Do you ever feel like you bit off more than you can chew? That’s how I feel right now. A while back i got the idea that SPA.net needed a podcast. So I set out to make one.

In general, I wanted it to be an informative look into the world of the Square Peg Alliance. With that in mind, each episode will have Square Peg news and will feature and interview with at least one of the SPA folks. Our first episode features an interview with Derek Webb. If you have questions and/or comments, feel free to shoot an email.

I hope it’s not too terrible

Michael Terry

 

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I’ve been working off a backlog of shows lately, and I didn’t want those to go missed here on SPA.net. [We have a mailing list to keep you apprised as these things go out, mind you.] Here’s what’s new:

• Andrew Osenga - 2007-05-06: Exit/In, Nashville, TN, USA (FLAC - AUD)
• Derek Webb - 2006-10-17: Exit 148, ClearBranch UMC, Trussville, AL, USA (FLAC - SBD)
• Derek Webb - 2007-04-22: The Church at Tuscaloosa, Northport, AL, USA (FLAC - SBD)
• Derek Webb - 2007-05-06: Exit/In, Nashville, TN, USA (FLAC - AUD)
• Eric Peters - 2007-05-05: Trinity Baptist Church, Madison, AL, USA (FLAC - AUD)
• Randall Goodgame - 2007-05-05: Trinity Baptist Church, Madison, AL, USA (FLAC - AUD)
• Sandra McCracken - 2007-05-06: Exit/In, Nashville, TN, USA (FLAC - AUD)

Here’s a sample from the show of Randall’s I just put out tonight, with his wife Amy accompanying him on “Susan Coats’s Pants”:

As always, these shows are available on IndieRiver.net for the low-low price of … FREE. We simply ask that you stay online after you’ve downloaded to help us seed the bootlegs [which lets other folks get things faster] and to support the artists by buying their CDs. We know that some of you live in places where the Pegs don’t often play, so this is your opportunity to hear them in concert without spending hundreds of dollars on airfare. [If you wanted to toss some of that money you're not spending our way towards us to help defray the costs of running the site, we will not complain.] Sign up for an IndieRiver account today, and remember to check out the HOWTO to help you get started.

This is as official as it gets, folks.

There have been some questions raised regarding the mysterious disappearance of four Square Pegs. Until now there has been no public explanation. Here’s the official word from the SPA:

There was no schism, no fighting, no bickering, no row, no squabbling that prompted the quiet departure of Sandra, Billy, Katy and Matthew from the SPA. This was purely a professional, career-path decision on their parts. Here’s the gist of it—the growing attention given to SPA is predominately among a Christian-based listening audience and media; naturally so, since the majority of the group have established themselves there. The four who opted to step out of the public presence of SPA did so due to their desire to continue to develop their careers in the general market without confusing people regarding their “genre”. Granted, this can be an unfortunate reality when it comes to the world of music.

So, during a SPA family meeting on the Gullahorns’ back porch, the decision was made, among all the original members, to adjust the public representation of the SPA. The meeting was full of thoughtful discussion and good humor. We love one another and highly respect one another’s music. We, the nine remaining Pegs, wish Katy, Matthew, Sandra & Billy all the best in their endeavours, wherever their paths may lead. I have no doubt you, as indie-music fans, will continue to support them as well as you have supported us from Day One.”

So there you have it. We’re not going to scrap anything we have on the site for Billy, Katy, Matthew, and Sandra—no point in doing that. We’ll re-organize things a bit—something that I’ve been thinking of doing anyway, and something that I bet Chris has been looking at from time to time, too—but what we have will remain available. We hope that you’ll understand that we’ll necessarily focus on the nine Pegs here, because that’s our raison d’être. [If you wanted to launch a fan site around Billy, Katy, Matthew, or Sandra, we'd give you a hand. We love 'em that much.]

Please leave any questions or comments that you might have below.

The errors that were being thrown? All me. But they’re fixed now.

Here’s a few items that have been lingering around in squarepegalliance.net circles:

• Chris Hubbs has launched [andrewosenga.net], designed to be your unofficial resource for all things Osenga. Check it out. [And if you've got a Peg that you'd love to build a similar resource for, let me know and we'll work out the details.]
• You might have noticed that site performance stunk on ice for the last couple of weeks. Even after some performance tuning on the server, it became clear that we just needed more horsepower. We doubled the RAM in the server [to 4GB], and things now run much more smoothly. As a result of the tuning, however, IndieRiver.net had some changes. Nowadays, you must connect with a TCP port in the range of 56000-56999; everything else will be rejected by the server. If you’ve been trying to grab a show and failing, that’s why.
• Eric Peters and I have been working on a HOWTO on how to book a Square Peg. Please let us know what questions you might have in the comments below; we think we’ve got everything, but you might come up with something that we don’t know.

As always, thanks for your patronage of the Square Pegs and of squarepegalliance.net.

As we’ve put out these bootleg MP3s, we’ve tried to give you a flavor of things that perhaps you haven’t heard before. If you’re a Square Peg fan, chances are that you might have seen that Derek Webb guy in concert. Whether or not you have, I think that you’ll agree that this is a great rendition of “My Enemies Are Men Like Me”:

If you liked this recording, it comes from the 5 May 2006 Derek Webb concert bootleg from Columbia, SC. If you didn’t download Mockingbird off of FreeDerekWebb.com when you could, well … go buy it, or email me for a copy.

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.

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.

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.