Two week before Carol and I married, I was not able to travel to Tyler because of work responsibilities in El Dorado.  I got a call from her that Friday night.  She was at The Forge in Ben Wheeler -- one of our favorite acoustic venues in the area.  She said "Listen to this..." and held the phone up for me to listen to Heather Little and Drew Hall.  I was duly impressed.  When she got on the phone again, as we talked, I found out that Heather co-wrote one of my favorite Miranda Lambert cuts -- "Me and Charlie Talkin'".  I could hear it in the music I was listening to over the phone.

Needless to say, I have since visited her website and listened to some of her other pieces.  She is a young but very talented writer.  I hope to get a chance to talk to her and write a little more about her in the future.  For now, I am looking forward to hearing her in person tonight.  If you get a chance to hear her, she is well worth the listen.

Well, I'm finally getting settled in East Texas and starting to dust off the guitar and manuscript paper.  Carol Ann and I started collaborating on a new song today.  It is a pleasure to work with someone you have so much in common with when you are doing something creative.  I will be looking at a couple of other things -- a re-write of a co-write done with Las Cruces songwriter Gary Clute, and and a re-write of "Near".  Carol Ann, being a writer herself, knows very much the fact that "re-writing is my life".  So it goes!

I have mentioned Bezalel and Oholiab before as examples of how artisans can be "agents" of God's kingdom in the use of their gifts and talents in a way that reflects their Maker and his character.

This week I read a very good article by R.J Rushdoony dealing with this very subject in the bi-monthly publication of the Chalcedon Foundation.  Here is a link to an online version of the article (reading it requires a free sign-up).  I highly recommend it.

http://chalcedon.edu/faith-for-all-of-life/the-spirit-filled-men-2/

I had the opportunity to go to the second meeting of the new North Louisiana NSAI regional meeting last night, hosted by Shayla Blake and attended by several other area wrtiters -- young, "old" and in-between.  It was an enjoyable time.  After doing some exercises to  get the songwriter "thinking cap" on we enjoyed reviewing some of each others' songs.  As planned, there will be a meeting the second Tuesday of each month. 

I got Galen Breen's demo of "Rubbin' Off On Me" this morning.  Hope you enjoy.

This has been a very busy few weeks.  I have been doing a lot of traveling... many trips to Texas and one to Kansas.  In the midst of it, my third eval for "That's Where We Belong" was very good and Lucky 13 had a few suggestions to tie it up.  I submitted the latest -- and possibly last -- version of it this week.  It has really shaped up and taken a different tone musically and lyrically than it started out with -- all to the better.

I've been working on a new love song -- "Near" -- this week.  I wrote the lyrics the last of April and am just now getting to the scoring of it.  That has been going well and I hope to have an initial version of it done this week.  I will (finally) have some new demo material posted soon.  Stay tuned!

I took "That's Where We Belong" to my NSAI regional in Little Rock last Saturday and had some very, very different feedback on it than I have been getting from Lucky 13.  While I do consider their feedback important to listen to, I have spent my rework and rewrite time focusing on the things Lucky 13 has told me to work on and I'm finally ready for my third eval on the song.  I'll submit it tomorrow.

My dear girlfriend Carol Ann is a rhetoric and writing teacher.  She knows the same things songwriters know:  "re-writing is our life"  : )  So it is.

Lucky 13 had some complimentary things for the changes in the second version of "That's Where We Belong" and some more suggestion.  As has happened before, when the song gets tightened up in general, it exposes some more weaknesses that weren't apparent before.  I appreciate Lucky 13 because he takes the time to listen multiple times before forming an opinion.  So... back to rewriting!  : )

Still no "Rubbin' Off On Me" demo... patiently waiting.

I spent the evening finishing up a new version of "That's Where We Belong" as a followup to the eval I got from NSAI last week.  The evaluator recommended upping the tempo, which I did, as well as some lyric changes were focus was lost and particularly melodic changes.  Rather than take the song "heavier" or "darker" I took it down the Motown road ala Billy Currington.

I will be on the road again for most of the rest of the week, so I am glad I got to finish it up before the week gets much busier.