Music City Roots/flood fallout/kickstarter

So good to see so many folks out at the Loveless on Wednesday night for the Music City Roots show. What a great experience–the crew and staff treated us really well; the relaxed yet professional vibe made it easy to focus on the performance, instead of the minor stuff that sometimes gets in the way.  I ate too much of what is perhaps the best fried chicken in the world, though tried to counter that with some green beans and asparagus, and a one biscuit limit. Wonderful to hang with, and hear, my friends The Wrights, Stephen Simmons, and Elizabeth Cook. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. Other than my forehead being “anointed”  by some fast-disappearing bird of absurdity (strange bit of fate) while I was standing in the parking lot, and tripping up the stairs to the stage right before doing the post-set interview with Craig Havighurst, it couldn’t have been a better day. We rocked . . . maybe a little hard for some out in the crowd. But after last weekend, and all the collective fear, loss, and sorrow, it just felt right to let the wild animal out of the bag. Hats off to Bill Cody for delivering what stands as the best introduction I’ve ever had–except for maybe Horace “Hoss” Logan’s (R.I.P.)introducing my band at Enoch’s in Monroe back in the late 80s, which remains one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had without the aid of chemicals in this lifetime.

NOTE: Wednesday’s show will be rebroadcast in full quality TONIGHT, Friday 5/7, at 9:00p CST, at WSM 650 AM, or at musiccityroots.com (Because of storm-related issues, Wednesday’s live broadcast didn’t sound so good.)

I can’t adequately describe to those of you outside of Nashville just how perversely beautiful the weather was here on Monday, the day after the flood that devastated many areas in and around the city. Bright sun, blue sky, mild . . . all you’d want from a Spring day. And it’s been that way since. I think that’s one reason that it’s been difficult for some who did not suffer significant loss from the flood to process the fact that the city is still very much in a crisis state; that it is crucial, for example, to conserve water. Thanks to all of you who’ve written/posted, expressing concern, and helped to spread the word  around the ‘net about what’s going on here. Your donations, be they in the form of cash or action, toward the recovery effort are much needed and appreciated.

And because of what happened last week, I’m having a hard time even bringing this up: even though the timing is absolutely terrible, I’ll be announcing the start of my Kickstarter campaign very soon. Look at this as more of a pre-sale campaign than a fundraiser; with your donations you will in effect by pre-purchasing that download, or CD, etc. that you’d buy eventually anyway (I’d hope), and will be helping to finance the completion and promotion of my new record, Gloryland.  I am fully cognizant of the various disasters affecting the world, be they in Haiti, on the Gulf coast, or here in Nashville–but I have to keep things moving forward. And it is no news to anyone that the music business has been turned upside down crazy in the last few years; many artists in my position are undertaking similar efforts just to get their recordings made and released. Much time and effort has been spent on this project, and I want to finish it and have it heard by as many people as possible. It’s a piece of work I’m extremely proud of, thanks in most part to the mind-blowing production of (recent Dove Award-winning) Joe McMahan, and his tireless efforts to make this record the very best it can be, without regard to the expectations of any genre, market, or audience–simply trying to fulfill the vision that the songs suggest. It’s the most ambitious recording I’ve made yet, and it has not been a quick and easy one. But we are “in the short rows” now, and I’m simply grateful for having the opportunity to make this music, with many talented players who’ve given so much. As last weekend’s weather made all too obvious, our lives can be lost, or rendered unrecognizable, on any given day. Sheer grace, that they are given.