Writings from the Dirt Road

Talking about how we are addicted to the Internet isn’t exactly plowing new ground. However, five or six years into the “smart phone” era, artists are starting to fully ponder the implications of being connected all of the time. We all know the guy at the party or the dinner table constantly checking down to look at their phones instead of paying attention to present company. Maybe we’ve been that person. Examining this behavior further it’s not just being connected, but what these connections are telling us.

Michael Pritzl and Derek Webb each separately released albums over the past two years that were concept albums loaded with metaphors about the Internet. Each songwriter asks different questions and makes different observations while covering similar ground. What I find fascinating is that these two different artists from two different backgrounds found the same subject matter to examine and placed their fictional characters into stories weaved across a series of songs.

Sonically, the two albums could not sound more different. Pritzl’s band, The Violet Burning, sears and vibrates through electric guitars as Pritzl meticulously selects tones that bite, snarl, and then chime throughout the three CD’s. The sound isn’t a massive departure from previous Violet Burning albums but for some determined selection of sounds from the guitar. Derek Webb, on the other hand, goes for simplicity with nylon string guitar, but adds a chilling array of samples from Sacred Harp choirs. The brassy shape note cries from the choir are digitally altered behind Webb and causes hair to rise on the arms and neck when they reach crescendos.

In The Story Of Our Lives, Pritzl’s protagonist is assaulted by br0thr, constantly barraging the listener with mixed messages. br0thr gives you everything. br0thr makes you miserable. br0thr is all you need. It’s the conflicting and confusing torrent we read every day in our Twitter stream or Facebook feed, the advertisements on the corners of every web page. By the end of the first CD, the character in the album is filled with despair, even considering death as a better option leading into the second CD titled Black As Death.

While the character in The Story of Our Lives finds it difficult to cope with the neverending flood of information, the character in Ctrl finds he is unable to live without it. The songs describe a person discovering a world in his dreams and filled with sorrow when he wakes. All the person can think about is getting back into the dream world, falling asleep again, because the dreams in his slumber are so beautiful, so awesome, and so addictive. By the time the album reaches the song “Attonitos Gloria” (Latin: stunned by glory), the dream world is overwhelming, inescapable. Only a few songs later he cries out “I Feel Everything”, the flood of information is too much. Much like Pritzl’s character, he cannot take it anymore and the heartbeat in the background slows to dead tone accompanied by the Sacred Harp singing “Fare thee well, fare thee well.” Webb includes a twist in his album. There is more to the story. Earlier in the year he released a techno-inspired EP SOLA-MI. Inserted into the middle of Ctrl, the EP tells the story from the other side. A girl is asleep within a machine awaking for the first time, feeling everything for the first time. While the hero of Ctrl sleeps, the girl is alive. The hero wants to escape forever into the virtual world and the girl desperately wants to be real.

So what is the solution to all of this? Pritzl in the third album declares “Liebe über alles!” Pritzl writes that man was made for connection and communication to others, but more importantly the protagonist and all of us were created by and for worship of a Holy God. We become free of the flood of information and tune into the Spirit of God. Derek Webb postulates that there are two possible endings. Either the protagonist awakes from his dream world and accepts the work of living in the real world or he reaches singularity with the girl in the machine and remains trapped in a semi-awake world he cannot control.

Let’s not go too far and declare either Webb or Pritzl Luddites. Both are avid users of technology and use it frequently to communicate with listeners. Each one however, has realized there is a sting in the tail and these albums are a cautious warning. Find what’s important. Pursue that which is important. Don’t let the noise of others get in the way. Like every technology, online communication is constructive and destructive. We can choose to recognize our proper place like Pritzl’s character or remain trapped in slumber dreaming of being awake. Pritzl and Webb have each crafted powerful stories that I’m using as reminders in my own life.

I had a draft post written up early in August about how August is my least favorite month of the year and how this year I was going to make the best of it and force myself to enjoy the month. You know what? August was terrible. Good riddance.

The popular opinion among many of friends is that this summer can’t end fast enough and everyone seems eager to move on to fall. I don’t know if I’d say it’s been the worst summer ever for me. I mean, I didn’t get swine flu and I didn’t work 60 hours a week every week of the summer. However, it was a very up-and-down summer between the last Cornerstone Festival possibly ever, a fun but tiring trip to Walt Disney World, and saying goodbye to our cat. That’s a lot of highs and lows and it’s made me difficult to function so if you haven’t heard much from me lately that’s probably why.

Then this weekend, we took the girls to the first football game of the year. The weather even cooperated, it genuinely felt like fall. The girls alternated between “This is awesome!” and “I want to go home!” for most of the game, but I think they had a good time. I didn’t see very much of the game while keeping them occupied but it was fun (and I am glad that they are staying with babysitters for the rest of the season.) I know we are a week and a half away from the official start of autumn but it’s like even nature can’t wait to get this started. Bring it on, I say. I’ve got my coffee ready, I’m already overdosing in football, and soon it will be apple-picking and pumpkin-carving time. I’m ready for autumn.

“My wife wanted a cat and I didn’t, so we got a cat.” – Jason Windsor

We thought it would be funny to name our cats after royalty, so naturally our first cat would be Queen Elizabeth. So wore the moniker well. She roamed around the house like she owned it. We took her maybe a little bit too soon from her mother and because of that, we were mom and dad. When I was a child, my parents had a cat and that one was standoffish, but not Lizzie. Lizzie was always in the same room as you, sometimes on top of you. When she wanted attention, she was going to get it one way or another. As a kitten, she was wild, running around our apartment jumping from couch to couch, feet never touching the floor. She calmed down a little bit in her mature age and started taking to the top of the couch, surveying her kingdom from up on high.

I was a little concerned when the girls were born how the cat would take having children in the house. How would she deal with getting less attention and then as the children grew, getting pulled, punched, and swatted by toddlers? It turns out she was a champ. That cat wanted to be right in the action, cuddling with mom when she cuddled with the girls. She occasionally nipped at the girls if they stuck a hand in the wrong place, but she was patient with them. Grace grew to pet the cat often while Erin was a little bit more indifferent, but every now and then she would sneak into the girls bedroom at night and take residence on or under one of their beds.

During the last month, her health began to decline and by last week she stopped eating. We had feared the end was near and now it’s upon us. I thought we might get a couple more years, but we have been blessed with a good cat. It’s not losing a family member, (goodness knows we’ve experienced that recently enough, I’d be fine with not going through that again for a little while.) but there’s still a profound sense of loss and defeat weighing on me know. Upon losing his dog, Over the Rhine songwriter Linford Detwieler wrote “There are some who would argue that a dog’s life is insignificant. But God so often chooses to use insignificant things in significant ways. In the grand scheme, we’re all insignificant until love shows up. She was a spark for us, and life is a bit dim right now without her.”

Thank you for all the love, Queen Elisabeth. You were a beloved part of our family we will miss dearly.

Between Bare Trees- The Choir
I’m gonna bring a smile to your face
Ten thousand ways
Yes and I will embrace
New seasons
And if tomorrow the sky is gray
Well that’s okay
Even the flowers fade
For good reason
This planet turns so fast
Everything burns
Ashes to ash
But for now you are mine
And I feel so alive

Rivers of love and peace
Flowing over you and me
Slivers of silver-blue between bare trees

That old kitty is a source of stress
I must confess
I’m gonna cry nonetheless
Yes I will
If the veterinarian says
It’s for the best
I’ll find her a place to rest
On the hill
This planet turns so fast
Everything burns
Ashes to ash
But for now you are mine
And I feel so alive

Rivers of love and peace
Flowing over you and me
Slivers of silver-blue between bare trees
Rivers of light and truth
Flowing over me and you
Slivers of silver-blue between bare trees…

A couple articles for me to read and grieve…
Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist (of Over the Rhine) and their last days with their dog, Willow

Bill Simmons’ wonderful article about the last days with his dog, Dooze

In the post-processing Cornerstone phase. Sorting out all of my media (pictures, videos, music, etc.) and my thoughts. I’m reposting my blog posts from the Cornerstone Festival blog for archival purposes.

Saturday was upon us and it was finally time to say our final goodbyes. Up until today I think many people had been putting it off, enjoying the festival and pretending nothing was going to change. Today however was time to confront reality and it made emotions heightened even more than the normal “last day of Cornerstone” state. We started off the morning going to the church service at the Chelsea Gallery stage. It takes something pretty monumental to get our group stirred and out to the grounds before noon and I’d say this counts. Glenn Kaiser led the crowd in worship and then John Herrin spoke briefly thanking everyone for the years and years of good memories and hard work by everyone at the festival. Current co-organizers Scott Stanhke and Genesis Winter also took a few brief moments to thank the staff and everyone for coming this year when the band list was slashed and the stages reduced. John Thompson shared a little of his many years at the festival and then opened the floor for people to tell their stories about Cornerstone. I’m sure it only scratched the surface of the myriad of stories but people who had been attending the festival for 20-25 years told their stories as well as people who had only come for a year or two. We heard many stories of misfits, people who didn’t feel they fit in feel a sense of belonging at the festival. We heard stories of people meeting their life partners, recovering from loss, and finding Jesus after rejection from mainstream churches. Finally, they closed down the afternoon with a communion service and we all joined together for the last time to break bread and drink together.

After a short break, it was back to the music one last time. Lauren Mann and The Fairly Odd Folk started off an incredibly strong lineup on the Chelsea Gallery Stage. After their debut last year the band came back this year with even more confidence and a fuller sound. They didn’t have as much success getting people up and dancing such as at the Mike Mains and The Branches show last night probably due to the stifling heat, but I would think this kind of music would also be fun to dance to. Following them, Timbre had flown out from Russia just to be at Cornerstone for her show. Traveling for 24 hours, she sounded a little slap happy but it didn’t affect her meticulous and beautiful harp playing. She remarked that we were one of the biggest crowds she plays for every year and I couldn’t help but wonder how many other artists would say the same exact thing.

Kye Kye started the evening off with some nice trippy music. Looking at the liner notes in their CD, I was impressed with how much thought they had given to their lyrics. I’ve seen bands have scriptural references for songs before, but they had scripture references for nearly every line of each song. Josh Garrels played next and he has become such a beloved institution at Cornerstone. His song “Ulysses” from his newest album gets me every time. “So tie me to the mast of this old ship and point me home/Before I lose the one I love, before my chance is gone.” I wish I could have stayed for his entire show because it was incredible, but I had to skip out to see the moment of the festival.

Word has started to spread around the festival that there would be a Viking Funeral performed at the beach for Cornerstone Festival. As in old Norse tradition, they would set a longboat out to water and then shoot a flaming arrow at it, lighting it on fire and letting it burn (hopefully, this one without an actual body in it.) Standing on the beach, I waited for a little bit before a procession of motorcycles roared over the hill and behind it a group of kids carrying the boat singing “Amazing Grace.” As they set it out on the lake two older ladies had a conversation behind me. “It doesn’t seem a very Christian thing to do.” “Well, neither are Christmas Trees but we do that, too.” Good point. Once the boat was lit on fire it was a nice, emotional moment. Well, at least until the kids started singing “Na na na na, na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.” Like all things Cornerstone it was bizarre, only sort-of planned out, but most of all memorable.

I climbed back up the hill to the Gallery tent one last time. Thank goodness the heat was finally starting to break or I probably would have died. If there was the old Main Stage this year would we have made it through the week without heat exhaustion? Probably not. Anyways, I arrived in time to catch most of The Farewell Drifters set and they sounded great. I loved their cover of Paul Simon’s “The Only Living Boy In New York” and they even brought John and Michelle Thompson on the stage for a rollicking little song. After that, while Norma Jean was in the process of destroying the Underground Stage the band that played on the first slot of the first day of the first Cornerstone Festival closed out the last night. The Choir played their entire _Chase The Kangaroo_ album from beginning to end to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album. There was even someone that was dressed up as a Kangaroo that jumped on stage and danced during the title song forcing the band to keep straight face and finish the song. The four-piece band sounded as good as they ever have debuting a couple new songs and treating us to one last growling, noisy, ambling version of “Circle Slide.”

When the Choir finished appropriately with “To Bid Farewell” that was that. Cornerstone Festival was officially finished (at least for now) for good. I probably speak for a lot of people, but I didn’t get very emotional at the end because I was so worn out. I was honestly numb when it all ended. I think the flood of emotions will start pouring out during the next week when I’m at home unpacking and starting to realize there will be no more need to pack again. I’ll be listening to new CD’s and realizing there will be no flood of new CD’s again. That’s when it’s going to hit hard that this era of life is over.

When one era ends, hopefully another springs up and none of us know what’s next but whatever it is I wish the best to Jesus People USA. They are one of the most astonishing groups of people I know with their skill of pulling everything off skillfully while it all somehow appears like it was planned on the back of a napkin. Most of all, they’ve done this festival with the right motives and the right heart towards the artists and those that attend the festival. They get art and faith and I hope that part of Cornerstone continues on even if the festival ends. Thanks to the web team for all of their hard work getting video and photos uploaded and even supporting an infrastructure for a website in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for allowing me to have a voice and a small part in this event that I hope people look back fondly for decades and say, “Man, do you remember at Cornerstone when…..”

In the post-processing Cornerstone phase. Sorting out all of my media (pictures, videos, music, etc.) and my thoughts. I’m reposting my blog posts from the Cornerstone Festival blog for archival purposes.

I’ve been doing a good job of being adventurous and checkng out all of the stages up to this point, but today I finally succumbed to the heat. Whatever was on the Chelsea Gallery stage was good enough and that’s not a terrible thing. The day started out at the Bushnell Locker for their infamous ribeye sammiches. These are the kind of traditions I will truly miss. There may be other festivals, and Lord willing there will be some festival like Cornerstone again some day, but I have my doubts I’ll ever have a ribeye sammich again. I almost assuredly will not enjoy it with friends in a butcher shop’s break room again, for sure.

Before we bury Cornerstone though there are still two days of music left and we started the day out with Relentless Flood at the Underground Stage which had some nice shreddy guitar and a drummer on vocals. After that I caught a second performance by Doug Mains and the City Folk. They seemed an odd fit on the normally metal Sancrosanct Stage, but they drew a nice crowd and delivered a nice set of folk music.

Maron Gaffron shared a scrapbook of pictures from her Cornerstone experiences all the way back to 1985. It was a lot of fun to see pictures of her as a child (weren’t we all?) at the early festivals all the way up to last year’s festival. The Maron of today played a nice soulful set and then joined Jeff Elbel for his show. Elbel pulled out all of the stops for his last show at Cornerstone even throwing in an enthusasitic cover of Adam Again’s “Deep.” Thanks for the bag of one hundred glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls, Jeff. My children will very likely set off some epic mischief with them. Of all the shows at Cornerstone, these are the ones I am saddest to see end. Many bands I will be able to catch on tour but it’s not likely I’ll see these bands again.

I tried to go over to see Don’t Wake Aislin on the Underground Stage, but after about two songs I reached the point where I was losing my will to live due to the heat. Nothing wrong with Don’t Wake Aislin, I had heard this would be their last show but was relieved to find out it’s because they are renaming and restyling themselves a little bit. Nonetheless, I couldn’t endure it and decided I would spend the rest of the evening under the shade of the Chelsea Gallery tent. Going to the Gallery stage proved fortuitous as I was able to see Trace Bundy on acoustic guitar. Bundy kept the crowd entertained with his multitude of capos even shifting them around the guitar in middle of songs. He also played “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder entirely using guitar and drum apps on his iPhone which was a lot of fun.

The highlight of the night next was Mike Mains and The Branches. The chairs at the front of the Gallery stage were pushed away as people danced in front of the stage. The show was straight up rock with some heartfelt lyrics. When the band beckoned the crowd to come up on stage I really felt like we had a genuine Cornerstone Moment. Neal Morse followed with progressive rock and it was overindulgent, ponderous, and complicated. I’m not gonna lie, the Yes fan in me loved every moment of it.

At the end of the night, The Violet Burning gave us what I like to call a “real Cornerstone Encore.” Years ago, the midnight encore shows used to run two or three hours late into the night, but the last few years the setlists have gotten shorter. Not so with The Violet Burning. After blazing straight through one-and-a-half of the three CD’s of The Story Of Our Lives. Micheal Pritzl took the band through an extended encore through some crowd favorites and even took a little time to call Mike Roe and leave a voicemail. I missed the Flatfoot 56 show where even our intrepid festival co-supervisor took a slide down the waterslide into the pool party, but I’m pretty it had it’s share of “Cornerstone moments” as well. For whatever reason, it always seems like the night before the last night has the big Cornerstone Moments and I’m glad that tradition continued to the end.