Well, the calendar still says November, and America hasn’t entered its tryptophan-induced coma yet, but Christianity Today already has their list of the best albums of 2007. Obviously, given the publication’s title, this is skewed to the “Christian music market”, whatever the heck that is, but here’s how the Square Pegs came in on it:

• Derek’s The Ringing Bell at #11, making him four-for-four in getting his solo albums on their list.
• Jeremy’s Recovery at #4, which is too low, in my opinion, but I haven’t heard #3 or #1.
• Caedmon’s Call’s Overdressed at #2, which has Andy O and Derek involved in the whole music scene and Randall on the songwriting end.

I personally would have Recovery up there at the top, but that’s just because it’s such a breakthrough in sound for Jeremy, a truly unique work of art in a “Christian music marketplace” seemingly content in making homages to other folks. [Which isn't to say that such homages can't be a lot of fun, because The Ringing Bell certainly is. It deserves the lauding that Paste and others have given it.]

This time next year, I fully expect that we’ll be having much the same discussion, with two of the Andy’s with new projects due to release and rumblings that Osenga might put out one himself, a new record [and an EP of duets with Sandra!] coming from Derek, and what all else, I don’t know just yet. Should be music for your ears…

One of the questions that I’m often asked about booking Square Pegs is, well, “How do I do it?” [Well, that's after, "Why does [insert Square Peg here] never play in my area?”] Most of the Pegs have their booking information shown directly on their sites. But if you’re not in the mid-South or in an area that regularly sees the Square Pegs come to your area, you’re … probably a little intimidated. [Hello, West Coast folks.] With that in mind, we have some suggestions:

1. Find other venues in the area that have hosted your Peg in the last few years. One resource for this is the admittedly non-exhaustive history of Square Peg tour dates that we’ve kept since July 2006 or so on upcoming.yahoo.com. You’ll be able to see where Pegs have played in your area. If you’re from somewhere off the beaten path, look for a place a couple hundred miles from you, and see if you can book shows a day or two apart. That spreads the travel costs over the two dates, lowering the burden on the both of you. Sure, you might have the funds to bring Andy O to Washington State once, but the chances are that you can’t do that twice a year. [If you can, can we borrow some funds? This server stuff gets expensive.] As an example to this, there’s a guy from the next town over from where I grew up in Ohio that contacted me a few months back. I gave him some contacts in Cincinnati and Columbus [and at my old church in Beavercreek ... and if you know Beavercreek, email a brother ], and I think that’s helped some. We can’t all live 90 miles from Nashville, right, Chris?
2. If you can’t find folks in your area, see when your Peg is generally playing a bunch of dates. You might get a discount for filling a slot for an open date. Think about it: if you toured around the country, you’d want to do that for a few weeks at a time, then spend some time at home. Few people, myself included, like doing little bits of travel often. [And yet I have to go back to Houston at the end of the month, having just been there last weekend.] If you’re not in the area of the tour, you’ll probably want to get on one end or the other.
3. Ask your Peg for ideas. Let’s be honest: they make money from playing shows, so they have an incentive to get things done.

Below are booking contacts for the Pegs [current as of this writing]:

• Andy G: Andy is self-booked. He has an entire page on how to book Andrew Gullahorn, filled with trademark Gullahorn humor.
• Andy O: Andrew is also self-booked. Email Toesenga to set something up.
• Andy P: The Breen Agency books AP. Ask for David.
• Chris: Chris is self-booked. Email Chris to book him.
• Derek: Third Coast Artists books DW.
• Eric: Eric is also self-booked; email him at booking AT ericpeters DOT net.
• Jeremy: Jeremy is … say it with me … self-booked. Email the Jer to get started.
• Jill: The Breen Agency books Jill as well.
• Randall: Mighty Nice Booking books Randall.

Have questions? Ask ‘em in the comments.

Sufjan Stevens, and yes that’s the first time his name has appeared in print without a glowing descripter like “golden-boy” or “everyone’s favorite indie artist” or “Lovechild of Yanni and Satan” in front of it, has written an essay entitled “Friend Rock” that i found somewhat amusing.

But have you heard about Friend Rock? It’s very simple: you are going to a show not so much as a fan of the music, but as a fan of your friend, the musician, on stage. There are various incarnations, of course: you may know the singer, the drummer, or the bass player; you may have dated the keyboardist years ago; you went to high school with the trumpet player; one of them is your housemate, your office mate, your soul mate; or it may be “friendly-professional.”

It made me think of the Square Pegs, and for that reason i offer you the link for your reading enjoyment.

bryan

Howdy everyone:

I’m glad to see that people already are beginning to expect Square Peg shows to make their way onto IndieRiver. I think that’s a good thing. Also, I’m aware that some people are finding that getting hooked up with bootlegs is a little bit of a challenge. I understand that there’s a learning curve to this and that it can be frustrating, but I and others are willing to do as much Q&A as we can to help people get started.

What I’m not willing to do is to get into the business of for-profit bootleg trading. Richard, Neil, and I make our recordings available to you for free, and the Pegs are all very much fine with that. But when money gets involved, we are in direct competition with the Square Pegs for your discretionary income. I absolutely refuse to do that. If I find that people are selling bootlegs for profit I will do the following:

1. Take IndieRiver offline immediately.
2. Report the buyer and seller to the Square Pegs.
3. Report the buyer and seller to the FBI if necessary.

I’m sure that this seems harsh, but let me be very clear: I believe in bootleg trading in support of artists, not in competition with them. When money changes hands, we get into competition with them, and that’s where this stops.

Now, I don’t think that anyone is trying to do this now, and I think that folks are just looking for a way to relieve their technical frustration by paying someone else to do it. I understand. I just won’t be a party to it, because that violates the promises that I made to the Pegs before I started doing this.

Thanks for your time.

If you’ve ever talked to me, or you’ve read any of my inane ramblings on the subject, you know that I’m about social connections when it comes to music. So, with that in mind, let me quote Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in New York and someone with whom I’ve had some musical connections:

Josh’s band, The Four Fellas, are a far cry from the Rolling Stones, but given the choice, I’d prefer to see The Four Fellas play live every time.

Personal engagement does compensate for a lack of production values. But it’s not one over the other. Robert compares it to cable versus broadcast, and I guess that’s a reasonable way to describe it. Social media will co-exist with produced media, what the ultimate market share of each is a big open question, but I believe they are both important.

– Fred Wilson, Social Media Musings

The Square Pegs are a community of musicians who also happen to really, really like each other. We’re the same way over here at SPA.net. I think that many of you feel the same way: none of us would argue that any of the Pegs are the most talented and aweomse musicians to ever grace the Earth, but they’re all very good and, more importantly, we feel like we have a personal connection to them. That is what draws us to them, whether it’s staying after a show for an hour afterwards to talk about music and theology or whatever or if it’s reading their Weblogs and commenting and knowing that they read what you have to say and get to know who you are. For me, I know that this is why I value the Pegs and spend so much time helping to foster community around them.

How about you?