I haven't said hello to you in a while so I thought I'd drop by and give you an update. Thanks to everyone who supported the To Write Love On Her Arms benefit sale the last few months at www.fivetimesaugust.com. The winner of the autographed acoustic guitar has been drawn and will be announced soon!

Right now Kelly and I are back home in Dallas getting everything in line for the release of Five Times August's next album "Life As A Song." For those of you that don't know, 'Life' will be sort of a "best of" album. I chose what I think are my best songs and what I think are the fan favorites, re-recorded them and will put them out as one collection later this year. The album is finished and ready to go, but we still need to do the album cover photo shoot and film the first music video before we move forward with a release date. 

It was hard choosing which songs to put on this album, I hope everyone is happy with the song selection. I am positive it will be an entirely new listening experience compared to the old versions of the songs, THAT I can promise. So far the few people that have heard the album all feel that even though a lot of the songs have been released before they sound new, refined, and feel like I'm moving forward as an artist, which is what I hoped to accomplish, so that's good! A lot of thought, care, and meaning went into this album, I can't wait for you to hear it!

Besides "Life As A Song" I am also finishing up a project with the legendary Sun Studio out in Memphis. Over the last year we've developed a great relationship with the fine folks and recorded a few sessions there for their show "Sun Studio Sessions" (check it out at http://www.sunstudio.com/sessions/). This last time around I went back in with my new band line up and we recorded six live tracks in one night for a "Sun Studio Sessions" EP. It was a lot of fun and another great Sun experience. I chose some odd-ball Five Times August numbers that not many people have heard, like a track called "Could This Be Everything" and a tune that got cut from the Brighter Side album titled "No Big Deal." We're still mixing the sessions, so no word on when that will be out, but I am hoping to squeeze it in either a little before or after "Life As A Song" comes out.

I plan to release a lot more music to you in the coming year. I've already started work at home on my "next-next" full length record, which will definitely be all new material. In the meantime, Kelly is working hard at putting together a full band tour for the Fall, so I hope to be seeing you all very soon. This will be the first time I've toured outside of Texas with a band, so it will be a new show for those of you who have seen my acoustic set a few times.

So keep in touch and don't be a stranger. I'm still around, just working really hard at making the "Life As A Song" album release exactly what we want it to be. More to come soon!

- Brad

P.S. Follow me on twitter if you aren't already! www.twitter.com/fivetimesaugust