-chris

Well it is a little after 2am on Monday evening (technically Tuesday morning) and I can’t sleep. This is yet another reason that road life just kinda works for me because I like late nights. I am home after an interesting weekend working on the computer as my wife and dog sleep upstairs.

As Hunter mentioned in his blog, apparently I will now be a one man show. As it was we were just two guys with acoustic guitars on a tour full of super-talented full bands of rock goodness and now I will stand alone. After pleading with Hunter’s wife to just hold out a few more weeks I guess the baby won. So with this new development, offers to fill in for Hunter have begun to flow in.

Barlowgirl wants to help me out but got offended when I said they could only if they did my laundry. Skillet was very interested as well but they will only work when pyro-technics areinvolved and we all know how scared I am of fire! Mandisa said I didn’t have enough soul and PureNRG said I was too old. Newsong owns the tour so I didn’t want to bother them with such a request. MercyMe was next. When I sat down to discuss some options they just said to come back when we had sold at least a million albums then we could talk. So, I guess its just me and Group1Crew. However, I don’t really rap and my hair isn’t nearly cool enough.

See…this is the kind of strange stuff that runs through my head at now 2:30am. So I guess I will try and sleep. Goodnight.

Chris

OK, so this is how our day began…
I woke up around 9 am excited that we had a later flight this time at 11:15am to Columbia, SC. I headed over to Hunter’s house and we headed toward the airport in Indy. Hunter was excited because we were going to bring his almost 3 year old son Josiah out with us on this leg of the tour. We had a bit of snow overnight and we hoped it wouldn’t slow us down too much. When we arrived at the airport they had delayed our flight about thirty minutes and with de-icing the plane this turned into about an hour delay. This little snag made for a wonderful picture of Hunter and I running through the Detroit airport pulling Josiah along bags and car seat in hand.

The flight was supposed to leave at 1:39 and it was 1:37 when we finally reached our gate to find the DOOR HAD BEEN CLOSED. Which in the airline world means that the door wouldn’t be opened even for the second coming. We then find out that the next flight out to Columbia wasn’t until 9:30pm. So…we missed the gig!!! This was rather unfortunate.

We spent the next 6 hours eating, watching Curious George movies, playing miniature football, and throwing paper airplanes (which when made with cardboard plane ticketscan hurt if a 3 year old throws them at your neck). We then decided to change routes to Jackson, MS where our show will be tomorrow night and find a hotel and get some good rest. It has been a long day and we are sad to have missed our show in Columbia but the three of us boys had a great time hanging in the surprisingly nice Detroit airport.

One more funny story to round out the day…
Hunter had heard about a rapping priest named Fr. Stan Fortuna who would be well worth your time to check out on YouTube sometime if you have nothingbetter to do. So we are enjoying the hott hott hitz of Father Stan online at our gate and meaning absolutely no disrespect to priests when Hunter in a spiritual moment starts chanting “go father, go father…” and I look up and notice that directly across from us sits a middle-aged priest. Luckily he had better things to do than to pay attention to two clearly bored airport campers.

OK, it is 12:30am and I am in my hotel room getting ready to crash,so goodnight and “go father, go father…”

Chris

This sucks.

I have not been feeling well since I got home on Monday afternoon. It has progressively gotten worse so I went to the doctor this morning only to find that I have Strep Throat. Its so hard being sick when I want to be enjoying my time home with my wife. However, I guess I would rather be home and sick than on the road dealing with this. I would greatly appreciate your prayers as we head back out on Friday morning. Thanks so much.

Chris

Hey everyone, each night Hunter and I get the opportunity to share with all the youth pastors that attend Winter Jam a little about our mission in this industry and I thought I could share it with our readers.

Hunter and I met almost 9 years ago leading worship for a young adult ministry on the South side of Indianapolis. Prior to meeting Hunter and leading worship with him I would play out at bars and coffee shops trying to get some break and “make it” in music professionally. At this time my motivations were very selfish. When Hunter and I started leading worship together God planted a passion for worship and ministry in me. After a couple years of serving in this ministry I felt God begin to ask me if this
is what He had for me as my calling could I be content in just serving the local church.

After a few months of praying over this thought I honestly came to a place where I could say “yes”. I love to serve the local church because I believe in it so much. After a few more years of serving along side Hunter God began to open some doors for us to “perform” at other venues and record an album. Hunter and I both knew that we were not called into entertainment. Our hearts are for ministry not just to stand up in front of people and entertain them. So every step of the way it is our prayer that this continues to be our mission. We have learned that the world’s definition of success is very different than God’s so we want to serve Him only and not man.

-chris

I don’t know if this is funny to anyone else, but I made it on two, yes count them two, of BarlowGirls video podcasts! Does this mean we are famous now?

-chris

Heading back home to the Tundra.

It is Sunday and I have enjoyed the this run very much. We have had a great time meeting new people and the unbelievable weather down in the South. It is sunny and 60 degrees right now in Tupelo, MS while it is -8 degrees back in Indy right now. However, it will be great to go home for a few days and be with my wife for her birthday and Valentines Day on Thursday.

If you are in the Tupelo area come out and say hi, we would love to see you.

Chris

Hello.

We are in Jacksonville, Florida tonight and the weather is perfect down here. I thought I might update our readers that may actually be interested in this sort of thing what I am currently listening to (musically speaking). I finally purchased The Killers new album Sawdust. So far it is on course to be another fantastic album. However, Sam’s Town there last effort will be tough to top. I have also been listening to a lot of old unreleased Counting Crows stuff that I stole off of Napster back when I had less integrity. OH! I almost forgot. It has been out for a little while but Sarah Groves latest Tell Me What You Know is a must have.

Probably the coolest thing about being around music all the time on the road is getting to talk with other musicians about what they are listening to and what moves them artistically. Like whenever I listen to a Ryan Adams album it makes me want to pick up my guitar and write. Or how whenever I pick up a Counting Crows album I feel like I should never try to write lyrics again.

-chris

Hey bloggerific people. I don’t know why I like to blog late at night but that’s just me. I love how God puts us together with spouses that balance us. If you would have asked my wife in high school what kind of guy she would end up marrying a bearded musician would not be her first pick. My wife works a 8 to 5 job and likes to be in bed no later than 11pm. I find I do my best work/songwriting after 12am. Somehow with all this contradiction we just work together perfectly. If I had a wife that was exactly like me we might combust.

I recently read a blog by the very talented Andrew Peterson. In this blog Andy talked about his insecurities as a songwriter and how he cant write in front of anyone, not his wife and not even his young kids. I feel his insecurity, I am the same way. Maybe that’s why I write late at night sothat my wife is asleep. Even my dog Mordecai makes me nervous when I write I need him to at least be preoccupied with a bone or something. I don’t knowwhat it is, I love to share a song that is finished with my wife but when it is still being developed its hard to share. Well here it is after 2am so I guess I should start working. Peace.

Chris

OK, so I heard the Super Bowl turned out to be a good game. I know I am kinda lame here but I fell asleep after half-time.

However, Tom Petty rocked! I haven’t put a tremendous amount of thought into this but what if next year the Super Bowl is a three our concert and at half-time maybe a short football game. Its just a thought, but I think it may be a interesting change up. I am generally not this lame but I didn’t get to my hotel room Saturday night until about 1am and had to get up at 4am Sunday to catch a 6am flight.

Its so good to be home and catch up on some rest.

-chris