Several people have sent us email asking on how the search for a new tour van is going, and to be honest it’s not going well at the moment. All of the vans that we’re coming across are either to old and run down, not heavy duty enough, or just plain out of our price range. We’re not giving up, but it is a tiring process and even now we’re out on the road until Thanksgiving in a borrowed van (Thanks to our good buds in Kingsdown) with borrowed gear (thanks to our new buds in Burning Yesterday) because the van we’re borrowing isn’t heavy duty enough to pull our massive amount of gear that’s in our oversized trailer. So needless to say our situation is pretty dyer on the van front. And I say these things not to sound bleak and throw a pitty party for Spoken, but to just let those who are interested know what’s up. So you ask, “What’s being done to rectify the situation and what can I do to help out Jef?” I’m so glad you thought to ask, thank you. We’re in the process of saving what money we can and also accepting donations so once we find a van that’s suitable we can either pay for it outright (best situation) or put a down payment on one (not the best).

So if you would like to help us out you can either send your donation via PayPal to: jefspoken@gmail.com, or you can even mail your donation to: SPOKEN 1909 Lawndale Dr. Spring Hill, TN 37174.

We also have a link on the Spoken Myspace that will lead you through the process. Any donation what-so-ever will help us along to reaching our goal of buying a new tour vehicle. So far we’ve managed to save and receive over $3,500.00 which by it’s self is a decent down payment but if we could get to the $7,000.00 mark that would be the best possible situation so we wouldn’t have to worry about financing a vehicle.

Now that’s out of the way

Spoken is out on the road right now on the “To Vegas and Back” Tour with Burning Yesterday. This will be Spoken’s last tour of the year 2009, and we want to send this old man off with a bang so it would be rad if you could come to any of the shows and say “what up”.

To Vegas and Back Tour featuring Spoken and Burning Yesterday:
Nov. 16th Scottsbluff, NE FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 17th Cody, WY FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 18th Salt Lake City, UT FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 19th St. George, UT FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 20th Las Vegas, NV FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 21st Parhump, NV FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 22nd Kingman, AZ FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 23rd Alburquerque, NM FACEBOOK EVENT
Nov. 24th TBA

To Celebrate this final tour of the year 2009 (and to move some of our leftover merch) we’ve created the Spoken Grab BIN where shirts are only $8.00. Be thinking Christmas here people, think a Spoken T-Shirt it’s a cheep cool gift that just oozes with love and holiday cheer.

Spoken on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace

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It would be rad if you voted, the winner get's like $5k from Guitar Center, and we could def. use some new gear!!

Hey there,  i'm not sure where you are as you read this, or how you're feeling. But i'll tell you that i'm sitting in a Coffee Shop in Akron Oh.  We're playing at a venue called Musica tonight. It's been raining all day, and that sure doesn't help the way we're all feeling. I personally am missing My Wife and Son so much it's unreal. I know i've only got 4 more days before i'm home, but dang... it feels like the past 2 weeks has crawled by. This has been one of those tours that puts you to the test, and makes you truly evaluate why it is that we choose to leave our families for weeks at a time. Some shows have been ok, one show was incredible, and a few of the shows have been, well....you know?  But i have to tell you that right now, as i sit here alone in the corner, that i know this is what GOD has me doing. I'm supposed to use music as a tool to tell the world that Jesus is real, and that he LOVES people. Annoying people, tired people, lonely people, rich, poor, ignorant, whatever. He Loves Us. And he gives us LIFE!   Yes, i miss my family, yes, some shows are hard, yes, i'm a little freaked out by the flu stuff, and yes, i've been thinking alot about the fact that i'm moving the day i get home from tour.  But i have a wife that believes in what i'm doing, and i have a son that tells me he loves me and misses me over the phone when i'm 1,000 miles away. And yes, it's hard to sing the ABC's over and over on the phone and not feel a little bit strange. But hey... if i'm gonna be here (Akron Ohio), and my family is gonna be in Iowa. I'm gonna let my wife know i Love Her and Miss Her, and I'm gonna sing the ABC's  20 times a night over the phone.  Keep us in your prayers over the next few months, as we write and hopefully record our new record. Pray that God protects us, and that he provides everything needed to make this happen. And pray for our families while we're away. I believe God has used Spoken over the last 13 plus years, and I believe he will continue to use us for the rest of our lives. I'm not saying Spoken will be a band forever, but i'm saying that I want my life to reflect Jesus. In a band or not, at a job or not, at school or not. If you have a relationship with God. Let it be seen. Because you're being watched by the world. And the world needs to see Jesus. I Love You ALL. If i've ever had the chance to meet you or not.  I Appreciate you.    Matt

................

I'm not the biggest fan of this time of the year.  Why?
You ask.  I'll tell you why.  TAXES, it's my responsibility to gather
all of the information/receipts/merchandise/payroll yada, yada, yada.  And
organize all of that and then sit with the people that take care of preparing
our tax returns.  It's the most tedious part of being in Spoken, I realize
that I should organize all of this information through the year but I never
do.  It's always a month long process of looking over every reciept/invoice
that we've collected that year and let me tell you with fuel and hotels and
tolls and everything else that we have to pay for there are a TON of
them.  It's terrible, but alas I'm almost finished, just a couple of more
things to organize and I can hand it all off to "my people".  So
I can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and I’m stoked. 
So if you see me on this next tour and I look a bit depressed, this is why.



So go check out the shows section and hit up a show, so it makes all this extra
work worth it.



Thanks



JefSpoken

...is feeling beat down by "the man"

Sup, well if you've even glanced at a TV screen in the past few days you've seen the type of weather that we've had to travel through so that's why we missed the Conway, AR and the Victoria, TX shows it's crappy that we we're unable to make those 2 shows but hopefully before too awful long we can hit up those cites again and play for ya'll.

Just for an update, you might have heard rumblings that we are working on a new album and those rumblings are indeed true.  I'm actually listening to a couple of the new demo's that Oliver has recorded for us (ah the beauty of Logic Pro)  As of now we don't really have an idea on when these songs will see the light of day, but we're hoping sooner rather than later so we'll let you know when that will be.

As you can tell by our default pic, we're playing a festival in Feb. with the Almighty Norma Jean so we're pretty stoked about that.  For more information on Sound Fest hit up our shows section and we'll see you there!!!

um......we play Houston, TX tomorrow (Friday) so we hope to see all of you there.

oh, the new season of LOST is amazing.

Love
JefSpoken

So, i'm sitting in a hotel breakfast room, somewhere south of Salt Lake City ,and i realized i'm supposed to be posting blogs more often this year. But, in my defense, for some reason we haven't been able to access the interweb for like a week. Anyway, we're on the way to Twin Falls Id. today, then off to Bozeman Mt., Alexandria Mn., Minneapolis Mn. (where I get to see Tiffany and Jackson) Sumner Ia., Springfield Mo., Conway Ar., Then we meet up with The Red Airplanes in Tx for 4 days. Also, we're playing a festival called Soundfest in Feb. And guess who it's with...NORMA JEAN!!!! i'm stoked about this show. I've been friends with Cory for about 6 years or so, and shows are about the only time we get to hang out. So, plan it, make a road trip, come to Mobile Alabama on Feb. 28. Here's some info - Date: February 28, 2009 - Doors: 1:00pm - Venue: Providence Youth Center - Address: 6819 Old Shell Rd. - Mobile, AL 36608 - Ticket Price: $20 Adv./$25 Door - also with I Am Terrified, Oceana, and about 15 more bands. It's gonna be cool. Check out our tour dates, and come hang out when we get close to your town. Thanks again for everything, and for supporting us for so long. Matt

Hello again, Today i had the opportunity to do something i've never been able to do. And because of my friend Rob Randazzo, i made a bit of Spoken History. Today i went to Merrill Middle School here in Des Moines to be part of a Math project. Each student has created a band name, decided on weather to purchase a van, or rent a van, put together a tour routing, plan the distance between each show, figure out how many miles to the gallon they could get in the van based on an actual print out of fuel prices across the country. Amazing huh? Well....it gets better. Rob (Teacher) asked me to come and share a bit with these 3 classes about, touring, Record Labels, Management, How to book tours, etc. And then play an acoustic Spoken song at the end of each class. Since it was in Des Moines, I played Sleep Well Tonight. (A song about the Skyline of Des Moines and how good it feels to be 15 miles away from downtown, i know i'll be home soon.) It was really cool, and the kids at this school were incredible listeners, and had great questions. I truly enjoyed it. Maybe i'll have the chance to do it again sometime. Thanks Merrill Middle School, and Rob for having me. . I think i would have liked Math better in school if that's the kind of homework we had..... Your friend Matt

Hey everyone, It's Matt. I'm sitting at that same coffee shop i was at the last time i posted a blog. (Amici) in Des Moines. I'm working on Spoken stuff, and a few other things, and wanted to ask a question. This is a question that only you know the answer. The same way I only know the answer in my own life. Do you have Peace in your life? Think about it a bit, and feel free to discuss it on the Spoken comment page. I hope you are all well. Matt