I quit my job in January. This was the longest running restaurant job I held since high school. Eighteen months. The decision felt right, spurred on by a conversation with drummer Tim Morrison about how I felt about wearing a ponytail. "I'm sick of it", I said. "I'm putting in my two weeks notice tonight." And I did. The time I spent at work on the weekends will now be spent traveling to cities in the nearby states to play shows and sell my album.

The past few shows have all been out of town. It is wonderful to play in front of a crowd full of new faces. Wonderful and terrifying. I'm far more comfortable with my ability to be myself on stage now than I was a couple years ago, but there is still no assurance that the people will like who I am.

Thoughts on my next album are constantly firing around in my head. I went into Still Waters Audio last week as a quartet(Al Sergel, Chad Lawson, and Sarah Stephens) and we tracked six songs live. Everything was happening in the room, all at once. It was exhilerating. It felt like the monster developing from each starting point was contained and breathed within the constraints of each musicians relationship to one another. We watched what we could of each other's movements and tried not to mess it all up. I'm hoping to take a similar approach when I'm ready to track for my full length album. Lately I've just been trying to think of the best place for me to do that. Chicago with Steve Albini, New York with Tom Schick or London with Ethan Johns. Texas with T Bone Burnett? Maybe it isn't up to me. The next few months will be very telling.

Oh, by the way, I'm submitting House On Fire to the Recording Academy. Best New Artist nomination next year? Who knows...