Date posted: June 25, 2021

6/25 – “Ready the Astronaut” Out Now!

Ready the Astronaut is out now! Stream/download the album here.

“It feels like I started this record several years ago. Probably because I did. 

The first moment of the Ready the Astronaut record happened while I was living at a farmhouse in Tennessee, separated from my second wife and on the road to yet another divorce, feeling more lost and alone than I ever had been before.  In the midst of finding a divorce attorney, trying to come to grips with shared custody, and honestly trying to find any reason to not just want to check out on the whole world, I did the thing that I’ve always done when I don’t know what to do. I started playing music. It sounds cheesy as shit. But it’s the truth. I vamped on a simple chord progression. I wasn’t trying to write. I was trying to escape. And the first words that came out were “ready the astronaut.”  It wasn’t meant to be poetic or profound, all I wanted to do was escape. To not be where and who I was. At that moment all I wanted to do was to don a space suit, wave goodbye, and head off into outer space, with the thought of never returning. The following two years weren’t easy. I had to start life over. I’d like to say that I dusted myself off and nailed it. But I didn’t. I had good moments; moments of joy and clarity and direction. But I had just as many moments of falling down gloriously; hurting and being hurt, slamming my head against the same brick walls I had so many times before. I like to think of this record as a chronicle of those two years. Of being so beaten down I didn’t think I could get up again. Of wanting to give up but of hearing my daughters call my name and having one damn good reason to keep trying. This isn’t a divorce record. Heaven knows I’ve done enough of that shit. It’s a record about failing over and over and having no clue what to do. But doing something anyways. My only hope for this album is that you find something in it you need to hear. Hope, commiseration, joy, or maybe just the feeling of knowing you’re not alone when you think you are. I will always be grateful for your amazing support. Ready the Astronaut. 

P.S. I have too many people to thank in one post. But eternal gratitude to Rishon Blumberg, Mike Meadows, Abby Gundersen, Rosie Thomas, and most of all, my producer, Adam Landry who has taken a journey with me on the last two records that I’ll never be able to thank him enough for.”