Gracious, it’s been a long time. I do apologize for the silence. I realize that you’ve been breathlessly lingering by your inbox for a piece of electronic mail from me. I feel like such a heel for keeping you waiting. In way of my defense, the last few months have been weirdos. We released a lovely little album back in January with the intention of pursuing some sort of livelihood in music. That went great for about three weeks until I lost my father. I don’t mean I misplaced him, but lost, like in the sense of “ he died”. Didn’t want to be too vague and lead you to think I had simply set him down somewhere and couldn’t remember where. I’m a little scatter-brained, but even I can keep track of a progenitors whereabouts. (progenitor is fancy for “father”).
It’s ok, you can laugh.
At any rate, it became difficult to give any energy toward marketing or advertising or keeping up with any sort of promotional nonsense. Those are entirely legitimate things to do, but my heart wasn’t in it, so I quit.
Aaaaaand opened up a health food store. Not exactly opened but re-opened, I guess. My father owned a health food store and was a natural healer of some repute. Upon his death, we became the new store owners. Of course, traditional thinking may have suggested selling out to a qualified practitioner. Traditional thought has never been our strong suit though and wondering whether a little entrepreneurship in a field we had zero previous interest or experience would be good for the grieving process, we jumped in. So far things are going ok. Largely my role is to inform people that, unfortunately, I do not possess the same gifting, education, or general likeability as my father and then try to sell them products that I cannot pronounce the names of. I had one day where I disappointed 23 people in person and 6 over the phone. That’s got to be some kind of a record.
Actually, if you look at it in just the right light, it’s a pretty special thing to get to see how much your father meant to people and then summon the humility to say, “I’m not yet the man he was”. I’m not bitter, or envious- that’s as sacred a thing as I’ve ever said.
In terms of music, I’ve played a bit here and there, and have written a lot. I’m hoping to get some videos of new songs out into the ether in the near future. This past May I got the chance to play at Bike Rack Brewery in Bentonville, Arkansas. They have a lovely series called Brewroom Sessions that they host back in the actual brewroom. I played sad songs nestled amongst massive silver vats filled with bubbling lagers and porters, the air heavy with the scent of fresh hops. All the vats are named after famous songwriters, so I sang amid the glow of such luminaries as Johnny Cash and Townes Van Zant and felt pretty special. In short, it was about as good as an evening gets. I played a new song called "Mona Lisa" which is about the limitations of truly knowing another human- even the ones you love most. Click on the video at the top to watch it!
Thanks to Jerad Sears and Bike Rack Brewing for having me and to Jared from Ozark Collective for the great video!