I did my usual wake-up-for-no-reason at 4:30am and laid there awake for an hour. You know how sometimes your brain kicks in right away? Mine does that a lot. I decided in the end to read George MacDonald. MacDonald was a Scottish writer who lived from 1824 to 1905, and he wrote novels about characters who were often in some form of spiritual struggle, books and stories for children, theology, and poetry. One would have to go a long way to get to the bottom of George MacDonald.
He was one of the early fantasy literature pioneers – C.S. Lewis said of reading MacDonald’s book Phantastes, “I knew that I had crossed a great frontier.” MacDonald’s works were also a big influence on G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oswald Chambers. Madeleine L’Engle, and E. Nesbit, among many others.
In any case, George was good reading for awhile, and then I got sleepy again and went out.
I woke up, made hot chocolate because it was Tuesday, played my guitar in the hotel room for awhile, then did a short songwriting session via Skype with Rebecca Reynolds. I wasn’t all that stellar but we got a basic idea, feel, and direction, and she’ll write the words with a form in mind and I’ll put more melody to it later.
One of our buses left the hotel at 8:30am, and some of us – Alison, Barry, Dan, Jerry, me, and Ethan – departed on the second bus for the Vina Robles Ampitheatre at around noon. The scenery around here reminds me of the Simi Valley, where they shot Little House on the Prairie – tall brown grasses, and dusty oaks. It also feels like the area around Smartville, up north, but the weather here is much more moderate in temperature.
We headed inside to catering and had lunch. Today was another day with my own dressing room, so we set up our laptops. I had received a text from John Jorgenson about some upcoming dates – he had sent me material, so after acknowledging receipt I set to listening and learning a few of the tunes on my Tele banjo.
Show time came, and the weather wasn’t overly hot. It really cooled by the end of our show. Willie’s show was good – I stood back and watched him play guitar, so quirky, but nimble, and soulful. I didn’t realize how far along the show was, and I walked back to the dressing room with Ethan for a few minutes and didn’t make it back in time to sing on the medley.
I’m back on the bus; bus call isn’t until 2am, but I’ll be in bed long before that. I have been too tired lately, and my focus on practicing has been a little off. It’s time to change some things I’m doing. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie books as a kid and Pa saying, “If you don’t like the results you’re getting, change something.”
He was one of the early fantasy literature pioneers – C.S. Lewis said of reading MacDonald’s book Phantastes, “I knew that I had crossed a great frontier.” MacDonald’s works were also a big influence on G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oswald Chambers. Madeleine L’Engle, and E. Nesbit, among many others.
In any case, George was good reading for awhile, and then I got sleepy again and went out.
I woke up, made hot chocolate because it was Tuesday, played my guitar in the hotel room for awhile, then did a short songwriting session via Skype with Rebecca Reynolds. I wasn’t all that stellar but we got a basic idea, feel, and direction, and she’ll write the words with a form in mind and I’ll put more melody to it later.
One of our buses left the hotel at 8:30am, and some of us – Alison, Barry, Dan, Jerry, me, and Ethan – departed on the second bus for the Vina Robles Ampitheatre at around noon. The scenery around here reminds me of the Simi Valley, where they shot Little House on the Prairie – tall brown grasses, and dusty oaks. It also feels like the area around Smartville, up north, but the weather here is much more moderate in temperature.
We headed inside to catering and had lunch. Today was another day with my own dressing room, so we set up our laptops. I had received a text from John Jorgenson about some upcoming dates – he had sent me material, so after acknowledging receipt I set to listening and learning a few of the tunes on my Tele banjo.
Show time came, and the weather wasn’t overly hot. It really cooled by the end of our show. Willie’s show was good – I stood back and watched him play guitar, so quirky, but nimble, and soulful. I didn’t realize how far along the show was, and I walked back to the dressing room with Ethan for a few minutes and didn’t make it back in time to sing on the medley.
I’m back on the bus; bus call isn’t until 2am, but I’ll be in bed long before that. I have been too tired lately, and my focus on practicing has been a little off. It’s time to change some things I’m doing. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie books as a kid and Pa saying, “If you don’t like the results you’re getting, change something.”