After our Nashville trip two weeks ago and then a DC trip this past weekend, I’m feeling a bit disconnected. I love traveling and there’s nothing better than sharing that time with my wife and daughter, enjoying yet another memory for me to hold on to. After a while though, that tether to home starts to tighten up and our house seems like precious air to my gasping lungs. This post-trip time is when we tend to circle the wagons and try to keep the world at bay, even for just a little while. After that, there’s a need for the normal routine… reconnecting with our local friends, getting back to our church, even just cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. I’m very much a creature of habit and being away from that for too long starts to wear me down. As much as this simple man loves to roam, I’m always drawn back home… eventually. It’s good to be home.

Grace and peace,
Joe

Well, I was going to post from the studio Saturday but we ended up putting in a nearly 12 hour day. By the time I got to the hotel I was beat and then we drove pretty much all day yesterday. So I’ll post a few pictures now that I’m slowly returning to the land of the living.

It was a great, whirlwind of a trip and it was so nice to hang with the Casella’s again and even more so now that we’re all parents. I finished up my guitar parts and vocals before I left and now Casella will be working on stuff over the next month or so… adding piano, guitars, vocals, etc and then mixing/mastering. I’m really looking forward to hearing it all when it’s fleshed out instead of just hearing it in my head. I’ll post a bit more as I get back in the daily grind, for now here are some pictures from the trip…

I’ll post a few more later!

Joe

PS, happy baseball opening day!

We got to Nashville yesterday and since it was my one day off, hit some of our favorite places. We stopped by the Opry Hotel (very touristy thing to do but I don’t care, we love it) and mall and then went to eat dinner at Baja Burrito (a must every time we’re in town). Callie also got a bear from Build-A-Bear that says Nashville… it has guitars on it’s shirt.

This morning, we hit the studio and managed to track 3 songs (vocal and guitar) plus a few extra things. The Casellas took us to this awesome BBQ place for lunch and I had possibly the best beef barbecue EVER. We’ll be working again all day tomorrow and then heading home Sunday… I’ll try to post some pictures from the studio tomorrow as well. Can’t wait for y’all to hear these songs, we’re loving how it’s sounding so far!

Time to get some much needed sleep, talk to you tomorrow…

Joe

We’re getting everything packed up for a road trip to Nashville tomorrow. I’m heading out to work with Jeremy Casella again on a set of new songs. I love working with Jeremy and it’ll be good to get back into the studio and get these songs out for y’all. Plus, we just really love Nashville and any chance to be there is one we’ll take. This will be Callie’s first road trip, it’s a pretty long drive so we’ll see how it goes. We have Thursday open so we’re going to take her to all of our favorite haunts. Should be a fun and productive week!

I’m thinking of releasing this EP a little differently, possibly releasing it as a free download on this site… I’ll let you know more as I get it all figured out. I’ll also be posting pictures from the studio and keep you updated on our progress. So stay tuned for that.

Time to go finish packing, check the guitars and see if it all fits in my car… talk to you in a day or so!

Grace and peace,
Joe

I woke up at quarter after seven this morning.

To most of you, that is not a big deal at all and a lot of you probably get up earlier than that. But I’m a musician who stays up until 3am and wakes up some time between 10am and noon. Early mornings and I do not get along. However, that was all before I became a dad. Now I’m up early and trying to entertain a four month old by making faces, shaking rattles and watching my little girl grow up far too quick… all before my first cup of coffee!

Rhonda went back to work earlier this year so I’ve been doing the whole stay at home dad thing since then. If you told me that I’d be staying at home during the day with my kid when I was a teenager or in my twenties, I would have told you that you were crazy. Turns out that it’s pretty awesome and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. For the first time in my life, I don’t mind getting up early at all.

Also, I really got into cooking last year and I’m pretty sure it was a byproduct of my Food Network HD addiction. Last Christmas my gifts changed from the previous year’s video games and movies to dutch ovens and spices. Go figure. Today I’m slow cooking some chili (Thanks to my brother Brian for the recipe!) for our weekly Lost get together tonight with our friends Aaron and Candice. Thanks to the writers strike ending, we can look forward to a few more get togethers this tv season!

I mentioned a month or so ago that I was having writers block… thankfully, I seemed to have made it through and finished up a couple of songs. Now I need to figure out if they’ll make it on the next EP or wait until another record. It feels good to finally finish something… there’s nothing worse for me than having some random ideas that never flesh out. Now I’m looking forward to hammering out a few more and getting back in a groove again.

Lastly, I just watched the new Indiana Jones trailer on Good Morning America and it’s stinking awesome! I can’t believe we’re getting another movie (Raiders is in my Top 3 of all time) and as soon as that classic theme started I was sold.

Ok, the little munchin is stirring out of her nap so I’m off to play peek-a-boo…

Take care,
J