My a’cappella group is unreal!

I’ve watched The Sing Off intermittently over the past two seasons. I was in an a’cappella group while in college and LOVE a’cappella music. Seriously. Sometimes that becomes apparent in our backing vocals on the records. I just can’t help myself.

I’ve always said that my a’cappella group from college was as good, if not better than all of the groups that have been on the show. Turns out I wasn’t just a proud alumnitone, I was right!

I give you The Deltones!

I’m so, so, so happy for my friends. I haven’t even been able to watch the full episode yet because I haven’t had the best internet access over the past few days.

Avi Amon is the bass in the group and he actually played the piano parts on Faint Not, This is Just So Beautiful, and Through Your Eyes. I love Avi. He lived across the hall from me freshman year and is truly the reason I joined the Deltones. I remember our conversation vividly. Avi asked me if I was a singer. I said yes and he invited me to the auditions that evening. I didn’t even know what a’cappella was at the time. I remember the current group performing for us during auditions and my jaw hitting the floor in pure amazement. They were incredible.

I’ll stop gushing now. Just watch the video. You’ll thank me later.

We’re headed back to Milwaukee this afternoon after spending a total of 24 hours here in Texas. The show last night at Common Grounds was ridiculously fun. So many of you came out in the 90+ degree weather. Tyler literally looked like he’d jumped in a pool. Crazy. But awesome.

Tomorrow we’re headed for Chicago. We actually have a night off in the city. Any suggestions as to what we should do? A trip to Giordano’s might be in order.

 

Photo Update

We’re blown away by this tour.

Seriously.

Last night in Minneapolis we had the privilege of playing to 230 of you. We’ve always loved Minneapolis, but now we love it even more. We had no idea what to expect last night. We were worried that there might be 20ish people at the show. Needless to say the show exceeded any expectations we may have had.

And the thing is…the entire tour has been this way. Little Rock, Springfield, Raymore, Des Moines, Minneapolis…every show has been incredible. We’ve been tired and sick. The Lord has truly strengthened us. I cried in our hotel bathroom this morning. We are so blessed.

I thought I’d post a few pictures.

Latte art in Dahlonega, GA. Mine was the cat!

Beautiful country side in Boiling Springs, NC

Our host made us incredible chicken enchiladas and brought a drum back from Africa for us!

Amazing! If we had space in our place and this wasn't in Kansas City, we would've totally snagged this treasure.

Hanging out in Minneapolis

The set up for the show in Minneapolis. They went all out and made the stage so pretty for us!

House Show in Shelby, NC

This is what a house show looks like. You should probably come to one.

House Show in Shelby, NC

Sound check at Carson-Newman

Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN

That’s all for now.

Touring!

It is blowing my mind that we are nearly half way through September. How did this happen? I feel like an old person talking about how fast time passes, but it really does feel like time speeds up when we’re traveling. We’ve been on the road now for a week and it has been awesome. We played a house show in Greensboro, NC that was unlike any other house show we’ve ever played. Imagine 55 people packed into a den full of smiles with homemade (yes – from scratch!) vanilla cream filled chocolate cupcakes, lemon buttercream cupcakes, caramel apple bites, vanilla cake truffles, and even more deliciousness. Our lovely host Millie is apparently a fantastic baker, and she put her talent to good use for us.

Oh, and the music was fun too!

The next day we made our way to Shallotte, NC and played a show with our friend Jason Gray, whose new record happens to be out today and is fantastic. Go get it. I stuffed my face with cucumbers and learned some new warm ups from Jason pre-show. The audience that evening was amazing. I love it when we play new places. I really doubt anyone there (other than the College Life crew from Greensboro that happened to be retreating down in Ocean Isle that weekend) had ever heard of us, but they welcomed us warmly and treated us like old friends.

After sharing some songs at a local church on Sunday morning, we spent the afternoon at the beach! I knew that the weather last week was teasing us. It was probably 85 degrees. The water in NC is incredibly warm and Tyler helped me ride a few waves. He’s so patient with me. I am by no means an accomplished body boarder or surfer. In fact, I’m not a very strong swimmer. He pulled my board along as he paddled out into the waves so that I wouldn’t get too tired, and pushed me into each wave I caught.

Last night we played a house show for some Gardner-Webb students here in Boiling Springs, NC. Tonight we’ll be sharing songs at the University. In just a little while we’re headed over to the dining hall for lunch with new friends. Now that we’re finished with college, we really appreciate dining halls. Seriously. There is so much to choose from! And we don’t have to cook it or clean up after ourselves. The whole concept is really quite amazing.

Anyway, there’s a play by play of what we’ve been up to. I leave you a photo of me with a kitty I met while at Asbury University. Such a sweet kitty he was.

Song For You Video!!! It’s finally here!!!

Woohoo!

We are so excited to share this video with you. I don’t think I can adequately express just how pleased we are with the final product. The video features my pretty sister Karen and her husband Kevin Kerno. We didn’t realize just how similar Karen and I look until we began the editing process. All that to say, don’t be alarmed, I’m not in two places at once. The beautiful girl at the beginning is in fact Karen. We hope you enjoy!

 

In other news, we hit the road early on Tuesday morning and made our way up to Asbury University. I did not anticipate the cold rain and have spent the past two days walking around in my toms with very wet, cold feet. But at least I’m stylin’ right? As always the students and faculty at Asbury were friendly and hospitable. Several students there took turns taking us out for food. Yes, I said students. College students. Taking us out to eat. And paying for it. We were floored. We spent just over 24 hours at Asbury and in that short time we were able to break bread with about 15 students at different times. We like to say that making music is all about relationships, and when we’re at Asbury it really feels like it’s true.

Tomorrow we make our way to North Carolina. We’ll be there for just about a week before heading to GA and then back to TN. I hope you’re drinking in Fall. I’m hoping to literally do so in the next couple days by picking up a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. Mmmmmm….

Enjoy the video!

Squirrels, Photos, and Food.

Good morning friends, and a happy labor day to you! It’s 60 degrees and raining here in Nashville, which is actually quite lovely. I’m a fan of the break in the heat. However, I’m sure the weather is just playing with us. It’ll be back in the 80s before we know it.

Yesterday was such a good day. First, and perhaps most importantly, we spotted an albino squirrel on our way home from church. My sister in law had mentioned the existence of said squirrel a few months back, but I figured albino squirrels were mythical creatures. It’s just too weird, right? Well, I was wrong. This squirrel was literally completely white. Quite striking, and a bit startling. Really cool.

After the squirrel sighting, we made our way to a photo shoot out in Franklin. The rain was coming down in sheets on our way there, and we both figured the shoot would be canceled. But it seems that we do some of our best work in inclement weather. The shoot was great. We had the grounds of Dark Horse Studio to play with. I’m so excited to share some of the photos with you. And the photographers will probably be our new best friends very shortly. I love it when that happens.

Last night a couple of our friends came over for curry. We had homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and brownies for dessert. I’m really pleased with my ice cream maker. I’ve made vanilla, chocolate, vanilla frozen yogurt, and chocolate chip cookie dough so far, and they’ve all been delicious. For the cookie dough I literally added cinnamon to a vanilla base, whipped up half a batch of cookie dough, and mixed it all together. Well, not all of the cookie dough. But having a little extra for some warm cookies was an added bonus.

Food, photos, and squirrels. And friends of course.

Tomorrow we roll out bright and early and make our way to Asbury University. In addition to playing a show and leading worship at chapel, we’ll be teaching a couple songwriting classes. Teaching a class seems like such a grown up thing to do. Last night I looked at Tyler and said, “Promise me we’ll never grow up.” He agreed.

Hope to see some of you at Asbury and in NC and TN this week! Come say hey!