Update From The Studio
This has been my first significant break from the road in quite a while, but it hasn't been a break at all. I've been hard at work on a new album out in Utah and the finish line is finally in sight. I'm so excited about these songs, and the experience of writing and recording them has been a really special one, which I'll write about more in the future once I'm able to start sharing some more details. In the meantime, I'll share this photo with you.
It's a grainy iPhone picture shot a little bit after midnight in the pasture behind the studio. A dense snow was falling, and we'd wrapped up work for the night when my producer/host/guru Joshua James suggested we take his snow bikes out for a spin. He inflated the extra-fat tires in the garage and we trudged through the quickly-piling snow in his backyard, past the goats and the chicken coop and through the little gap into sprawling field. I went first (after a few false starts--pedaling in snow is hard!) and once I got up to speed I was feeling pretty good. I heard heavy breathing behind me and expected to see Josh, but instead it was two beautiful horses who were just about to catch up to me. To be honest, it freaked me out at first for a minute. I suddenly had a pair of enormous, muscular animals bearing down on me. Did they think I was an intruder? A threat? But it turned out they just wanted to run along side me. So Josh and I spent the night playing tag with them. The moon was so bright on the field of blank white snow that you could see everything illuminated almost as clearly as the daytime. I'd ride toward the horses, and then they'd bolt off together, running side by side in unison with their hooves sounding like muffled thunder in the snow. Then Josh would ride towards them and they'd take off again and wait in another part of the field for the next one of us to arrive. It was surreal. The lighting was so eerie and tinted by the moon, the sounds were so muted by the snow, that it all felt like a dream.
I'm awake now and it's time to finish this record, so I'll return with news and about that when the time comes. I can't wait to get back on the road, and I hope to see lots of you later this spring and beyond with a whole bunch of new tunes in tow. Stay tuned!