'Twas the night after the day after Christmas...

...and the entire band was home except for the drummer. He headed north to Wisconsin after the final gig in Chicago to celebrate the season with his wife's family, instead. And he has a couple of random post-tour thoughts to blog about.

- After catching a screening of Les Miserables, I remain convinced that singing things that were meant to be spoken is not as high class as so many people seem to think. Let's be honest: it's a bit silly. And forcing almost every line of dialogue to exist in a rhyme scheme creates a pretty small box for plot to function in. Just sayin'.

- Christmas carols are chock full of ridiculousness, as well. I understand that many of them were written as lullabyes for children, so historical accuracy was not the most important factor in crafting the song. But, I'm pretty sure oxen and lambs don't keep time all that well and the birthing of a new mother's first child was probably not the most serene, peaceful environment, either.

- I'm thankful for the bond I share with the guys in this crew after three months on the road. Many bands exist in either a treacherously tenuous or just plain toxic social situation: they get together to make the music happen and then couldn't care less about each other for the rest of the hours of the day. After three months locked in either a van or a hotel with these guys, I'm in no way tired of their company or sick of their presence. I realize how unique and special that is, and I am certainly grateful for it.

North America, the second half

- I've said it before, but I'll reiterate: we've grown this year. We've grown musically and in our performance ability. I feel like everyone who saw the first couple of Tyler Ward tours probably noticed the maturation this last time out. We've grown our fan bases, which is always a nice thing to see. We've grown the business of Tyler Ward Music (more on that later). There are still plenty of things to learn, to be sure, but it's nice to know that the blood, sweat, and tears are paying off.

- While there were plenty of organizational headaches that came along with it, the TopBlip competitions to determine opening acts for our concerts in each city garnered some spectacular musical talents for our audiences to dig on. It was refreshing to see that in this day & age of smoke-and-mirrors, digitally edited, autotuned ear worms, there are still young musicians out there looking to do it right. Put simply, there were some fantastic players and singers that helped to put on some great shows, start-to-finish, for the T-Ward concert goers. It was good for my soul to see so many up-and-coming musicians seriously dedicated both to their own set of musical skills and to the venture of making great music with their bands. There may be hope for this generation's musical future, after all.

- Music has a profound ability for bringing people together. We got to meet & make some fantastic new friends on this tour as well as reconnect with some old ones that we hadn't seen in years. I won't lie: there's a certain amount of validation that comes from hearing someone say, "So this is what you've been up to..." with that certain timbre of realization that readily communicates that maybe they didn't have it totally right when they dismissed your musical dreams as stupid & short-sighted ten years ago. This, of course, is not why we do what we do, but it is still quite a feeling to realize that God has better plans for us than anyone else would've guessed.

Backstage at our final gig of 2012.

Let me say this at the close of the year that was 2012: if you had told me a few years ago that the very first year I would ever set foot on European soil I would actually do it twice, see all the marvelous things I've seen, meet all the people I've met, visit Disney World for the first time, climb my first 14,000-ft. peak, and perform close to 100 concerts for thousands and thousands of people, I would've told you that it sounded too good to be true.

Guess what.

Dreams come true, folks. Dreams come true and God is good. Even to undeserving cats like me.

So, onto 2013. Can't wait to see what happens.

Posted with Blogsy