The Rabbit Room

Podcast: Interview with Under the Radar’s Dave Trout

On July 4th, 2013, Under the Radar will host its first-ever music festival. It's called Escape to the Lake and it's got more than a little of the Hutchmoot vibe to it, so we sat down with UTR's founder, Dave Trout, and talked with him about the genesis of both the UTR radio show and the Escape to the Lake weekend. [audio:UTRinterview.mp3]

Duende: Making Matthew Perryman Jones’ Land of the Living

One of our favorite records of the past year is Matthew Perryman Jones' Land of the Living, produced by Cason Cooley. (If you saw the Behold the Lamb of God tour last year you may remember Matthew as one of the special guests.) If you haven't listened his new record, go with great haste and do so. If you've already fallen in love with it, enjoy this short making-of film. If you're still on the fence, this might be just the push you need.

Duende - Making Matthew Perryman Jones' Land of the Living from SerialBox Presents on Vimeo.

Interview with Under the Radar host Dave Trout

This summer, July 4-7, Dave Trout and Under the Radar (UTR) are hosting their first-ever annual conference/music festival called Escape to the Lake on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. I wanted the Rabbit Room community to know a little more about this Hutchmoot-ish event so I've taken the opportunity to interview Dave about it. I hope our conversation will allow you to get to know him a little better as well. EP:  For those who haven't discovered UTR, what is it that you do for living? Dave:  In short, K-Love (mainstream Christian radio) isn't for everyone. And Rabbit Room readers already know this, but CCM Top 20 lists are not a really good reflection of the best art being made by Christians. So UTR began about four-and-a-half years ago to discover and share some creative, thoughtful, and truly under-appreciated songwriters who are doing their thing without much support and radio fanfare. We offer a one-hour weekly podcast of "gourmet music"---which also is syndicated on over 225 radio stations every week. But it's really more of an anti-radio program. EP:  Music is subjective.  Are you trying to get people to buy into your tastes in music? 

The Burning of the Trees

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Osage Beach, Missouri. Ben Shive is in here, too, working on a string arrangement for the upcoming CALEB record. The weather is chilly, I'm a little homesick, I'm wearing three-day jeans, all adding to a pleasant melancholy brought on by the fact that today something is ending. A story that started last January, which actually started many years before that, about a little kid from Illinois who grew up and lost his way a million times but was found a million more by God himself, is reaching its final chapter tonight. I'm glad. And, as I said, I'm feeling a little blue about it too. I'm glad because singing these songs every night has been painful. I'm sad because the little community that gathered to tell this story has been deeply encouraging and Christ-like in humility. You know, it's not just music that makes high school kids want to be in bands--it's brotherhood. It's belonging. It's that peace-giving fellowship of locking arms with friends in defiance of something. There are few things so moving as watching a team of people with diverse gifting, temperament, and background working together to accomplish something greater than any of them could do alone. It's a good picture of the church. Whenever someone says, "I want to join a band," I try to remember the word "band" is older than rock and roll. I think of Robin Hood and his Band of Merry Men, or Shakespeare and his "band of brothers." The kid isn't just saying, "I want to play some songs," he's saying, "I want to belong to something." I was that kid, so I know.

Free Music and the Lost Boy Tour

We wanted to let you all know about two things regarding Andrew Peterson's latest album, Light for the Lost Boy. 1) Andrew is currently giving away The Lost Boy Sampler, which includes 11 tracks: five songs from the album, plus a B-side called "Break It All the Way," as well as 5 acoustic tracks from the exclusive Lost Boy Demos. If you don't own the full album, this sampler is a great way to get acquainted with it, and it's a great way to let your friends know about Andrew's music. Spread the word far and wide, if you're so inclined. Click here. 2) This Thursday at 8:20 p.m. CST, Andrew is broadcasting one of the final performances of The Lost Boy Tour, with stellar musicians and great friends CALEB the Band and Ben Shive. It's only $5, and you and your friends and family can gather around a TV or computer and listen to these songs performed together live for one of the last times. We hope you'll join us. Thanks for reading!

A Different Kind of Lonely

[Stephen Lamb (no stranger in these parts) recently had an essay featured on the Art House America blog and it's too good not to share. Is it a record review? Yes, sort of, but it's also a lot more. The opening paragraphs are posted below; click over to Art House America and read the entire piece. It's great.]

The day I turned thirty, I met some friends for drinks and celebratory cigars at a smoke shop across the street from one of my favorite restaurants, an Asian bistro where the sushi bar offers a roll that uses raw filet mignon instead of rice to hold everything together. After a couple of beers, and halfway through my cigar, I responded to the question someone had posed, asking what I wanted from the future. For one, I said, I hoped I’d be married before another decade had passed. “I’m not looking for someone to take away my loneliness. I know another person won’t do that. It’s just that sometimes I think I’m ready for a different kind of lonely.”

* * * I listened to Leonard the Lonely Astronaut seven times in a row the first day I heard it. A concept album from Andrew Osenga, it tells the story of a man named Leonard, set in the year 2365. While in the process of finalizing his divorce, his wife and child are killed in a car accident. Crippled by grief, Leonard decides to volunteer to pilot a transport shuttle to a distant planet. The trip will take a year---six months there, six months back---but due to the laws of relativity and such, everyone he knows will be dead by the time he returns to earth. “I’ll make some new friends / maybe with their grandkids,” Andrew (Leonard) sings, ready for a new start, hopeful things will turn out differently this time. I loaned Andy my old 60s Rogers drumset for the project and helped him build the spaceship in which to record it (yes, you read that right), so he sent me a copy of the record as soon as he had the final mixes. A couple days after my first listen, still hitting repeat over and over, I read Terry Tempest William’s new book, When Women Were Birds: 54 Variations on Voice, in two sittings. A beautiful book, equal parts reflection on her own relationships and meditations on the ways women find their voice in a world that often says their voice is unimportant, she has this to say about her marriage: “I have never been as lonely as I have been in my marriage. I have also never been more seen or more protected.” That night, I e-mailed the quote to Andy (one of the friends who had been around the table when I’d answered that question), saying I didn’t think I could come up with a better short summary of Leonard, no matter how hard I tried. Click here to read the entire post at Art House America.

Kickstarting the New Slugs & Bugs Album

Randall Goodgame has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the production of the fourth Slugs & Bugs album. This time around the album will include 20 songs taken straight out of scripture, and it will feature specials guests like Sally Lloyd-Jones and the African Children's Choir, as well as a passel of others. Check out the video and visit the Kickstarter page for all the details.

Slugs & Bugs Kickstarter Video from The Rabbit Room on Vimeo.

Take Up Your Spade

On a recent afternoon, I had the chance to break bread with several friends here in Nashville. (Actually, we broke chicken tenders.) The conversation was lively, but it was the lingering moments outside, after nearly everyone had left, that stirred me most. Russ Ramsey asked me what I was writing lately, and instead of answering the question, I updated him on the latest freelance assignments I'd been given. He politely listened to my answer and then asked me again, "What have you been writing lately?" I told him about the essays and ideas I'd been planning to write as soon as I cleared my slate. Simply put, I gave him an embarrassingly short progress report. After lunch, I went back to the Rabbit Room office and sat down with Pete Peterson to discuss some future ventures for the site. The conversation turned again to my own writing and the exact same thing happened, another gentle nudge reminding me to dig for what is meaningful. Twice in the same day, I'd had someone push me to move beyond immediate tasks for the sake of something meaningful.

Table Talk: Randall Goodgame (with Buddy Greene)

Randall Goodgame has a new Slugs and Bugs record in the works and it's going in a whole new direction. We sat down with him to hear what he had to say, and before we knew what was happening, Buddy Greene walked in the door and kicked up a hootenanny.

Table Talk: Randall Goodgame (with Buddy Greene) from The Rabbit Room on Vimeo.

Nothing Is Wasted: Thoughts On A Music Video

I’m grateful to be able to announce the official "Nothing Is Wasted" music video! Several weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how “Nothing Is Wasted” came to be chosen as the next single and why a new mix was made for radio.(You can read that here.) Once it was decided what the next single would be, our talk turned to what kind of concept would shape the video to accompany it. We decided to gather the team who brought “Remind Me Who I Am” to life: Doug McKelvey and Darren Thomas as well as Jonathan Richter, whose art I’ve admired for years (check out Doug and Jonathan’s remarkable collaboration, “Subjects With Objects”---a book of Jonathan’s paintings and Doug’s interpretations). The idea was to create a miniature world with scenes of brokenness and loss that I would sing over as an outside observer. As we talked about what kinds of symbols to use in our wasteland, we hoped to strike the balance of images that were not too obvious or heavy handed but that still had emotional resonance.  We brainstormed a list of visual elements we hoped would gently evoke loss and regret.