An announcement was just posted on Derek’s website about his upcoming projects:

Derek has two new projects releasing January 30, 2007. Both are collections of songs spanning Derek’s solo career, with highlights from all three of his solo records (She Must And Shall Go Free, I See Things Upside Down, & Mockingbird).

One Zero (acoustic) was recorded in September 2006 at Derek’s home studio, and features new acoustic reinterpretations of some of his most provocative songs. It will be available in stores January 30, but is currently selling as a pre-order from the webstore. Pre-order One Zero (acoustic) today and get it on or before the release day!

One Zero (remix) is a collection of the same 10 songs that will appear on the acoustic version of the record but features the work of remix engineer Will Hunt, constructing remixes from the original recording sessions. This more experimental record will also be available January 30 exclusively online (iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster).

You can hear samples of both records now at Derek’s MySpace page. Check it out and pre-order yours today!

I’ll be honest: when I review my personal best-of list for albums I’ve gotten in 2006, Matthew Perryman Jones’s Throwing Punches in the Dark is almost assuredly going to be #1. I have listened to this one so much that it’s really not even funny. Just last night, as I was driving in from Nashville, it was singing along with MPJ that kept me awake. I remember Andrew Osenga mentioning once that TPitD was best listened to late at night, in a car, really loud … and well, that’s where I was. And so I cherished it yet again.

I think the emotional center of the album, for me anyway, starts with “Refuge”, moving through “One Thing More” and “Hard Times”. So, I bring you “Refuge”, which you can also hear on Jones’s MySpace as the track that loads up with the page:

If you’re interested in more of Jones from this show, it was the 20 Jun 2006 release show for Osenga’s The Morning where Jones opened. Also, please remember to buy Throwing Punches in the Dark if this appealed to you: support good art.

The lovely and talented Katy Bowser is the source of our next bootleg MP3. As many of you know, Katy recently married Kenny Hutson and has migrated her jazzy tones more to a bluegrassy/Americana/roots sound. Her 2006 EP, All of My Friends, is a favorite of mine, even at just six songs. This song isn’t one of the ones on that album, but it’s still quite good:

If you like this track, you can get the whole 19 Sep 2006 Square Peg show. Also, please be sure to buy Katy’s All of My Friends and support great art.

Randall just sent out a newsletter announcing some Christmas discounts on his music. If you don’t have any of his CD’s yet, here’s your chance.

Greetings! I hope you all are safe and warm this holiday season. The Annual Christmas show at the Ryman was predictably awesome, and we are now gearing up for a slew of relatives to converge on our 1/4 acre plot here in Spring Hill, TN.

I did want to let you know that I have lowered the price of my CD The Hymnal to $4.99 for a limited time. Orders are typically sent out same-day, so you can still get them in plenty of time to stuff one into a stocking. We are also selling my last 3 CDs in a bundle deal, 3 for $30.

Also, we’ve almost sold out of Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies (the new CD of Children’s music I just released with Andrew Peterson). A new shipment will arrive on Dec 22nd, but that may be too late for Christmas orders. Thanks to all of you who bought copies… that’s the fastest we’ve ever sold 1000 CDs. I’ll order more next time!

Finally, we’re sizing up our concert schedule for this year, figuring on a leisurely 20-30 shows in 2007. We may head back to Iowa and Missouri, over to Arkansas, down to Florida and Texas, over to South Carolina, and maybe up toward Ohio and Pennsylvania so we can see our cousins in Delaware. Let us know if you’d like to be one of the stops on the way!

Peace on Earth and Merry Christmas everyone,

Randall

You can access Randall’s webstore here.

If it feels like we’ve not covered Billy Cerveny enough here on SPA.net, it’s because we haven’t. It certainly isn’t for lack of talent on his part; I’ve loved Billy’s music for a couple of years now.

Billy gave us a great treat back in August with a couple sneak peeks at the sound of his new album. They both blew me away, but what really got me was “Mosey”.

Billy Cerveny - “Mosey”

If you like what you heard there, give Billy’s AM Radio a try.

Photos of Andrew Peterson’s Behold The Lamb of God show at Fayetteville, GA on 12/8/2006 featuring fellow Square Pegs Andy Gullahorn, Jill Phillips, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Eric Peters are now uploaded on Flickr!

Next in our series of great bootleg songs by Square Pegs comes a song from the talented and hilarious Andy Gullahorn. If you’ve never seen Andy play live, you’re missing out; not only is he a great songwriter, but he has a dry wit that makes for side-splitting song introductions.

Back in August, he broke out a song that I’ve never seen titled. I’ve called it “I Was More of a Man Back Then”, though it may be “More of a Man”, “My Wife Forces Me to Watch Gilmore Girls“, or “I Enjoy Tormenting Geof With the Lack of a Song Title”. Anywho, here’s the song:

If you like the song, grab the full 22 Aug 2006 Square Peg show. It’s a good one. If you’ve fallen in love with AG’s wit—remember, ladies, he’s taken—check out Room to Breathe, sixteen tracks of Gullahorn goodness.

I’ve been thinking lately about how to improve IndieRiver, our bootleg-trading community. I’ve got some things coming in that regard, but I’ll leave that be for now. But one thing that I know I can do, though, is entice you to check out the bootlegs by providing some MP3s from them. So, for the next little while, I’ll provide an MP3 from a bootleg of a Peg. I’ve got at least one recording of each of the 13 now, so I can really make this happen.

I’m gonna start today with “Squeeze”, which comes off of Eric Peters’s Scarce. EP played this last night at the Behold the Lamb of God show in Huntsville [near where I live, for a change!], and I turned to Ron afterwards and just shook my head. Pappy, I know that I told you this last night, but you’re a talented guy, and your music is a blessing to us. Scarce is in the top five of albums I’ve gotten this year, and this song is one reason why.

Eric Peters - “Squeeze”

If you liked this, go purchase Scarce. If you want to hear more from this show, it’s the 29-Aug-2006 SPA-in-the-round from the Radio Cafe. Instructions to get you started with IndieRiver are available.

Have a great Friday, everyone.

Lot of news today, so I’ll just get to it.

1. KatyBowser.com is now oh-fish-ul-lee up and running. Sorry for the false start there yesterday, dear.
2. Katy’s announced that the Americana-on-Tuesday-nights-at-the-Radio-Cafe begin again January 9th and run through the end of February. I’ll attend as many as I can [because I love me some Americana and know that Katy will expose me to some great new folks], although I can tell you that my workload at the office promises to increase come the new year, so my available time and energy to make weekly four-hour round-trip sojourns to the land of good tunes and PBR tallboys may be limited.
3. Most of you probably read Toesenga’s blog anyway, but in case you’ve missed it, Andrew and Alison have welcomed their second daughter, Sadie Caroline, into the world. Look for Andrew’s next album to be named The Midnight and include tracks such as “Even Earlier in the Morning”, “I Can’t Get No … Sleeping Action”, and “I’m Never Talking to Geof Again for Poking Fun the Day After My Daughter’s Birth”. Our congratulations, love, and prayers go out to you, Nine-Toed Wonder of the World.
   

Admittedly, I’m way behind the times on this one, but … Katy has settled into her new digs. You’ll want to start at KatyBowser.com and browse about from there.

Update: Katy wrote in to let me know that this is sort of a soft launch; they’re still ironing out bugs, contemplating a move to another server, etc. So bugginess may happen, but … Life is full of imperfections.