Sandlot Baseball + Studio= Blog

We're going to make it after all. I was talking to a friend about our
'pre-release' or 'currently-working-on-a-record' nervousness/anxiety
this morning over coffee. It's something that I didn't have during the
process of my first record. Why should I? Nobody listened to my music
anyway. I was excited about 1000% percent of the time before, during,
and after the process of it. Just working on a record was an end in
itself. There's a certain excitement that's prevalent in the air, or,
at least, in my own air that's reminiscent of the old days - you know,
three years ago. James Gregory and I have been at work making what
will become "PAWNSHOP" or something like it - a 12 song collective of
jams that my consciousness no longer had room for. Here are the
tentative titles of said jams:

Down, Down, Put it Down
I'll Find you in Ohio
She Uses Love Like a Cuss Word
Rev. Ramshack Run
We Could Take the Back Roads
Looking for a New Way
What Would I Do Were They Free?
Easier to Read
We Came Alive Tonight
The Grandest Prize
The Autobiography of Milton Burrows
Your Name is

It's a strange time to give birth to a new musical project as world
issues on a grander scale show themselves strong. War and sadness
going hand in hand. The UN has yet to really get their hands dirty in
Sudan. Thirty percent of my tax dollar goes into military spending.
That bothers me in a general way, but if I were to have that going to
something, it would be nice to know that some of that coin is heading
to fight genocide. It's a do or die issue. I'm not nearly as aware and
pro-active as some folks I know, but any attempt to create a
collective sympathy for a drastic cause seems worthwhile. Even a
simple blog is a worthy medium.

Right now, my pal Tom Yarbrough is bringing Appalachia straight into
the urban skyline. Tom has his banjo and is using it on this tune
we're working on called "Looking for a New Way." It's a sonic monument
built to both Moses and Martin Luther King, Sr. A wild thing about the
recording process this time is the timeline. It has involved two
really intensive schedules at two different times of the year and two
trips to Europe in between. I never thought to go to Europe, and I
never thought to record half a record in January and half in August.
Tons of surprises. Camping out here in Nashville has been quite a
wonderful couple of weeks. I have one more to go, and I'm kind of
dreading it. The past couple nights have been particularly exciting
because of this NEXT BIG NASHVILLE event. I just happened to land in
town during this event. There are tons of really good acts playing
every night at different venues in town, and I think I haven't had
this much fun since sandlot ball. My friend Robbie played sandlot ball
when he was younger while I played in a proper league across town in
Decatur. I kind of hated playing in Robbie's league because they
planned a sandlot league. You actually had to pay to play as well.
That' s absurd only because the whole idea of sandlot baseball is
grassroots and underground. You have to call it rec ball, not sandlot.
Sandlot ball is avant garde, backyard, magic. Plus, in Robbie's
league, they didn't keep score. Unforgiveable.