From August 24th, 2021
Hey Folks, today we’re going to dive a little further into how the sausage gets made! Vulnerability with Mark. Thanks so much for all of your support for my return post last week. I’m still moving slowly, but I am making music! It might be a sec before the new stuff comes out, so in the meantime, let’s take a look into the vault of things that just never got released before the pandemic, shall we?
Nora and I shot this video in Sedona at the end of 2018. Earlier that year, we had given up our house in Carolina in favor of being on the road full time. This was about 8 months into what we nostalgically refer to as “Monster Tour.” From 2018 clear up to the pandemic, we would primarily book the shows 4-6 months out and schedule our lodging around that, whether it would be renting a place, crashing with friends here and there or in this case, house sitting!
No matter what, we were always blessed to have a place - didn’t sleep in the car the entire 2 years we toured like this. It was really awesome, and to get to house sit in Sedona?! What an amazing place!
If you’ve seen me in concert, there’s a good chance it was during “Monster Tour”…we played 130 shows in 2018 alone. I would usually downplay that we were doing things without a home base or that we were house sitting because I was worried that folks would see me as being less successful, less professional…as a “homeless” musician…Worried about not being taken seriously - by fans, venues, professional contacts, etc…
Musicians, performers, influencers - a lot of us have put some stock into the concept of “status.” That perceived notion of success, or trying to project ourselves as “successful” in the eyes of others. You’ve heard about how some folks rent mansions to make themselves look more successful for their social media following, right? To make the operation look bigger than it is! Haha it sounds so ridiculous to me now, but there was a time I might have considered doing that myself.
We can blame our culture, our upbringing, but for some of us it’s just a thing that we have to get past - and working past these kinds of things makes us stronger! And I can’t guarantee I won’t ever fall into it again…because I am very, very human. But the more I dig into being human, the more and more beauty I find in the experience, in working through the flaws, in seeing the younger version of myself with love and as a person I had to be in order to be the person I am now. Even in listening to this recording, I hear unevenness in the 16th notes I’m playing with my left hand starting around 1:19...can you hear it? Clear through the whole verse. Honestly I never even noticed until today. And it’s ok - I’ll try to play them better in the future, but again….I’m very very human.
So anyway, this video was filmed and edited by my amazing wife Nora. While we were on the road full time. Without a home base. House sitting and not paying rent. Playin’ shows, having fun, living life, making music.
Love y’all.