Minneapolis MN, Sep 12th-Hello friends. I'm on my hotel room. Holiday Inn (Metro Dome) if you care to know the details. i went to a great breakfast place this morning called Hells Kitchen. Go if you're ever here and hungry in AM. Now i'm sitting on my bed listening to the new Shawn Colvin record......only on the second song but so far so good. I've also been listening to the new Roots and Pete Yorn CDs. I really like parts of each.
So Jon Foreman and I did 4 or 5 days of recording during my last little break from nickel creek touring. He and i have been writing songs and wanting to do a musical project for a while now but it's hard to find common time when Nickel Creek and Switchfoot are both off the road and at home. Anyway, its so much fun. No expectations or preconceptions..... just friends having fun making music. Who knows if the powers that be will even allow us to put it out but, whatever, that doesn't matter at this point. We're just recording at our houses, making use of what instruments and tools we have and its been a blast. And it sounds great, i'm really proud of what we have so far. Its fun to just rush into new musical territory. 3 songs that are mostly there. And 2 more that are on the way. We even have a website. i'm not sure if its up yet but it should be soon. It's therealseanjon.com. The first day we got together to start laying stuff down, we decided to make a manifesto for our record. With 5 rules/limitations that would kind of act as a basic frame to get us started. there's just too many options these days that can get in the way of the creative process. So here's what we came up with.

the real seanjon recording manifesto:

1) no tuning (of vocal tracks etc)
2) no amp simulators (software effects, none near as fun and cool as the real thing)
3)no schlepping (of gear back and forth...)
4) no pussyfooting (around each others musical feelings)
5) no crap (to cover any un-thought-of rules)

More on all this soon.

We had a few really fun Watkins Family Hour shows at Largo during last break. Willie Watson from Old Crow Medicine Show and Jon Brion, Tom Bruseau, Greg Leitz and Benmont Tench were guests. Benmont and Greg have become regulars which sara and i are extremely happy about. By the way, we're going to be doing a lot more shows there this fall winter there and there's going to be some really cool ones, so if you live anywhere within reasonable driving distance from LA you really should try to come. In fact we're doing 5 thursdays in a row starting on Oct 19th. after that i'll be the regular one or 2 a month. Alright well i need to get out of my room here and get in a cab to the airport. Flying to Dallas this evening. I hope this blog finds you all happy warm and well. MOre very soon! -s