This is surreal, in the best possible way. Our new friend Martin Atkins – legend, childhood hero – has a new slide in his keynote presentation IN WHICH HE INSTRUCTS PEOPLE TO BUY OUR BOOK. If only I’d been able to see this in the future when I was 18 years old. So COOL.

We’re FINALLY home from our summer and fall travels! Which means that I get to produce records again. How excellent. First up: a southern soul band from Dallas called The Gibbonses.

They’re a husband-wife duo … they have killer songs and the singer has a huge voice. We’re a couple days in and I can already tell this record is going to be super good. Very happy to be back doing what I love.

So proud.

This week I mixed the upcoming new EP for the unbelievably excellent Chris Bathgate. If you don’t know him – start catching up. Salt Year is a fantastic record, and you can stream it on Spotify.

This new record is breathtaking. It’s slated to come out in January via my friends at Quite Scientific. Can’t wait to share it with you.

We’ve been in Chicago all weekend again, for the second time in three weeks. Fortunately we love Chicago. We’re here because Shannon was speaking and performing at the first ever CD Baby DIY Musician Conference!

The photos below capture her involvement pretty well. Less clear from the pictures is what an excellent vibe was going around the place all weekend. CD Baby very clearly has a corporate culture of kindness, and it permeated the event. What a pleasure.

(Oh, and I got to meet a childhood hero, Martin Atkins – drummer in PiL/Ministry/etc and author of the legendary indie touring manual Tour Smart, which was so influential to me and Shannon when we were getting her career going. Naturally I peppered him with technical questions about the 1989 Ministry tour, because that’s just who I am. Much to his credit, he was totally into talking about it. Really friendly guy. What a pleasant surprise.)