Davejahvu

This whole thing makes no football sense, of course. Most NFL players hardly talk to teammatesbefore a game, much less visit with the sick and dying.

Isn’t that a huge distraction?

“Just the opposite,” Tebow says. “It’s by far the best thing I do to get myself ready. Here you are, about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn’t really matter. I mean, I’ll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it’s to invest in people’s lives, to make a difference.”

Let me start this blog with this - I have played 4 shows with Jars of Clay this weekend. A first for me with these guys, though i have known them for a while. Know them as in fun little conversations at cocktails, not laughing heartily over jokes by a fireplace. Know them, but not KNOW them. That got weird. I digress. 

The thing is, Jars’ first album, their self titled debut with “Flood”, “Love Song for a Savior” etc, might be in my top 20 albums of all time. That album occupied an interesting space for me - that space right before i started to play music a lot and became a little too jaded and experienced to really fully enjoy it/the other space of knowing enough about music to really listen and enjoy it actively. I was at Centrifuge (yep) in 95 and very clearly remember walking into the room as we were meeting that night and the video for Flood being played  - i very literally stopped in my tracks as it played. Few songs have done that since then. I was completely interested in every way. They were selling early copies of the record that week and EVERY day i would go to my room and sit and listen to the record during down time. EVERY DAY. Since then i have continued to listen from a distance - i honestly don’t own the last couple of records - though “Since I Left the Zoo” to me might be a perfect pop record. Bought that in college and it still blows my mind. 

Sitting sidestage i was reminded how great these guys are at what they do. Still. Still writing amazing songs and playing amazing parts and singing amazing harmonies. Last night took me right back to those moments listening to their music the first time. I was amazed at the same things all over again.

Here’s the thing. The guys are even greater than their music is. I don’t know of a bigger compliment than that. THAT is awesome. That is what i want so badly to be. Greater than what i do. Over these last few days of being on the bus with them, i got used to thinking of them as normal guys. Just dudes. And then they got on stage and played, and i was blown away. And at the same time was so thankful that they let their music and lives say the same thing, but separate from each other. They are, in EVERY way, the anti rock stars. They are guys who are really good at something, and you don’t know that until they do it. Their lives don’t speak of music, their music does. Their music doesn’t make them who they are, their lives do. 

They haven’t had a career for 16 years because they are rock stars, they have had a career for this long because they write amazing songs and play amazing shows. No gimmicks. 

I want to live in that world, where rock stars surprise you. Where an identity and a occupation live in separate spheres. Where good music is rewarded for what it is and does, not because of how it looks. That is a world i want badly to occupy, and i’m doing my best to earn my keep in it. 

Cheers to you Jars guys. I’m thankful, inspired, and in awe. Keep doing it and doing it and doing it well. 

To everyone else. Go see this tour. I’m only on another weekend of it, so that’s an unbiased thought. Really. Come see this show. It’s truly amazing. THEY are amazing. And buy their albums. 

God bless.

Barnesie #34

First, i am excite. Very excite. I feel like most of you probably know that by now between my twitter and facebook updates and possibly seeing me in public with a smile on my face that sandpaper couldn’t scrub off. The fact that Blake 1. recorded the song and then 2. decided to use it as his single in my opinion is one of the coolest things in the world.

Now, i need to break it down for you here (cue bobby brown smoove music in the background. yes. smoove.)

First, i’ve felt so loved and cared for by all of you. Seeing the updates you guys have posted has been awesome. so awesome. those who have heard it and commented has been fun to watch - BUT some of you, in the KINDEST way (i assume) have been “hating” (to use the street language) on Blake for either 1. stealing the song 2. not doing it justice (others words) or 3. not being original to write the song himself. And i have had quite a few people wonder what this means and how it all happens.

Thus begins the lesson. I’ll address each in order and chunk some things in on the side for zest.

1. He didn’t steal the song at ALL. Legally, once a song has been recorded and released - ANY song by ANY one - it is legal to then for someone ELSE to record that song and rerelease it on their album, even if they didn’t write it and don’t know the writer/writers at ALL. crazy, huh? this is HUGE though - THEY THEN HAVE TO PAY YOU FOR THE USE OF IT. AHHHHHHH. There it is. That’s how it all makes sense. So, yes, Blake records it, as Billy Currington did with Until You, and then I get paid for their use of it. Every time it plays on the radio, everytime the cd is bought or that song is bought on itunes, etc. So if you do the math here, if it’s a single, then that is a HUGE opportunity for me. 1. because i get paid everytime it’s played, which in the case of a single, can be quite a few times. 2. and that’s that many more people that have heard a song i wrote and MIGHT even find me and my music because of it!

(There are some small stipulations here, it can’t be a song that you record in your house and never release and then someone uses it, AND i’m pretty sure there is some legal language as to what a “release” is, but let it be said that recorded and released songs can be recorded again by someone else.) SOMETIMES this can be stinky, but MOST of the time it’s awesome for reasons mentioned above.)

2. As far as Blake doing justice to the song, i freaking LOVE it. Cause he did it country. That’s what he is, and that’s how he did it. I think that’s SO cool. And it could have been MUCH MUCH MUCH worse - c’mon - imagine the sounds of cattle and whips in the background. Yeah. See? I love it. I really do. The production is nice, also, and it sounds HUGE, i even think bigger than my version does. Though i still love my version, duh. I’m totally fine and extremely excited about it, so it’s free to not like it, but don’t NOT like it because of me. You know?

3. This part is crazy. A LOT of performers don’t write their own material. in fact, a TON of them don’t. Or haven’t at one point in their careers. Some examples? Garth Brooks - yes, he wrote a few, but oddly enough not a lot of his hits. Jimi Hendrix didn’t write “All Along the Watchtower”. Rhianna doesn’t write much of her stuff. James Taylor didn’t write “Shower the People”. The Temptations didn’t write “My Girl.” The list goes on and on. This part of music is SO fun, in my opinion - the artists who don’t want to write, but LOVE to sing - that gives us who write songs the chance to be heard.

4. And maybe the coolest part of all - this is actually why i started playing music in the first place. I didn’t sing AT ALL when i started to write songs. I wrote them for other people to sing. That was why i started. Not to sing my own songs, to have them sung. That was and still is in SO many ways a passion of mine. So this is the fulfillment of my earliest musical dreams. Weird, huh? So i LOVE this. I hope to have many many more songs recorded by other people. To me, it really is one of the coolest things about my career.

SO - there it is. Yeah. You might need to take a nap after this one!! Quite an epistle, i know. Thanks for all the love and support, guys - hope this cleared it all up. Or started to. Or at least took the first good Windex to a dirty window.

That was poetic. (It’s a gift, i know…)

Barnes

This is why i started playing music. Having someone sing my songs is a HONOR and INCREDIBLE!!!! aol.it/p7wr4g