I will readily admit to being more than conspicuously absent on this site recently.

I've just been lazy and haven't been posting anything.



I chose to post today just to let you know that all is well.

Lisa and I are becoming quite comfortable in our apartment, which Lisa has begun to decorate and make feel more like a home. I realize that there is always an adjustment period, but I already feel totally at home with Lisa around all the time. Yes, we are still in the honeymoon phase where everything is great and wonderful. Personally, I want to keep it that way.



With the holidays coming upon us rapidly, I expect to be quite busy through the end of the year. I think we will be doing Thanksgiving with the Walker side of the family and then travelling to Greenville to enjoy some time with the Bonney side of her family. For Christmas, details are much harder to come by at this point. We know we will celebrate with her parents at some point, and we know we will do the same with my family. However, we are not sure of the timing of all of these things, as we do plan on going to Michigan for the Brail family Christmas celebration again this year. So we will be travelling a bit in the coming months.



Regarding the musical:

Well, "The Isle of Dreams" is still in full swing. We are still rehearsing every Friday, and we are still awaiting further news from both the record company and our production company. Progress has been made in the contract negotiations, and we feel as if we are a breath away from actually getting the contract finalized. Of course, we always hope for such news every Friday. but this week there is more of a sense of anticipation on my end than there normally is. Maybe tonight we will hear some great news. Or maybe we will wait another week. Either way, it is good that things are still moving in a positive direction.

I spent this afternoon with Michael, Mike and Josh in the studio at Mike's apartment. I watched and listened as M+M worked on the finishing touches of one of Mike's songs. It's amazing to hear how Michael can explain to you what he is hearing in a song, long before anything is laid down on a track. And it's amazing how Mike can listen to that direction and edit it that way on the computer so quickly.



We started on my song with a single track of the complete mixed accompaniment, which isn't the professional way to go about recording, but it was what we had at the time. The original, segregated tracks are on file in Nashville, so if we decide to we can send my vocal track down there for them to mix with the actual original tracks. Anyway, we worked on my song for about 3 hours total, which is not very long at all. Michael had me sing through the song uninterrupted three times, go back and sing a few phrases several more times with different licks and then had me perform the spoken parts of the song. All of this was then edited together to form what is now "my version" of "my song".



This is all very exciting, because up until this point, I have not been in the studio at all to record anything for the production. After many postponed trips down to Nashville to record my song, I finally have a copy of it in my hands. If you are lucky, maybe you'll get to hear some of it before too long. Maybe not... We'll see...



It feels like abig step of progress for me. I knnow that I will be a part of this production when everything takes off, but for so long it has kind of been a thing I am remotely involved in. Now I feel like I have contributed to the musical in a more concrete, tangible way. It's a good feeling. And it's very amazing to have a CD with my voice on it that sounds so great.



God is awesome! I am so thankful for His many blessings.