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I ended my time in Seattle last Thursday and have been doing a lot of thinking and listening and humming along to what we worked on. I’m really excited. I got to play a few of the new songs at a show on Saturday which was nice. I can’t wait to share them all in recorded form!

I’m planning another longer tour for November and we are going to put together a new EP. The vision for the recordings is separate from the full length album I’m working on. The style will be a very live, sparse, living room style sound. Where, if you listen with headphones it sounds as if you could reach your hand out and strum my guitar. Kory and I recorded one already in this fashion and plan to do a few old songs (from bitter blue) and a few new ones like that as well. It will be a small collection that will act and sound similar to my live solo set. It’s very non-traditional but will be true to the feeling and heart of my songs that I write in mind to stand on their own.

The full length album I’m working on with Kory is going to be very awesome. It will be full of many flavors of different genres that you might not expect from me after a release like Bitter Blue. We are definitely taking advantage of all the talented musicians that we know collectively to put together a really well rounded album with lots of different sounds, rhythms, textures and lots of color. Already there are hints of influence in my songs from places I did not even expect. I’m am sad to say at this point I have no idea when it will be released or even finished. I’m going counter to my normal tendencies and not giving us a deadline so as to not rush the process. I want recording my songs to be fun so that I don’t hate them when I’m finished. So, we will all have to be patient I guess and hopefully the November EP will be a glimmer of light in preparation for the full length record.

Some other exciting things that won’t take much waiting are…

- my art show at empyrean! will be hung for September first friday!
- my new band is playing this weekend at Caterina with Jason Webley! We are having way too much fun practicing and getting ready. I love my solo music, but it’s much more serious and dark compared to this stuff. This is like party with an accordion and things found in a kitchen…and who knows…maybe some lederhosen. Power und Beauty…please join our party.

we’ve reached a point in these songs where i’m starting to really connect emotionally with the sounds. a nice gentleman named Dan Phelps is recording drums with us today. he toured with tori amos last year playing lead guitar and he’s in one of my favorite Seattle bands called the beautiful clarks. oh, and he’s super nice.

i’m sitting here in the control room in shock wondering how i ended up here right now with these people that like my music enough to contribute to it. i can’t even describe what i feel like i’m on the edge of. i hope that isn’t redundant from my last blog post, but i can’t say enough about how blessed i feel right now.

i’ve also got to spend a lot of time working piano into the songs which has been really nice and unexpected. my multi-instrumentalist capabilities are definitely being stretched with electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, vibes, organ, piano and accordion.

i’m heading home tomorrow to keep painting, practice with my new band, and play a few shows. one of them is Saturday at Empyrean with a few really awesome touring bands. Tiny Vipers, Balmohrea and Bexar Bexar. i’m definitely going to play quite a few of these new songs.

I began recording yesterday in seattle with Kory Kruckenberg. My vocal chords have been a bit shady since I unfortunately came down with a cold the day I drove over here, so we worked on guitar tracks all day. My fingers were put to the test. Recording always brings out my musical mishaps and strange habits that I have developed in playing songs live by myself for so long. Kory’s house/studio is full of fun instruments that I’m excited to experiment with. He has also been introducing me to his wonderful group of friends who are all really nice, I’ve been taking notes to remember everyone’s name. We’ve gone to see a show each night since I’ve been here, the Globes and the Beautiful Clarks. It’s been fun to see different Seattle venues that I haven’t been to before.

This morning I woke up feeling a lot better. While I write this Kory is getting some files ready to send to mastering from J. Tillman’s new record that hasn’t come out yet. (??!!!!*$!) I don’t belong here, but somehow I’m here and attempting to embrace it. It’s an amazing privilege.