A bigger baby...

I went to visit my friend Amy in the hospital this week after she gave birth to her son Braxton. Holding that teensy baby in my arms, I couldn't believe Eli was ever that small. Before I was a parent, I would hear people talk about how fast their children grow up, and I always thought they meant it in a figurative way...kind of like saying that time flies, even though it actually just ticks along at the same rate for everybody. Now I see that it's really true...Eli is changing SO quickly right before my eyes. One day he is smiling. The next day it turns to a laugh. Lately he's been learning to make growling noises which confuses the dog who is already scared of him.

I guess I thought Eli would remain in that bundled up and cradled infant stage for a lot longer, but it seemed to pass in a matter of weeks, and now he sits up (with help) and rolls over (by himself) and glimpses of a distinct personality are beginning to emerge.

Today I finally found a few moments, while he's napping in his swing in front of me, to post some new photos to the Flickr page. We're starting to get outside a bit more these days. Eli loves his big polka-dotted play mat given to him by his Aunt Laura. We find the only shady spot, under a big tree on the farthest edge of the yard, to lie down and listen to the birds for awhile.

Now Eli is waking up. He just pulled his green blanket up over his face and is chewing on the tag and peering up at me. So we're off and running again...

RCVRIE. [*UPDATED]

[*Update]
Recovery is now available for Pre-Order via Jeremy's website...and when you pre-order, you'll be able to download the complete album and hear it right this minute! Also check out the fun "Making of Recovery" video.



Jeremy's new album, Recovery, is releasing on May 22nd. We are both very excited about this project. It's been a long time in the making---many pots of coffee and toiling away into the nighttime hours to get it just right, but at last it's finally finished.

I am so proud of Jeremy's accomplishment, especially considering that he not only wrote the songs, but also arranged the amazing orchestral parts woven throughout the album. He has always had an incredible knack for melody that comes so naturally.

I could be wrong, but I tend to think of most of the artists we know as natural poets: they sit down with a notebook and scribble out great lyrical lines with relative ease. And then the melodies come as slightly more of an afterthought. Important, yes, but intended more as the backdrop against which to showcase their eloquence.

With Jeremy, the path is reversed. He almost constantly hears music in his head. New melodies swirl around as often as his daily thoughts of what to eat for lunch. There's entire symphonies in all genres happening up there in his brain, and I often catch him pausing and staring at the ground in a temporary daze that lets me know he's creating. Lyrics come later, and are reached for with much more effort and diligence. But they always come.

In the end, this record is about uncovering. Pain & beauty. The past, the future. And most importantly, the truth.

En route to the golf course near Shelby Park in our neighborhood where I thought maybe we could find a nice patch of open space to take some photos for the album art, we passed a house that I had seen once while walking with a friend, and I knew it would be the perfect spot to capture both the beautiful and broken concepts of this record. One tree in the frame was brittle, still recovering from winter, while the other had welcomed new growth and was flourishing and green. The house was falling down, yet looking closely, we could see promise of what it might become, rebuilt from the pieces that remained.