Clean Jeans, rolled t-shirts.

Currently driving over the mountains. the road is bare, the trees are powdered. I'm finally over my anxiety of leaving for tour. The tax man got me good this year, which leads to a general feeling of despair, especially when I'm taking ten days off to drive to austin. But I'm with good people. I have my ipod loaded with new music, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis, a bunch of new things I haven't even listened to yet as well as some old road standards, Willie Nelson, John Denver, Richard Buckner, Nick Drake.

Aside from the anxiety of money woes, I'm not sure about my reason for going to Austin. Since my (almost) departure from the music industry, do i really want to put ona smile, shake a bunch of hands, run around and try to meet all the people I'm "supposed" to know?

One year ago I made this trip. ON the plane I wrote in my journal about the desire for real connections with people. At the time I had just made the decision to scale back my music involvement in order to make more room for real connection. One late night at the hotel with USE I told them about my decision, which they supported, however it didn't affect them a whole lot, i was still staying involved with them, in part because the needed me, in part because I need them to 'keep my feet wet' so to speak.

Noah and Jason are in the fornt seat, rocking out to Superdrag, while I am in the seat behind them, headphones on, letting Neko Case take us around every snow lined corner.

Last weekend I went to an artist retreat for Christians that are artists. It started a conversation and what will hopefully be the start of a supportive community. Charlie Peacock spoke, as did his wife Andi Ashworth. I bought their books, but only after having a conversation with Charlie during lunch. Here is a guy who has done exactly what I have desired to do. He and Andi started Art House in Nashville as a way to build community and encourage artists (musicians) to build a solid foundation in Christ that they can take with them through their artistic journey. During this conversation Charlie admitted to me that if he were to do it all over again, he would be more sensitive to the apparent needs. He spoke of how a lot of musicians wanted to talk to him to find out how he managed to make Switchfoot as big as they are, or how do they get on a good label, or how to they get a booking agent. he said that in the early days he was rigid in his approach by simply telling them they were asking the wrong question. he didn't explain exactly how he would do it differently, but just that he would somehow find a way to speak to those needs, or at least be more sensitive to them before moving on to the "right questions." This conversation resonated with me in a powerful way. here I was in a position to meet needs, and a need, as he said, is one of the most unmet need in the music industry. Yet I walked away out of frustration that my relationships were simply based on my ability to meet that "worldly" need. I wanted (and want) to meet spiritual needs. Somewhere there is probably a balance, a way to somehow meet both . . . but I'm not sure what that means or how that's done. . .