Who is this Ben Shive, you ask? He’s not a Square Peg, right? Well… according to Andrew Peterson on The Rabbit Room, he is now. If you’ve listened to any of Andrew’s stuff over the years, or been to any of Andrew’s shows, you’ve probably heard Ben’s lyrics and his amazing piano skills. Which makes the title of Ben’s upcoming record all the more appropriate: The Ill-Tempered Klavier. (If you’re a music person, you’ll get the joke. If not, AP explains it on the RR post I linked.)

Ben’s songs’ awesomeness have long been praised but have, to this point, rarely been heard. That will end come June 17th when the digital download will be available via the Rabbit Room store. It’s not clear at the moment whether the pre-buy is for an actual disk or just for the downloads, though from the price ($10) and the fact that they’re not charging any shipping, I’m guessing it’s just for the download. The pre-order is for the digital download only, but is priced reasonably ($10). Ben might actually print some up in the future, but for now, digital is what you’ll get. And believe me, it’ll be worth it. (Thanks, AP, for clarifying in the comment below.) If you pre-order in the next month you’ll get two bonus tracks plus some sort of special “digital booklet” when the download is available.

I’ve ordered mine… you should do the same. Visit the Rabbit Room Store to get it.

For those of you who may have missed it on Andy’s blog or on AndrewOsenga.net, you will want to be sure to scoot over to Andy Osenga’s website and download his new EP, titled Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1.

Andy wrote and recorded this thing using only acoustic guitars, his voice, and, of course, the Webground Vocals®. Not only that, but he did it fully within the span of two weeks. Two weeks!

Fear not; this is not some hastily thrown-together mess of an EP - this is good stuff. Solid songwriting from a guy we have come to know and love. So head on over to the album’s page on his website and check it out. The EP is FREE for download, but you are encouraged to donate via PayPal (or, I imagine, any other tender you prefer) so that Andy can continue to make music. And feed his kids.

There is a great discussion going on right now over at Andrew Osenga’s blog about Christians and music, and more specifically, “Christian Music”. Andy recently did an interview with an atheist music critic who admits that she wouldn’t have interviewed him if he’d been identified as a “Christian” artist. She jumps in on the conversation, too. I’d just botch it up if I tried to summarize any further, so just head over and visit these two posts and their many comments:

No Man’s Land

No Man’s Land, Part 2

Bits of news you can use from Randall Goodgame:

• Slugs, Bugs, and Lullabies (the kids record he co-wrote with Andrew Peterson) could be out as early as next month. Parents: take note. I’m thinking this one goes in my daughter’s Christmas stocking this year.
• Randall is currently busily writing for the next Caedmon’s Call record. Andy O says this will be happening sooner rather than later, so I imagine the creative juices are flowing freely.
• And finally, “no official word on a solo project yet, but I’ve got some ideas.” Those of us who loved War and Peace will just have to wait a little bit longer.

…we go to Andy Osenga:

So just why is this little girl so happy?

Because she’s going to have a little sister!

That’s right, ladies and gents, my house is turning into a Jane Austen novel. I’ll be living with three ladies, sometime around Dec. 9.

Congratulations to Andy, Allison, and little Ella from all of us here at SquarePegAlliance.net.

Andy Osenga let us know that SquarePegAlliance.com would be up and running soon…

And so it is.

It’s good to see that one of the main links is to this very site.

Andy let us know pictorially this afternoon that The Morning and the new edition of Photographs have arrived and are ready to be shipped out. We can only imagine that they will be shipping out very soon.

Andy lets us know that the CD manufacturer is behind. The latest ETA for The Morning is “mid-next-week”, i.e. somewhere around May 24th.

Hang on, folks, it is coming…