Beau Bristow

NEWS: New Website Up!

2008-02-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

I will now be hosting my blogs at www.beaubristow.com.

If you are RSSing this blog, direct your reader to http://www.beaubristow.com/rss/AllPosts.xml or http://feeds.feedburner.com/BeauBristowBlog

thanks!!!!

CHECK THIS OUT: Valentine’s Day VIDEO

2008-02-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

I’m afraid it has happened again...there is another video circulating around this thing called the “internet” that includes a few crazy guys, a big pink Care Bear, and me.

Happy Valentines Day!

CHECK THIS OUT: That Dumb Tourist...Beau in NY

2008-02-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the day off and was between a show in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire so I took my friend Kelli Myer (in New Jersey) up on her offer to show me around New York City the next time I had the chance. Kelli is the one responsible for all of these great photos. Thanks Kelli!

I met up with Kelli after she got out of class around noon and we took a train into the city and started off with lunch in the “Little Italy” district.

We snapped this shot on the walk from the subway to where we ate. The “Beau Label Corp” must be awesome...though I’m still not really sure what it is they do.

After lunch and another ride on the subway, we walked through central park and then down 5th Avenue.

And that’s when I saw it.....the Apple Store.....

We only had a few minutes in Heaven before they made us leave...I’m still not sure why...

Oh and by the way, those Macbook Air’s are really portable.

As we exited the Apple store we found ourselves outside of FAO Schwartz.

I had a brief encounter with a Lego Darth Vader....

And then I lived a bit of a childhood dream....this is ridiculous....

Tonight I am into New Hampshire and tomorrow it is Boston (humming “More Than a Feeling”).

Hope you guys are liking the new tunes!

Beau

CHECK THIS OUT: New Songs Posted / Tour Update!

2008-02-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I just posted 4 of the songs from my new album “Standing. Still.” here on MySpace. You can now buy the album (CD or Digital) from the “Nimbit” store listed on my MySpace Page. Let me know what you think!

Also, I have been on tour for the last 8 days. Seven shows in 8 days! It’s been pretty exhausting honestly and I am glad I had the day off today to catch my breath. You can see some of the photos from the shows on my Facebook page.

Funniest moment: Me putting chapstick on my nipple in the men’s locker room at the YMCA and looking up to a funny and confused expression from an older gentlemen just entering the room. Hey, it was cold and chapstick was all I could think of at the moment.

I have more shows in the upcoming days so I hope to see some of you soon.

Be on the lookout this coming week for the new Beau Bristow website....I’ll blog about it and let you know.

Have a great weekend!

beau

CHECK THIS OUT: Why I’ve Been Out

2008-01-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

It seems like forever since I have blogged last...at that point I was asking for album titles. Special thanks to Michael Davis (www.myspace.com/michaeldavisband) for his idea which led to the album title “Standing. Still.”

I will post a couple of tracks later this week and will blog an update on how you can get the album.

Now, the reason I have been out of touch for a few weeks is that I have been remodeling my house! This was a major project: four solid weeks! I hired my roommate Dave to help me the first week but had to finish it on my own. One night I began laying hardwood flooring at 6:00 PM and didn’t stop until 1:00 PM the next day....19 hours straight.

I stripped out the old paneling, put up drywall, added lighting, installed new windows, put in hardwood floors, and did some pretty extensive trim and painting. I remodeled 3 rooms and have photos here of 2 of them.

This is the dining room before:

This is after I stripped the paneling and leveled the concrete floor:

This is after I put up and finished the drywall:

This is the finished dining room (minus a chandelier that I put up a few days after the photo):

This is a shot of the corner of the living room that meets the dining room before I started:

This is a shot of the same area when I finished:

This is a shot after we put in some furniture:

That being said, I am out on the road again! I am writing this from Anderson, IN. I will be in OH all of this coming week.

Be sure to watch out for tracks from the new album here on myspace later this week!

YOU TELL ME: Help! Album Title Time....

2007-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe it! It’s that time....

We are mastering the album Tuesday and I need to have the ALBUM TITLE finalized. I have been wrestling with this and here is what I have thought of and why. My final options are below (in no particular order). Please tell me which one(s) you like and why you like them!

THE SONGS YOU SING
-From the last 2 lines of "Stand" which will close out the album.

"Let yourself go in the songs you sing;
Let 'em move you to love, or stop you to think."

BREATH OUT LOUD
-From the chorus of “Stand.” I like this one because it implies action and intentionality; a unique phrase that taps into the meaning of the song it came from.

STAND
-Is the title of the closing and deepest track of the album. Because of the song it titles, this word has a lot of weight and multiple existential implications. Still it is simply the title of a track and might be a cliche or trite album title.

STILL STANDING
-This is not in the album anywhere, but it has a richness of meaning for me. This release marks the overcoming/enduring of a lot of questions and obstacles in the past year. This title also draws from some of the depth of the song "Stand." It reflects my conscious decision to live, to persevere, and to continue writing the story that these songs tell.

THERE WILL BE A TREE
-This is from the song "I can walk through the rain." It reflects a confidence that what is done and/or endured in this moment will in some way contribute to some good thing.

The chorus of the song says,

"I can walk through the rain, because somewhere there's a seed...."

and the bridge is,

"somewhere, there's a seed in need of streams that fall and drench us all,
and make us wish for sunny skies and streets more dry;
and someday there will be a tree,
and I'd like to think that I might need, a little bit of shade...."

NOW YOU’VE SEEN THE OPTIONS. PUT YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE SHOUTBOX!

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CHECK THIS OUT: Album Update and Show Photos

2007-12-11T16:08:00.000-08:00

In October I played a show at a very cool new venue here in Nashville. It’s on the rooftop of a building downtown and it is called “The Loft.” Check out the MySpace page here!

Here are a couple of shots taken by Steve from Kohl Photography. Check out Steve’s site at www.kohlphoto.com. Great shots Steve!

As for the album, Brian Roland, former roommate and current friend, played a sweet horn part yesterday (there’s also a shot of me doing a bit of arranging for a part that we ended up scrapping). It was our final overdub! Now Stephen is mixing like crazy because we are scheduled for mastering a week from today! Then it is off to be pressed and will be released in January....

Adios!

CHECK THIS OUT: Santa Clause is Coming to Town Video

2007-12-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week a couple of friends and I got together to do something that may haunt me the rest of my life...you’ve gotta see this....

2007/11/30 WE ARE LIVING IT RIGHT NOW: What The Hell (Part 2)

2007-11-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

This blog is a continuation of a previous entry. To understand it you should first read “What The Hell (Part 1).”

I cannot tell you how much I have wrestled with the thought of posting the content of this blog. What I have come to realize is that I can deny reality, and I can to some degree ignore reality, but I cannot change the fact that it is there and that it is what it is.

This applies not only to reality as a whole, but also to the reality of who I have been and who I am. I don’t owe you or anyone else the candidness of this blog. I am transparent here not by debt, but by choice. You will understand why as you read it...or maybe you won’t. Either way, here it is:

(Everything below this is from the original entry written on Oct 2, 2007.)

...Now to tell you the truth, I don’t trust God today. I didn’t chose this. Trust, in the sense I am using it, is a feeling. You can no more fault me for this than you can fault me for not feeling energetic after a long day, or for not feeling hungry after watching a mammal eat it’s own placenta after giving birth on the Discovery channel.

Or look at it this way. Do you trust Santa Clause? You say, “but he doesn’t exist!” But that is irrelevant. The question is “do you trust him?” Of course your answer to this is “no,” and I must now ask you “did you choose not to trust him?”

At this point be honest with yourself. Could you really be convinced to trust Santa Clause? What would it take?

Most likely at some point you did trust him. In fact at some point you may have written a letter to communicate to him your wishes, wishes you fully expected to be fulfilled in light of the knowledge that he is so good and powerful. Maybe you asked for a pony, and were quite confused when you awoke on the day you were to receive your treasure to find that you had gotten a doll house, or a GI Joe, or a pair of socks instead.

Surely after a while, without any intention to do so, you began to trust Santa Clause less and less until you concluded that he no longer existed and in fact never did. You never willfully decided to stop trusting him, just like you never decided to feel sick at the thought of chewing a placenta. You just did.

Now would it make any difference to you if I told you that Santa really did have a pony for you but that is was still at the North Pole and that one day he would fly you up there to retrieve it? Probably not. At this point we both know that there is essentially no way for you to regain trust in Santa, even were you to will that you should.

The allegory should be pretty obvious.

Now I am not accusing God of anything here. I have been accusing Him for the past 24 hours and have decided I have said enough as far as that goes.

What I am saying is that I didn’t choose to be a people pleaser, I didn’t choose to be a perfectionist, and it wasn’t my choice to not trust God today. I never thought these things through and I never chose them to be the state of affairs on October 2, 2007.

What I am choosing to do is fight like a fucking madman to change all of this. I’m pretty sure it will ruin my rapport with some and I can already think of several that I will no doubt let down, people who have held me in high esteem and have been encouraged by a perception of me that will surely be shattered as they read this. Do not mistake my boldness for nonchalance. I am very sober when I say that it deeply grieves me even now.

But what can I do? Two options lay before me.

I can continue this life of impotence, a slave to the thoughts and opinions of others, a slave to the fear of all that is less than perfect, and a life in constant denial of that grotesque depravity which is truly me. This is surely a path that can bring no good.

Or I can be honest with others, with God, and with myself.

I’ve lived the former to no avail.
Do I dare the latter?
Oh, what the hell.

About the author:

Beau Bristow is either a Nihilist or a Christian depending on how long it has been since his last meal and how much sleep he has recently gotten.

When a Christian he resides in a universe that is the real product of the mind of a sovereign and personal God who has revealed himself extensively to a race of people known as “Jews” and through which He has further made Himself known to the rest of humanity, specifically through that one Jew by the name of Yeshua.

When a Nihilist Beau resides in Misery, which has yet to be mapped, but is really close to Everywhere, and not far from Anyone.

2007.11.27 CHECK THIS OUT: Album Progress

2007-11-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Monday before Thanksgiving we tracked electric guitar for 5 songs. Here is a shot of Steve Mason from Jars of Clay in Stephen’s studio (Stephen is producing the album). You guys are gonna love the Lap Steal Guitar Steve put on Stand....

The Monday after Thanksgiving we tracked keys at Matt’s studio. Here are a few shots of Matt and his set-up. Matt can really work a Rhodes and a B-3 and it is really cool to get this far in the recording.

The songs are really taking shape and it is awesome to have the ideas and abilities of others blended into the sweet dish we are cooking up (sorry, still have food on the brain after Thanksgiving).

Later!

beau

2007.11.25 CHECK THIS OUT: Guitar Students Make Me Laugh

2007-11-25T16:47:00.001-08:00

I have intended for a while to share with you a few of the priceless moments that have come out of the hours I spend each week teaching guitar lessons.

Last winter I resumed teaching lessons part time in order to invest all of my touring income back into the music.

This semester I have had a wealth of students and experiences. Here is the first of them....

Let me introduce you to a 3rd grade boy that I will call “Student S.” (Not to be confused with Student X from way earlier blogs....if you haven’t read them, you owe it to yourself to check them out.)

Student S owns an electric guitar that is full size....needless to say it is too large for him and he is constantly wrestling with it as if at any moment his struggle might actually burst though to victory and will find him larger or his guitar smaller. He puckers his lips, grimaces, and snorts as he shifts the guitar further to the left, then the right, lifting it to keep it from sliding off his lap, and then immediately pushing it back down to get his arm over the top. It is the plight of Sisyphus, and thus the name Student S.

S’s guitar is broken. It apparently happened shortly after he got it. The connection where the guitar would normally be plugged into an amplifier is broken and pushed back into the guitar. This is not uncommon, but I still can’t elude the sense that this case is the result of an intentional act...an annoyed parent or older sister....it’s just a thought, but I honestly wonder....

S is all-boy. On his first lesson he came in late with red cheeks, grass stains on his Catholic school uniform, and breathing like Seabiscuit with emphysema. He explained that he had been playing football since school let out. He was practically dragging his guitar behind him (which might explain the broken guitar...but I am not convinced). He had obviously spilled something on his navy blue pants that day in school, and his grey polo shirt was partially un-tucked, damp with sweat, unbuttoned, and stretched loose around his neck.

In the first couple of weeks I taught him a simplified version of “Smoke on the Water” which he has played for me first thing in every lesson since then. He plays with his head turned towards the left, tilted slightly down, his mouth half open, and strums like he is recklessly fighting to flick a bug from the top of his guitar. Every 8 – 10 notes he stops to readjust his guitar before it slides into the floor.

This is entertaining enough in itself, but as fortune would have it, Halloween fell on a lesson day. He came bouncing proudly into lessons that day wearing the kind of renegade smile that finds its way to one’s face when they are desperately fighting to wear anything but a smile, the kind of smile that leaks when someone desperately desires and expects to be recognized for something but doesn’t want to broadcast such feelings.

In this case the smile was doubly betraying (and even more inevitable) for it revealed an oversized set of plastic fangs that S had clearly been showing off all day to every teacher, student, and unsuspecting nun at the school he attends. I couldn’t help but meet his smile with my own. I allowed S to keep the fangs in his mouth as he fumbled to get his guitar on his lap and begin playing the Batman theme which he had learned the previous week.

Within seconds I was beyond a smile and was now fighting laughter and on the verge of loosing it all together. I was spared from being seen only by the fact that he always looks to his left while playing and therefore couldn’t see my struggle just to stay in my chair.

My struggle was mild compared to his. If he wasn’t shifting his guitar, he was reaching up to press the oversized fangs back into his mouth, and if he wasn’t snorting through his blushing nose, he was sucking in the spit that kept pooling in his mouth with no hope for being swallowed because he couldn’t even begin to close his mouth over the fangs. The fact that he was looking slightly down made this even worse and he kept looking up so as not to pour drool over his constantly escaping guitar.

Despite all of this he managed to perform a most musical arrangement of Batman complete with rhythmic snorts and slurps and enough guitar and head motion to imply a quite elaborate choreography.

He finally gave up and took the fangs out for the rest of the lesson, laying them in a puddle of saliva on my desk. I settled back to a simple smiled....and then thanked God for other people’s children.

Next time I will tell you about how he invented “Halo Kitty” and might even introduce you to student C.

Until then...

Beau

WE ARE LIVING IT RIGHT NOW: What The Hell (Part 1)

2007-11-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

I find that more than anything in a plastic world, what I desire is the truth....reality that is not watered down or doctored to be something it isn’t.

This is why I am captivated by honesty. It is why I am passionately disinterested in the scripted speeches of politicians and “interviews” with the kings and queens of pop culture.

If my single goal was to sell you music, to sell you myself, to profit by presenting an image of myself to you that is so detached from reality that you can’t figure out a better response than to worship it, then I might never give you what I am about to give you.

The fact that I am posting what I am posting should speak for itself in regards to my intentions.

The following is a rant that I wrote a few weeks ago in a very emotional state. I deliberated whether or not to post it, but decided that for the sake of honesty I should show you this side of me. Today I am only giving you the first part because it is somewhat lengthy:

“WHAT THE HELL”

I’ve been rolling a lot of thoughts over in my head for the past few hours/years, and in the past few minutes the context for these thoughts has been as if I was writing them in a blog. So I figured, “What the hell, I’ll write some of them down.” I might not ever post it. If I did, it could really hurt what people think of me.

I should also note before I continue that I live my life with this curse of feeling that I always have to please others. This is the surest path to misery. I know. I have walked this path and I arrived at Misery about 7 years ago. Most people who don’t walk this path are still a few years away from Misery at my age.

But maybe I shouldn’t complain. Maybe this is really an opportunity. Surely I now have some experience of Misery with which to minister to those who are just now arriving here; or maybe I can give alternate, longer, more scenic directions to those who would inevitably be here tomorrow if they continue their current route. Surely such ministry would be a good way to please someone. But I digress.

Currently I am sitting at my computer, naked. I think I think more clearly this way, but I’m not sure because I don’t think clearly enough to judge how I think when I’m not thinking clearly.

I just got back from a run, which came immediately after paying over $400 for car repair, which came immediately after 2 cups of coffee while I was having car repair done, which came immediately after a short-changed night of sleep, which came immediately after discovering that I am still in love with someone I broke up with 8 months ago (and 3 more times since then, though we never got back together...don’t even try to figure that one out).

This lingering love has kept me from being able to move forward in any relationship since then. What this essentially means is that two times since the breakup last February I have begun a relationship with a great girl only to find that I am completely incapable of giving my heart to the relationship because my heart is still somewhere else.

It happens pretty predictably: 3 dates, a lot of shared self on both sides, my realization of where my heart really is, a confession to her of where my heart is, pain on her side for investing in something that never had a chance, pain and guilt on my side for being the source of her pain, and honest confusion on my part as to where the knee-deep shit I am standing in came from.

Now the logical question at this point is, “Beau, if you love this girl so much, why are you dating other girls?!!”

At this point I should probably fill you in on another bit of information about myself. I am a perfectionist. I want and expect everything to be perfect. I want everything to work properly, to run smoothly, to be morally and metaphysically right (whatever that is), and to please everybody perfectly.

This causes untold anxiety and ridiculous amounts of deliberation in even petty decision-making. I am often frozen in thought, stranded in fear between two alternatives, certain that the wrong choice will leave me short of perfection and therefore miserable but uncertain as to which choice is right.

The whole process makes me miserable. In fact, come to think of it, I arrived at Misery earlier than I thought. It may have really been 10 years ago. But that’s a further testament to the importance of thoroughly deliberated decision-making. If I had thought about it more I might have realized that choosing to think so much would make me miserable, and I could have avoided the whole thing altogether.

That being said, the reason I am not in that other relationship is that I wasn’t certain it was the right (or perfect) choice. If it wasn’t right then it must not be pleasing to God, and if it wasn’t pleasing to God then it couldn’t be right. So I began to question the relationship. The more I questioned the relationship the more strained it became, and the more strained it became the more I questioned it. Eventually we were both miserable and decided that we should just break things off. We had come to an impasse, and the only way to get around it was to not go any further.

So I traded the misery of questioning if I should be in that relationship for the misery of questioning if I should have stayed in that relationship. I promptly realized the real truth of the saying “misery loves company” and so I began to wish I was back in that relationship, but I couldn’t be sure this wouldn’t just make me more miserable, and so I decided to look for a new relationship that might make me less miserable, or at least a little more certain that it wouldn’t get more miserable.

Now to tell you the truth, I don’t trust God today....

(I’m stopping here and will post the rest in a few days)

2007.11.18 CHECK THIS OUT: Album Progress

2007-11-18T20:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, here is the first update on the progress of the new recording.

Last Monday and Tuesday we tracked Bass and Drums (yes, they warrant capitalization...they were that good).

Here’s a few shots of Ben (Drums) and James (Bass).

We tracked Bass and Drums at Ben’s studio and then spent Thursday through Saturday at Stephen’s studio tracking acoustic guitar (you can see Stephen in the last photo with James above).

Here’s a couple of shots Stephen took Saturday night before we finished up.

Monday we will be tracking electric guitars and then taking a break for thanksgiving. I’ll fill you in more the week after thanksgiving. I’ll also fill you in on Stephen, who is producing the album and just happens to be my neighbor.

If you are interested in hearing the songs we will be doing on the album, you can go to www.beaubristow.com to hear scratch guitar and vocal tracks.

Later.

beau

CHECK THIS OUT: Videos! Two of them.

2007-11-09T20:31:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to let you guys see a couple of videos that you might enjoy...or laugh at.

The first was thrown together by my friend Kevin Sparkman for a show that I played last month at a new venue here in Nashville called The Loft. Kevin manages this venue, which is located on a 5th floor rooftop in downtown Nashville....it’s awesome!

The video is just a bunch of clips he got from me and from a couple of videos online...it’s pretty funny and got a good laugh from the crowd that night.

The other video is the only recorded version of my song “Crazy.” It was recorded last Spring for a friend of mine as part of his Senior thesis. It was during the time in my life when I wasn’t sure I would be continuing music and had just lost love in my life....which explains the disheveled appearance and facial hair....I promise to take better care of myself in the future :)

WE ARE LIVING IT RIGHT NOW: Evil (Part 2: The Free Will Defense)

2007-11-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

The Free Will Defense to the Problem of Evil

(It should be noted before you read this that I am only posing thoughts/concerns and am not presenting solutions. In all honestly I have not even fully presented all that is entailed in the Free Will Defense, nor have I listed all of my corresponding concerns. This being said, I welcome antagonistic comments, just don’t be disappointed if I already agree with your statements.)

As mentioned in my last installment of “We Are Living it Right Now” I mentioned that I am reading and working through the problem of evil.

To review, the problem of evil is as follows:

1) God is all powerful
2) God is all knowing
3) God is good
4) Evil exists

Statements 1-4 seem to be logically incompatible, for if 1-3 are true then my first expectation would be that 4 is false. Life testifies to the truth of 4, and strongly so. Thus, it seems that at least 1, 2, or 3 must be false, for if 1 is false God just couldn’t have prevented evil; if 2 is false God just couldn’t have foreseen evil to avoid it or didn’t know how to do so; if 3 is false then there is no reason for God to avoid evil since he is not necessarily opposed to it.

The most frequently espoused response that I have encountered to this problem is what is known as the “Free Will Defense.” This defense essentially states that for God to give us true freedom of choice, there must be the possibility that we will choose to do that which is evil. For God to mettle in our decision-making in any way, even so as to avoid evil, would compromise our free will.

Today I just want to mention three critical thoughts that concern me and make me hesitant to embrace this as a theodicy (a theodicy is defined by Webster as a “defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil.”)

First of all I do not think the Free Will Defense is Biblical1 (and I should probably state here that it is my conviction that God has truly revealed Himself in the 66 books of the Protestant Christian Cannon2).

My second concern is that the Free Will Defense limits God’s power by affirming that it is impossible for Him to create creatures with free will and guarantee that there will be no evil. Is this really “all-powerful?” (proposition 1)

My third concern is that the Free Will Defense (and various other defenses) come down to an assertion that it is better to have freedom of will than freedom from evil (including pain and suffering). God is a still a good God (proposition 3) because He created us with free will, and this outweighs the evil (proposition 4) that results from it.

Or let me pose my third concern this way:

Is it better to be “robbed” of free will or to go to Hell? The free will defender must affirm that it is the later, and this I cannot do.

(Since drafting this blog I have decided to post further thoughts on the Free Will Defense in my next blog. I would love to hear your comments on this blog so that I can keep them in mind or speak to them next time.)

Notes:
1. This is because the Free Will Defense assumes incompatibilism, which means that God’s Sovereignty and free will cannot coexist. Though the terms “Sovereignty of God” and “Free Will” need more definition than I chose to give here, it will suffice to say that I believe that they can coexist and that indeed this is what Scripture teaches, a view known as compatibilism.

2. I know that many of my readers may take issue with me on this, and I only ask that if you are one of them that you suspend judgment and do not write me off until some time in the future when I am able to explain my view of Scripture more thoroughly. I trust that if you truly take interest in the content of this blog then you are intelligent enough, open-minded enough, and tolerant enough to grant me this.

CHECK THIS OUT: New Track and T-shirts Shipping

2007-10-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys!

We are now shipping the new Beau Bristow T-shirts!

Like I promised, those who order shirts get a free copy of “I Can Walk Through The Rain.” This is the first released recording of it. I left it really raw and natural...two guitar passes and one vocal take; a bit of compression and verb...and....well....you can hear it at www.musicnuvo.com/beaubristow.

Just an update: I start preproduction for my album this coming week! I’ll be keeping you posted throughout the process.

Hope you are having a great week!

beau

CHECK THIS OUT: Meet my awesome intern!

2007-10-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys and Gals,

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce my intern to you. Jessi has been helping me with all kinds of things as I am restructuring my operations and gearing up for a new album. She is currently working on a Music Business degree at Belmont University and I am already dreading when she leaves me at the end of this semester!

All that being said, I’ll let Jessi take it from here....but you can’t say anything about how messy my office is Jessi!!!

Where to begin? I am from the north side of Chicago and I am a hard-core Bears fan. Don’t hate! Even when they’re losing I love them. I am a senior at Belmont University and I’m itching to graduate! I am torn between Chicago and Nashville; they are both amazing cities to live in. I am in love with music. I can honestly say that I cannot imagine a world without it. Music is my passion and my sanity. I love anything that makes me feel. I am really interested in artist management and artist development. My biggest career aspiration is to own and run my own small venue/bar. My goal is to have the ball rolling and in the first main stages of operating and developing by the time I am 28. Wish me luck!

I am loving my internship with the fabulous Mr. Beau Bristow. He is a talented, great man to work for and I cannot thank him enough for all of the opportunities he has given me. I am so blessed to have been able to have this experience. I can’t believe it is already more than half over and I have no idea where the time has gone. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun! Thanks Beau! Goooo team!

WE ARE LIVING IT RIGHT NOW: Evil (Part 1)

2007-10-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I have been reading and contemplating the problem of evil. Roughly stated it is as follows:

1) God is all powerful
2) God is all knowing
3) God is good
4) Evil exists

Statements 1-4 seem to be logically incompatible, for if 1-3 are true then my first expectation would be that 4 is false. Life testifies to the truth of 4, and strongly so. Thus, it seems that at least 1, 2, or 3 must be false, for if 1 is false God just couldn’t have prevented evil; if 2 is false God just couldn’t have foreseen evil to avoid it or didn’t know how to do so; if 3 is false then there is no reason for God to avoid evil since he is not necessarily opposed to it.

In all honesty, it is quite simple to fix the apparent logical inconsistency presented in 1-4. One way is to simply re-define the terms. The simplest example of this is to define “good” as whatever God wills, allows, and does, and “evil” as whatever we happen to dislike. This way God can ordain what we may call “evil” but can still be good. This fixes the logical inconsistency or propositions 1-4.

Still, it does not resolve the question of whether or not this “solution” aligns to what is in fact reality, and something inside me screams that it does not. I hate evil, not because I define it as “that which I hate” but because it is something much more severe than this and therefore worthy of my hatred.

In fact, the solution proposed above renders the terms “good” and “evil” meaningless, and this is not livable. I cannot stop myself or any other human from acting as if some things are truly evil and some things are truly good.

Another way to solve the apparent logical inconsistency of propositions 1-4 is to simply remove God from the equation (propositions 1-3). You are then left only with the proposition “evil exists” which now has nothing to contradict. This has been the response of many to this issue, and the problem of evil has traditionally been held as a major support for Atheism (though more recent debate has made this not so much the case).

The problem here is that if you remove God from reality, then you have no standard for ethics or morality and once again “good” and “evil” lose their meaning. (CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, explains why this is so in a very concise and understandable way.) As mentioned before, this is not livable.

I go in cycles with this and other great questions of life. I wrestle with mystery until I come to the point where I realize there are some things I will never understand and I let it go. I lay it down and walk away.

However, this cannot last long. I am inescapably human, and as such I am compelled, or rather forced, to make choices as time pushes me through life. These choices have consequences based on the reality that surrounds me, and I am pressed to contemplate that reality to deeper degrees depending on the gravity and complexity of any decision. I may not question the nature of God when I am buying a cup of coffee, but I sure as hell do when those in my family die of cancer, or when I have loved and lost, or when I must choose between seeking my own peace and prosperity or sacrificing it to serve God or others.

Whatever reality is, this is part of it.

Note: This blog is the first in what will be on ongoing series titled “We Are Living It Right Now.” This series will address deeper topics and issues in life in as honest a way as I know how. The title of the series comes from my song “Stand” which is a call to contemplate and live life with both eyes open and at times with both fist clenched.

TOUR JOURNAL: Louisville and Bloomington 10/12-10/13

2007-10-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was back on the road for some shows.

You may have noticed that I haven’t had many shows on my tour schedule lately. That’s because I was traveling to trade shows the 2 weekends before last and will be doing so again for the next 3 weekends. It is part of my involvement with an organization called the National Association For Campus Activities (NACA). This is how I have been booking college shows.

In addition to this I am focusing on writing and preparing for my upcoming album, which I begin recording in November. I have really been missing the opportunity to perform lately so it was nice to get back out in the old tour bus (well, white station wagon) and make some music.

Last Friday I played in Louisville, KY with Brooks Ritter, an old friend, and Jamie Barnes, a new friend. There is a coffeehouse / wine bar downtown and close to the river in Louisville that you must check out if you are ever close. It’s called Blue Mountain Coffee House, and was a really cool place to play. There was an aquarium built right into the bar directly in front of where I was playing...that in itself is enough to make me go back.

Also, you probably haven’t heard of Brooks Ritter yet because he is a Kentucky secret right now, but I am hoping to have him on more shows with me in the future. Great guy, great voice. Sorry ladies, he just got married.

On Saturday night I played for a sorority fundraiser in Bloomington, IN. Alpha Gamma Delta of Indiana University was hosting their annual Teeter-totter-a-thon to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes Research. They had 2 teeter-totters set up and someone was teeter-tottering constantly from noon to midnight.

My friend Sarah set things up to have me come in with some music later in the day. It was one of my most memorable shows thus far! I was set up on the lawn in front of the sorority house with 2 construction lights for lighting. It had a very laid back, indie feel and I had a great group just hanging out on blankets right there in front of me. The night was cool but not cold and there was this really huge tree that ended up making a sweet backdrop.

I have a couple of photos so you can get a feel for things (thanks to Sarah). If you want to see me teeter-tottering then there are more photos tagged on my facebook profile.

(If any of you girls know how much money you raised, please leave it in a comment so I will know!)

Beau

CHECK THIS OUT: Rubber Hammers and Lost Nails

2007-10-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

In August I helped a friend install some hardwood flooring in his house. It was my first experience doing this, but by the end of day one I was moving pretty fast. To install the flooring I would lay down one strip of hardwood, bang it in place with a very heavy rubber mallet, and then secure it with a nail gun designed specifically for this purpose.

On the third or fourth strip of flooring for day two, I made an error I will not soon forget. I set the strip in place with my left hand instead of my foot as I had been doing previously. When I swung to hit the flooring with the mallet and make sure it was snug with the previous piece I landed a direct blow to my finger where it lay across the corner of the flooring.

The newly opened space under my fingernail was already glowing with read and blue blood when I finished wincing at the blow and opened my eyes. It throbbed with pain, but went a bit numb and stiff, and eventually I just ignored it and kept working. When I got home that night I drilled two small holes in the top of the nail with a razor blade to drain the blood and puss (wow that is grotesque).

That was Friday. As I played guitar at a church on Sunday, I could look down to see small drops of puss running out of the holes I drilled in the nail (even more grotesque).

Eventually the dead nail began to pull free from the skin that once held it and supplied it with life, to whatever degree one can say that a fingernail has life. I finally cut most of it off and here is a picture of what remains.

You can send get well cards and iTunes gift certificates to beau@beaubristow.com......

CHECK THIS OUT: Video, Catch and Release

2007-09-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last month I did praise and worship for a youth in Alabama and brought my trusty sidekicks/roommates along. Dave kicked a little beat (or an abnormally loud beat rather, as you shall hear on the video...we were in a gym) and Ross held up the low end (by playing the bass I mean, not by touching anyone’s butt thankfully...we’re trying to break him of that habit...putting Tabasco sauce on his fingernails didn’t work).

I just received a copy of the video and figured I’d share a clip with you...it’s a Beau Bristow Trio version of “Sign Me Up.”

Speaking of bass (with a long A), I got to go fishing a couple of weeks ago and have this lovely picture of the first bass (with a short ‘a’) that I have caught in ages. Used to fish a lot as a kid...not so much these days.

Now the main purpose of this blog was to give you the video clip, but I figured that I might as well throw the fish photo in as well. However the fishing photo reminds me of a story....

I used to fish a lot with my friend Matt (he’ll no doubt respond to this I’m sure you can see him in the comments below). Now Matt is the most touch sensitive person I have ever met. He needs personal space of at least 3 feet in all directions. He bows up in a “fight or flight” manner even if you go to pat him on the back. I can’t even imagine what he would do if someone broke the 3 feet personal space perimeter anywhere below the belt (aside from that one time when he was the first to fall asleep at a sleep-over at a friend’s house and we poked blue dots all over his shorts with a pool cue and chalk....wow that sounds immature).

Anyway, one time Matt and I were fishing and I got my lure hung in a tree. If you have ever done this you know the first response it to start trying to jerk it loose with ridiculously aggressive sweeps of the fishing rod. If you have ever gotten that far you know what comes next: a chunk of wood with large sharp metal hooks zipping towards you at Mach 3.

For some reason I felt all of this was better than going to retrieve the lure or cutting the line, but Matt was not of such a mind. As soon as I started trying to yank the lure free he turned his head away and nervously yelled, “Watch it n––!” But that was as far as he got. On this one particular day Matt was sitting to my right in the boat, and I am right handed. This means that at just that moment when the lure came free it came screaming toward him like a patriot missile.

When the proverbial dust cleared and I opened my eyes again, I slowly traced the fishing line from the end of my rod, down into the boat, over into the water, back up out of the water, up Matt’s leg, and all the way to the fishing lure, now dangling from where it had hooked itself in the crotch of Matt’s jeans (which was well exposed from the way he was sitting). From there I abruptly lifted my eyes to catch the look of horror on Matt’s face.

I really can’t remember if he got mad or not. He probably said some unkind things and questioned the legitimacy of my birth. All I remember is laughing at the whole situation... I’m still laughing about it. Sorry Matt.

YOU TELL ME: Which T-shirt Do You Like?

2007-09-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I am gearing up for a new album and have a few other projects in the works.

As some of these projects are coming together I will be asking you for your honest input, advice, and feedback. This is the first of these instances where I need to hear from you.

Below are 2 different t-shirt designs. We want to print one of them very soon. Basically I want to know which one you like the best. The style of shirt may change, so it is the actual layout, design, and color that you should focus on.

Simply comment on this blog and tell me whether you like A or B. (You are welcome to give the reason for your choice as well.)

T-shirt A

T-shirt B

Also, now that you have seen her work, I want to give a special thanks to my excellent graphic designer Gwynne Gardner! I asked her to describe herself and here is what she said:

"I'm a designer that's not afraid to get my hands dirty - creating collages with everything from pencil shavings to bottle caps to cut up pieces of old photos, and I have a unique style of creating that always begins with a sharpie, pencil, or paintbrush in my hand. I love color. If I had to choose a favorite color it would be blue, all shades, but I like to use every hue equally.
Nashville is the 10th city I have lived in. I love to travel and by seeing the world and what God has created it has inspired me to be a creator myself. Above all my wish is to glorify God with my art and if I can do that my soul sings."

If you are in need of some sweet graphic artistry, you should definitely check with Gwynne. Go to: www.gwynnegardner.com/gwynnegardner.

Thanks!

BB

TOUR JOURNAL: More Intense than 24

2007-09-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I left Nashville at 7:00 for Rochester, NY with Rachel Carrozziere (www.myspace.com/rachelcarrozziere). We arrived around 8:30 the following morning at her parent’s house, where we would spend the next few days as we played occasional shows and ate wonderful meals provided by various Carrozziere family members. (Seriously, it was amazing....I love this family.)

The first show was at Roberts Wesleyan College, followed by a chapel service, a radio show, and a coffeehouse over the next few days. We left Tuesday morning around 9:30 (EDT) for Cabrini College in Radnor, PA (shout out to Mary Kate and Ashley...not the ones from full house) for a show that afternoon around 4:30. We left there and drove all night to arrive in Nashville at 8:30 (CDT). That is 24 hours of continuous driving and shows....not as exciting as 24, but I would argue that it might be more intense (minus the explosions, guns, and terrorists).

The sad part of this whole trip was that I only took one picture the whole time. Recently I bought a digital camera so that I could give you a better picture of what my world is like....lot’s of good it does when I don’t use it!

On our route back to Nashville we did encounter a photo opportunity, disturbing as it may be, and since I had no other photos I felt it necessary to subject myself to the humiliation you see below....

I didn’t notice it when we took the shot, but I just realized that “wendy” has a pretty broad set of shoulders and I’m pretty sure that is a man’s chest...almost as disturbing as the man’s face under that red hair....definitely motivation to get better pictures next time.

(Oh, and if you get a chance, click here to see Rachel in a recent commercial....the commercial was filmed by having Rachel ad lib for 30 minutes. The production company then selected the parts they wanted for the commercial. Rachel had no idea what parts they used until it was on air regionally....you can’t fully appreciate the humor in this unless you see the commercial and are aware of the fact that she really has an Aunt Linda! I met her this weekend and I can’t see how anyone could say anything negative about her....gosh Rachel....)

CHECK THIS OUT: Roommates and Tour

2007-08-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, I took Dave and Ross, my roommates, on a praise and worship gig with me to Lakeside Baptist in Birmingham, AL last weekend (wow, that sentence has a lot of commas...are they all necessary?).

This is a shot of me leading, with Ross on the right playing bass and you can see part of Dave playing drums behind me.

And best of all, here’s a shot of all the youth there at the church....

We did try to play one game of dodge-ball with them after the service...we lasted maybe 45 seconds...

YOU TELL ME: Pranks and Irony

2007-08-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

YOU TELL ME: Pranks and Irony

So my last blog listed a prank that a roommate pulled in my house....something simple and a bit funny. I was curious if you had any prank stories to share....

Well oddly enough, over the weekend I was the unfortunate victim of 2 more pranks...

First, you will notice that my profile picture is different....and certainly not me...

This was the dirty work of my roommates once again...

We were on tour together this weekend and at one point I left my laptop out where they could use it. When they opened to the log-in page of MySpace, my web browser “remembered” and “auto-filled” my password ...they logged on and uploaded the picture you see below as my profile picture....

Now this is funny but benign...

However, when we all arrived home from tour, we found that we had been pranked by the girl’s ministry house (a group of girls that live together with the same goals that we have....see my last blog for more info). They had broken into our house while we were out of town. Honestly, it is more of a humiliation than an inconvenience to have a someone break into your house like this. They hid our TV remote (though not well), stole our silverware, tied our shoelaces together (in our closets), set all of our clocks an hour forward, short-sheeted our beds, and taped the spray nozzle “on” by the sink so that when I turned on the sink I got sprayed.

It is odd that this comes right after my blog about pranks, but now that you are thinking about it, I want to hear any ideas you may have about how we can get them back.

There are 5 girls, and they live in a 2-story house a half-mile from us.

Remember, the best pranks are not the ones that are cruel or inconvenient, but the ones that humiliate those being pranked....the girls are really proud of their break-in, and the best way to get them back is to show them they are not as smart as they think they are...

So there you go, you tell me....what could we or should we do?

YOU TELL ME: Roommates

2007-08-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

So the past few weeks a – well, let’s call it a “treasure” – has been floating around our house (we call our house “The Bink”....see www.fellowshipofthebink.blogspot.com).

It recently ended up in our refrigerator....and by “recently” I mean it has been there for a week. I’m not sure who’s it is, but I think his initials are D-A-V-E.

Here’s what I see every time I open the fridge....

A closer look.....

Yeah, it’s fake, but amazingly realistic.

So I am wondering, what stories do you have of friends, roommates, siblings, or even spouses doing quirky things or playing pranks?...put it in a comment below. I really want to know...

CHECK THIS OUT: Beau Goes To Camp

2007-07-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I spent Thursday through Saturday leading music for a youth camp in East Tennessee (for those who know, East Tennessee is very different from plain old Tennessee). We had a blast....white water rafting, shaving cream wars, hide and seek in the dark, and of course a campfire complete with smores.

Here’s a shot of the lake in the valley just below the cabins we slept in.

And best of all here is a shot of the whole crew that made it an awesome weekend! I love you guys!

I hope to be posting some new song clips soon.

Until then....

CHECK THIS OUT: Montana Trip

2007-07-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I was out of town on a mission and service trip to Montana. There were 11 of us in all and we spent the first 3 days roofing a house.

This is a shot of me tearing through 3 or more layers of shingles that had been put on this house over the past 100 years. Each time it was shingled they just left the old ones on there...it was a mess...

As you can tell in the previous and next photos, I was showing a bit of plumber’s crack...which became plumber’s sunburn by day 2...not fun...

(That’s Brig with me...he’s a professional mascot for the Nashville Predators and can probably bench a ka-billion pounds...)

On day 2 we finished early enough for me and a couple of the guys to get in some fishing before dark (which happens after 10 PM in the Montana summer). We crammed into a Chevy pickup and drove for an hour across the grassland to get to this spot. I felt like I was in “A River Runs Through It” with my fly rod in front of me and the Rocky Mountains on the horizon behind me. I had to wade up to my waist to get where I could catch this fish....and you will notice that my clothes are dry...I’ll leave it at that.

One Day 3 we had to break during the middle of the day because the shingles were so hot that they were melting and tearing when we walked on them. We took a trip out to Gibson Reservoir at the foot of the Rockies. We found these 30-35 feet tall cliffs and had figured we’d get in a little cliff jumping. I threw this video together to give you the highlights.

So that’s it for Montana. I’m in the hills of East Tennessee this coming week. I’m sure I’ll have more to tell when I return.

Later.

Beau

Summer Update

2007-06-25T20:36:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of reflection, revision, scheming and planning. This Spring I did a minimal amount of shows (see my previous blog “exiting the fog”) and so I am refreshed and ready for a rigorous tour schedule in the Fall. (Which I am currently booking....focusing mainly on colleges....if you have ideas or connections email me at beau@beaubristow.com).

As for the summer, I am working hard to get ready for the next step in this journey...my next album. I have been meeting with producers, writing songs, and getting geared up to have an album out in the late Fall.

As things move forward I will be getting input from all my friends and listeners as to the creative elements of the album....songs, artwork, even lyrics...this should be beginning in late July and you will be able to contribute to this online.

July will also bring about something else online that you might be interested in...I’m pumped, but I can’t give you details until it is all finalized...sorry, I know this is nebulous, but you will get an email about it soon if you are on my mailing list (go to www.beaubristow.com to join).

Now that you have on update on me, I thought you might also enjoy this MP3. I recorded this last fall for the fun of it. I had a friend who was recording things as a project for college. We threw this together and I posted a clip of it when we were working on it, but only a few have had the final copy in its entirety.

It isn’t really where I will be going with my next album (as for production), but it might be fun to listen to. You can download it at www.beaubristow.com/foryou.

Catch you soon!

Response To A Friend...

2007-06-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

The following paragraph is quoted in its entirety from the blog post “Wondering and Wandering.”

Sitting in the house of my Grandparents wondering if this is what they wanted. Is this what their childhood dreams were? Wanting to be cooking vegetable soup, taking naps, enjoying the sit down mower, and coming up on their 58th annerversary. I love them with out an inch of doubt but do they love their lives without their grandchildren or just love their lives because they have grandchildren to make them forget. I know my parents are unhappy... are my grandparents? College - My Uncles were the first in their family to go to college just like my Dad. My Mamma and Papa wouldv'e loved to go to college but never had the oppurtunity. If they couldve done it instead of getting married would they? Wandering around this house filled with memories and questioning the faces in all of the pictures. Are you happy? Are you more than satisfied? I don't think I will ever get those answers if I'm asking these questions. I love my family but what If I want more than marrige and kids? I don't want to get married. I don't think theres anyone whos out there and i dont want to wait if there is. What if I want life? Does someone have the answers my grandparents refuse to give.

-posted by a friend on 5/31/07

I came across this blog post today and it struck me so deeply that I dropped all that I was doing and focused all my attention on responding to the words written above which I think will resonate with almost anyone (based on the fact that they resonate so strongly with me). I am deeply thankful for the sobering candidness of such a blog post. Now here are my thoughts:

To enjoy life is part of what it is to be human. It is how God created us. Before the fall we enjoyed God, we enjoyed each other, we enjoyed ourselves, we enjoyed the world around us (or more accurately, Adam and Eve did).

[Marriage, since you brought it up several times, existed BEFORE the fall! This is key to understanding marriage. It was there in the beginning...sex, love, children...all of it...and God said it was good.]

Now, with that in mind, a person must face the reality that the description of the world in Genesis 1 and 2 is vastly different than what we experience today. We live a life broken by the effects of the fall (Gen 3). This means that though there are still good things in life to be enjoyed, they all fall short of what they once were and what we rightly wish them to be. We are broken, the world is broken, and the result is suffering. Yes there are times of joy and happiness, but suffering exists alongside even the greatest joys of life (childbirth is a prime example). Everything decays. Every relationship suffers: with God, with others, and even within ourselves. This is reality. This is hard.

All people acknowledge the pain, the suffering, the brokenness, if not verbally, at least in the way we live life. We run after things to numb the pain or we chase something with the expectation that it will fix all of our problems. People go to Dr. Phil because deep down we all experience that something is broken.

Often these "fixes" we seek are truly good things. Family, marriage, friendships, art, hobbies, work... None of these things are bad in themselves. The problem is that they will not bring salvation from our brokenness! (This is why you want more than just marriage and kids, soup and a “sit-down mower.”) Only the finished work of Christ on the cross will do this.

Still, even for those who have trusted Christ, a present happiness completely free of suffering is not an option...but this is not the eternal state of things. For those who put their hope in Christ to take away their true moral guilt before God and restore them to what they were created to be, for those people, there is hope. It is the believer in Christ who can honestly and with good reason say, "this is horrible...but it will not always be so." This is because redemption is not complete. We are not fully restored and in our new bodies...we groan for them, and know that our life is hidden in Christ (Col 3:3) and that what we will be has not yet been made known (1 John 3:2), but it will be when He returns. This is reality.

So how do we live in our present circumstances?

First of all it is crucial to keep in mind that as humans, we are created for a relationship with God himself, and that this is more about His glory and pleasure than ours. Thus whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). This is what we were created for and therefore it is only in this context that we are able to truly enjoy ourselves, to enjoy each other, to enjoy God, and to enjoy the world He has created...ultimately to be truly human.

Then, in light of all this, don’t make your decisions solely on the criteria of whether or not something will make you happier. This will in no way bring “life” as you referred to it in opposition to marriage. Furthermore, God has made it clear that there are times when it is good or even necessary to deny ourselves valid sources of happiness for the sake something more important or eternal (see Phil. 1:29, 2:4, Mark 8:35; and in regards to marriage Matt 19:12 and 1 Cor. 7). Keep an eternal perspective and actively remind yourself of the reality that our enjoyment of anything will be broken to the extent that we and the world are broken until Christ returns and restores creation to what it was in the beginning...."good."

Finally, don’t make the opposite mistake that many “religious” people make. Do not AVOID those things that you enjoy! (1 Tim. 4:1-4) Just realize that our basis for enjoying them is not found in the things themselves but in God's original design for us and for those things. Get married if the right person is there and you wish to do so! Stay single if you wish! Go to college; go to Africa; go and enjoy life and know that this glorifies God who created you!

As for your grandparents (since their lives were the examples and the basis for the questions you brought up in your blog), they are right to enjoy their marriage, but they would not have been wrong to not marry. They are also right to enjoy their grandchildren, their soup, naps, mower, and other good things. Furthermore they are right to mourn over the pain in life, the loss of a child, the hardships of aging, and many of their unfulfilled hopes or dreams. It is also right to acknowledge their personal responsibility in every decision. To deny them any of this is to deny the truth and to deny their humanity. To deny it for your self is to do no less.

Exiting The Fog

2007-05-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

2007.05.02 Exiting the Fog

"...how indecisive I have been. I am almost paralyzed with fear. I am so confused...I need something beyond me in order to make this decision. My emotions and inclinations change too much to be dependable and logic is difficult in this case...there is insufficient data...The question is ‘what is God’s will? What has He called and equipped me to do?’...I have been praying generally and expecting emotions or vision (reason) to tell me and they haven’t!...here is the test that occurred to me...I will pray for this as a means of clarity.

If I sell 40 CDs on tour with Rachel from the time we leave my driveway till the time we get back in my driveway from NY then I will know that I should continue (as an artist). If I sell none, not a single CD, then I will know it is not for me to be in music at all. If I sell exactly 12 CDs then I will stop being an artist and look into publishing (songwriting).

Lord, if this is wrong and displeases You then please impress that upon my heart...Otherwise, please orchestrate my sales according to Your sovereignty and the request for clarity [just mentioned]...speak clearly in this to me so that I will know what to do and how to proceed from here."

-My Journal, 6:52 PM, March 25, 2007

Sometimes what we wish of God is not that He would part the vast expanse of the Red Sea or the thundering current of the Jordan, but only that He would carve a line of sight through the almost intangible yet relentless and borderline unbearable fog that from time to time sweeps into the valleys of our life and leaves us stranded in the fear that any direction we tread may in fact leave us more lost and distant from the once clear destination that the fog has now hidden from us.

I have been in this fog for months. It was last October when I hit bottom and the fog poured in. Burned out from a year and a half of working part time while doing 150 shows, booking, driving 60,000 miles, sacrificing recreation, sleep and relationships, and stressing over how meager my income was and what implications this had for the future, I was exhausted, demoralized, and quite frankly confused. For a few months I had not been at peace that I was spending my life correctly. There was no assurance as there had once been that I was on a path that was in line with who God has made me to be and what He has created me to do.

I hated what I was doing and was so tired and frustrated that over the course of one sleepless night last October I gave it up. Just like that, at about 5 in the morning I said ‘no more’ and fell asleep on the couch.

Of course over the next few days I realized that to end so abruptly would be hasty and unwise. It would have been a decision made in a state of emotional turmoil and exhaustion, and wisdom demanded that I not burn any bridges but that I proceed slowly and in prayer. Some of my greatest advice in this time was “when in the fog, go slow.” I was in the fog, so that is exactly what I did.

I still toured to the extent that I didn’t abandon my work as an artist, but to such a small extent that I was not stressed or overextended with it. In my newly available time I looked into new jobs and even sold a guitar to pay for a graduate class last January with the thought that I might pursue more school. I prayed consistently, fasted, and diligently weighed my desires, my strengths, my weaknesses, my past, my dreams, and my visions hoping to find a common thread that would direct me in what I should do.

By March I had learned a lot about myself, but still had no idea what direction my next steps should be in. I was more aware of my situation, but the situation remained that I was in the fog.

On April 12, I was to leave for a tour with my friend Rachel Carrozziere, a tour that she had booked and that I still didn’t know any details about other than what day we left and that she had everything lined up. I had only one final show booked after this tour, and unless I received guidance that I was to continue my artist career I had no intentions of booking any more.

There are so many things that I could share about the time between October and March, so many struggles that were separate from the question of my artist career yet intricately linked to it in many ways. Some were resolved, some remain, but in both cases I learned two things: patience and trust, and I was beginning to put these into action in a way that I never had. I still wrestled with anxiety and fear, but was more and more able to trust the God of my Lord Jesus Christ to work things for His glory and bring good from all things, trusting His word as it had proven true in recent experience. It was in this context that I prayed that prayer on March 25th. It was a bold prayer, but one I felt led to pray and one prayed with a willingness to wait if He did not grant clarity as I asked. I was making my request known but still trusting God and yielding to His will above my own. I prayed this prayer daily for the days leading up to the tour.

Then on Monday April 16, after I got back from my weekend tour with Rachel, I sat down and wrote this in my journal: “The tally sheet reads 40.” It was almost surreal. Forty CDs exactly. God never owes us such clarity, but glory to God when He gives it.

It’s still only a narrow slice through the haze, but it’s an absolute, and so I’m exiting the fog.

Breaking The Silence

2007-02-10T18:13:00.001-08:00

check.

Tuesday Update 9.26.06

2006-09-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Okay Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here is the deal, I am in a bit of a bind this week and am going to make this snappy...

There is only one thing that you need to know. We finished the mix of "Don't Get Too Close To Me" last week and will be mailing a link to download the song for free to all of my Street Team members this Sunday, October 1st. You can hear a clip at http://www.beaubristow.com/DGTC%20Clip.mp3!

Also, if you decide you want to be on the Street Team (which helps me with show promotion and a few other things) then go to http://www.beaubristow.com/streetteam to sign up!

Okay, I'll have a lot to update you on next week...until then "my heart is wrapped in plaster"...

~BB

Tuesday Update 9.26.06

2006-09-26T22:27:00.002-07:00

Tuesday Update 9.26.06

2006-09-26T22:27:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Update 9.26.06

2006-09-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 09.12.06 (6 shows in 3 days, gas prices, silly Don Gato)

2006-09-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yes! That’s right. I still have over 5 hours to get this done as a legitimate Tuesday update.

Where to begin?....

Okay, last weekend had me in Peoria, IL then St. Louis then Memphis. I must say that the Bradley University show rocked! Thanks to everyone who dropped in to listen. And to Ashley, Mike, Brian, and the rest of the guys that hung out afterwards: you are a blast. I’m already looking forward to next time!

In Memphis I walked in right before the show (after a brief pre-show nap in my car) and to my surprise there was on of my former guitar students! Daniel had a soccer tournament all weekend and so he was already in Memphis and decided to drop into the show...thank Daniel!

(Random fact: I am currently listening to Bruce Springsteen.)

Sunday I was in the studio all day finishing up “Don’t Get Too Close To Me.” It will be released to my street team in the next 2 weeks and I’ll be sure to post a short clip of it in my blog next week.

As for this week, I will be leaving Thursday for 5 shows in 3 days! Intense! I am rehearsing with the trio tomorrow because they will be with me in Georgetown, KY this Saturday.

Things to be looking for:

If you are in the Dayton area then listen for me live on air at WUDR 99.5FM (University Of Dayton) at 3:00 this Thursday! (That technically makes 6 shows his weekend, but who’s counting?)
If you are a student at the University of Miami in Oxford, OH then there may be an interview in the school paper this week. (It’s still in the works)
If you are in Lexington, KY at UK then you will definitely want to check out an interview in the Kentucky Kernel this Friday! Special thanks to Whitney for this!
And once again, you can catch the Beau Bristow Trio at the Festival of the Horse in downtown Georgetown, KY at 11:00 AM Saturday.

Now for the best part of last weekend: I got gas for $1.99/ gallon in the middle of nowhere Missouri! I had to drive a mile from the interstate and they only accepted cash, but it was awesome!

So, in case you are wondering about Don Gato....well I have an update. In the words of his owner (my manager Matt):

“Apparently Don Gato likes water. He chose to jump into an empty bathtub, after which we turned on the water and began to fill up the tub, and he just stood there until he was walking around in neck deep water (and enjoying it). So there you go… crazy cat.”

So there you go! Until next week....

Beau

Tuesday Update 09.12.06 (on The Run)

2006-09-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 09.12.06

Okay, like I said last week: “who am I kidding...this is a Wednesday update...it always has been...”

I am going to be brief this time because I am in a time crunch. I have been working hard all day recording parts for a couple of songs I am trying to finish up and give to my street team as a way to say thanks for all the help. I still have a full day of recording tomorrow and I only slept 3 hours last night...tonight I may get 5 hours if I can get this done in the next 30 minutes.

That being said, here is a short clip from one of the songs...you may recognize it because it is off of Coffee Not Included, but this version has all of 7 guitar tracks plus bass and drums...no vocals yet and it is a rough mix but it should give you an idea of what is coming. (Click here to listen!)

And if you aren’t on the street team, you can join by going to my website (www.beaubristow.com) and then clicking on the interact tab. There is more information there and you can direct any questions to beau@beaubristow.com or streetteam@beaubristow.com.

I played in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this past weekend and I have a couple of photos that I will leave you with as I say goodnight:

Until next week.....

Beau

Tuesday Update 09.05.06...yeah right...

2006-09-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 09.05.06

Okay, who am I kidding...this is a Wednesday update...it always has been...

Anyway, last week was a blur. I was in West Lafayette on Thursday night and Bloomington on Friday. Saturday found me in Terre Haute and tonight I played in Nashville.

The show tonight was called “chick singer’s night.” Of course you are wondering what in the world I was doing playing for that. FYI, I was the “are you man enough” segment.

Currently I am sitting here eating a salad and listening to Death Cab for Cutie. I have so much work piled up that I just need to get some sleep so I can tackle it all tomorrow.

That being said, I am gonna let you go (as if this is a phone conversation....and really, who does that fool?....”let you go?”...more like: “I’ve found something more entertaining than you so I am gonna go do that and assume that you are too dull to notice that I don’t want to talk to you anymore”....it’s kinda like the whole “it’s not you, it’s me” thing...really...it’s you?...well if it’s you then why are you breaking up with me!...shouldn’t you be breaking up with yourself or something....and what about the whole “let’s just be friends” business...what that really means is: “once I downgrade you to friend status I can date someone else without it being cheating”....what the crap?!!!.....by the way, if you have recently gotten any of these responses from anyone click here)

Until next Tuesday...or Wednesday...

Beau

P.S. Adding off-brand Cheetos may defeat the point of a salad, but they sure are a great salad topping...just so you know...

Tuesday Update 08.29.06 (On Wednesday for good reason, but poor discretion...)

2006-08-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 08.29.06 (On Wednesday for good reason, but poor discretion...)

Yeah, I know....today is Wednesday....not Tuesday....but I have good reason...I’ll tell you at the end.

Now, for the week in review:

Last Wednesday was the second of two band rehearsals as I prepared to take the Beau Bristow Trio on its maiden voyage.

Thursday was it’s christening as we set sail for Georgetown. The show was a lot of fun and my friends in the audience gave an intimate touch to a rocking set.

Friday we played an outdoor festival in Bardstown, KY. I never know what to expect going into these situations. It’s like pulling down that trap door/ladder thing that goes to your attic, you know, the one that knocked Chevy Chase out in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You never know what is going to jump out at you, but you are braced for the ladder, an anvil, 3 rats, a raven, a spider riding a snake, and maybe a vampire or two.

Well in this case, we were in a park that had a playground, a pavilion, and a grassy hill around the front of the pavilion...not exactly a stage, lights, and screaming fans.

We set up as. one by one. people began to roll in with their lawn chairs. By the time we were ready to go we were surrounded by a hill of 100+ men and women. Now my typical audience is high school and college students....add 40 years to that demographic and you will get an idea for what the audience was like in Bardstown. Honestly, I was a little nervous. Could I connect? This was something unfamiliar, out of my element. I took a deep breath, braced myself and began....

Long story short, we played two 45 minute sets and had a much better than expected response...however, they did say the drums were too loud, which makes Lee the first drummer ever to overpower an outdoor audience without even going through the audio rig...I had him turned completely off! Way to go Lee...

Lee Holland (drums) and Caleb Mundy (bass) added more than I can tell you about here, and so I am happy to tell you that we are now booked for a huge festival in Georgetown, KY on 9/23! Be looking for details soon!

Now, fast forward to Monday night: Curb Café at Belmont University in Nashville. I get through maybe two songs in my set and am confronted with something that I still can’t get out of my head. I have been waiting on the photo so I can share the horror with you in this blog, but I didn’t get it until today.... that is why I am a day late... brace yourself...

(The picture is edited and the names are withheld to protect the indecent.)

Happy Wednesday!

Beau

Tuesday Update 08.22.06 (Da Burns, Salsa, “Don Gato”)

2006-08-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 08.22.06 (Da Burns, Salsa, “Don Gato”)

Okay, it’s currently 11:30 PM and once again this Tuesday blog is going to be more of a Wednesday blurb....

The fact is that I have been so busy booking and getting things ready for upcoming shows that I just don’t have time to blog like I want. Speaking of upcoming shows, I am taking the Beau Bristow Trio for a test drive this weekend in Georgetown and Bardstown, Kentucky. This will be the first time I have played with a backing band in over 2 years! I am excited to have the talents of Lee Holland (drums) and Caleb Mundy (bass) behind me. We had one rehearsal yesterday and we will go for one more tomorrow....only 2 rehearsals....can we pull it off? Come find out if you are close by!

At this point I feel I should introduce you to my long-time friend and manager Matt Burns. We were college roommates for 3 years and almost 18 months after college. Over that time he picked up nicknames such as Burns, Mad Matt, Coach, and my favorite ‘da Burns. (Bonus points to anyone who can tell me where the last one came from...hint: “da bears”...)

Someday I’ll have to tell you about how we went backpacking and it snowed on us and it was so cold that the water splashing against the banks of Kentucky Lake froze to my pants instantly, or the time we built a wall of cinder blocks in front of our neighbors’ door (those girls never appreciated the genius behind that prank), or the time we pulled up 50 campaign signs and stuck them in the yard of our on-campus housing (and the fact that he did this in a Karate suite), or the semester he stayed in our on-campus housing after he graduated (one semester before me) because residence life never put someone new in his room (he had to move all of his things out 3 different times because of inspections or other things that would have blown his cover...still not sure how pulled it off).

I could tell you about the time we went to his parent’s house in Minnesota for thanksgiving and we somehow ended up in Indiana, a whole hour off course! I could then go on to tell you how we took back roads through a blizzard to get back on course in Illinois. I could tell you about the time I duct-taped his cell phone to the wall in our living room, and how hard I laughed when I was awakened from my sleep by the vibrations it sent through the wall and up to my bedroom as he called his phone to find it (and the ensuing phone call to me to say “I hate you,” all in good humor or course).

I could tell you about the time I shot him in the neck, point-blank, with a mini-marshmallow out of a 10 foot piece of ½ “ PVC pipe, and then how he poured all of 2 quarts of water in my bed in retaliation (it was an accident, I swear....). I’ll never forget his reaction (think Arnold Schwarzenegger) when our water pipe burst one winter and 5 campus security officers and 2 maintenance men stood there looking at the water pouring from our ceiling while one poor guy ran round like crazy to shut the water off. And honestly Burns, if you are reading this, I’m still not sure how you got the salsa on the ceiling....

Having said all of this, our meetings as artist and manager are surely not the norm. Just to give you an idea, we generally meet and start off on course to get a lot done, but by the end we are tired and delirious. For instance, if you hade been there at our meeting tonight you would have heard:

“Before we commit blasphemy, let’s turn off wireless.”

“Let the chips fall where they may...and we’re hoping for salsa.”

“Goodwill doesn’t sell in bulk!...goodwill sells in dirty, skanky worn for 30 years...”

What does any of this have to do with any semblance of a professional career? Well, I guess you would have had to be there.

That being said, be sure to add Matt (http://www.myspace.com/flintentertainment) as your friend (and make certain you read his “sounds like” section on his profile....priceless).

I know this has been a little bit of a tangent, but I really wanted to share a little about the friends that help keep this thing going.

Before I wrap this up, if you are starting school soon, good luck! I hope your semester goes well and that I end up in your city soon!

Now, I saved the best for last:

It has come to my attention that I need a mascot, and in fact, Burns and his wife Stephanie have a new kitten. His name is Linus, which I like a lot, but in a startling coincidence it was recommended that I get a mascot and name it “Don Gato.” Now I have been told that “gato” is Spanish for “cat,” so it seems only appropriate that I now introduce you to the new member of the Beau Bristow team: Don Gato!

Have a great week!

Beau

Tuesday Update 08.15.06 (laughing camels, crabs, Seinfeld lives...)

2006-08-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, it is currently 11:40 PM, and I’m in a mad rush to get this up before Wednesday gets here in 20 minutes.....here goes...

The last week is hard to recall....I have been around the world it seems. I definitely put 2000 miles on the Saturn since last Tuesday, so there is much to tell, but I’ll cut to the chase...

Saturday was the highlight of the last week. I stayed with my friend Jonah Sage (see my top 8 on MySpace) in Florida and we got up early Saturday to go catch Scallops and crabs in the bay. It was a 90-minute drive and Jonah’s roommate Matt was driving. About an hour into our trip someone just happened to ask, “so what does a scallop look like?”

As you might have guessed, the response from everyone was “I don’t know, I thought you knew!”

It was funny asking the locals what in the world we were doing, seeing that we had just driven 90 minutes as if we had a clue. They were obviously amused, but not nearly as amused as I was at the man and wife in the bait and tackle store.

I must have had more water than I thought on the drive to the bay because when we got there I had to go. Well this old skinny guy beats me to the restroom and is in there forever. While I am standing around waiting, I hear a laughing camel...at least that is what I thought it was. I turn around and it turns out to be this old lady hacking on something, not choking or anything serious, just hacking...I tried to ignore it but dang it was hilarious...and awkward. She was blasting 90 decibels barely 3 feet behind me and seemed oblivious to the fact that other people were there in the store to hear her. I finally turned around and she asks me, “is my husband still in there?”

I nodded and tried to pull myself together. “Yep,” I muttered.

She made some strange comment that I can’t recall and then continued hacking. I assume that this is either a hobby or a way to let her husband know that he had better finish his business because she is tired of waiting...Makes you married guys tremble doesn’t it?

Anyway, I have gotten in the habit of striking up conversations with whatever interesting personalities I encounter on the road so I approach the hacking lady and ask if she is “from around here?”

She says “yeah,” but that she was from Tennessee before she got married. She proceeds to tell me that they have bee married for 13 years. I am guessing by their appearance that they were married around the age of 45...

She tells me a little more and then I hear the door open and her husband walks out of the restroom. This puts me standing directly between them as she asks him, “are you alright?” I begin to drift towards the bathroom in an effort to relieve my bladder and avoid wherever their conversation will go next.

As I pass this man in a narrow section between stands of overpriced “technical” fishing clothes, he leans in toward me in an eerie way and stutters once before he continues...

“I--If there’s anything left in there, scoop it out!” he exclaims, still leaning in toward me, grinning, and making a spastic scooping gesture with his hand.

What the crap! How do you reply to something like that!!!

I can’t really remember, but I think I mustered up a sheepish “okay.” I could feel his wife’s disapproval at his comment even as I walked away from them. As soon as the bathroom door closed I laughed...between her hacking and his comments I felt violated twice, and yet I was smiling just to know that it had been a Seinfeld moment...one of those brief and meaningless occurrences that are commonplace in situational comedies, but that are golden when you actually live one and survive....

The rest of the day must have been part of the same episode. We hunted scallops for almost 2 hours without finding even one. We kept asking the locals and they held back smiles as they told us what to look for and where we should be looking. Our pride as hunter-gatherers was quickly dying...

Finally, we drove to a nearby bridge over a small inlet from the gulf. The beaches were beautiful and the surf was pretty reasonable. We had a crab trap and were told that we could catch crabs there. The trap only caught 3 crabs (probably due to the fact that we failed to lock the door on the trap shut...morons!), but thanks to a homeless man that let us borrow his dip net, we caught 27 total crabs in the next two hours. It must have been hilarious watching the three of us out on the sand flat with one net. We would sweep the flat as a team, almost always in waist deep water, and would corner any crab we came across until one of us with the net could get there. (We aslo jumped up a huge sting-ray!)

By the end of the day we were exhausted, and Matt had a sunburn in the middle of his back where he tried to put on his own sunscreen and failed. Nevertheless we had a bucket full of crabs...and no clue how to prepare or cook them.

It made no difference to me. I never got to taste them because I had to shower and drive to Mobile, AL for a show as soon as we got in. I drove to my parent’s house in Birmingham right after the show was over and made it in right at 7:00 AM.

I was exhausted. I still am. So I am going to bed.

It looks like it is now officially Wednesday...12:30 AM...so it’s not a “Tuesday” update...what else is new...

Beau

Tuesday Update 08.08.06 (wow this is random...)

2006-08-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHH! It’s Wednesday! (wait that’s how I started my last TUESDAY update....this is getting sad)

Okay, I confess. I tend to overlook things like “Tuesday Updates,” birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, my sleep needs, doctor appointments, basically anything that is fixed to occur in the space-time continuum.

It is really strange. Scary even. Since I have been touring consistently, I don’t have a routine and therefore I have no idea when one week ends and another begins. Ask me what day it is, and I will be doing well to tell you what month it is.

That being said, please forgive me if my Tuesday is your Wednesday. I mean really, if we all agreed that today is Tuesday, would it not be Tuesday?,,,or would it? Hmmm....this could be a really fun conversation....

Anyway, I am about to leave for FL again. The sun is out, my audiobook is ready to go, and no I’m not showering today because I’ll be the only one around me for the next 8 hours. (why am I telling you this?)

Here’s a slightly funny story for you: Picture Santa Clause. White beard. Rosy cheeks. Round belly. Now feed him steroids and put him on a Harley. Now imagine him in the gym with a lifting belt, boots, and a sleeveless shirt. Now imagine that he is lifting weights and asks this scrawny, white, red-haired musician (okay, that would be me) when I will be finished using the attachment I am using on the cable pull-down machine. Next, picture me getting finished with the attachment and in an act of kindness taking it to him on the other side of the gym and then without even thinking saying “merry Christmas.” Now imagine angry Santa... True story. Happened yesterday (Tuesday for me, Monday for you).

Wow, this was a pretty random update. I must be losing my blitzflikin mind.

Tune in next week.

Beauxses

P.S. I have two full band shows later this month! 8/24 and 8/25! Spread the word. This is a rare event.

Tuesday Update 08.01.06 (Lulu's, High School English, going platinum)

2006-08-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 08.01.06

AHHHHHH! It’s Wednesday! Yeah I know I’m a day late, but I’m still calling this a Tuesday update...and for good reason.

Yesterday was wild. I slept 4 hours Monday night, drove 7 and ½ hours from Nashville, TN to Gulf Shores, AL on Tuesday and then played for 4 hours at this amazing bar/grill/marina called Lulu’s. It was intense. I did get a 20-minute nap on the office floor there at the marina before the show, so with a little coffee I had all I needed to get through the show. In fact it was awesome!

I sold 47 CDs! I was blown away. The highlight was looking up during my 3rd song and seeing my high school English teacher in the audience! How crazy! She was on vacation and dropped in to see me. I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I saw her!

At the end of the show a little girl came up to me and said she wanted to buy a CD on one condition: that I play “Sweet Home Alabama.” What could I say! Most people had already cleared out and things were closing down so there I am standing at a table and playing “Sweet Home Alabama” unplugged for a few grateful Crimson Tide fans. Good times, good times.

Last weekend was a great weekend as well. I played in Louisville, Springboro (OH), and Lexington. When I play in Lexington I stay with friends in Wilmore, KY. It has become like a home away from home. All of my friends there wrote notes welcoming me “home” and put them on the door to the room where I sleep. We all went canoeing, hiking, and swimming on Saturday before my show in Lexington. It was a blast! I did get a little sunburn...it’s starting to peel...my epidermis is just falling off...it’s a bit disconcerting...and gross...

On a more somber note, we (my manager and I) have been trying to get into NACA (National Association of College Activities) showcases. We got word Monday that we were once again rejected. Not fun to swallow. We were already rejected for one, but we were still listed as first alternate for that one, which was at least re-assuring. The most recent one didn’t even give us that much. Oh well, keep moving Beau!

So that is a glimpse into my life for the past week. I am sitting in a coffeehouse in Mobile writing this and getting some much-needed work done. Thanks so much to everyone who has shown me hospitality in the past week. I have stayed with great friends and I appreciate all of you greatly!

On the move,

Beau

Tuesday Update 07.25.06 (Superman, da blues, mad cow)

2006-07-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 07.25.06

Okay, technically it is 1:20 AM on Wednesday! Thanks Whitney for pointing out that I missed my blog for Tuesday!

Honestly, I’ve been a little out of it. I just got in from seeing Superman Returns with my sister...there was only on other person in the theatre besides us...it was a little eerie.

My movie thoughts:
1. Superman needed to be a little more masculine. I mean really, with oversized blue eyes he looked more like a little lost puppy from a cartoon than a superhero...go back and check out the comic books...there’s your real superman. (My sister is looking over my shoulder and disagreeing...go write your own blog!)
2. You can’t use actors from one superhero movie in another superhero movie! Lois Lane’s fiancé was clearly the character of Cyclops in all 3 X-men movies...I kept waiting for him to zap something...there was this tension for the whole movie between him and superman over Lois and I was truly confused...come on Cyclops! Jane Grey is way cooler than Lois Lane...(if you have no idea what I am talking about then you need to invest more of your life reading anmimated magazines where the characters talk in little bubbles)
3. We got to the theatre just in time to see the preview for a new animated movie about a partying cow or something to that effect...I think it was called Barnyard...Anyway, it had a clip of this cow jumping off a diving board into a lake and yelling “man-a-bunga!” Honestly I don’t know whether to find this clever or disturbing, but anything that ridiculous needs my money more than I do so I vow to buy a ticket for this movie on its opening weekend even though I have no intention of actually watching it.
4. I just realized that I have been negative in the previous 3 points, so I feel the need to be positive: I am positive that there will be a sequel to Superman Returns....I’ll be watching for Superman Returns Again in 2008.

Moving on from the movies, I want to let everyone know that I was in the studio Saturday and laid down 3 songs which will be released first to my street team (for free!) and eventually made available for the rest of the world. They sound great and I am really excited! Two of the songs are new, and one doesn’t even have completed lyrics! You can get on my street team at www.beaubristow.com if you want to get in on this. The first track will be out by September!

Another cool thing from the past week was my jam session in a Petro in Kentucky last Monday. I was coming home from Louisville and I pulled into the truck stop to get a coffee. While I was in line I noticed an older black man playing one of the cheap acoutic guitars for sale at the front of the store. He was laying down a couple of blues licks and something possessed me to grab one of the guitars and give him some chords. All he said was “alright man” and we were off. We traded some good blues in A for about 10 minutes before management told us to buy the guitars or quit. It was a blast. I haven’t had that much fun playing in....well, 48 hours since the recording session on Saturday, but it was still so much fun to play just for no reason...even for an audience of 2 truckers and one angry manager...
I could tell you more: about the big rig that had a blow-out right in front of me or how I was almost run over by a wild taxi driver...I could talk a lot, but I need my sleep so I am off to bed.

Sorry for my tardiness on this one...it won’t happen again...much...

Watching the ground rush to meet me,

Beau

Tuesday Update 07.18.06

2006-07-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 07.18.06

Okay, coming at you again with a little update...

Since last Tuesday I have had 2 more shows and then a wedding this past weekend (congrats Stuart and Jen!), so I really haven’t even been home until yesterday! I actually managed to add another 1,000 miles to the “Woman Repeller” (my Saturn) last week!
The good new is that I am here until the 27th and I plan on getting a lot done between now and then...we’ll see how that goes...

Today I have been catching up on random stuff and booking things for the fall....yadda, yadda. who cares....

The big thing my heart is in as of now is this new song I’ve been working on! I guess the chorus was from last spring...it came to me in the car on my way back from a show in Alabama. It has been in my head ever since and I finally got to sit down and throw some chords down for the verse when I was in Springfield, MO the week before last. It was quite an accident really.

I was just sitting in this park and enjoying playing my guitar with no real purpose (something I rarely get to do!) and BAM! There was this groove, and then these chords. I found a new shape for an Fadd9 (which I cannot believe I have overlooked!) and suddenly I was really enjoying the shade and the breeze which I had not even noticed until then. As I was jamming I started to feel a melody and began “skat” singing over the chords. I suddenly realized that this transitioned quite well into the Chorus I had been singing for weeks now. It was even in the right key!

I made a few mental notes and threw down a rough recording on my voice recorder before I went to my show that evening. I didn’t even get to look at the song again until last Saturday.

I was sitting in my room and had a few extra minutes before I had to leave for the wedding rehearsal Chattanooga (or at least I thought I had extra minutes, more on that later). I picked up my guitar and started toying with a few lyrical ideas. I had some idea of what I wanted to say because the song is about a real situation in my life...I just had to get it into words.

After 30 minutes I had 80% of a verse completed and I was stoked about it! I had it running through my mind all weekend and all I could think about was when I would get to finish it.

I finally got to wrestle with it more today.... and I do mean wrestle. My approach to songwriting is content driven...I know what I want to say, and I have to rise to a new level as a wordsmith to say it. Quite often I fall short in poetry with what I could easily express in prose. (Anyone who has ever written a poem knows what I mean.) I’ll have to take one of my songs in the future and pick it apart in a blog for you, explaining the personal process I went through and the various lines that were edited. It will be fun to share and re-live the writing process. Feel free to suggest a song for this!

Anyway, click here to listen to a quick clip of the first verse. I recorded it on my laptop mic, so it is rough, but will give you a sneak peak at an upcoming song!

Now, as for my trip to Chattanooga for the wedding rehearsal, I have made the trek a dozen times in the past year and I always remember that Nashville is on Central and Chattanooga is on Eastern time. I even remembered this time, but did the math wrong...idiot! So I am on the road and look at my clock thinking I have plenty of time, then I suddenly realize that I have 90 minutes to make a 2 hour drive just to be there at the start of the wedding rehearsal!!! Long story short, I made it right on time...the poor Saturn...

Now, I must share something that has had me smiling since I saw it. One of my former guitar students took this picture...we’ll call him “Blondie” to protect his identity (he's gonna kill me for that)...does that stance look familiar? Hmm...something about that electric guitar, red wall, and head to the side that just looks like I’ve seen it somewhere before...

(FYI, it is a myspace joke...go to www.myspace.com/beaubristow!)

Okay, that’s it for tonight. If you have any pictures with me from a show (or any other occasion for that matter) please send them to beau@beaubristow.com!

Thanks for reading!

Beau

Tuesday Update 07.04.06

2006-07-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 07.04.06

2500 miles
13 days
12 shows

I finally made it back to Nashville last night around 2 AM. For those of you who don’t know, let me enlighten you...

I travel in a 1999 Saturn SW2. I bought it last summer and have put 40K miles on it in a year (fyi, the average is 15K a year). I load 3 speakers, a 6 space rack, my ridiculous pedalboard, a bag of cables, a toolbox of strings/guitar things, 2 boxes of CDs, a tip jar, posters, mailing lists/clipboards, a mic stand, 2 guitar stands, 2 speaker stands, a bag of clothes, a bag of shoes/towel/toiletries, a bag of assorted gym/running gear, 2 guitars, a laptop, a backpack, a soft-shell cooler of non-perishable foods, and a ice-chest that is my refridgerator for the tour.

Here’s a typical day:

I arise at the residence of some kind soul who has allowed me to borrow the shelter of their roof for the previos night, I load my bags and guitars in the car (never leave them in there overnight), and jet out. I eat cereal (bran flakes) out of a cup with milk (1% or 2%) that has been kept in my cooler overnight. This is breakfast as I drive to whatever YMCA happens to be between me and my next show (I look this YMCA up online the night before).

After a good workout I shower in the community showers with all the old men...don’t dwell on that...then I down a protein shake (a non-perishable source of protien is a must for a balanced tour diet) and look for a Panera Bread where I can grab lunch and a little WI-FI to locate my next show and get some work done. After a couple of hours in Panera I am usually getting odd looks and decide to hit the road.

I average between 2 and 4 hours of driving a day, and so after my morning schedule I am generally to the venue just in time to set up 2 hours before a show. I drag all of my gear in and am generally checked and ready to go in less than 45 minutes.

I grab dinner (from the venue or from my car most often) and try to chill a bit before I play. Then comes show time.

After the show, I am generally fortunate enough to find a good conversation with someone who was there for my set (this is the high point of the day...if the show goes well).

I then tear down and load out and in most cases have been blessed with a friend who has a couch or spare bed (hallalujah) that I can crash on. If they have Internet, I get online and prep for the next day and it all begins again...

Someday I’ll have to share more about the contents of my cooler...it’s like a 2 week camping trip...and I have grown to not care what people think when I am making a sandwich on the roof of my car in the Walmart parking lot...in fact I’ve grown to not care about a lot of things...underwear for one....but that’s another thing for another day....

Honestly this last tour was the roughest I’ve had. Low summer attendance and almost 2 weeks of solitude can weigh heavy on even a loner such as myself. Thanks so much to all of my friends on the road and at home that keep me going...I wish I could bring you a piece of the highlights of my trip...the cool summer breeze that bathed me as I played a late outdoor show in Louisville, July fourth with friends in Dayton, morning quiet time in a lonely Indiana cornfield, a tear in Illionois, Ted Drewes historic and famous frozen custard (with fresh peaches) right along Route 66 in St. Louis, being startled from a prayer as a red fox chased a rabbit through an old cemetery on the edge of a hayfield in Missouri, the shooting star over Oklahoma, the nectarine sunrise after driving all night into Little Rock, the full moon on my final ride back into Nashville...

There are ups and there are downs...I’m sure you’ll find them all in a future song.

Until then,

Beau

Tuesday Update 7/4/06

2006-07-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Update 07.04.06

(Since I have been so inconsistent in my Journal/Blog I am as of today giving you an update every Tuesday).

I hope that the 4th is treating you well. As for me, I am relaxing in the Dayton area of Ohio with friends as I take a brief break from my current tour. I have played 7 shows in 6 days and so the respite is well received. So far I have hit Louisville, Columbus (OH), Dayton, Indianapolis, and Bloomington (IN), having played Columbus and Dayton twice.

I have met a lot of new people along the way and have had some great conversations. One of the best things about all of this is the way I am getting to know the diversity among people: the various ways people think and act, the ways we are different and the ways we are the same. I get to step outside the circle of friends I have always known and come face to face with ideas and opinions that are very far removed from my own.

I am also learning the limits to my sense of direction. After missing my exit 2 days ago because I was so wrapped up in the song spinning on my iPod, I took the next exit and worked my way to where I was going without losing any time. I must say I was a bit proud of this feat.

However, last night after a show in Dayton, I made the mistake of presuming that I could find the place I was supposed to sleep at because I had been there 2 times before. I was wrong...way wrong. It took me 45 minutes to get where I needed to be (I could have been there in 7 or 8 if I had gotten directions...and no, ladies, I don’t need any comments about guys and directions).

On a random note, someday I need to write a blog specifically about the various gyms that I have been in. I worked out one time in a YMCA in Columbus, GA that used 3-inch lead pipes as a rack for barbells. They were run into the concrete walls in the basement of a building that must have been built around the turn of the century (the 20th century, not the 21st). Talk about a dungeon. All of the weights were rusty and there was the smell of 100 years of sweat. There was also this little 4 foot door down there that I’m sure hid a secret passageway. I felt like I was in some sort of medieval prison...I was going on like 3 hours of sleep, but it was one of the best workouts I can ever remember...barbaric even. (so you know...now I’m laughing at the thought of myself with a sword and one of those Viking helmets with the horns...sick really.)

On the other end of the spectrum is the YMCA I visited in Fishers, IN last Sunday. It was way nice...it had a blitzflikin Subway in it! (I would have preferred a Milo’s, but if you’re not from Alabama that doesn’t mean anything to you. If you are from Nashville, think Fat Moe’s...yeah)

Anyway, I’m headed to West Lafayette, IN tomorrow and eventually to Tulsa, OK this Saturday. I’ll be back in Nashville by 7/11.

I’m depending a lot on friends for promotion and places to sleep, so if you see me coming your way, help me spread the word. Also, I am still looking for a place to sleep in or around Tulsa and then again for Little Rock. Definitely give me a shout if you’ve got a contact in those areas.

So that’s about it for this Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who believes in me and has invested in this journey so far. I hope to be seeing you on the road again soon.

Somewhere north of here,

Beau

By the way, be sure to wear your safety goggles when you are throwing bottle rockets and burning your hand off with sparklers tonight...my mom would have had me wearing a welding visor if she could have...

Summer, Goats, Videos...Sign Me Up!

2006-05-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know....my tour schedule has been really poor for the past month. The fact is that I’ve been trying to find a new place to live and working on a new promo video. So, to everyone who has been asking me “when are you coming back?” my reply is, “now!”

Yes, after a 4 week pit-stop to take care of some much needed business (not to mention a case of the stomach virus that you don’t want to hear about) I am back in the wagon and on the trail to Oregon...no more dysentery, no more broken wagon tongues, no more waiting on ferries to cross the river, and for heaven’s sake Earl, if you break your leg one more time we’re gonna feed you to the buffalo....(okay, that was dumb)

Oh, and speaking of animals, some of you are aware that my parents have fainting goats. That’s right, it’s a real breed of goats that “faint” when they are startled. It’s amazing how often I get in conversations on the road and come to the topic of pets, and it is always funny seeing people’s response when I tell them about our fainting goats. I’ve been meaning to video the whole experience for months, and finally, on Mother’s Day I rounded up my cousins and well, you’ll just have to see it for yourself. Check out the video at www.beaubristow.com/faintinggoats, then leave me a comment to tell me what you think.

And while you’re looking at videos, you can see a copy of the new promo video at www.beaubristow.com/videos.

While we were filming the video, I got a good recording of “Sign Me Up,” which everyone seems to be asking for. So in an effort to make up for lost time on the road in the past month, I am offering “Sign Me Up” as a free download on my MySpace page (www.myspace.com/beaubristow) and at www.beaubristow.com (in the “Media” section). Go check it out now, and be looking for the story behind the song as an upcoming feature with Stalking The Muse (www.myspace.com/stalkingthemuse).

I also posted some new tour photos which you can find in the “Media” section of my website as well. If you’ve taken any pictures at one of my shows, I want to see them! Send them to beau@beaubristow.com.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. See you soon!

Tour 4/19 - 4/23/06 How did you score?!!

2006-04-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

Read CAREFULLY and see how you score at the end!

Well, it’s been way too blitzflickin long since my last blog. (Look spell-check, I’m sure old William Gates will update you to include “blitzflikin” soon enough…seeing that its usage in the American vernacular is spreading like wildfire…so lay off with the squiggly red lines already…) Ahh computers….can’t live with them, can’t live without them….and sure as sunny summer can’t afford a new one….

Anyway, I never updated you on my Spring tour….we’ll just say it was an epic to rival Homer and leave it at that….

But as for last weekend, it was 5 days and 5 shows….2 of which were outdoor. I drove 1,095 miles and lined the pockets of unknown Arabs as gas prices rose to almost 3 dollars….

Best Moment(s):
Hanging around with the new crew in Bloomington, IN. You guys and gals rock. Please, somebody comment this blog with a link to the pictures of the fainting goat reenactment…the world must know.
Of course, it would be hard to beat the evening at The Common Grounds in Lexington. It was Bailey’s birthday, and besides singing happy birthday to her from stage, I got to hang out with all of her crazy friends…yes you are all crazy, and I love it….as long as no one sees that picture…you know which one…I have a reputation you know…

Dumbest Moment: (See note to self)

Note to self:
Never, ever, under any circumstance or under the influence of any amount of sleep deprivation should you ever, ever attempt to pass a State Trooper in a construction zone…even if it is a Sunday and there are no workers anywhere near the site and you are only going 10% over the speed limit, you blitzflikin idiot! For the love, you get pulled over enough because anyone carrying that amount electronics and black boxes in a station wagon has got to be Al-Qaeda…

Most Victorious Moment:
Getting off with yet another warning….I’ve got it down….he didn’t even look at my registration….

Funniest Moment: censored

Most confusing moment:
Hands down! Sleeping in a house Friday night and never meeting the owner. Jonah Sage (www.jonahsage.com) and I played a show that night together and got in around 2:30 at his friend’s house in Cincinnati. Everyone was asleep when we got in, and when I woke up Jonah and everyone else in the house were gone. Honestly, it was really creepy getting up and leaving an unfamiliar house, having never met the owner ...kinda makes me go “what the crap…”

Summary:
So, overall it was a great weekend, though I was exhausted after the outdoor festival on Sunday. I slept five hours and then played for four hours in the sun…without lunch. But they gave me 4 hot dogs and 2 loaves of “Monk’s Bread” for the road.

What can I say….this is my life.

Now see how you scored as a Beau Bristow blog-reader, and post your score in the comments section!

1. If you were sharp enough to notice that I really did misspell “Blitzflikin” in the first paragraph, then give yourself 5 points!

2. If you remember the blog when I introduced “Blitzflikin” then give yourself 7 points!

3. If you thought “Homer” in paragraph 2 was the famous Simpson, then subtract 10 points.

4. If you still think “Homer” in paragraph 2 is Homer Simpson, then go lock yourself in your closet and play with fireworks until the Fire Department gets there….then subtract an amount of points equal to the number on the side of the fire truck.

5. If you saw me at any of the shows this past Wednesday through Sunday then give yourself 10 points.

6. If you have one of my songs posted on your MySpace page, then give yourself 15 points.

7. If you are having trouble adding things up at this point, then start back over at zero.

8. If you played any role in my “best moments” listed above, give yourself 8 points.

9. Subtract 2 points for every speeding ticket you have ever received. Then add 1 point for every time you have gotten off with a warning.

10. If you have already subscribed to my blog, then give yourself 10 points (8 points if you subscribe right now).

If you scored:

>50 - Dang! How many speeding warnings have you had?

30-49 - Sweet sassy molassy! The world needs more people like you.

10-29 - That’s okay. You are probably a real person with a real life….either that or you slept through the Iliad and the Odyssey in 8th grade…if that’s the case, add 2 points and go reread your cliff notes….

<10 - Scum thou art…for breaking my heart…but thanks all the same….for playing this game….

NOW POST YOUR SCORE!

Spring Tour update 3.28.06

2006-03-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

Right now I’m sitting in a coffeehouse in Charleston, IL thinking to myself, “what am I doing….” I’ve been on the road since last Friday. For those who are wondering, I am on Spring Break. That’s right, when my guitar students are on spring break, I get to take a break, and so I am doing a tour through IN, IL, and IA (is that Iowa?). It’s been a trip.

I have a cooler in my car, with ice, milk, ham, and cheese. I have almost gone through a loaf of bread and a box of cereal, making ham sandwiches and cereal. I have slept in a down town loft from the 1800s (Evansville), an apartment (Bloomington), and a dorm on campus at Purdue. I’ve added one parking ticket to my College parking ticket collection, and I’m about to turn 1000 miles for this trip out.

I have driven through 2 snow storms, many miles of cornfields¬–some beautiful, some boring–and have cleared another 6 hours of audiobook (“History of the World”…I’m to the French Revolution). Honestly, sometimes it is hard. Sometimes I am not motivated, and yet I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

So there you go. That’s what’s going down in “Beau Town” (that must be in Wisconsin because it’s really cheesy…)

If you’re anywhere in my path, be sure to drop in and say hey!

High-Speed Police Chases, Snow, and the new B3. Tour 2.16.06-2.18.06

2006-02-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s Wednesday and I’m just now getting a chance to blog this past weekend…sorry, been busy.

Picture this….last Thursday. Southern Kentucky. I-65 North. Green pastures. Overcast, mid-afternoon. I’m on my way to Cincinnati (well, Hebron…but who’s heard of that?). I’m on my cell phone trying to work out the scheduling for an April gig. I’m talking to my manager (formally known as da’ Burn, Coach, or just Burns…www.myspace.com/flintentertainment). At the same time I’m looking at the upcoming horizon and trying to figure out why 8 police cars are flying down the southbound lane with lights and sirens blazing. My eyes slowly work their way to the front of the line and I finally notice what they are chasing…a Honda CRX, mid-90’s model, and it looks like it has been beaten half to death. I have no idea why they were chasing it, but it cracked me up…what idiot really thinks he’s gonna’ pull that one off? It was like a pack of cheetahs chasing an aardvark (yeah there’s 2 A’s…I looked it up). I can just see the doped-up punk at the driver’s seat, skull-cap, pointy sideburns, a cross earring, Chinese tattoo, eyes wide-open, two hands white-knuckle on the wheel, pedal to the floor, cursing in Spanish, almost doing 80….downhill.

[That may have been politically incorrect…so let me correct myself….it could have been a white Anglo-Saxon protestant male, white collar, black tie, who was at lunch with a gambling buddy who had been caught in an illegal gambling operation and was secretly turning in his cohort as part of a bargain to get a lesser sentence. When the man noticed the wire on his friend (do white people look for wires?), he fled the scene but found his Benz blocked in by an officer so he stopped the guy with the skull cap, sideburns, cross earring, and Chinese tattoo who was next door in the Taco Bell drive-through, threw him out of the car inciting him to curse in Spanish, and then proceeded to steal the CRX and head for the interstate…but only after killing the car twice b/c he’s used to an “auto-stick”…. There. Better?]

Now I’m generally pretty good with directions, but I somehow got distracted and took exit 25 instead of exit 35 when bypassing Louisville via I-264. This put me on I-64 toward Lexington, not I-71 to Cincinnati, and the next exits was 10 miles….I was ticked. However I did recover, but later missed a turn in Hebron (this one was Google Map’s fault) and ended up in the most beautiful expanse of nowhere-near-where-I-need-to-be that I have ever seen. I was ticked again. I did make it to the gig however and stepped out of my car to 40mph wind gusts. Needless to say, with my curly hair I looked like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan that night…with just a touch of Kramer.

Kyle Cruz (www.myspace.com/kylecruz) and Brandon James (www.myspace.com/bjames) met me there, along with Kyle’s dog, Chapter (look for an upcoming blog about the single-guy/dog phenomenon). It was a fun night with the crew and I really appreciate Fabiani’s dad letting us crash at his place afterwards.

As some of you have discovered from Kyle’s blogs, I have been affectionately dubbed “Beau Biceps.” It has recently become “Biceps” for short, and the running joke is that anything that needs to be done can be accomplished by my biceps. Now honestly, I’m not sure how this developed. It may have some relation to the name of Bo Bice (add “ps” and it is biceps), and surely has little to do with my actual physique….though I’m in the gym trying to live up to the title.

That night saw the birth of yet a new nickname, “B3.” Now I’m sure it has to do with the plethora of B’s in my name (Beau, Bruce, Bristow…Biceps?), but it also is a steal from the title of the well known Hammond organ. Either way you cut it, it’s just one more addition to a long list of nicknames that I will avoid listing here in order to save myself certain embarrassment…

Friday we hung around the house. I did some booking for future shows and then sat down to try to pick up some of Kyle’s guitar skills. For those of you who haven’t seen Kyle live, you have no idea what sort of craftsman he really is with a guitar. I guess there are so many guys with acoustic guitars that people just tend to ignore them…(hmm, I guess that would include me). Kyle has a very unique style that is the refinement of a percussion background and an ear that is not restrained by the burden of music theory (not that I am against such knowledge, but rules can be restricting if you never grasp the freedom to bend/break them). I picked up a couple of techniques that have honestly rekindled a creative element in myself that has been dwindling due to the heavy workload in the past few weeks. This being said, you can expect new songs the next time you see me.

Friday night we played at Kofenya in Oxford, OH. This is always a fun place and I really appreciate my friends there. The show was great, but the moment that sticks out was my mispronunciation of the word “Arabic.” I accented the second syllable when I should have accented the first. It happened when I was asking a friend that I met my last time in Oxford how her study of the Arabic language was going. I corrected myself after my folly, but she was quick to console me with “that’s okay, you’re from Alabama.” She swiftly followed her own comment with, “Oh, I’m sorry, do we know each other well enough for me to say that?”

We laughed about it, but it was too late. Brandon picked it up from there and for the rest of the night I was given gratuitous forgiveness for a variety of things with “that’s alright, you’re from Alabama.” It was all good fun. Actually Kyle’s goal for the weekend was to make me mad, just because he couldn’t imagine me mad….he failed. In the end we dished things out pretty evenly.

We drove to Lexington after the show in Oxford to stay with our friends Jenni and Lindsay. It was butt-cold (less than 40 degrees if you are from Alabama…). Actually it was hypo-butt-cold, the wind-chill had to be around zero. Needless to say we were miserable when we got locked out of Jenni’s house…after 10 minutes of banging on doors and windows we finally woke someone up and got in.

Saturday morning found us with 2-4 inches of snow. It was a great day…too much fun to list here, and the show that night was great. New friends, old friends, good times. I left Lexington at midnight and made it back to Nashville a little after 2:00 AM. (Don’t worry Mom, this is not counting the time change…it actually took 3 hours.)

In all reality, the crowds weren’t the biggest and it would be hard to argue that the weekend was financially productive. But forget that. It was as much fun as I’ve had on tour and I’m sure Kyle and I will be touring together again soon. You’d better be there….

"Hookers and Loose Change" Tour 2.10.06-2.11.06

2006-02-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

Crazy….I’ve been running blitzflickin solid for 4 weeks now, but here’s the latest.

Friday, Feb. 10, 2006, 12:00 PM. Java City Coffeehouse on campus at WKU in Bowling Green. Sarah and I traded off songs for an hour. There was a high-pitch tone in the system that drove me nuts! It was right around 18-20K, basically the highest pitch that the human ear will register. We acted like it wasn’t there, and honestly, if no one pointed it out and you didn’t hear the contrast of the system being off, you wouldn’t notice it, but it was there, and very much so. It held open a gate on my compressor….intense.

We left for home in the wintry mix that was predicted to turn to snow. Nashville was under a winter weather warning….4-6 inches!…..It rained all night. I laughed the next morning when I woke up…James Span would have gotten it right…(Birmingham natives know what I mean).

Saturday we drove to Owensboro, KY to play at the Brother’s Pizza. It was a great evening. If you haven’t heard Brooks Ritter…don’t….every other voice you hear from then on won’t be good enough (but in case you have to know it’s www.brooksritter.net). PW Gopal was definitely on top of his game as well (www.pwgopal.com). Two great guys, two great voices.

The ride home was snowy this time. Sarah (who was on this gig with me) and I had to pass through 3 tollbooths on the Natcher Parkway to and from Owensboro. I was so tired of tossing away all of the loose change from the console in the woman-repeller that I got in the habit of honking at every booth (fyi, I’m totally out of change now). I must have been tired because I soon became amused by the sound of the woman-repeller’s horn and found myself honking a little too much.

Just north of Nashvegas, I ran over a wheel (some call them rims….incorrectly). The way it was lit up made it look like a plastic grocery bag, so I paid no attention to it, at least until it was spewing forth sparks from beneath my car. After dragging it a short way it broke loose, but was enough to warrant a quick stop to check for damage. Fortunately there was none, but after departing again I missed my turn getting back on the interstate. After kicking a doughnut in an abandoned gravel parking lot I backtracked, and on the way I passed a Hooker (why did I capitalize that?) and of course honked…

So there you go. I’ve always wanted to title a blog “Hookers and Loose Change.” Now I have.

This week I’m tour with Kyle Cruz…watch out…

Tour 2.1-2.4.06 - 100K, An Epic Ended, and Mucus Galore

2006-02-08T13:34:00.001-08:00

(Disclaimer: I’m sleepy, sick, and not really this pompous or materialistic…at least I hope not…)

I wasn’t looking forward to this weekend; I had been fighting a cold since last Monday. Regardless of this, I had been working solid all week, and the thought of singing through a sea of snot and driving over 1,000 miles…well, it wasn’t enticing. Still, this is how life goes, and the show(s) must go on…

I began in Nashville on Wednesday, opening for Josh Wilson (www.joshwilsonmusic.com). If you are uninitiated, go check him out! It was a fun show for a home crowd of friends that I haven’t been able to spend much time with recently (oh the glory days of the Canada trip…inside story/joke). I’m glad I had the chance to do the show (though I left my tip jar and still haven’t gotten it back).

Thursday saw two monumental milestones in my life:

Number 1. My Saturn wagon, which I bought last June with 75,000 miles on it, rolled over 100,000 miles on my way to Cleveland for a show that night. I had been planning on watching it roll past the big mark and celebrating by totaling the car and getting the insurance money…I looked down at 100,005.4….I was ticked. I drove all this time and missed it…so change of plans….I’ll just crash my car into the next Bluetooth-earpiece-wearing, Gucci sporting, cutting me off and not even using a signal, music-business-punk in a BMW that I see here in Nashville…I should have the insurance check by Friday…

Apart from my failed plans of insurance fraud, my plans for a big fan-base in Cleveland have fallen short as well. I’m not giving up, but for the love, does no one there listen to music? (If you were at the show, you are the rare and cherished connoisseur of quality music…bless you.)

Milestone number 2 happened on the way back to Nashville that night. I have been doing the audio book of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace since last September. I listen to it whenever I am on the road alone, and it has taken this long to finish it. I was so attached to the characters and the 15 year chronology of the story that ending it was like having a friend move across the world, never to be seen again…(insert tear here)

Friday, I picked up Sarah, and we drove to Atlanta in 3:20…(I’ve contacted Guinness, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.) We were on our way to Athens and we got in 4 hours of my new audio book…J.M Roberts’ History of The World. This will no doubt be an epic as well, and my mind is being continuously stretched to take in the flood of information as I am zipping down the highway. (Mel Brooks’ version was more easily digestible…though a little stretched…still, “the inquisition, what a show”….you’d have to see it)

To make a long story short, Athens and Clemson went well. I must have produced a quart of mucus per hour all weekend, but I managed to sing through it and am now feeling a little better. I also rolled over 101,000 miles on my way in on Sunday…1,000 miles this weekend!....if only it were dollars….

Well, that’s about it for this installment....no wait! One more thing. Sarah and I were interviewed for the Auburn Plainsman and the Georgia Red and Black. The Auburn interview was conducted in a noisy bar, which accounts for how I was misquoted as saying “teen stuff is good to listen to” (Or maybe someone slipped something in my water…either way it was great article Kevin!) Nevertheless, it cracks me up. I’ll post the links on my “Links” page, but they are below as well.

Later.

Beau

Auburn Article:
"Indie Artists Shine Together" in the Auburn Plainsman:

UGA Article:
"Warm Up With Peacock, coffee" in UGA's The Red and Black:

Tour 1.26-1.28.06 (police chase, family reunion smell, sarah hits the roof)

2006-01-31T20:08:00.000-08:00

This will be short because I am way behind on booking for a spring break tour (I’m still not sure why I’m touring Indiana and Illinois on Spring break…but that’s another blog for another day.)

Anyway, last Thursday was Christopher Pizza in Nashville. I had been practicing a little the previous few days, a rare thing as busy as I have recently become, and so I was feeling pretty good about the show. The turnout was bigger than I anticipated, and even though we were packed in like (insert funny and intelligent metaphor here), it was a great time.

So I guess it’s about time to tell you that I have undertaken the task of documenting my journey as an independent artist with a video camera (the old kind that uses analog tapes and has a viewfinder protruding from the back…vintage). I’m afraid to know what it will turn out like, but I began my day Friday with the camera running while I was driving to pick up Sarah (www.sarahpeacockmusic.com) and leave for Auburn. It sure it will end up looking like a police chase…

After a 5-hour drive to Opelika (just next to Auburn), we set up at 8th and Rail. Now for those who have never been there, it is quite possibly the coolest bar I have ever entered. I’m not sure how old the building is, but it is old. (Though not as old as the 90-year-old birthday party that was happening during load in…no joke. We got some odd looks from a few of them. I told Sarah it smelled like a family reunion…she threw up…not really though.) Anyway, they had old wood panels, hardwood floors, an alley in the back that must have been shipped in from San Francisco….shoot, they even had vintage toilets…I think. It was like Cheers, but cooler.

After the show I let Sarah pack up the gear because I had a couple of fans ask for one more song. What can I say…I’ll do anything to please a listener…and avoid load-out…sorry Sarah...

It was after 1:00 AM when we got on the road and headed to my parent’s house in B-ham. We were both sleepy. Sarah was a little concerned about me staying awake, but after while I put in the ear-buds, cranked up an audiobook (Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace), and told her to go to sleep. She did, and the best part of the evening was the huge pothole we hit getting onto I-459 from I-65. It was about 4:00 AM and Sarah jumped to the ceiling, certain that we were off the road and about to die. I laughed…then went back to sleep myself…

After we arrived and got a good morning’s sleep, I spent time visiting family and getting ready for another show. That night we were at the Cambridge Coffee in the Villages (off of 280 in B-ham). It was our first time there. The sound in the little corner where we were set up was terrible, but the crowd was great. (Kudos to my sis for bringing the John Carroll crowd.)

Now I’m not one to try things on the fly, but I got this crazy idea to record the audience clapping as part of my loop on “Before There Was Time.” It hit me during the first chorus and so I worked out the logistics in my mind during the rest of the song. At the end, when I always loop and build the final chorus, I got things going, killed my floor monitor (so as to avoid feedback), spun my mic to the crowd, and hit record. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but when I was finished and turned my monitor back up, it was there! Sweet.

So that’s about it. So much for being short.

Until next time…

Student X (1.24.06)...The Chessmaster

2006-01-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

Okay, I felt the need to share this. (I promise it is accurate. I added the metaphor to help you understand the strategic war that we wage.)

I have been using my Gibson Les Paul to teach lessons and so I had it in my studio yesterday when student X arrived. After wrestling his guitar from its case he sat down and looked at me as if to ask “your move or mine.” It’s like a game of chess…I went first.

I asked him where his music book and CD were, the ones that I had asked him to bring last time. His move was to promptly change subjects.

“H-H-Hey,” he quickly interjected. “That’s a nice guitar.”

Just like that he had taken one of my pawns.

I tried to say thanks but was cut off.

“I’ll give you $500 dollars for it.”

“I don’t think so,” I responded kindly, knowing that not only was this way too little, it had nothing to do with our lesson. It was a swift move with my Knight.

He countered. “How about $1,000?”

I moved a Bishop to take one of his pawns.

“It’s not for sale.” I said, sure that I had ended the conversation. He wouldn’t give in so easily.

“I’ll give you 30 million dollars!”

I was stunned, caught off guard. He had taken my Bishop and now my Rook was cornered.

“You don’t have 30 million dollars,” was all I could come up with. It just delayed the inevitable. He took my Rook.

“I’ll borrow it,” he arrogantly replied.

I could feel myself being backed into a corner. So I reached for my Queen in an act of desperation.

“You can’t pay back 30 million dollars! You’ll be in debt the rest of your life!” The quiver in my voice betrayed the uncertainty of this move.

He didn’t even have to think. It was like he had been planning this all along. I had just walked into it. There was just one more move to set up.

“No I won’t,” he proposed.

“Why not?” I countered.

“Because I’ll kill the people that loan me the money,” he said with a smile, anticipating the climax of his scheme. He turned and pointed at my guitar.

“Then I’ll play that guitar at their funeral.”

Checkmate…

Traffic Hat Trick, Carrots, Opossums, and What Happens in Ohio...(tour 1.19-1.21)

2006-01-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

Note: The views expressed in this Blog/Journal in no way reflect the ideas or character of Beau Bristow in such cases as they might tarnish the reputation thereof….and what happens in Ohio, stays in Ohio…

It was a sunny January morning. The birds were singing, the breeze was blowing, the air was crisp….and I was throwing 80 pound pedalboards into 70 pound station wagons (okay, there’s only one pedal board and only one station wagon…singular Beau, singular).

I do it every time. I wait until the last minute and then break my neck getting packed and out the door for a gig. I slept about 6 hours and got up Thursday at 5:30 to go to the gym. I knew that I would pay for it, but it is routine, even ritual, and so I found myself sweaty, smelly, just back from a good workout and running like crazy to get things ready to be at Michael Shoup’s by 10:00 AM. I tore down my gear from my practice room and loaded it in my car in 15 minutes…a new record…for my heart rate.

I pulled up at Shoup’s a full 15 minutes late. (Enter Vince, Paul and Michael)

If you know Vince Romanelli, percussionist and ladies-man extraordinaire, then you know enough. If you know Paul Shearer, then you know quality guiataristry. (Yes spell-check, I know guitaristry isn’t a word…back off…)

Now Paul and Vince were with us to back up Michael (www.michaelshoup.com). I haven’t done a tour with Paul ever, and it has been a long time since I have done anything with Michael and Vince. All I can say is…it was a blast.

We began by making plans to paint my car orange to make it look like a carrot…a topic that arose subsequent to our throwing baby carrots at each other in the Mapco parking lot…so much for a healthy snack for the road.

Now there is nothing so entertaining as driving behind Michael and Vince, watching their silhouettes play air drums and sing BGVs (background vocals, for the uninitiated) while going down the interstate (we took two cars, Michael led). I was so intrigued that I failed to react when I saw Michael’s brake lights come alive and dart to the side. The result: a head-on collision with five-eights of a blown big-rig tire. We pulled over to scope out the damage and had to tear off the rubber skid plate from beneath the front bumper of my car because it was broken loose on one side and dragging. To make matters worse, I kneeled to look under the car and suddenly realized that there was skin, bones, and a little bit of stench left of a flattened opossum less than 10 inches from my face…so much for a healthy snack for the road… After cramming the skid plate in the car just behind Paul’s head, we were off again….Traffic incident Number 1.

Now I haven’t seen a study, but my experience has led me to conclude that women are the more prevalent perpetrators of road rage and “automobile aggression” (another new term from Beau Bristow). Maybe it’s due to their tendency to overreact, a product of their increased levels of emotion and lower levels of reason. (See disclaimer at top, and send all hate mail to mailto:vince@vinceromanelli.com).

I had just entered Ohio when I found myself in the far left lane with a large line of faster traffic bearing down on me. Michael was already in the middle of the three lanes, so I gave my signal and after a few seconds began moving over. Now I was aware that there was a car coming up in the middle lane, but I gave my signal while it was at a distance and slowly began merging. Of course they never let up and as soon as I merged they swerved into the right lane, sped up beside me, and pointed at the front of their car, mouthing that I had almost hit it (and saying other things that I couldn’t make out). Now don’t get me wrong, the girl driving the car was cute, in a fascist sort of way, and I probably should have pulled over, built an altar and slaughtered a thousand goats for cutting her off, but that doesn’t excuse her blitzflickin automobile aggression. Apparently I didn’t give the response she desired for her antics, so she floored it and swerved at my car as she passed. Paul’s eyes were as big as crop circles, and she was closer to me than I had been to the dead opossum….Traffic incident number 2.

(By the way, we phoned Vince, since he and Michael were ahead of us, to have him blow the girl a kiss…they never caught up to her.)

We pulled into the Shoup residence in Beaver Creek, OH in time to eat diner and change my guitar strings (yeah, I know…procrastinator). It was great to stay with Michael’s parents again. They are great…the polar opposite to sleeping in the car.

The show at Wright State was a blast, but I was so tired from a busy week and a 5:30 morning that I was half asleep the whole time. Afterwards we hit a club close to campus.

Now this could easily be counted as traffic incident number 3, but I will save that designation for later. For those who know me, you know I’m not a club kind of guy. Yeah I’ll swing dance, or at least try, and I have made a fool of myself to some salsa at least once, but the typical club holds no interest for me. Nevertheless, I found myself dancing with….well…being danced upon, by a very kind soul who I‘m sure will never remember it because her blood-alcohol level was like 75 psi or something like that. I’m glad Vince, Michael, Paul, and Ryan all got a kick out of it, since they went to the trouble of instigating it…and I’m glad nobody got pictures…

Friday morning Vince had to fly to Arkansas for another gig (check out www.bucketboys.net). Michael, Paul, and I played a bar in Dayton that night called the Nite Owl. My guitar still smells like smoke, but the crowd was a lot of fun. It’s always interesting to see the things that happen musically from the stage in front of a bar crowd. You’ll try to play anything…once…and it’s amazing how many choruses to Sweet Home Alabama people will sing with you. It’s always fun for everyone, and nobody cares or remembers how bad it is…

Saturday morning I was up in time to get some work done. I co-wrote a song a few weeks ago with Jaclyn Brown (www.jaclynbrown.com) and have been working on a demo for it to get to a song-plugger. Saturday I did some mixing for the demo on my Powerbook. (Look for a #1 hit by the winter of 2006.)

After a nap we cleaned, packed, ate, and jetted out for Lexington. I hated to say goodbye to the Shoups and home cooking, but Common Grounds awaited. I have grown to really love this little venue just off of the UK campus. Great coffee, a stage, lights, and a crowd of friends. What more could you want? It was a fun show and I enjoyed hanging out with some of my crew afterwards.

By the time I left for Nashville it was 3:30 AM (Eastern). I hit the Bluegrass Parkway, which was barren at this time of night, and loosened the reigns on the “woman repeller” (Matt’s affectionate title for my tour bus...the 70 pound wagon with 7000 pounds of gear). Now the speed limit is only 65, but I felt that it was flexible since there wasn’t even a headlight in sight…at least not until the flashing ones that informed me that I was going 83 (a physical impossibility for a 70 pound wagon with 7000 pounds of gear…and no skid plate). Fortunately, the officer was merciful and gave me a “courtesy ticket.” Traffic incident number 3.

So I wrapped up my little traffic hat trick, and pulled into Nashville at 5:30 (Central). I was up by 7:30 to play for church….exhausted.

That’s it for last weekend. For this weekend it’s Nashville, Auburn, and Birmingham…...bring it!

Tour 1.6.06-1.7.06 (Vespa, Blitzflikin, and more)

2006-01-10T22:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas, what? Now it’s ’06 and I can’t figure out where my blitzflikin (my new favorite expletive) holiday went….I mean one minute it’s holly and mistletoe and the next thing I know I’m running like crazy trying to figure out why all of my checks won’t clear…crap…’06 not ’05 dufus!....sorry about that, I‘ll write another one…
And really, why is a box of checks so expensive…shoot, you have to write a check and then go make a deposit just to buy more checks…there’s a philosophical conversation beneath that concept…I’ll spare us both of that…

Anyway, it was good to be back on the road again. Let me just say that the Chattanooga Starbucks happens to be across the hall from a high-class steak house…you should try the black angus blend…bold…(okay it was funny at 10:00 PM on 4 hours of sleep after getting up at 5:30 this morning, “lactic legs” day in the gym, co-writing a hit song, and then teaching guitar lessons non-stop for 5 hours…back off) (btw, I wish I could remember what Student X said today ‘cause man was it funny…)

I have always been leery of playing at a Starbucks, but my first Starbucks show was a winner. It was good to see a couple of the Grace Academy crew there and I even met one of my MySpace friends in person….bless you Tom…(inside MySpace joke…no, tom wasn’t at the show)

Oh yeah! I got new shoes Friday. This is monumental in two ways. First of all I have been wearing either my brother’s hand-me-downs or my 3 year old Chacos for the past few years (no my Chacos weren’t three years old a few years ago…quit being so blitzflikin critical)….anyway, having a new pair of shoes makes me want to run…at least for a minute…then I realize that there’s no point in doing something that Ethiopians are so much better at…oh, and the shoes…Addidas Sambas…no I don’t play soccer (at least not since the worst YMCA soccer team ever disbanded in 93) but I love the way they feel…

Which brings me to the second reason this is monumental…I have only played one show in shoes other than my sandals, and I accidentally hit the reverse button on my line 6…and…well…crash….so I was a little nervous about a show with new shoes but it was great….it was like I didn’t even have them on…which has inspired me to return them, get my $40 back, and go barefoot…(btw, you people really need to clean up after your blitzflikin dogs in the park).

Anyway, Sarah and I stayed with her parents Friday night (thanks! to the Peacock family). Honestly, weekend tours tend to be my getaway. I slept more Friday night than I have in a while. In fact, I got up for a bowl of cereal around 10 and then went back to bed…can’t you just hear the angels singing…

The show that evening ay Eddies Attic was awesome. The sound, lights, and atmosphere are all great. I hope to be back soon.

I guess I am the most proud of my time from Atlanta to Nashville…under 4 hours…amazing. We got delayed leaving due to a spontaneous Vespa ride. Now if you don’t know what a Vespa is, look it up online and then imagine Sarah and I riding one in January….ever seen dumb and dumber? Yeah.

So that’s about it for this update. Maybe next time I’ll have something worth saying…maybe…

Tour 12.16.05 - 12.17.05

2005-12-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Tour 12.16.05 - 12.17.05

I hope to continue weekly updates of tours and life so you will know what is happening (as if anyone cares). Last week I began getting up at 5:30 AM (a big change from my previous rising time of 9:00). This is to get me back in the gym with my former roommate Eric. We worked out together all through college and I miss the early morning routine so I am getting back into it. We’ll see how long it lasts. It is tough to rise early in the week and play shows until late hours every weekend…coffee anyone?

As for the tour, the show on Friday was awesome! I love having a home crowd. Honestly it is a little nerve wracking because I know I will see these faces again and any failures on stage will linger with them. I have a hard time dealing with failure and the fear of failure. Once I get going though all is good. It is a great thing to see familiar faces smiling back or nodding with a song. It’s even nice to have people throw money at me…even if it is pennies….DUSTIN! (my cousin…he’s a hoot!)

After the show, I was exhausted, mostly from the previous week of getting up at 5:30 (I still haven’t shifted my night routine to get me to bed earlier) and so all I wanted was a bed. Sarah (Peacock) and I drove to Atlanta after the show to crash at her parent’s house. Needless to say, it was another late night.

Saturday was a trip. Sarah’s family was having their Christmas gathering. She warned me about it and said I didn’t have to go. But really now…free home cooked meal…I’d stand through fire and water for it! We had to get up a little earlier than I would have wished, but the food was worth it. (Special thanks to David for picking at the ham with me after the meal…it’s nice to have a partner in crime.)

Now Sarah’s family is…well…boisterous. They are of course super-nice and very hospitable. Sarah has two sisters, Laura and Rachel. All three girls are roughly two years apart and are so much alike that if one is talking in the next room, I can’t tell you which girl it is. It took me a little while to get accustomed to the dry sense of humor and high volume, but after a little while I realized that it is the same chemistry evident in most family gatherings (except for the slap on the butt greeting…which I didn’t receive…not that I’m complaining).

News flash! As I am typing this there is a dog peeing on the kitchen floor beside me. Crap! What are you thinking! Get back in your cage thingy...I can’t stand cute little peeing puppies.

Brandon (my benevolent friend with whom I am living since my lease ran up on 11/30) brought back a 7-week-old “Miniature” Chihuahua (just when you thought Chihuahuas couldn’t get any smaller) from his parent’s house on Saturday. It may be the cutest puppy I have ever seen, but is only partly trained. (btw, it just dropped a tootsie roll on it’s designated “poopy pad” so it is making progress)

Okay, now I have a mess to deal with and I totally lost my train of thought. Is this what it is like to have kids? Mom and Dad I give you my most sincere apology…and don’t expect grandkids anytime soon.

Have a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa…

(note: since posting this blog, it has been brought to my attention that the dog is in fact not a miniature Chihuahua as such does not even exist…however I am leaving the blog as it is and will continue to use the term “miniature” Chihuahua because I like it…even though I will surely face an unprecedented joint lawsuit from PETA and the ACLU claiming that I have hurt the puppy’s feelings by using the word “miniature” in reference to it, thus hindering it’s growth and subjecting it to a self-fulfilling prophecy over which the poor thing had no control. Because of this I will be required to pay for counseling, therapy, and basic necessities for the duration of the dogs remaining life….to which my response is…”dogs taste good”…)

(of course you know I’m kidding…dogs don’t taste all that great)

Tour 12.7.05-12.10.05

2005-12-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

(Note: The views expressed in the following in no way represent the views of Beau Bristow or any other entity that might be held liable, especially concerning Italian Mafia names, Waffle house waitresses, and novelty water towers.)

Well, what can I say? It was great to be back on the road again. I took Thanksgiving weekend off and only had one gig the following weekend (which was cancelled), so I had been off tour (as opposed to “on tour”) for almost 3 weeks!

I began my adventures in Wilmore, KY last Wednesday, at Solomon’s Porch. I won’t comment on the coffee, but Wilmore in general is one of my favorite places on earth. It’s tucked away among scenic horse farms, and it centers around the campus of Asbury college and seminary (two separate schools, as the natives are sure to point out). I always have great accommodations in Wilmore (thanks Ande!) and usually get a great home-cooked meal (thanks again Ande!). It’s great to have friends on the road.

I woke up Thursday morning to snow flurries. That afternoon I drove 45 mph through snow and slush all the way to Florence Y’ALL, KY. The locals will know what the “ya’ll” is about (and you will too if you every look at the candy striped water tower off of I-75). Unfortunately, due to the snow, the show in Hebron (between Florence and Cincinnati) was cancelled and the “woman repeller,” as my Saturn station wagon has come to be called (thanks Matt), was covered in salt.

Kyle Cruz, his drummer Steven, and manager/friend Chris Fabriani were supposed to meet me in Florence. They were delayed in traffic, so I chilled at the library (nerd!) until they got in town. We spent the night at Chris’ house, since he is from Florence. It was butt cold (< 20°) and windy.

After sleeping late on Friday, we drove to Oxford, OH to play at Kofenya coffee house (one of the best coffee houses in the world and owned by 2 awesome gals of 21). We walked around campus until we had snot-cicles and then ate some top notch (for Ohio) Mexican food with Cara and Mi-Sun. (Chris, I still think Frankie Fabiani is a great name for a kid…no one would ever want a piece of that).

The show started at 10:00 and was great, but the highlight of my evening was the release of my live album, “Coffee Not Included.” It was scheduled to arrive that day so I had 50 units directly shipped to Kofenya. It was great to see the results of the past few months of my life right there before me. A lot of work went into the album and it was almost completely done by my manager and me. I highly recommend that you get a copy…of course.

We drove back after the show and hit the Florence Waffle House at about 2:30 that morning. This presents nothing to talk about in itself except for the fact that we saw the hottest Waffle House waitress ever, not that she was all that, but come on…it was Waffle House.

Saturday was the Lexington show at Common grounds Coffee House. It is one of my favorite places to play. The crowd is always great and it keeps growing. After dinner with some great new friends and a couple of old ones (or so it feels Lyndsay and Jenni), Kyle Kicked off the night with his set.

I have become a big Kyle Cruz fan. Great voice, great writing, great guitar riffs, and a great guy. You can find him on MySpace and I suggetst that you do. Kyle, Steven, and I did “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” together and then Kyle’s sister, who had driven up from Nashville graced us with her amazing voice. It was awesome and I wish we had saved it for the end because it’s tough to add anything after an act like that. After my set I hung around with my Georgetown friend Tiffany and new friend Ashley. I didn’t get to Nashville and my bed until 4:00 AM.

I can’t wait to do it again…

Student X Finale

2005-12-14T06:57:00.000-08:00

I fully intend for this to be my last entry regarding Student X. I know he has been a source of entertainment and a hearty smile to many of my readers and nothing short of that to me, but I would hate for any of these innocent stories to come across in a negative way and tarnish the reputation of the parties involved, especially since I truly hold all of them in high regard. Of course something may eventually happen that I must share, and honestly, I am pretty sure it will. But until then I will leave it at this.

The past few weeks have been the best yet (in terms of progress, not entertainment). He recently explained to me that I should sell my CDs at Target, “you’d sell a bunch of CDs there!” he paused and reflected, “but then you’d be rich and wouldn’t teach guitar lessons anymore….and…I’d miss you Beau.” I almost shed a tear...
Since then we have had a break through.

Yes, we still get off track, once or twice in regards to naming guitars (he calls his other guitar his “football” guitar, a natural balance to his “baseball” guitar…we have yet to settle on a name for my guitar). We have even plotted to smash all of our guitars right before we die…a fair compromise between my insistence that we never smash our guitars and his insistence that we smash them that very moment.

Overall though, we are making progress. We played through 5 new songs at our last lesson. He was so excited and would have gone for 6 had we not run out of time. Afterwards he insisted that I come out and corroborate his story as he relayed this great news to his mom. As soon as he finished his story and I concurred, he voiced his request for M&M’s from the candy machine in the lobby. His mother turned to me and in a dramatic tone that implied that she knew the answer but wanted to play as if she didn’t, she asked, “Does 5 songs deserve M&Ms?”

Following her lead I replied, “Yes, I think it does.”

With that I walked back to my studio, somewhat thankful that he got the M&M’s after the lesson and not before it and anxious to see what next week holds…

Student X Update

2005-11-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

As of last week, I had no intentions of ever mentioning him again. I would hate for word to get back to his parents and for them to be offended, but some things I’ve just got to share.

My favorite 7-year-old walked in today with the same guitar as last week, the one he traded for a baseball card. I made a reference to the guitar and he abruptly cut me off to tell me that he calls it his “baseball guitar.”

His technique for cutting people off is impeccable. At the instant he feels the urges to speak, he loudly and frantically interjects the first word and stutters with it until any competing speaker is silenced.

I was about to ask him how his guitar practice had gone the previous week, but he continued about the guitar, “I-I-I-It’s like a [Lincoln] Navigator…it’s like trading a Pinto for a Navigator.” It was enough to make me chuckle, but was only a warm-up for what came out of his mouth 10 minutes later.

I can’t recall how he got on the topic. Maybe it began when I gave into his request for me to sing “Three Blind Mice” if he would just play it right. After my Pianissimo rendition of the song and a brief conversation about why the three blind mice in his music book were wearing sunglasses, he started talking about country singers. I spoke up to direct his attention back to our lesson, but he cut me off again.

“H-H-H-Hey, you know what?” he said with certainty that what he was about to say in fact needed to be said.
“What?” I responded reluctantly.
“Kenny Chesney has a lot of body parts in his name.”

I was confused to say the least, and I braced myself for the explanation that I knew was on it’s way whether I liked it or not. He looked at me as if he were about to impart truly useful information and then pointed to the corresponding body parts as he continued:

“Yeah…Ken-Knee Ches(t)-knee.”

…I swear I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Live Album Update

2005-11-08T23:58:00.000-08:00

Okay. So it is midnight and I am so tired of mixing my live album tracks that I could…(loose my train of thought mid-sentence)…

Well anyway, I think what I was going to say is that this live album has been way more of a project than I anticipated. There’s always something else to be improved…be it the artwork, the mixes, or anything else. It’s like there’s no end. I’ve been working on it for a month and I’ve got an easy 100 hours invested in it already.

I’m still tweaking the mixes and as of last night we have cut “Rainy Nights” from the track list. I still have mixed feelings about that, but the general consensus from our focus group is that it is a weak point in the album. (I’ll finish mixing it anyway and throw it up on my website for people to download.)

Last Sunday we took a spontaneous right turn as far as the artwork goes. Dave (my roommate) was looking over proofs for the CD booklet, was very frank that he didn’t like what he saw, and offered to borrow a friend’s camera and help me take new shots later that evening. It was a long night and I HATE photo shoots, but I love what we got that evening. Dave is officially being credited in the album as the “project prolongator” (ok, it was funny at 12:00 Sunday night).

It stinks to get something that works, only to realize that you can do better, because whatever “better” may be, it always means more work. I’m grateful for constructive criticism though, and even more grateful for Dave’s help. (By the way Dave, if you are reading this, that’s the last nice comment you’ll get from me unless you quit sneaking upstairs and stealing my toilet paper…don’t think I haven’t noticed.)

X-treme Babysitting

2005-11-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

Okay. So I’ve been teaching guitar lessons for a while now. It is good money and it keeps me doing music so I count myself blessed. I have multiple students that are a joy to teach and I look forward to teaching them every week.

One girl is 9 and ½ (not just 9…as she is quick to let you know). She’s like a 30 year old in a tiny body. She comes in with her Baby Taylor (a miniature guitar) and sits down each week as if she just came in from a long day at work. Her feet barely reach the floor. When I ask how she is doing, she expresses that she is tired, I say “I know what you mean” and we proceed with lessons. She is always eloquently dressed and has superlative manners. She is bright, pays attention, practices, and honestly makes me somewhat comfortable with the notion that I might one day have a child like this.

I am also teaching a pair of brothers. They haven’t been playing long, but are making great progress. They immediately jumped into a couple of AC/DC tunes (Highway to Hell and Hell’s Bell’s), and I must say that I’m proud to have them as my students. They differ in age by about three years, the oldest being 14. They might be the next Malcolm and Angus Young.
Now, it would be so nice if all of my students were like this…but that would be too easy. For at least 30 minutes each week I find myself not teaching, but instead being immersed in the white-knuckle world of extreme babysitting. Here’s how it went today:

At a time that I will not disclose to protect the more or less innocent (not to mention myself), Student X entered my studio at the music school where I teach. I knew he was approaching because I could hear his voice echoing down the hall as he addressed every person he came within visual contact of. I shuddered.
Seconds later the cutest 7 year old you have ever seen enters my room. He has sandy blond hair, light freckles, a fair complexion, and an innocent smile full of teeth that he will grow into in about 20 years. His cheeks are full and round and rest atop a big grin at least 70 percent of the time. Today he is wearing a long sleeve orange and blue-stripped shirt along with freshly grass-stained jeans. He could be a model for Gap Kids. If I had a dollar for every time an old lady pinched those dimpled cheeks then I’d be rich…and wouldn’t have to deal with what happened in the next 30 minutes.

For the record, it’s hard to keep a straight face with a 7-year-old that has just body-slammed his guitar and asked me if I have a gun. “Why a gun?” I asked. His reply included a lengthy plot for how I was to kill him and tell his dad that he had fainted so that I could secretly bury him three days later (I’m not making this up...although I will confess that his plan was tempting). You see the problem with student X is not that I’m not entertained, or that I don’t like being around him. If we were playing in the schoolyard, life would be grand. The problem is that he makes it nearly impossible for me to do my job, that is, to teach.

For instance, today we began work on the “C chord.” He has seen this chord in a previous lesson and so he played it with ease. He then proceeded to passionately kiss his guitar. (He looks like a little Matt Damon…and he’ll be a great actor one day because nowhere is there a more over-dramatic 7 year-old). After pulling him away from his guitar we began work on a strumming pattern in 4. When I told him to count as he played, he immediately leapt into lengthy discussion about how high he can count. Five minutes later he is beating and yelling at his guitar for not playing correctly, certain that it is the guitar’s fault that he overlooked the half rest in measure two. He exclaims, “Oh my god!” and then promptly apologizes for swearing, just in case I didn’t notice that he had just done something he wasn’t supposed to do. Upon getting no response from me he continues with a triple “oh my god.”

One would expect to be angry with any kid at this point. However, due to the fact that not once has Kid X really been angry and never has a smile left his face, all spectators are held at bay just this side of the line between frustration and anger. By the time the lesson is over we have made musical noise for a total of maybe 4 minutes. The rest of the noise has been from a drama that may soon be a part of the X-games (look for X-treme Babysitting in 2006).

As I help him pack up his guitar, he explains to me that it used to be his brother’s guitar, but he traded it for a baseball card. Student X then compares himself to Jacob who “traded lentils for all of his dad’s stuff…a little for a lot.” As he marched off I smiled, partly because our lesson was over, but mostly from the thought of hearing the word “lentils” come out of that 7 year-old mouth, that mouth full of teeth that he’ll grow into…in about 20 years…

Heavy Thoughts

2005-10-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

I just read an article online. It can be found at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/25/iraq.soldier.story.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories. Death surrounds us daily. The stories in the article are nothing new. Maybe I am just tired. Maybe I am just lonely. For whatever reason, tonight these stories reminded me that something about this life isn’t right. Something is out of place. Something is not as it should be. I long to throw off pain, evil, suffering, death–things that are as much a part of life as birth, breathing, and a beating heart. So why should I assume these things to be wrong while assuming love, happiness, and all the desirable elements of life to be right? If I am the current state of chance plus time (secular evolution), then who is to say that to breath is better than to suffocate? To love is better than to hate? To live is better than to die? If I am just a ball of meaningless subatomic particles then what I am just is. It can be assigned no value or lack of value. It just is.

However, I can’t live with this. I can’t treat death the same as life, hate the same as love, suffering the same as non-suffering. It just is not in me. It is not in anyone that I have ever met. Though I have heard of it in theory, I have never encountered it. And this fact presents a major challenge to any philosophical system or worldview that logically proceeds to this conclusion, i.e. Atheism and much Eastern thought.

I know this is a heavy tangent, but it was on my mind. What do you think?