The amp is a very important tool especially for rock music the more the amp is good the more the sound you make will be perfect!

– words of wisdom from a fan

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

– Gustave Flaubet

I don’t know if I even agree with this quote, but I know that I have sort of a regular and orderly life, so it’s reassuring to know someone has recommended this as a lifestyle.

I had an incredible amount of fun in February with the Alternate Routes. Here’s a vid from our Feb 12th show at Daniel St. in Milford, CT. (about one second into the song my ride cymbal stand imploded, making 2:12 pretty fun)

Forrest chills backstage at Sunset Sessions.

I’ve been enjoying this album by my new friend via the Alternate Routes, Mike Sembos. Visiting the Bandcamp link above allows you download the record for free, yet somehow no one goes to prison and Mike actually encourages it. So, you know, go get a free record.

I spent the night before the new year in a friendly forest (our nickname for the Creative Workshop studio in Nashville, TN). I’m in my old hometown once again, this time gearing up for a short run with the Connecticut-based Alternate Routes. We’re headed into the ocean to play a four-day cruise-type-thing called the Rock Boat, which should be a ton of fun and a much better way to spend the first weeks of January than back home in the arctic tundra of Minnesota. While I’ve been here some friends and I have been putting down finishing touches on Dave’s record, which will hopefully be ready to mix this spring.

if there are any lessons I can carry into 2011 with me, it’s that I’m lucky to know, and be friends with, such talented and kindhearted people. It’s pretty damn inspiring.

Don’t bother trying to jog to this album. I tried recently, and instead of burning calories, I ended up sitting on a bench, whittling, and petting stray dogs.

My favorite review of All Birds Say so far.

One foot should be investigating the past; the other one shouldn’t know where it’s going at all.

– Jeff Watts

I learned today that Solomon Burke died. I had the chance to meet him some years ago at a festival I was playing. He was funny, engaging, and in a lot of ways the character you’d expect to meet if you’d read about him or his amazing life.

His 2002 record Don’t Give Up on Me changed the way I think of and approach music. A lot of that had to do with the beautiful production by Joe Henry, but Solomon took an idea that could have made any other record interesting and made it magical. He had some hilarious stories about how he and Joe got together to make that record, and he put a really human and approachable touch to the memories I have of that record and that time in general.

I’ve only met him once, but I’ll miss having the King of Soul around.