In these tough economic times, I think it's crucial that we collect from everyone who has ever borrowed money from us, no matter how small the amount.

It's important to think back as far as your memory will allow and begin with the first incident you remember. Was it in second grade? Did you ever lend money to Joey for baseball cards? What about when you were six, at the pool, and someone forgot their admission change. Did you lend them fifty cents? What was their name?

Once you compile a list the size of Santa's, you're probably asking, "Okay, Aaron. So now what? I have no idea where these people are." Well, here's what you do next: There's a 99.4 percent chance every single one of these people are on Facebook. First, ask them to add you as a friend. Then, after a few days of chit chatty wall time, you stick it to 'em and watch the money come rolling in. It's that simple.

"Well, what about me? I owe people a lot of money." If you're asking yourself this question, try your best to block it out. If the guilt keeps returning, try doing a good deed for someone and see if that helps.

But perhaps you're reading this and thinking, "Aaron, now that you mention it, I lent you money a while back." First ask yourself: Are you Aaron's parent? If the answer is no, then consider the fact that studies have shown a person's memory is unreliable. You really can't trust it. But If the answer is yes, then I'm strongly recommending you forget that you ever read this. If you can't do that, consider how much you love your son and how many times he mowed the yard (except the times where you payed him to mow the yard).

Aaron

For this blog, I'm directing you to a link. It's Matt Perrine's (Duluth Budgeteer) review of "Songs from a Small Town." He was kind enough to massage my ego a bit. Feel free to write your own brief review in a comment. Please use big words that I have to look up.

Here is the article.

Some have asked me what kind of guitar I used on my latest CD. The answer is, the bulk of the work was recorded using my very first guitar. I bought it when I was fifteen from Mrs. Glassman, my Phy. Ed. teacher. She was having a Saturday garage sale and said twenty dollars was a reasonable price because the guitar had been in the family a long time. Since she was a kid. I thought twenty was steep. The guitar said "Silvertone" on the headstock, but that was before I painted it completely in red, blue, and yellow stripes. Two days later, I realized the guitar looked like a clown, and so I took a putty knife to it and scraped for several hours. I brought it to my sister Ingrid. She was the artist in our family and she had ideas. She painted it completely black with four small white stars near the bottom-right. I thought she improved it greatly, besides the stars, so I used a magic-marker to cover them. She wasn't overly offended. The guitar remained like that for several years, even through the recording of the last CD. Only recently did it change when I painted it green and gave it to my wife as a wedding gift. She affectionately keeps it in storage. But perhaps she would sell it to you for twenty dollars.

I've been visiting my family in Minnesota and helping my dad remodel the upstairs. Before arriving I bought the new Neil Diamond album, Home Before Dark, and it's been competing heavily with Credence Clearwater Revival. Even though it lacks the sort of classic rock feel you want when you're working construction, it's been in the CD player more than anything. The songs have been getting under my skin. Simple and deep. And I think it's been influencing the way I mess around on the guitar these days. I've been leaving my pick in my case. Just thumb on the strings on a quiet porch. Nice and simple. I think I need more of that right now.

Dear handful of readers including my mother-in-law -

My life fits into about 35 boxes. That includes my wife's clothes, shoes and books. I've learned that this week -- moving week. I'm happy to report our neighbor Vicky inherited our wooden rocking chair. Our friends Jenna and Sam drove off with our bed frame. Yesterday our grill sprung a gas leak, nearly setting the neighborhood on fire. Luckily, I put the fire out soon enough, but not too soon so that my hamburger could finish cooking. (So long, old grill, you've been good to me. But it will be nice not having to pack you in the U Haul trailor.)

Last week I was selected as the emerging artist for the Four Corners Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs. This means a lot to me. It's nice to have people every once in a while say, "Hey, we think what you're doing in life is great." Everyone needs doses of that, because a person can only go so long before their belief in themselves begins fading. Anyway, If you're interested in summer folk festivals in the Colorado area, click the link above and consider this one. They have a cool line up. FYI: I'll be playing Friday, August 29th at 2pm. Maybe 3pm. One or the other. Thanks for reading,

Aaron

I'm going to start blogging more. Sort of a New Year's resolution, starting in June. I hesitate to write this, but the goal is to be on here once a week. Another goal is to use capital letters in their appropriate places. It's good for me to reach over with my pinky and hit the shift key. None of this lower-case-everything style. I'm not sure what I'll write about, maybe a mix of music thoughts and life thoughts. We'll see.

In music news, I have a new album and it's for sale at CD Baby and the MP3's are for sale at Digstation. It's actually for sale in more places and will be for sale on iTunes and other retailers, but I'm telling you about my two favorites places. These two places are user friendly and secure, and moreover they don't take such a huge cut of the sale. They may not have the flashiness of iTunes, but does it really matter? Thanks for the support,

Aaron

Hi -

Here's the deal for you MP3 people. You can now download my new album on Digstation.com buy clicking here. I hope you like it.

For you old fashion folks, the actual CD will be on CD Baby at a date to be determined. But it will be soon. Promise.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting me.

Aaron

hello and welcome,

here is the inside scoop. i have a new album. "songs from a small town." we haven't decided how to release it to you yet. i mean, we haven't fully decided how to release it to those of you who can't come to a live show. here is what we're thinking. on may 1st we'll put the album for sale digitally on digstation.com. it's the fastest way to get mp3's up. itunes and all the other companies will take a little longer. and a very cool thing about digstation is that they give me 100 percent of the sales. that's rare. the actual cd won't be for sale until after some cd release shows in the midwest. after those shows, we'll have the physical album for sale on cdbaby.com. that's the plan so far. cool? check back here if you want more info or want to buy the mp3's may 1st.

love,

aaron

Folks -

I'm pleased to announce I'm currently working on my sophomore album, as they say. I think you're going to like it. Working along side me is a great group of guys, three to be exact. Let me introduce you (we can now pretend you're shaking their hands). I'll also tell you what kind of sub sandwich they prefer. The main captain is producer Chris Cunningham (spicy italian with lots and lots of banana peppers). Chad Langford, an amazing upright player (veggie on wheat bread). Ben Wysocki, he's an absolute genius on drums and percussion (BLT on italian herbs and cheese bread, add some cucumbers and mustard along with the regular stuff). I'm very boring when it comes to food, so I'll spare you my sandwich choice.

When they aren't helping me with my music, they do other cool stuff, all members of pretty successful groups. Chris (Storhill), Chad (The Jeni Fleming Trio), Ben (The Fray). Please check out their other projects and buy their music.

We're hoping this CD can be in your hands soon. Probably this summer, pending on a few details.

Much peace your way,

Aaron

Hi -

My friend Mitchell said to put some new songs on here. Actually, this is exactly what he said: "People wanna hear other songs...especially before you throw a new album at em. Think about it. It's the logical progression of things."

I guess my whole logic is different. I hope people go buy the album instead of coming back to this MySpace page. Not that I don't like the company, but it seems like if you enjoy four songs of an album, you'll go buy the frig'n album instead of waiting for the artist to put new songs up. Maybe it's just me, though.

But I'm a man of the people, and the people have spoken (or one of them has). And I like him a lot. He's my best friend, to be honest. So I've put up two new songs, the songs he requested: "Complacency" and "The Recluse."

Knock yourselves out...

a