In the end, we decided not to go that route.

People are inundated all the time with music that they are told they should like or not like. We look at charts and stats to see what the next big song is or whose record is hot at the moment. This leaves little opportunity for discovery, for sharing music with your friends, for finding something for yourself and experiencing it on your own terms.

I hope that those of you have heard our album and have found it moving or encouraging will tell your friends about it. Let them listen to it. Heck, I don’t even really care if you rip it for them. (Hopefully they will eventually buy it if they like it. We’re poor!) I just want you to experience the music with another person. I want the music to be discovered through other people and not us trying to push it on you.

I’m sure at some point we will release a music video or try to push a single and post song clips online, but for now, we just want people to find the music in the way it was meant to be found….through each other. That’s what “Humanity” is all about. Sharing music and art with each other without us hyping it up for you. I hope you are blessed and encouraged by this album. I poured my heart and soul into these songs when I wrote them and I hope they will give you some hope and drive to keep pressing forward.

Many Blessings,
Tim

I wouldn’t have it any other way.  -Tim

After sifting through some old photos, I found this picture of us from October 2007 when we were on our way to New York to play our first show at the Knitting Factory.  My parents took this picture while we were standing in front of my house in NJ.  I seriously could not believe how young we looked and I was surprised at how happy the picture made me.  In some ways it made me really sad too.  In the past three years, in the whirlwind of tours, interviews, video shoots and recording, we have taken hundreds of photos for fans and professional photographers, but we failed to capture the “off camera” moments, when we’re un-showered, hair unkempt, bum clothed and just having fun as friends.  This picture reminded me that life is so much more than trying to be somebody, but it’s all about the somebodies you’re with along the way.

And it also reminded me to charge my camera.

Tim

We hung out with some of the good folks from Living Water Church on Thursday before our show and they were kind enough to take us out for sushi and a walk down the beachfront. Good times. The show went really well, and more importantly, funds were raised to benefit a great organization that works to combat sex trafficking called New Day for Children (www.newdayforchildren.com).

Pier 39

Tearing it up

View from the drumkit

At the legendary Largo

It wasn’t just the ridiculous collective talent displayed on stage that left me at loss for words, it was the intimate, conviction-filled way they connected with the audience through their blend of folk and Americana. Forget the overproduction, the pro-tools, and the auto-tune, strip music down to its most raw, basic level and let it carry its own weight and speak for itself. Not to mention the guest appearance of John C. Reilly…yes, that John C. Reilly. Shake and bake. However, the best part of the evening was yet to come. Right before their set ended, they announced that they would continue the party at the even more intimate space next door, appropriately named “The Little Room”. We sat within inches of the Watkins siblings, John C. Reilly, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and the one and only Brad Mehldau (whose surprise showing caused quite a stir among the folks on stage). A bit of a disclaimer: the correct spelling is indeed “Mehldau”, the spelling on the note depicted is incorrect.

No words needed