The day you've all been waiting for!

Go listen to/download the new song "The Belly of a Whale" off of The Ground Above Us by following the link:

The Belly of a Whale

I'm so excited to get this project started!!! This project is not only new music for you, but represents a new chapter in my music creation process. That sounds about as crystal clear as the person in the photo up above, right? (although, I'm 95% sure that's me (: ) So let me tell you about it in the same words I so eloquently wrote for the website announcement:

So what is The Ground Above Us?

The Ground Above Us is going to be a collection of songs that takes a close look at our self-narratives. Who do you tell yourself that you are? Who do you tell others that you are? Who do other people tell you that you are? The answers to those questions tend to become so ingrained in us that we think of them as a permanent part of our identity: "I am who I am." But in recent times these narratives have been given an incredible amount of power(social media anyone?), and it has changed everything in tremendous ways. I thought now would be a good time to write some material that shines a spotlight on these stories and to re-think how we use them to relate to our own self and others around us. I call these stories The Ground Above Us.

The Ground Above Us also represents a new approach to my music that I'm really excited about sharing with you. I'm going to be releasing singles through monthly emails. These singles will have an over-arching theme that will be announced every 6 months. At the end of six months, I'll bundle the songs as an EP and also put them out to be streamed on your favorite streaming service.  It will be like a serialized concept album or rock opera that takes a new turn every six months. This is exciting because it will give us more time for discussion around the art as it is being created and released. How cool would it be if your input could influence the work of your favorite music artist?!!!
(end of website announcement)

So cool, right?! This is going to be a work in progress as I figure out this new method of music writing and story creation, but I love the idea of making it ongoing and keeping things fresh and new and open dialogue (for you and for me). So plenty more to come because I've been hard at work - there's artwork coming up for the project, more photos to be released, a performance video, behind the scenes, etc..A lot to be excited about!

Also, I wanted to mention that the amazing string parts that you're going to be hearing on the tracks of this project were played by Tammy King who (along with many other credits) is the fiddle player for The Steeldrivers. I was VERY lucky to have her play, and I absolutely love how the tracks turned out.

And other news,
I have some shows coming up in South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia, and we are already looking at more areas, so check out my calendar here if those areas are close by! Or just go check out the snazzy new web page layout with some new photos taken by the amazing Stephen Byrum who runs Young Blood Films on My Home Page

I know this is a huge post, so I'll end here. I just didn't know how to tell you everything that's going on without brimming over (with joy/excitement!)

• 7/22 Sat. 1-4pm @the Salamander Resort & Spa (Middleburg, VA)
• 7/27 Thu. 7-9pm @the Bright Box Theater (Winchester, VA)
• 7/29 Sat. 4-6pm @the Villain & Saint (Bethesda, MD)

 

 

Quick update:

Big News!!!  I'm so excited to tell you that my solo EP is happening!  I've worked hard writing material, getting the right producer, and everything else that goes into making an EP.  And now it's ready to track.  This is a huge step for this process, and it means that this is going to be ready to roll out very soon.

I'm working with producer and songwriter Dean Payla, Jr.  for the tracking, recording, and mastering of this project.  He's a great songwriter as well as producer, and I really believe he's going to help complete the vision I have for these songs.  Here's a video of Dean doing a cover if you're curious about this guy:




Also, I encourage you to go check out his web page

http://deanpalyajr.com

If you're not following me on FB and/or Twitter, I encourage you to do so to get more updates on day to day activities of this process.

Again, I am super excited that the ball is really rolling.  I can't wait to share it with you.

I wanted to drop in and update with this recent bit of cool news.  I co-wrote this song "Two Step Texas Girl" a couple of months ago with songwriter friend Bob Pennington.  We had it demo-ed and I mixed up the tracks here at the home studio.  I've been meaning to post this song to the blog anyways for ya'll to check out for some time now, but I received a call about a week ago that it was picked up for rotation by Hamilton Radio which, of course, is amazing news.  Big thanks to Paul Mac for spinning the song!

Well, I was really excited to let you all know.  Stay tuned for some new really exciting news shortly!  Now without further ado - here's "Two Step Texas Girl".

Sad news.  The band I fronted, Man and the Mountain, has broken up.  It was a smooth band break up as far as band break ups go.  We were just moving in different directions and thought that we would end it before things became difficult.  Which means we're all still friends...so you may yet hear them on future recordings!  That being said, it is sad to no longer be meeting with that great group of guys.  It was really awesome to be able to say that I really liked and am friends with every member that was in the band.  I've been told that doesn't happen often.  We wanted to leave everybody on a high note with one of our favorite songs to play out...and we always opened with this song.  This was actually a co-write with a former-former member of the group Eric Landshaft.  He'll be releasing an EP soon himself so watch my FB page because I'll be spreading the word when its ready.  The song is called "One Day Dreamer":

Hey there -

These past couple of weeks have been really eventful ones for me.  I know you've seen some of it if you've kept up on facebook, but here's a recap:

Wildflower Festival was awesome!  I got to participate as finalist in their songwriting competition.  There were around 600 song submissions from around the country, and I made it into the top ten.  This got me a spot in the songwriting competition onstage and also an hour set at the Wildflower Festival.  So we packed up and headed to Richardson, TX (a close suburb of Dallas).  I lined up a coffee shop gig for that Friday night, and spent all day Saturday doing music stuff.  Here's some pics.  The first was the awesome auditorium for the competition and the second is the stage out at the festival:


My family lives pretty close to that area, so a cool thing that happened was that my Dad was
able to come out and back me for my set.  He's a drummer who played in a lot of bands during his college years (country, 70's rock, etc...) and had even organized the praise team that I played in during my youth group years.  So it was really cool that he could come out and play some cajon with me.  You can see him in the pic there.

Kansas

It was awesome getting to play, but getting to meet the songwriter's there was just as great an experience.  There was some serious talent there from all around the country.  At the end of the festival, we were all invited out for the after party.  It turned into a song round. There was a lot of inspiration happening in that room.  It was one of those moments where you can sit back and appreciate something you've worked hard to be a part of.

I would be remiss, if I didn't throw in a quick mention of my favorite act of the weekend.  Kansas has always been a favorite band of mine (ever since I stole the Kansas cd we got for my Dad on Father's Day...I stole it that day upon hearing it).  Since then I've tried to see them in concert, but it never panned out.  A ride would cancel, or it would rain.  So finally I got to see Kansas that Saturday night.  It was amazing.  I could sing along with every song. :)

After Party

Oh, also, I did get an interview right up where I was able to talk about my thoughts on songwriting and my personal approach to my art.  It's not often that I get such a forum, so if you're interested, here's a link to it: Every Word Counts.  I have to give a big thanks to Erica Mueller for the interview and the write-up!





Shortly after getting back, I went down to Huntsville, AL for an interview with music blog Spice Radio.  I met with Ben there and recorded a few songs and did an interview about the songs and what I'm up to these days musically.  I had a blast with them and hope to be back there soon to talk about the EP that I'm working on (when it releases! :) ).  Here's the link for that interview:  John Carroll @Spice Radio.

I know, that's so much information!  And there's even more I can tell you about, but write too much in a blog posts and it becomes too hard to fit into peoples busy schedules.  So check back here in about a week or so, and I'll post more.  Talk to you soon!

Really exciting news!...we've been working with a video producer to put together a music video for "Heart to Heart"!  We were contacted by Jeff Swafford about creating a video centered around this song's story line a couple of months ago and have been working with him to put things together.  A little over a week ago, we got together and filmed everything.  It was a blast to record and a really incredible learning experience.  We brought in some actors to play the two main characters of the story.  I took some pics while I was there, and I wanted to share them with you.  Ha, I'm not in any of them because I was the one with the camera.  You'll just have to wait until the video release to see me. :)

The video is currently in post production now.  Stay tuned for more updates!!!