Life has certainly been a whirlwind for Hannah and I lately, but fortunately that's a wonderful thing! I've been busy working, which has included helping my boss, David Allen, in his campaign for Mayor of our wonderful little town. Despite the added work of the election, he has been very gracious in allowing me the time to push forward with the album. He's been involved in various capacities to make The Sun Still Rises possible, earning the title of Executive Producer.

As far as work is concerned, I have also been looking into a possible part-time worship leader position at a local church. Hannah and I visited a couple weeks ago, and then last Sunday were invited to lead the service. It's been nice to take a break from live performance/leading for the past year or so. Now it is refreshing to be back to share, and we are thinking and praying about this decision.

On the album side of things, I've spent many evenings with Lendell to work towards finalizing the mix. For all of you audio nerds out there (like me!), we have chosen to use Logic Studio and are very pleased with the results. We did all of the initial recording with Pro Tools, which allowed us to go between studios easily.

Lendell and I really love the interface, features, and plug-ins included with Logic, so we figured we would migrate everything over and give it a shot. We've been quite pleased with the results. Beyond the immediate benefit of the ease of use and tools available, it has enabled me to do some of the work from home. From an early age, I have been intrigued by the process of creating an album: the recording, the mixing, the effects used, the technology, etc. It's been incredibly rewarding to not only learn, but to be able to learn on my own material.

The sheer amount of audio we have recorded can be overwhelming, but the results well worth the work. Most Wonderful is a prime example of one of these songs, as it's gone through the most revisions. This was the track we sent out as a demo nearly two years ago as an example of what the record *could* sound like. At that stage, it was comprised of: one vocal track, guitar, piano, synthesized bass, and a pre-recorded drum track. We went back and tweaked the piano and re-recorded the vocals and guitar. Then, at our second (long!) session at Lifeword Studios last year, I went ahead and slipped Most Wonderful into the itinerary. We came back with an awesome bass track (John Houser) and much better drums (Matt Outlaw). Something was still missing, and we decided we needed a full orchestra.

The fun thing about this song is that by using all these instruments, we are achieving much more interesting dynamics in the song, and a full sound that was simply not possible with just guitar and piano. The mix is most of the way done for this one, and all that remains is to record electric guitar and make a few more tweaks.

There is certainly lots more to be shared, but I am waking up in less than six hours to shoot some more pictures for the album cover. I'll try to keep the updates flowing a bit more regularly as we near completion of this two year project. As usual, your prayers are much appreciated, and feel free to get in touch if you would like to know any other details.