Summer is drawing to a close, I’ve worn a sweater for two days in a row, the leaves are piling up and the question of whether I rake them or mow them looms—all the signs of autumn are showing up and this means it’s time I type something into my little website.

There are a few great albums making their way into the world. My good friend Carl Broemel has just released All Birds Say, an album which is very special to me, not only for the music—which is spiritual and mellow, reflective and exciting—but for people involved and the way the record was made. I met Carl about five years ago while living in Nashville; he, producer (and equally good friend) Teddy Morgan, and I started working on his record shortly thereafter and only finished it up a few months ago. Not to say that I’ve been working on it for five years, or that anyone’s been in the studio for that long, but between everyone’s schedules and the general intrusions of life…well, sometimes things take five years. I’m pretty proud of this one and excited that these songs are finally seeing the light of day.

On the opposite side of this story there’s Lately, a new record coming out soon from The Alternate Routes. A few months ago I did some recording with singer Tim Warren, we hit it off, the chemistry was great—the next thing you know we are back in Nashville working on a record with the band. Tim and his co-conspirator Eric Donnelly locked themselves upstairs writing something like 100 songs (give or take); we tracked drums and basic tracks over three days; six weeks later the album was mixed, mastered, and going to print. I guess sometimes things can also take six weeks. I had a lot of fun making this record and there might be a thing or two in the future…

In local news, I’ve spent most of my summer touring with the New Orleans-inspired, genre-redefining Davina and the Vagabonds. I’ve had a really good time playing with them—they (Zack Lozier, Darren Sterud, Michael Caravale, and Davina Sowers) are all crazy-talented and fun to be around—but like summer closing it’s time to move on. I wish them all the best, lord knows they’ve earned it.

The Minnesota snow hits in a few months…time to get my drum igloo happening!