The Rabbit Room

We All Come From Somewhere, Part 2: Stryper, Nascar, Slow Dancing, and Irony.

(We All Come From Somewhere, Part 1.) What did I think would happen? I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it. Still, what actually did happen came to me as a bit of a surprise. The concert started at 7:30, the doors opened at 6:00. At around 5:00, I stopped by the venue to buy my ticket. What did I see? A line. There was a line. Fans were already gathering so they could get right up to the front of the stage---fans wearing Stryper t-shirts and holding records they hoped to get autographed. Why did this surprise me? It wasn’t that Stryper had fans. Of course they had fans. The surprise was how willing these fans were to identify themselves as such. And even more, how unwilling I was to do the same. Lest you think I’m using Stryper or their fans as the punch line of a joke, let me explain myself. For close to a decade of my life, when I told people I was a Stryper fan it was a badge of pride. Then there came another decade where, when I mentioned liking them, people thought I was joking and I sheepishly denied it. Now I’m in a decade where people buy music, concert tickets, and t-shirts for '80s big-hair metal because they think it’s “ironic.”

We All Come From Somewhere, Part 1: Throwing Bibles and Rocking People

“We will rock the hell out of you.” –Stryper Last weekend when I heard about a certain concert happening in my city that night, I sent out a tweet that has been bugging me ever since. I twote: “I may or may not be taking myself from 25 years ago to see Stryper at the Wildhorse Saloon tonight. ‪#dontjudgeme ‪#weallcomefromsomewhere What bugs me most about that tweet is how much effort I spent qualifying something I genuinely wanted to do. “I may or may not…,” “Don’t Judge Me…” Insinuating that if I go, it’s for nostalgia. Why did I feel the need to distance myself from going to see the one band who has probably received more of my money and bedroom wall space than any other in the history of the whammy bar? For those unfamiliar with Stryper, a little history might be in order. They formed in the early 80’s, appearing on LA’s Sunset Strip music scene with other big-hair metal bands like Motley Crue, Cinderella, Poison, and Ratt. If you know these bands, you get the picture—long hair, spandex, ear rings, make-up, lots of promises to rock people—no matter where they’re from—and to rock them for seemingly unending periods of time. Stryper, from the beginning, occupied rarified air. If you were going to make it in that industry, there had to be something about you that 1) made you stand out, and 2) made people like you. With their yellow and black attire and their commitment to singing plainly about their faith in Jesus and the free offer of the Gospel, they certainly stood out. However, I expect both of those characteristics made the “make people like you” objective a little more of a battle. Why? Because lyrically and morally, they were swimming against the current of their competing colleagues’ core values.

Song Diary: Carry the Fire

Pre-order the New Andrew Peterson Record, Get Four Songs Now

The lame duck period is, well, pretty lame. The months during the making of a record are equal parts exhilarating and exhausting, and the months of touring and supporting the record are the same. But the period of time between the two, when the artwork is finished, the album is mastered, it's sent off to the presses, then packaged and shoved into a Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse to await its eventual shipment---that part is fairly maddening. I don't write songs just for my own pleasure, after all; these are for you. Sure, I may get some enjoyment out of the process, and there are residual blessings that come from the writing and production of the music, but the real thrill for me has always been the mysterious way songs (and whatever light lives in them) have the potential to find their way into the world, into your ears, and, hopefully, your hearts. That you would give them that chance is a great honor, and my great hope for the album.

Leonard the Lonely Astronaut–Fall Tour

[Editor's note: If you read this post while listening to the following song, everything will seem even more awesome.] "Antihelion" by Leonard Belle (a.k.a Andrew Osenga) [audio:Antihelion.mp3]

There's an awkward situation that every touring musician has had to deal with a few times in his career. Someone invites you to their town to play a show, they tell their friends, they find you a room, they provide a meal or two and then--not enough people come to the show and the person that was so excited about inviting you is suddenly out of a bunch of money that they'd hoped to make back on ticket sales. On top of that, the show felt like a letdown for everyone who came.

This fall I'm taking Leonard, the Lonely Astronaut on the road. I want it to be an awesome experience for everyone involved, and so I'm going to try something different. I'm trying to sell 100 tickets to each show before I "book it." This way we'll know people are coming, nobody will lose their shirt, and we can all anticipate a great show. I care too much about this record to settle for less. I want people to leave each show with an amazing memory. I've been excited about this idea for a while and put it in motion a couple weeks ago. Eric Peters has signed on to open most of the shows, which makes it even more exciting. If seeing Leonard live with a full band sounds like a fun way to spend an evening, please pick up a couple tickets. But don't stop there. Tell your friends. Promote the show. Remember: we've got to sell 100 tickets in each town in order to seal the deal (ticket price is fully refundable if we don't make the goal). We've even got promotional posters you can download for free and pass out wherever you like. Writing and recording Leonard was such an incredible experience. I've never felt more present in my own music. I don't want it to stop! I promise you I will put my heart and soul into each note of each song at each show. I can't wait to leave that stage with nothing left each night. You guys have been incredibly supportive of this project, and I couldn't be more thankful. I hope that bringing this music to your hometown honors what you've put into it. Click here to find out when I'm coming your way. And click here to download tour posters (100mb zip file containing posters for each city).

Easier (A Sneak Peek Of A New Song From My Christmas Record)

(photo by Taya Gray: Iraqi nativity made from oil barrels) In exactly five months, Christmas will be here, and so I thought today was the perfect excuse to give you a sneak peek of one of the songs from my upcoming Christmas record. The idea driving the project was to write songs either to or from key characters in the Christmas narrative, looking for a way into the story through those who lived it. After time spent reflecting on the part each of them played, I listened--curious about what they might tell me about themselves and even what they might tell me about me. My time spent with them was rewarding, and in their stories I saw my own story surface repeatedly. That’s how it works, isn’t it? We find we are never all that different from one another—no matter where or when we come from. I had several ideas for the story of the wise men, but one day when Joel Hanson and I were working on an entirely different song, I started noodling around, playing this little guitar progression that seemed to be asking for our attention. We followed it and it led us to this song.

Song of the Day: Ben Shive

Brian Wilson's fingerprints are all over Ben Shive's The Cymbal Crashing Clouds and perhaps nowhere are they more apparent than in "Sorry But I'm Yours." Here's an excerpt from the Cymbal Crashing Clouds companion book (which is amazingly awesome) in which Ben talks a little about the song:

My poor, timid voice wants only to live a quiet life, tending little gardens of conversation. But instead he is made something of a sideshow, rudely shoved in front of microphones and made to sing my songs. But imagine my frustration. I work hard writing these things. Often they take years. Then I open my mouth and I'm something like the inverse of the singing frog in the cartoon. You see a man, but all you hear is "croak, craok." I thought it was time we got some counseling. And I decided he should go first. So I wrote him a song of apology to sing to me from stage, and it has been surprisingly therapeutic for both of us. The phrase "I'm sorry, but I'm yours" could be taken to mean "I know I'm a hopless case, but at least I'm loyal," or it could mean "I hate to break it to you, but the fact is that you are stuck with me." Whichever you prefer.

"Sorry But I'm Yours" Ben Shive The Cymbal Crashing Clouds [audio:SoSorry.mp3] Use the coupon code "Cymbals" to get $2.00 off the album or the book (or the combo!).

Rabbit Room Live (in Space): Andrew Osenga

Andrew Osenga is getting ready to take Leonard, the Lonely Astronaut on the road with a full band. If you haven't ever seen Andy O play a show with a full band, you're in for a treat. And on top of that, he'll have Eric Peters with him to deliver Birds of Relocation to the masses. I can't wait to see this concert, and you shouldn't wait either because the show is only coming to towns that sell at least one hundred tickets. Click here to visit Andy's site and check out the show schedule. See how many tickets your show of choice needs to sell and then let folks in your community know. The day before the spaceship (HTV Reveille) was packed off to the scrapyard, Andy invited some friends over and played through the entire Leonard, the Lonely Astronaut album, solo-style. We were there to film it. Here's a taste. Enjoy.

Rabbit Room Live (in Space): Andrew Osenga from The Rabbit Room on Vimeo.

Andy Gullahorn Makes People Cry

More than a mere Song of the Day, it's a super-fancy Video of the Day. After you're finished laughing, use the coupon code "MakeMeCry" to get $2.00 off a purchase of The Law of Gravity, Andy's album featuring the song "Working Man." (until the end of the week).

Dreaming of A Gray Christmas

After taking a hiatus from blogging in order to focus on writing and spending time with my family, I’m dipping my toe back in the waters to give you an update on what's brewing in our world. In November of 2011, Centricity and I talked about doing a Christmas record for 2012, and as I wondered about what that would like—what kind of Christmas record I could get really excited about—I thought about a Gray Christmas tradition that involves one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors: Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner, a kind of dictionary/encyclopedia of religious words and characters that come to new life under Buechner’s observant eye. Every year I pull the book off the shelf and look up each of the characters who make an appearance in the Christmas story, and every year I’m moved by the humanity of these people who find themselves unexpectedly caught up in the middle of The Greatest Story Ever Told. With all that has muddied the waters of the meaning of Christmas in the years since "redemption ripped through surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe," it’s been good for me to be reminded that it actually happened, once upon a time, in a certain place, in the lives of very real people who look much like myself.