to force something on a song that it doesn't need.

#4 - Finally, I add as many layers as possible. All of my songs are pretty basic pop songs - verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo or bridge-chorus-out. What I do to try and make it more interesting is adding in interesting elements that get stacked. For instance on "Know" the song that JohnnieFab had such a violent reaction to, we started off with a pop song, but added in a keyboard line on the verses and the bridge that fleshes out the chord progression (which is actually not a normal pop chord progression - 1 to minor 5 to 4 to 1). We added a contrapuntal string line that takes up a lot of space. And in the background, there is a tinkly pad that we surrounded with reverb to create space in the back of the mix. All of these things took what could've been a boring production to what we felt like was an interesting production.

Now, do most of my songs take risks from a songwriting standpoint? No...I'm not writing "Bohemian Rhapsody" here. I write pop songs. I usually have a general rule that if I sat down and played these songs to a crowd with just an acoustic guitar and vocal that I could pull them off. Is it as interesting with just an acoustic? No. But the songs have the ability to stand on their own.

Are most of my songs commercial? Yes. But my process in writing commercial songs is no different than my process of writing more experimental songs. The day I sell out is when I "sit down to write a hit". Up until now, I've just written the best I could and what comes to my heart and mind. Hopefully that will never change.

So, to conclude, I'll say this: I don't think that my music is robbing kids of the opportunity to hear real music with artistic integrity. I hope, if anything else, my music is a gateway drug to bands like Muse, MuteMath, Sigur Ros and Radiohead - cause, man, they're great, too.

Traveling Wilbury's

This next week is going to be crazy busy. I literally have something every night this week. I do have the days off so I may be able to spend some time blogging, but I am not sure. Usually, blogging is my end of the day ritual. Usually I don't post it till the next morning, but I love to come back at the end of the day and relax myself to sleep by blogging a little bit. A lot of people give me a hard time about it, but you know my whole life I've always spent time writing as much as possible - I think it's important.

My wife says that I like to be in trouble. Maybe that's the case. I don't think I actively do stuff that I think will get me in trouble, but I do a lot of things that get me in trouble, so maybe it's a subconscious thing. I took psychology in college, but I'm no psychoanalyst. I'll leave that up to the professionals.

I sang at a close friend of mine's wedding on Saturday night down in Aiken, SC. We drove down on Friday night and we went to the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. I got to play guitar for someone else, so that was kind of cool. A lot of people at the wedding gave me and the soloist a hard time - Chris Sligh from American Idol is playing guitar for someone else singing?!! I just thought it was hilarious. I really love playing guitar, so it was a ton of fun. I also sang an original song of mine called "Vessel" from my very first album 7 years ago, and I sang "The Prayer" (Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion) with my friend's brother's wife. It's always fun to go back and sing a little classically, so "The Prayer" was a nice reminder of what I used to do.

After the wedding, we went to the reception, of course, and it was super nice...they had a full buffet with prime rib! I love me some prime rib, yo. I ate too much, then the program started. They had me sing a couple of songs for everyone, so I sang "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne (it was their favorite performance of mine from the show) and a song I wrote and sang for my own wedding called "Beautiful". It was really cool to sing for one of my best friend from college and it was a touching wedding.

I should say, however, that I am not a big fan of weddings. But this wedding was pretty nice.

After the reception we drove from Aiken up to Spartanburg where I went to a show at Wild Wings. The band played really really well, though the lead singer of the band was a little under the weather. But the band was really, really tight. The band didn't get done playing till like 1:30am, so it was 3 before Sarah and I got home. I was a bad boy and slept through church...but I've got a lot of stuff this week and I am still trying to get my voice completely back. So, sleeping was the only option. I felt bad for Sarah though. She had to be at church at 8:30am. That kinda sucked. But we did get a pretty good nap yesterday afternoon.

Anyway, I'll try to keep up with stuff as best as possible.

Oh, yeah - you can still buy the album online at Amazon. We've sold a lot of copies so far, so we're very happy! A lot of people really, really love the record - we'd love you to love the record, too.

Peace and love