2012 - The Road So Far...

Well, here we are: halfway through the Year of our Lord, Two-thousand-and-Twelve, and it has occurred to me that a quick moment of reflection is appropriate.

The other night I sat with my wife before going to sleep and it dawned on me that this year has quite possibly been the most musically adventurous and awe-inspiring of my life. In the early part of the year, music allowed me the opportunity to not only visit, but tour the European continent for the very first time. I got to see things I've been waiting most all of my life to see. I met wonderful people from other countries who knew my name before I knew theirs. I played concerts for thousands of fans with two of the dearest brothers in my life.

The late winter gave way to spring, and as Tyler took the next step in his musical journey via writing sessions and constructing the framework for his very first album, Josh Corbett, Drew Hartley, and I joined forces with another incredible talent by the name of Sean Waldron. Our efforts with Sean have led to the recording of a tasty 6-song EP, due to be finished in late July. Señor Waldron also got the call to open up for the up-and-coming band Churchill at the end of this week. Not bad for a group's very first show with full personnel.

Hornsby & The Noisemakers get it done in Boulder.

In the meantime, God saw fit to bring three of my all-time favorite artists (joined by three of my all-time favorite drummers, to boot) to the Front Range of Colorado. In the last six months, I've been blessed to get to see Sting, Toto, and Bruce Hornsby perform live (with Vinnie Colaiuta, Simon Phillips, and Sonny Emory occupying the thrones, in case you were wondering). I've seen a ton of great concerts in my time, but I think it's probably safe to say that I've never had the opportunity to see that amount of masterful, jaw-dropping talent in such a short span of time. (And to top all of this magnificent concert-going revelry off, Peter Gabriel is bringing the entire original lineup of his legendary release So to Red Rocks to perform the album start-to-finish in September. Shoot dang.)

This brings us to the present, which is shaping up to be a long, hot summer here in Colorado in more ways than one. Tyler is finally back in town and pre-production work has begun on his first full-length, original album. The first couple days of scratch-tracking and demo recordings have gone swimmingly, with God graciously allowing us to construct some great grooves to fit these, (if I do say so myself), great songs-in-the-making. I myself can't wait to hear the finished product, let alone to get to share it with all of the listeners out there!

Demo Days

The album recording process should take the better part of at least the early summer, and by the fall, God-willing, Tyler Ward and his band of miscreants will be back on tour in Europe. Two weeks of prospective dates turned into a month after our first venture abroad, and I can't wait to see all of my new multilingual friends again (they all shame me with my one-dimensional understanding of language). But, the wild ride that is this year won't be over even then... a North American tour is in the works to immediately follow the European jaunt. More info on that is sure to come, but it's looking like a crazy holiday season for those of us in the T-Ward Crew.

What. A. Trip. What a trip it's already been and what a trip it's still shaping up to be. These are the times of life that I bask in the reality of blessedness: of experiencing something I could never deserve. Even the non-musical experiences are the stuff of dreams: Beth and I visited Mexico for the first time in May, taking a few dips in the Gulf and visiting ancient Mayan ruins. Next month, I plan to hike my first of Colorado's fifty-three 14,000-foot peaks. It is, truly, a year of discovery for a completely & shamelessly amateur adventurer.

And, after saying all of that, it is no exaggeration to state that words almost fail me in trying to describe what I feel as I look both back on & forward to all of this. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what living a dream feels like - it's euphoric but also intense: I still have to do the work despite the fact that it hardly ever feels like work. To say it another way, it occurs to me that life should not be seen as a river whose flow we join with our fingers crossed in blind hope of reaching our eventual destination with minimal effort. It should be attacked like the climbing of a mountain: hard, relentless, and sometimes tedious work that results in some of the most breathtaking sights we could ever imagine beholding. And then, as I try to take it all in, I'm reminded of my own smallness in lieu of what God is doing right in front of and all around me, and I find myself just glad to be a part of it.

Amazing grace. How sweet the sound.

What a trip. What a trip, indeed.