The statistical likelihood is that one day civilization will again arise...

...blah blah lemon-soaked napkins. I forget the exact quote, alas.

I was watching a video of the concert we played last summer at EWALU, and I noticed we referred confidently to the CD we'd be releasing that winter. Which is something we've been doing for a while now - I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure we've been referring to the upcoming CD in "any time now" sorts of terms for a few years now. Certainly we've been working on recording it for at least that long.

And that's the reason for our misplaced confidence, I think - we've been working on recording it for a matter of years, and we're not used to that being a long process. We recorded Whisper of Wind in an evening, Second Whisper in a long day at This Here Studios in Arnold's Park, and Folksinging over a couple of long days at This Here Studios in Strawberry Point. New disc (I've been using Fourth Whisper as a working title) has eaten up easily a week's worth of days in the studio, and we're at best halfway done. There are a couple of reasons for that.

First, "in the studio" for Fourth Whisper means recording in my new (and still being developed) home studio. So instead of having Rich Colligan's nicer studio equipment and significant experience and expertise at our disposal, we're figuring things out as we go, and that takes quite a bit longer. We've scrapped entire sets of tracks as we've figured out ways to make them sound better.

There also isn't a clock running and no $45/hour fee for studio time, so there's much less incentive to work quickly and minimize unproductive time (and we're very good at maximizing unproductive time, left to our own devices), and less reason to call an only-okay take good enough and move on. I like Second Whisper quite well, but every time I listen to it I hear things I'd have done differently, given more time. An entire day on each song is much more usual in the larger world of recording than the 13-songs-in-10-hours pace we kept for Second Whisper. Tying into that is the fact that we're very familiar with the music we're recording right now - we've been playing some of these songs live for years, so we have a clear idea of how they should sound and we're unforgiving of anything that doesn't quite match up.

Still, as has been pointed out, we're badly off our pace. Whisper of Wind was released in 1996, Second Whisper in 1997, and Folksinging in 1999; our first 21st-century disc is a bit overdue.

No worries, though. I'm sure we'll have it done in early fall.

You know you like you some Soul Hug!

Well, I’ve already asked about your favorite CST items from our store. Now I’d like to know which Soul Hug items are most popular. Take a gander at the Soul Hug store, which features an assortment of goods far funnier than our own stuff. Most of the items bear the likeness of Jesse, who performs with CST for our ministry events. He’s quite the pianist, and I think you’ll agree, trés smooooooooooooth!

Hey, sharp dresser!

So I’ve been wondering, basically since we put the site up, how many people have actually perused the lovely merchandise available in our CST store. I can look to see how many items we’ve sold, but that doesn’t really gauge interest or general curiosity, etc. I’d be curious to know which items are your favorites (whether or not you’ve actually purchased anything is beside the point). So do me a favor, if you don’t mind: go to the store, admire the wide array of stunning merchandise, and then come back here to tell us your favorites. Maybe we’ll send you one of whatever it is you like. Probably not, but you never know.

Well, if you're gonna do it, I will, too.

Seems like we might as well post a States-CST-has-visited map.



At first I was going to do a States-in-which-CST-has-performed map. This one's a little better, though. It includes states to or through which CST has traveled for official band stuff. If we included states we have sung about, we could add Tennessee, Montana and Colorado.

Valpo Heads

This weekend, as some of you likely already know, we're performing at Valparaiso University. I'm quite excited about the show; it presents us with a good opportunity to expand our fan base (ffffaaaannnn bbbbaaaasssseeee...), as we'll hopefully be playing for a bunch of folks who've never heard us before. That's an exciting prospect! If you're in the Valpo area this weekend, please stop by and catch the show! 8:00 p.m. on Saturday in the Union Roundtable (I think). It's better than watching King Kong, right?

Heck, even if you're not in the area, gasoline is certainly cheap enough that you could load up the car for a road trip. You could call yourself a... well, I'm not sure what. I was thinking of something along the same lines as "Dead Head" or "Hill Head" (followers of the Grateful Dead and Storyhill, respectively, in case you didn't already know that). What would ours be, though? "Time Heads?" "CST-Heads?" "Timers?" Hmm... None of those sound particularly cool. Any other suggestions? "Charliegans?" I kinda like that one.

Write us a set list!

Howdy. Well, in case you haven't already noticed, we have a couple shows coming up later this month. The first is on April 22nd at Uptown Bill's small Mall, a nice lil' venue in Iowa City (show time is 7:30 and cover is $3, by the by). The second is a week later, April 29, at Valparaiso University in Indiana. You should totally go to both of them!

The first of those shows will be pretty relaxed and informal, as our past gigs at the small Mall have been. It's a cozy, living room-like space, which makes a nice atmosphere for music. It's almost like a house concert, only not in a house.

Anyhoo, since it is such a relaxed environment, and should be a pretty laid-back show, I thought we should invite you, our faithful fans and readers, to create our set list. Sounds like fun, eh?

Now, I suppose it would be prudent to make some sort of disclaimer stating that we may not follow the set list exactly as its laid out for us. For instance, we might say that we reserve the right to change the order of songs. And of course, if someone decided it would be fun to add a song we don't know or can't play... well, then we might not play it.

Anyway, suggest a song. As the date approaches, we'll compile the list of suggestions and post it for your perusal. Then you can look at the list and say to your friends, "Hey, I suggested they play that song!" and your friends will be duly impressed. Good stuff.

I told John Hermanson I wanted a musical career like his and he laughed at me.

Sad but true. I was talking to him after a Storyhill show at The Mill and he asked what sort goal I had in mind for CST and when I replied that I'd be thrilled to have CST provide a Storyhill-like experience for Matt & I he laughed at me and told me I'd seemed smarter than that. Shows what he knows. Ha!

Matt and I have often discussed where we see CST going, but rarely actually brought the discussion to any sort of conclusion. If it was possible to have playing & selling music (speaking of selling music, I got an e-mail from CD Baby today telling me that the tunes from Second Whisper can now be purchased as ringtones. I'm not sure what I think of that, but I think I'd find it pretty neat if I heard someone's cell phone start telling them that a steady anchor was all that they needed) be a significant part of making our livings we'd be thrilled, but the reality of the music world is that there's a tremendous amount of legwork to be done before a band can reach that point, and most of that requires things we're either unwilling or not in a position, rest-of-our-lives-wise, to do. On the other hand, CST has occasionally brought in some money and we have a lot of time and cash invested so I have trouble thinking of it as a "hobby" really.

I don't have a point I'm trying to work towards here - as much as anything I'm just trying to get into the habit of posting - this "what, exactly, is CST, anyway?" question is one Matt and I have devoted thousands of words in e-mails to and never come up with anything. It seems immensely fundamental to the idea of calling ourselves a band, though, so it seemed an apt post subject. If anyone has any thoughts they'd like to weigh in with I'd love to read them. Meanwhile, enjoy the properly-sized picture of Matt and I (thanks, Joel, for the HTML fix). Check back in for some thoughts and updates on the recording process and hopefully (if I can convince him to sign on as a contributor) some posts from Matt!

Trying something different...

I've read a few times that people enjoy reading band-related thoughts by members of bands - that a good way to connect with people is to send out a regular newsletter or have a blog or barrage people with phone calls. Newsletters are expensive and barraging people with phone calls is time-consuming and seems likely to annoy, so by way of experimenting with this process I present here the Central Standard Time blog, wherein Matt and I (you should be an activated poster, Matt - let me know if it doesn't work) can share news and thoughts about concerts, CDs, etc. - and where you the loyal fan/indifferent listener/confused random surfer can chime in with comments of your own! Plus, regular readers of Matt's and my blogs will certainly agree that our prolific-ness lends itself to a second blogging project.

I stole this URL from myself since it seemed so apt for the theme - those of you interested (for whatever reason) in finding "Meaningless Musings," my blog, can find it at yxelf.blogspot.com.

Posts soon to follow about actual Central Standard Time-y things! Happy Ash Wednesday, if that's not too oxymoronic a wish!