No Artist No

Well you walked a mile inside her shoes
And you had little trouble sleeping
Til you heard both eyes say it didn’t matter anyway
Convinced that she had nothing more to lose

Well you played Charlie’s Friday night
And you remembered all the motions
Of romance fires burning, record players and stomachs turning
Thinking to yourself the air must be right

Well we were young and we were proud
We had fury in our hearts and we had sweat above our brows
And we fought hard and we fought well
To sound more sorry for our sins than for ourselves

Love is patient and love is kind
And you were loving every moment
As you saw better plans unravel and unwind
Leaving you alone with all your joy

But we were young and we were strong
And we were praying to our savior that our savior wouldn’t find us
Staring up at half moons and wishing for hotel rooms
When we had little trouble getting by

We were young and we were strong
We were sleeping in our cars where were knew our cars did not belong
But we fought hard and we fought well
To sound more sorry for our sins than for ourselves

This was the very first song that I finished while I was on the road so we’ll start here. If you’ve seen me play in certain settings you may have heard parts of this story.

At the beginning of May when I started touring and I would tell people that I was a full time touring guitarist, they would ask where I lived and I would always respond with, “Well, I don’t really live anywhere-I’m homeless.”

And that’s pretty much what this song is about, except that it really wasn’t so bad-now don’t get me wrong, there are people out there that really need help and really need homes-but I’m a young, able bodied dude-the gigs were very sparse at first, and the money was even sparser, I didn’t know where I would be sleeping, sometimes I would sleep in the car, but that just builds character. My grandfather use to say that the more you have, the more you have to take care of, and that was exactly what I found.

I finished this song in a little red gazebo outside of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River in early June. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the sun was sparkling over the water.

I had gotten sick for the first time on the road and it was a complication that I hadn’t really prepared for because when you get sick, you really need to take time to rest and feel better, and traveling doesn’t help that. I was really tight on cash but I had enough to get a hotel room for a night, but I was pretty worried about what I was going to do after that.

And then I took a look at all of the places I had been in the past month-hell, all of the places I had been throughout my life and I thought about how God had kept me safe so many times through so many experiences-what were the chances that he was going to stop providing for me now?

We have so much. Even if we don’t have a house or an apartment, we have so much. Clean water. Food. Some of us have cars. I have a wonderful girlfriend who loves me very much. I have a job that allows me to travel up and down the East Coast making new friends all the time. And above all, I have a father that looks out for me no matter what and in whose hands I know that I can thoroughly rely. And I know that I’ve never been homeless, and that I’ll never be homeless, because in those hands, no matter how little money we have, no matter how sick we get, no matter what this recession does to our fragile economy or how bad things look-in those hands, I am safe, I am secure, I am at home.

Sweet New England Sound
(Boston Shines Tonight)

We said low and behold, these weary hands are cold
Headlights won’t light and street lights never get warm
I remember I was breathing fog and I was not alone beneath the trees
Water in the distance was as clear as the water at my feet

Boston shines tonight
Regardless of how we steer our sights
Regardless of our driven minds
Boston shines tonight
Regardless of the clouds between here and the sky

But I want your hope

So long Florida sun
You were lovely in your own right
Lovely as the only one to burn so bright against the blue
We believed that we could joke away the guilt, the pain
But people rarely laugh out loud as often as they tell you that they do

But I want your hope

Boston shines tonight
Regardless of how we steer our sights
Regardless of our driven jaded minds
Boston shines tonight
Regardless of the clouds between here and a moonlit sky

I wrote this song at the end of October right before going into the studio the following week to record the EP. I was in New England for about a week with a fair bit of time off and I started this song at a park in Beford, MA. It was one of those songs where I didn’t really know what it was going to be about as I was writing it, but I felt such a positive vibe from the Boston area, and as the week progressed the weather cleared up and it got warmer.

One thing that I had been a little down about was that as the weather was getting colder it was going to become harder and harder to find places to write. I’ve struggled with circulation problems for a long time as a guitarist and somehow in late October in New England my hands were warm enough to play; I really felt like this warmer weather was such a gift from God because writing really is my favorite part of this job and I would hate to have to put it on hold.

The “New England Sound” partly represents the Boston music scene. In the week I was there I saw so many instances of people going out of their way to promote somebody else’s music. The roommate of one of my close friends in the area handed me a zine one night that he had created. A zine is a self-published booklet, mini magazine type of thing. He said that one of his main reasons for making it was to let people know about shows in the area. He had put together about 70 copies of this thing-primarily by hand I assume, and he told me how awesome it had felt to make and distribute it to people. It was just so awesome to see the joy that this guy felt in taking so much time out of his day to promote somebody else’s art.

I wrote most of these lyrics at different parks in Boston, most of which had ponds or reservoirs and the title also refers to the “New England Sound” as a body of water.

Having grown up in Michigan I never understood why people freak out and drive up to New England every fall to see a bunch of leaves turn orange. It’s pretty awesome though, you should definitely check it out.

Forgive Me, Savannah

Rain came down
I felt a loss for words at all the words that I had found
And Carolina held me like a child
And in the sunlight for the first time since the Spring time I was back on Southern ground

95 to 26 was open with the windows
And The Wild* was on the stereo and I
Cut the chords where vocal chords constrain
Us from the notes that we can never ever find

But I drove home

Light came down
And I heard a voice say never lose the sound
We humans have a wandering need as humans are a faulty breed
And I’ve found it’s an easy sound to lose

But oh my dear Savannah if your majesty was mine
We’d never have to feel September’s chill or see its sky
Cause I’ve found a place where I can see the stars
Just fine

But I drove home

This southern rain is soothing on my skin
But this soothing southern rain cannot compare
To hearts and strings that pull apart my doubt
Your Jersey lips and Jersey eyes and Jersey hair

So I drove home

Ever been to the South? I grew up in Michigan and had never really ventured there until the past few years when I moved to Virginia (although Williamsburg isn’t really the South), and then I had the opportunity to tour to Georgia and Tennessee this past May. It was incredible-the warmth of the people and the land-the hospitality and the trust.

I returned in August and September, went down to Flordia and on the way back I stopped in Savannah for a few days. I pulled into a park and this very simple melody popped into my head. I spent those next days in Savannah, Bluffton and Hilton Head going to different open mics, meeting people and making some very awesome friends. I had never felt so taken in by people and treated like I was family.

After Savannah I drove to Floyd, VA for a few shows and on that drive I wrote most of the lyrics to this song. Turns out that Floyd is awesome as well and I finished this song in my friend Eric’s back yard.

By the end of September I had been away from my girlfriend for about a month and a half. Usually I find that we can be apart for about 3 weeks before touring really isn’t that much fun anymore. And even though I love the South, the people, the food, the hospitality, gators, gator tail sandwiches, the warmth and the sunshine

I had been away far too long.

The Sound in this case is simply a representation of my own faith and my tendency to fall into worry.

*The Wild is a folk/punk band from Atlanta. Their EP, “Set Ourselves Free” got me through my first few months of touring. It’s one of the most uplifting and encouraging albums I’ve ever heard and yet it still manages to be critical and opinionated like a good punk album should be.

Hope Floats

And we asked if any gold could stay
And when we pass, do we only pass away?
And I was not alone in being unaware
That you were calm that you were confident, composed
And anything but scared

We, by 2002 or 3 were done with innocence and insolence washed over me
I, by 2004 or 5 had found that insolence breeds nothing more than ignorance
And foolish, foolish pride

And as we stood there in the light*
I swear I saw your faces shine and you said you thought so did mine
And when the night came down we were the same three stupid kids
But even stupid kids are smart enough to know
It wasn’t us or what we did

And she asked “do you love the sound of snow?”**
I put my ear against the glass and whispered “no”
How do you love a place so cold, all but 4 months of the year you spend inside?
She said I don’t, but some of us look at the heart
We make angels in the snow and we light candles in the dark
And when she laughed, then I knew
She was the only one I’d seen since you had died

So I stretched out in the lifeboat staring at the sky***
And the sky stretched back and looked at me my dear
And I asked Sam if Hope Floats to which he replied
Well Mark, there isn’t much that doesn’t float up here

I wrote this song in July when I was touring through the Lansing, MI area and I stayed at my parents’ house for a few days. I had done a lot of writing there as a kid and it almost made me wonder if I had stored creative energy somewhere in the walls of that place.

The song is primarily based on a friend of mine that passed away in the area about 10 years ago, which makes this such a downer of a way to start a CD, but it’s not a song about sadness or regret or anything like that. It’s about how I’ve learned from the experience in the past 10 years; coming to faith, meeting friends, growing up, throwing up, etc…All accounts, conversations and even dates are fictional…maybe.

When Sameer died in June of 2000, we were all devastated not only because we lost a friend but because we lost that friend. Sameer loved life and brought joy to those around him. I never heard him say anything hurtful to or about anybody. There was no hate anywhere in his heart; only love.

*This is a reference to the cleansing of our old apartment in Bowling Green, OH that I used as the basis for much of And Grace Will Lead Me Home. There were 5 of us at the house when it happened but the 3 stupid kids were myself, Curt and Aric, and the entire stanza is a statement that it was by nothing that we did to drive the demon out of our house; it was only by the grace of God.

**This is a tricky one and it also happens to be the title line of the EP. This is a conversation between myself and a fictional character that is sort of a representation of my girlfriend. Snow doesn’t really make a sound…well…no, it doesn’t really make a sound. But it’s a question that would be asked by someone who is totally in love with life and nature, who sees the good in everything and who hears things that nobody else will take the time or the energy to even listen for. These people make the best of any situation and they’re few and far between. I hate snow.

***I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain this and it looks like I’m going to throw in the towel. The EP released an hour ago, you guys have it and I’m going to sleep :) I consider my inclination towards worrying to be the biggest flaw in my character. I see worrying as the ultimate lack of faith, because when you have faith you have no reason to worry; you know that God causes all things to work together for good. The response dismisses the question and the concern-and any future concern. Of course hope floats. Everything floats up there.