Writing

It's been a whole week off from the road. It's great having periods of time
like this because that is when I can really dig into song-writing. I've
never been able to do a whole lot of productive song-writing while on the
road because the ever-changing environment really complicates it. Finding a
quiet place where I can be creative on my own time rarely happens when we're
meeting people, setting up, performing, packing up, and traveling from place
to place. Also, we're working with a bit of a time crunch because we are
hoping to start recording our next album in May and June. Despite all this,
the writing has been coming along quite well. So far we have approximately
30 songs to choose from. So these last few days have been spent trying to
make those songs as good as they can be, also allowing for time to come up
with more new material.
My biggest inspiration lately has been a book that seems to be the "book of
the moment" in our circles here: "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. It's a
collection of essays about nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality.
Miller has put into words a lot of what has been at the back (and front) of
my mind over the past couple of years concerning my faith. I highly
ercommend it. But you know sometimes things don't always line up the way
you wish they would. Even with all this ammo to create songs with, I've
been sick for the last few days, and since it's in my throat, I can't sing.
So that makes writing pretty impossible! Hopefully I'll be ready to sing in
2 days when we'll be in Minnesota. I'm living on a diet of Robitussin,
Sudafed, various herbal teas, chicken noodle soup, and rest. So hopefully
that works.

Marc