Trampin on the Road

Stayed at a beautiful place in Castle Rock Washington while passing through. I decided to sneak onto the trampoline and give it a whirl. The pictures ended up looking so cool that I will do the next photoshoot with a guitar in my hands and use it for the album cover. Cutting edge acrobatic rock worship. Chris Tomlin meets Sigur Ros and Cirque de Soleil (and maybe Bruce Lee since I’m Chinese and have a mean sidekick).
UNEXPECTED PLACES
The nice things about living on the road are the unexpected places we end up staying at. In this case a beautiful and peaceful home in a small quiet town. Spence and TJ woke up and sat in the rocking chairs for this pic. The important element missing is the shot-gun laying across the lap or leaning against the wall next to them.
It’s difficult for me to blog while on the road. I feel like I’ve cheated people a bit in the last few weeks since my daily blog turnei hope that those of you who are reading will have sympathy and understanding of inconsistency of my life as a musician and the seasons that tend to pass my way. There are times of being home and having a regular schedule, and other times when life feels like the grand-finale of a juggling show and all the balls are thrown into the air at the same time. Nothing to stable, nothing predictable. Don’t ever expect anything consistent if you go into music for a living.

GREAT GIGS
We had a great rock set at Creationfest West in the state of Washington. Such a beautiful place to play. We had a lot of excited music fans hear our music for the time there. It was really encouraging and inspiring to see the response from the crowd. They were truly hungry for something musically different.

One of my favorite gigs so far has been at TJ’s home town in Brentwood. Thanks to his family and friends, the accommodations and help was amazing. The opening bands were a real joy too. Nobility Obliged is on tour with us for a few gigs here in California. And last night Valeri Lopez and Andrea Hamilton played a beautiful acoustic set.

A MOMENT TO BREATHE
On the way out, we stopped to enjoy the view of the gorge. After long days of touring and stressful gigs, finding a moment to connect is like swimming in an oasis after walking long desert miles in Arizona. My soul said, “thank you” for a moment to just be quiet and enjoy the voices of peace that reside in nature.


THANKING GOD
I’m thankful to be surrounded by great people and great musicians. With the economy being low and the music industry being in crises, it pushes musicians to really determine what matters. Doing music for the money is pretty much not much of an option right now. So when you’re struggling to pay the bills as a musician, you take a look at what you DO have. Last night, I got to take a look at how much I enjoyed the music and musicians all night. And how grateful I am to doing something meaningful, playing music that reaches my soul and is honest. I thank God for the people in the band. And most of all, my wife who is at home praying for me and supporting me in my music. We may end up spending most of our cash on $5/gallon gas on this tour, broke with bills to pay. But we are surrounded by the things that we love and feed our souls.