Journal and Journey

Tangled Blue News - November 2010

2010-11-14T15:56:00.001-06:00

Hello friends,

A foot of heavy snow fell yesterday. It snapped more than a few tree branches, transformed our neighborhood into a beautiful, white mess and left my shoulders in knots after shoveling our walkways and driveway. All in all I’d say the snow’s an improvement. After all of the bright maple leaves fall and there are only a few brown stragglers clinging to the oaks, it’s nice to get this blanket of white. Aimee and I have been taking turns being sick for most of the fall, and it’s put a real crimp in our recording time. It has left us both feeling very tired. Restful sleep has been hard to find but last night brought my second full night of sleep in a row! It feels like we are both finally getting healthy, and it’s just in time. We leave for three weeks of travel through Colorado and South Dakota on Wednesday. We are looking forward to our second trip through the Rockies in 2010 and the work ahead of us.

Since my voice has been A.W.O.L. I’ve been taking a bit of time on a project I’ve wanted to tackle for years. I’ve been putting every CD we have into iTunes with a goal of listening to every piece of recorded music that we own. As the songs are copying onto the hard drive, I’ve put iTunes on shuffle and listened to the random playlist of my music folder (4,840 songs currently). I have a few rules I’ve set up for myself as I do this listening. 1- I will listen through the entirety of every song... no fast forwarding. 2- I will rate every song I listen to. 3- All songs receiving the lowest possible rating will be removed from my hard drive. Here’s what the random playlist brought to my ears yesterday morning:

Pierce Pettis - “Love Will Find You Again” from “Great Big World”
Bruce Cockburn - “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall” from “Stealing Fire”
Rich Mullins - “The Other Side of the World” from “Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth”
Jonathan Rundman - “Imperfection” from “Insomniaccomplishments”
Peter Gabriel - “In Your Eyes” from “Secret World Live”
The Innocence Mission - “Keeping Awake” from “Glow”
Bruce Rundman - “Quiet Sound” from “True North”
Keith Green - “Cut the Devil Down” from “The Ministry Years”
Collective Soul - “Full Circle” from “Disciplined Breakdown”
Sufjan Stevens - “Black Hawk War...” from “Illinoise”
Iona - “Reels (Live Version)” from “Heaven’s Bright Sun”
Arcade Fire - “Black Wave / Bad Vibrations” from “Neon Bible”
Wilco - “Monday” from “Being There”
Steve Sandfort - “Make Me A Vessel” from “Too Wonderful to Know”
Death To Our Enemies - “Karate Bike” from “2008 Compilation”
Fleming & John - “A Place Called Love” from “Delusions of Grandeur”
Nadia Tarnawsky - “Mavka and Lukash Reprise” from “Forest Song”
Layton Howerton - “Kirby Man” from “Boxing God”
Julie Miller - “I Know Why The River Runs” from “Broken Things”
Steve Hindalong - “Seven Colors” from “Skinny”
Galactic Cowboys - “I Do What I Do” from “Space In Your Face”
Cloud Cult - “The Girl Underground” from “The Meaning of 8”
Tangled Blue - “All Your Heart” from “Tangled Blue Live 2006-2008”
Kate Hurley - “When You Carry” from “You Are Not Alone EP”

The melody that's still ringing through my head 24 hours later is the chorus of “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall”. Yeah, “tell me who put that bullet hole in Peggy’s kitchen wall?” What have you been listening to lately? Any cool, new discoveries I should consider adding to my digital music collection?

Aimee and I have a few cool, new additions you might be interested in adding to your closet or cabinet. We are producing our first long-sleeve T-shirt. We are also producing a coffee mug. Both will be ready for shipping next week, and we are really happy with the way they’re turning out... I admit that I’ve already decided to keep a few of the mugs for our cabinet at home. To get a look at the new designs go to http://tangledblue.com or http://facebook.com/tangledbluemusic. The design on the new shirts was created by our friend Chris Roth and features an outline of Aimee’s djembe drum and my guitar filled in with the words “Tangled Blue - caffeinated folk and roll”. The mugs are hand thrown by our friend Jody Wirth and stamped with our logo. We are doing small batches of both the new shirts and the mugs to keep our costs low as we move into 2011, so if you know you want to pick these items up for yourself or as a Christmas present I’ve set up PayPal ordering buttons in the tangledblue.com store. With only 20 mugs and 50 shirts available, I expect to sell out before Christmas and reprint these designs in the spring of 2011.

Thanks for being part of our community and for your support this year. I hope we see you soon!

Under the Mercy,
Joel
joel@tangledblue.com

Tangled Blue News - October 2010

2010-10-07T08:17:00.000-05:00

I hope this finds you well. This week has been all sun and no humidity in Minneapolis. The trees are changing to red, yellow, and orange throughout our neighborhood. As I write to you I'm looking out on the vines covering our neighbors fence with beautiful scarlet leaves; this is my favorite season! Thanks to the care our garden received from friends and family while we were on our summer tour we are enjoying a huge harvest of cucumbers, green beans, squash, and three varieties of tomatoes!

I still love the travel we get to do as musicians, but after a seven week-six thousand mile summer tour it's felt good to have so many music opportunities so close to home. The last few weeks have brought us to performances on both sides of the Mississippi that are only minutes apart, reunions with college classmates and roommates (thanks for hosting us, John!), and two great youth events at camps with climbing walls and zip lines! We will enjoy another month of music making in Minnesota and the Dakotas before we head west. I’ve spent most of the day doing one of two things: one - contacting contractors to get quotes for a new roof, and two - working on plans for our tour through the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills. We still have some dates we'd like to fill in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and/or New Mexico. Anyone interested in having us add a few Advent songs to your congregations' Advent services this December? All of the details will be at the end of this email.

This week brought the completion of a project that's taken far too long. I finally finished the batik shirts for folks who pledged $50 or more to our kickstarter fund raiser this spring. Sometimes my big dreams don't fit into the typical 24 hour-a-day life, and creating 30 unique, triple dyed shirts took longer than I wanted, but the results are VERY cool. When I retire from making music, I might become a textile artist... big dreams are fun! If you are one of Tangled Blue's $50+ kickstarter supporters I will be putting your shirt in the mail in the next couple days. Thanks for waiting for me to get these shirts right; we are certainly grateful for all of the support we've received from folks this past year.

Here is where we will be performing in the coming months. I hope we get to see you soon and share a few of the new tunes we've been working on. Until then, go under the Mercy, Joel

Tangled Blue News - August 2010

2010-10-07T08:16:00.000-05:00

Where have the summer months gone? June seems like it was much more than just six weeks ago and July was a blur. It’s August; wow! Aimee and I are enjoying a week at home after almost seven weeks of constant movement. All of July and most of June was spent in either the Dakotas, Texas, or Louisiana! We enjoyed a full week in New Orleans and connected with lots of our southern friends along the gulf coast. There are simply too many highlights from these past months to pick from and not nearly enough photos to match to these rich memories... Off the top of my head, and in no particular order, here are a few experiences that come to mind:

*working with the Disciple Project students at TLU on an original song and leading a really great closing worship service with them (it included violin, viola, flute, recorder, three drummers, scads of guitars, and lots of great singers who blended beautifully)! Facebook users can view photos from this week at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115108828090

*having Rob Ticherich along to play drums for two full weeks in Texas and New Orleans!

*having Matt Goodson add his wonderful piano skills to our new liturgical pieces in worship at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in San Antonio.

*becoming God-parents to Isla Grace Anderson last week at her baptism in the beautiful Black Hills while at Outlaw Ranch.

*an evening of star gazing with Aimee in the cool, clear air of the Black Hills.

*meeting and performing for international students from Korea, Hungary, Columbia, Argentina, Germany, and Australia.

*a relaxing day on the San Antonio River Walk.

*did I mention we had a full week in New Orleans?! The combination of friends, food, and conversation were superb AND we got to enjoy the clarinet playing of the talented Tom Fischer twice while in town! You can get a glimpse of Tom’s skill here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfAYYsndt6o

*having our nephew, Nick along for part of our journey through New Orleans.

*meeting folks face to face who pledged toward our upcoming recordings on Kickstarter.

Thanks to all of the fine folks who hosted us this spring/summer in Sioux Falls, Robbinsdale, Inver Grove Heights, Minneapolis, Edina, Dickinson, Bismarck, Fargo, San Antonio, Sequin, Plano, McAllen, New Orleans, Custer, and Rapid City! You have blessed us richly; thank you!

This week at home has been a great retreat... I know, that statement doesn’t make sense for most folks, but home is a great place to retreat to after seven weeks of travel. Last summer we had a nine week tour that pushed me to the point of sickness. Aimee and I both remained healthy this summer and having this week at home is the likely difference. Our return home has included fresh veggies from our garden (Thank you to Nina, Nick, and our neighbors for watering while we were away), grilling out with neighbors, the Uptown Art Fair: http://www.uptownartfair.com/, and the Twin Cities Fringe Festival. I’m hoping to find time to take in a Fringe Fest show at the Fallout Arts Initiative titled “#Ringtone” before we leave for the next run of shows: http://www.fringefestival.org/2010/show/?id=1343

We have some performances next week in Colorado, then North Dakota, then Minnesota, then Iowa... all with a few open days in between each performance. I’ll post the details to the end of this note. Let me know if we can be part of your community this fall as we continue to refine our new songs and work on the new CD.

Thanks for making Tangled Blue part of your day.
Under the Mercy, and looking forward to the next time we see each other face to face,
Joel

joel@tangledblue.com

Tangled Blue News - June 2010

2010-10-07T08:11:00.002-05:00

I am writing to you as Aimee drives through a warm summer rain in Minnesota. We are on I-94 and will be in Mountain Time by late afternoon! If you are in North Dakota we hope to see you at our performances in Dickinson (tonight!), Bismarck (tomorrow!), and Fargo (Sunday!) this week. All of the details will be posted at the end of this newsletter. We still have a few gaps in our tour schedule we are looking to fill. We are looking for concert / worship hosts in Texas and Louisiana during the week of July 7th through July 14th. We are also looking for concert / worship hosts in Colorado and the upper midwest from August 1st through August 10th.

A BIG thank you to everyone who followed our kickstarter.com pledge drive. Thanks to your generosity we met our goal last month! The last couple weeks have been filled with the continuing work of writing and refining these new tunes for worship and collecting the rewards for the folks who pledged toward our goal. The blue iPods have been engraved with our Tangled Blue logo, and the T-shirts that I will be hand dying have arrived. We hope to send out our supporter’s rewards next week. We’ve been contacted by a few folks who missed the online pledge drive and would still like to give some support toward our new recording of songs for worship. If this describes you, here is a pledge form you can print and send into us: http://tangledblue.com/pledgeform.pdf

...speaking of T-shirts, I’ve redesigned our “con-amor” bar code logo T-shirt. It now includes a version of the icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here’s a link to an image of the shirt: http://tangledblue.com/TB4red.html and more information on this image can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart

The shirt is cardinal red and the logo is in white. I’m really into this design... so much so that I’m considering getting a tattoo of this design... though not for a while, we’ve got some debt to wipe off the slate first. You can order this shirt from the store at http://tangledblue.com.

Summer is upon us; the bumble bees are buzzing around the Veronica blossoms in our back yard and we are buzzing with excitement over the miles and melodies these days will bring. One new melody we are really looking forward to is John Hermanson's new liturgy that will be debuting at Mercy Seat Lutheran Church this Sunday evening in Minneapolis. John's music as a songwriter and as part of Storyhill, Alva Star, and The Hopefuls has been a consistent companion along our many miles of driving, so we are especially looking forward to these new tunes written around the liturgy. It's gonna be fun... you should come... details at http://www.nemercy.org/

Hopeful that we will see you soon...
Under the Mercy,
Joel
joel@tangledblue.com

Tangled Blue Spring Newsletter

2010-04-28T12:06:00.003-05:00

Aimee and I left our neighborhood in Minneapolis last week before the crab apple trees blossomed to enjoy the dogwoods of southern Illinois and St. Louis. We returned home late Monday night. My trip to the post office yesterday revealed that the trees on the parkway were in full bloom! Next to the front steps of our house there's a bleeding heart flower we planted and a number of native plants along the walkway. Most were the gracious gifts of our neighbors. They survived the winter and bloomed while we were away so that the walkway is adorned by red prairie smoke and the steps by pink and white bleeding hearts. In time, the orange and yellow day lilies and the blue spiderwort will show their colors. We may miss those blossoms as our summer fills up with performances, so I committed a few moments to stillness and enjoyed the blooming, bleeding heart this afternoon.

We spent this past week driving 1,200 miles, leading four worship services, performing three concerts, participating in a songwriters’ conference, reuniting with family and old friends, and meeting new friends. We’ve been reading Madeleine L'Engle's "The Irrational Season". A line we read on the drive has stuck to me throughout this week: "We've been promised freedom. We've not been promised independence." The more I travel, the more I know this statement is true. I might even go one further and say that true freedom only comes to those in community. Freedom and community are, at least, connected in a way that cannot be separated without greatly diminishing them both. What are your thoughts on this? I would really like to hear your thoughts. We've experienced a lot of freedom because of the communities who host us and our music. Thanks for being part of our community.

We started this little pledge drive on kickstarter.com 28 days ago and $3,560 has been pledged so far! As usual, we are honored by the great generosity of people. That's 51 percent of our $7,000 goal! There are 12 days left, and I want to take a moment to spell out exactly how this whole pledging process works... Folks use their credit card to make their pledge on our kickstarter page; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103349008/new-music-for-worship-by-tangled-blue is the address for our page. The credit card used is not charged on the day the pledge is made. The pledge amount is charged on May 10th (the day our pledge drive ends) via Amazon.com’s secure network only if we reach our goal of $7,000. One of the reasons we chose kickstarter is because the pledges are only turned into dollars if we meet or exceed our goal. If we haven't reached $7,000 in pledges by May 10th there won't be a project to fund. I think this is a good thing. Our goal of releasing at least two new recordings in the next 20 months isn't realistically achievable without financial support. Though $3,560 is no small amount of support, we'll need the full amount to bring this music into full bloom.

There is a season for everything, and we've had a lot of music springing up in us lately. If we don't meet our goal on May 10th we won't stop working on these new songs. You will get to hear them eventually, but we would like to share them with you in this season. If every credit-card-carrying reader of this newsletter pledges $10 between now and May 10th we will exceed our goal of $7,000! For folks who pledge we've set up a few rewards. These rewards are set at the same price points as they would be if you were making a purchase of our music. A $10 pledge has a reward of all of the songs in our next recording in MP3 format. A $25 pledge has all of the songs as MP3 files and a signed CD. Go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103349008/new-music-for-worship-by-tangled-blue for a complete list of all twelve rewards. I've also posted two video journals of songs that may go on the new recordings to our kickstarter page. Simply click on the updates tab on our kickstarter page to view the videos, and let me know what you think of the new tunes. I plan on posting a couple new songs to our kickstarter page in the coming week, so check back to hear more of what we're working on. One last note on this pledging thing... we've heard from a few folks that they want to pledge but they don't use their credit cards online. If you would like to pledge with a personal check please print our pledge form and send in your pledge in the coming week. The address for the pledge form is http://tangledblue.com/pledgeform.pdf

We've added a couple new performances in the coming weeks. Aimee and I will be performing as part of a larger group at the Minnesota state capitol next week, and we have some great shows planned in South Dakota. I'll end this newsletter with a full list of our upcoming performances and worship services we will be leading. Thanks for listening. I hope to see you soon.

Under the Mercy,

Joel

joel@tangledblue.com

Upcoming Performances and OPEN dates

--------------------------------------------------

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
MN Capitol National Day of Prayer - 11:30am
Minnesota State Capitol

St. Paul, MN

Tangled Blue will be part of the band performing for the national day of prayer on the minnesota capitol steps. We hope you can join us!

--------------------------------------------------

Friday, May 7th, 2010
Private concert in Sioux Falls

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Thank You Concert - 7:00pm
Univ. of Sioux Falls McDonald Center - Java City (lower level)

1101 W 22nd St
Sioux Falls, SD
605-331-5000

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Worship in Sioux Falls - 10:45am
Memorial Lutheran Church

5000 South Western Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD 57108
(605) 334-7133

We will be leading music in worship at 8:00 and 10:45 morning services. We hope you can join us.

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Concert in Robbinsdale, MN

Robbinsdale, MN

Details will be posted soon!

--------------------------------------------------

Friday, May 21st, 2010
Community Grill Out and Concert - 6:30pm
Peace Lutheran Church

4512 France Ave. N.
Minneapolis, MN 55422
763-533-0570

After eight years and 400,000 miles traveled we want to say "thanks". Admission is free. Your support is always welcomed. If you would like to help make this concert a success please invite your friends and consider pledging toward our next recording project at kickstarter.com by May 10th.
Grilling starts at 5:30 / music starts at 6:30
Please bring your lawn chair, an item to grill for yourself/family and a dish to share with all. Peace Lutheran Church will provide the beverages. A playground is available for children. If it rains the concert will be moved inside. Call (763) 533-0570 for more information.

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, May 30th, 2010
Worship in Inver Grove Heights - 9:30am
Emanuel Lutheran Church

2075 70th Street East
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55077
(651) 457-3929

We will be leading all of the music in the worship service. We hope you can join us!

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, June 6th, 2010
Worship in Edina - 10:45am
Cross View Lutheran Church

6645 McCauley Trail West
Edina, MN 55439
(952) 941-1094

We will be performing some tunes in the 8:15 and 10:45am worship services. We hope you can join us!

--------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
OPEN in North Dakota
mailto: info@tangledblue.com
We are looking to schedule a performance in North Dakota. Contact us if you would like to schedule a concert in your home town!

--------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 10th, 2010
Concert Dickinson, ND - 6:30pm
Redeemer Lutheran Church

711 10th. Ave. West
Dickinson, ND 58601
701-483-4463

Free Admission! This is the closing program for a Children's Vacation Bible School. The program with the kids will be from 6:30 to 7pm and a full Tangled Blue concert will follow (beginning around 7pm). We hope you can join us!

--------------------------------------------------

Friday, June 11th, 2010
Thank You Concert - 7:00pm
Boneshaker Coffee Company

1501 Mapleton Ave.
Bismarck, ND 58503
701-530-0850

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, June 12th, 2010
OPEN in North Dakota
mailto: info@tangledblue.com
We are looking to schedule performances in North Dakota from June 12th through June 17th. Contact us for more information!

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, June 19th, 2010
North Dakota District Lutheran Woman's Missionary League Convention
http://www.nd-lwml.org

Bismarck, ND

Tangled Blue will be performing on June 18th and 19th. More information is at the North Dakota LWML web site.

--------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 24th, 2010
North Dakota District Youth Gathering
Jamestown College

Jamestown, ND

This event is from June 24th through 26th. More information is at the above web site.

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, June 27th, 2010
Disciple Project 2010
Texas Lutheran University

Sequin, TX

This event is from June 27th through July 1st. More information is at the above web site.

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Worship in Plano, TX - 9:45am
Resurrection Lutheran Church

1919 Independence Parkway
Plano, TX 75075
(972) 867-0460

We will be leading songs in worship. We hope you can join us!

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, July 11th, 2010
OPEN in the southern states
mailto: info@tangledblue.com
We are looking to schedule concerts and lead music in worship services in OK, TX, and LA from July 5th through July 16th. Contact us if you would like to host Tangled Blue in your community!

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA
We will be performing at the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod National Youth Gathering on July 18, 19, and 20. We will post more details soon!

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, July 25th, 2010
Guest Artists @ Outlaw Ranch
Outlaw Ranch

Custer, SD

We will be the guest artists at Outlaw Ranch from July 25th through the 30th.

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Concert in Rapid City, SD - 7:00pm

Rapid City, SD

details will be posted soon!

--------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Concert in Littleton, CO - 7:00pm

Littleton, CO

Details will be posted soon!

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, August 15th, 2010
OPEN in August
mailto: info@tangledblue.com
We are looking to schedule concerts and lead music in worship services in August. Contact us for more information.

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday, September 12th, 2010
Concert in South St. Paul!
Concordia Lutheran Church

255 West Douglas Street
South St. Paul, MN 55075
(651) 451-0309

We are still working on the start time and details for this one. We will post them soon!

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Jr. High Youth Retreat
Lutheran Lakeside Camp

2491 170th St.
Spirit Lake, IA 51360
(712) 336-2109

This event is from the evening of Sept. 17th through the morning of the 19th.

--------------------------------------------------

Thursday, October 21st, 2010
North Dakota District Youth Gathering
http://ndyouthonfire.org

Fargo, ND

This event is from October 21st through 23rd. More information is on the above website.

--------------------------------------------------

An Exercise in Thankfulness

2010-04-08T14:42:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,

Just a quick note with some thoughts, a question, and few new upcoming concerts. I woke up this morning thinking about some of the music and relationships that have moved me, so I started this list. I was tempted to paw through our CD racks downstairs to jar my memory, but decided it would be a better exercise to simply list the musicians who come to mind. Here are the first forty in the order that they came to my mind...

Rich Mullins

Night Ranger

David Wilcox

Bruce Cockburn

King’s X

Lost And Found

Aaron Strumpel

Tracy Howe

Charles Wesley

Over The Rhine

Storyhill

Billy Crockett

Pierce Pettis

Jonathan Rundman

Phil Madeira

Ashley Cleveland

Buddy Miller

Julie Miller

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Glen Phillips

Antonio Vivaldi

John Mellencamp

John Gorka

Cloud Cult

Collective Soul

Peter Gabriel

Prince

Paul Simon

Fleming and John

Lenny Kravitz

Bill Mallonee

Death Cab for Cutie

Bruce Springsteen

Martin Sexton

Kurt Elling

Everything but the Girl

The Choir

Blaine Howard

Harry Belafonte

If you were to make a list like this who would be on it?

As we’ve been preparing for this next recording, We’ve been thinking about how we can thank folks who pledge toward our goal of two new recordings in the next 20 months. We’ve decided to schedule a series of “Thank You Concerts” for folks who pledge via our kickstarter.com page. These five concerts will be open to anyone who pledges $10 or more... honestly, I can’t imagine turning folks away from an evening of shared experience. We will open these concerts to everyone, but your support is always welcomed. The dates and locations are at the end of this message and I will be posting more details as soon as they’re set. It will be helpful to know in advance if you can come so that we make sure there’s enough room for everyone. If these shows aren’t close to you, we’d love to organize a concert in your area. Contact us for more info.

As you may know, pledges toward our goal at kickstarter.com are not processed unless we reach our goal, so these Thank You Concerts may be completely free if we don’t reach our goal by May 10th. That’s OK. We make music because this is what we are called to do. With eight years and 400,000 miles of your support behind us and many more ahead, it feels like the right time to say “thanks”.

Under the Mercy,

Joel

joel@tangledblue.com

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103349008/new-music-for-worship-by-tangled-blue

Thank You Concerts:

Friday, April 23 - St. Louis, MO - more info. will be posted soon at tangledblue.com and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113516565340653

Saturday, May 8 - Sioux Falls, SD - more info. will be posted soon at tangledblue.com and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115892525089428

Friday, May 21 - Minneapolis, MN - more info. will be posted soon at tangledblue.com and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116055051744484

Friday, May 28 - Eau Claire, WI - more info. will be posted soon at tangledblue.com and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116240555054490

Friday, June 11 - Bismarck, ND - more info. will be posted soon at tangledblue.com and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116029545075146

Tangled Blue News - April 2010

2010-04-03T10:56:00.003-05:00

Hello,

I am writing to you from somewhere in the middle of somewhere. It’s mid-morning on Easter Saturday. Half way between the time when the sun refused to shine and when the Son will rise again. This feeling of being somewhere in the middle of somewhere, this Easter Saturday-ness is a place I’ve been found in often these days. It seems that tomorrow can’t come soon enough. As often happens a song from my youth comes to mind (August of 1986 to be specific... I was twelve): “Oh, we’re half way there; oh, livin’ on a prayer...”

I know that there is work to do here, today, but I am eager for tomorrow. Some of the work coming today will be really fun: I’m scoring a four part vocal arrangement of a song for worship services at Trinity Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, WI. Some of the work is boring and a bit tedious: doing the dishes. Part of me is really looking forward to the day (dishes and all), and another part just wants to forget about the dishes and watch the “Fringe”. Where do you find yourself today? Are you feeling, like me, that we are, together, this whole world on the verge of something big? I mean, life changing, Easter-y, kinda big! “...take my hand, we’ll make it I swear. Oh, livin’ on a praye r.”

Well, thanks for listening to me wax a bit nostalgic in that opening. Aimee and I are well. The trees are starting to bud around our Minneapolis home. It’s been in the 70’s this week so we grilled out four times. We had a meal with each of our neighbors and enjoyed the kind of conversation that comes with an open sky and warm air.

April has us leading worship music in Eau Claire, WI and Webster Groves, MO and May is bringing with it house concerts in South Dakota and more worship music around the Minneapolis area. We still have a few open spaces between now and when our summer tour takes off in June. Let me know if you’d like us to come and share some music in your community this spring.

The big news I want to share with you is that we’ve started to work on our next recordings! We will be cataloging the recording process in a more intentional way this time around and will be creating some video diaries of the songs as they come into being. We’ve already posted the first introductory video, and will post the first song video in the next day or so. We are utilizing a service called kickstarter.com to help us raise the funds for these new recordings and place these videos online. Our goal is to put a new video journal online every couple days throughout April. Here’s the address at which you’ll be able to find all of the new video journals: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103349008/new-music-for-worship-by-tangled-blue

Making plans about how these new songs will be recorded, has made us also look back on how we got here. For eight years you have supported us with your encouraging words, and with more than words, sustained our livelihood by purchasing our music for your own collections and inviting us into your communities to perform our “folk and roll” blend of caffeinated hymnody. Thank you! We are, once again, as always, going to need your help to make Tangled Blue - version 2.0 happen. We have four distinct recording projects in the works, and a goal of releasing at least two of them in the next 20 months. This is a huge (never before achieved by us kinda) goal. We’ve never been able to complete a recording project in less than two years, but I’m confident that with your help we can get these new recordings out with both quality and speed. All of the details are on the kickstarter.com page I posted above, but there’s one detail I want to especially mention. Our kickstarter.com page has tools set up to easily send info. to your facebook page or send an email to your friends with a link back to us. If you and your friends are moved by the songs we are posting on kickstarter, I am confident we will be able to meet our goals.

Thanks for walking with us. We are looking forward to the conversations these new songs will bring. We hope to see you soon!

Under the Mercy,

Joel

joel@tangledblue.com

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103349008/ new-music-for-worship-by-tangled-blue

http://www.tangledblue.com

PS - Upcoming Tangled Blue Performances and Open Dates can be found at tangledblue.com

Tangled Blue News - October 2009

2009-10-19T00:29:00.002-05:00

It's been far too long since I've sent out a proper update, and this shouldn't be counted as one. It's 10:44 on a Sunday night and my eyelids are already heavy. We've had a good day of church, family, and football... made me feel almost normal, like I hadn't spent the majority of the last three months crisscrossing the country. We were in central and western New York for the first half of October and watched the leaves change as we drove some new roads to new destinations. There's something about Fall that draws my pen to paper more than the other seasons. As Aimee napped in the passenger seat I would take in the brilliant burning hillsides and let the words knock around until a pattern would start to take shape. Maybe the best of these driving/writing hours yielded this simple idea: Home is nowhere near, but Home is somewhere here between your hand in my hand.

I've been thinking a lot about community lately. How it is a necessity for us. How we've found it with new friends and old friends alike. Thanks for being part of this strange non-geographic, in the moment, on (the road) again, off (to the next) again, community that's supported us over these 380,000 miles. We have a few shows left in 2009 and a few open weekends. If you would like to host us in your hometown, we'd like to come.

I hope to see you soon!

Under the Mercy,

Joel

joel@tangledblue.com

Juice Journey - Day 22

2009-05-25T05:38:00.003-05:00

Well, I haven't been very faithful about posting updates. The juice fast has gone exceptionally smooth this year. After the initial four days of kicking the caffeine habit and the over-eating habit, I've felt great! We were out on a walk a couple days back. As we walked by a local restaurant I suddenly had a craving for pizza. I didn't feel hungry, but it was a strong desire to go through the act of savoring solid food, of chewing and swallowing. It's Memorial day weekend. Yesterday we got together with two groups of friends. The afternoon was a cookout and the evening was Famous Dave's BBQ carryout. I was spared from the cravings of a couple days ago and free to really enjoy the smells and conversations of the day.

Last week we had record heat in Minneapolis. Two days of mid-nineties in May! These were also the two days that Aimee and I spent outside landscaping our front yard, chopping down bushes and making planters with close to 60 large retaining wall blocks. It was really tiring work. Normally I would have really felt the heat. I hate hot weather. I'll take 45 and sunny over 90 and sweltering any day. But as we watched the evening news that first night I was surprised to hear of the record breaking temperatures we'd been working in. The only explanation I have is that we've both lost a bit of weight on this fast, so we have a thinner layer of insolation. I think I remember reading that the fasting process also lowers your body temperature... we have not located our "Detox Diet" book in our boxes yet, so I can't look up the exact quote.

Well, that's all for now. We've been enjoying some tropical fruit combos this past week. Freshly juiced mangos and strawberries make the brightest orange color I've seen. Another great discovery has been the addition of Trader Joe's light coconut milk (just coconut milk and water in a can) to almost any fruit juice.

Juice Journey - Days 3 & 4

2009-05-07T20:23:00.004-05:00

Yesterday (day 3) was a break through day. I was again dealing with hunger and struggled with staying focused, but the headache was gone. The morning walk helped wake me up. By the evening my concentration was returning, and I was able to get two hours of audio mixing in on the computer. We watched a documentary yesterday about San Francisco mariachi musicians in the Mission District. It's called "Romantico". One of the musicians in the film talks about as a child going to school hungry. He completed the first grade, after which he left school to help the family earn money for food. Fasting helps me understand the physical part of hunger, but even now I can walk into the kitchen and prepare a small feast. I have no idea how terrifying it must be to be hungry and not know when I might eat again. The hunger these past couple days really wrecked havoc on my ability to focus. I can't imagine how scary it would be to add desperation to the physical hunger of these past few days.

Breakfast on the morning of day three was a pineapple, banana, orange smoothie; lunch was a strawberry, banana, orange smoothie; dinner was a strawberry, mango, orange smoothie. We had tea in the afternoon, and Aimee made some frozen juice popsicles that we enjoyed in the evening.

Day four began after a good night's sleep. This is the best sleep I've had since I got off the coffee-juice. I've been waking up with a bit of a low back ache since day three. I haven't done anything stressful to my back, so I'm guessing that it has to do with the fast. I know a lot of nerves come off of the spine in the lower back to service the intestines (you learn a few things as a chiropractor's son). Today was pretty easy. I'm feeling much less hungry. I did some music work this morning then went looking for affordable retaining wall blocks at the local Menard's... a mostly fruitless effort. We enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood in the early evening. The crab apple trees are in full bloom and the sweet scent of their blossoms are on every block. Speaking of scents, I really stink. One of the things that always happens when we fast is that our B.O. reaches a whole new level of skunk-atude. I don't remember why this is, but when you fast your body starts dumping all of the toxins you've been building up. Those toxins tend to come out in your sweat, breath... well, most places... so I really stink. It's time to implement a "as many showers as needed per day" rule. Not that there has ever been a rule against multiple showers. The first time we fasted my hands got what I can only describe as a gunky film that would return within an hour no matter how much I washed them. It made guitar playing really difficult. Bet this makes you really want to fast too, huh!

Breakfast was fresh orange and grapefruit juice. Lunch was a spicy V8 with lemon and onion salt. Dinner was Cranberry juice. The evening activity was the 9:50 screening of the new Star Trek movie at our local multi-plex which still cost us $19 without the soda and popcorn... live long and prosper!

Juice Journey - Day 2

2009-05-06T11:23:00.003-05:00

Day 2 was a much better experience. My headache was minimal, but my hunger pangs were HUGE. I found it very difficult to concentrate. I couldn't seem to stay on one task for more than 30 minutes before my hunger distracted me from the task at hand. I can really see how hunger effects how a kid is able (or not able) to learn in a classroom. If I didn't know that I was putting myself through this on purpose, I might think I was going a little crazy, and a kid might not have the vocabulary to express any of this... a teacher with a hungry kid in the classroom has a tough day ahead of them... If I was in that situation, I think I'd start packing apples and bananas into every desk drawer.

We had a banana, strawberry, blueberry, pomegranate smoothie for breakfast, a Spicy V8 with lemon juice for lunch, and a pineapple, strawberry, and coconut milk smoothie for dinner. We went for a walk after dinner and went to bed early. I woke this morning without a headache. It's sunny out, but rain is in the forecast, so we are going for a walk this morning.

Juice Journey - Day 1

2009-05-05T07:28:00.004-05:00

Day one of our juice fast was yesterday. I thought about writing last night, but the lack-o-caffeine headache hit me really hard. Harder than it has on any of our past fasts. I'll start at the beginning of the day... I was able to work all morning long mixing another band's album. We had a raspberry and orange smoothie, and a cup of herbal tea for breakfast. I was feeling drowsy all morning and as I was doing the dishes around noon I started getting really light headed. Throughout yesterday afternoon I had a mild headache; Aimee's was much worse. We had a late lunch smoothie of strawberry, banana, and soy milk. The headaches were starting to really get to us both so we took a short nap and went for a walk around six. Being outside helped a bit. We returned home around eight and made a mango and orange smoothie. By ten o'clock my headache as full blown. I gave in to it and took two ibuprofen. The headache made everything difficult, even sleep. Just standing and walking to the bathroom was a challenge. I needed to get to the bathroom because the headache made me so sick that I threw up my mango smoothie... well, at least it wasn't a mango chunky, that would have been much worse. I jumped (more like crawled) into the shower to let the hot water distract me and went back to bed. I was so worn out from the day that the headache didn't keep me up. I was asleep by eleven and slept soundly through the night.

It's now the morning of day two. My headache is still there, but it's much better than yesterday. It's time for our breakfast smoothie...

Juice Journey

2009-05-03T21:13:00.005-05:00

Aimée and I have done a juice fast for the last five years in the spring. We will start our fifth fast tomorrow, and I've decided to blog through the month to help me remember and share the experience. The first time we observed this fast we were living in Houston. We went for about 10 days; now we are fasting for a full month. The first couple days will be smoothies only. After the soft step down from solids, in the mornings we will have water and a mix of freshly juiced lemons, cayenne pepper, water and organic maple syrup. Lunch and the evening meal will be a freshly juiced vegetable and/or fruit mix, and if the hunger gets to me, water or herbal tea in the evening. At the end of the fast we will again have a day of smoothies before moving back to solid food. That's it. As part of the fast we cut out all caffeine and alcohol... I'm enjoying a small glass of distilled scottish goodness tonight. Tomorrow I become a teetotaler. The basis for this month long juice fast is a book called "The New Detox Diet" by Elson Haas.

We started this juice fast to help detoxify from a touring musicians diet that is often less than ideal. I fully expect to have a blazing headache for the next couple days as I experience withdrawl from my morning coffee addiction. Since the main purpose of this fast is to detoxify I usually avoid taking a pain reliever... After three days of feeling pretty lousy, I usually start feeling pretty good. The surprising part of the experience is that once I push through the first week I often feel more content and satisfied than I do when I'm not fasting. Maybe there's something to this whole "fasting and prayer" thing.