v a u g h n a u s t i n

I’ve been waiting all year for this post. And here we are, on December 1st, just as planned. Now I can finally say Merry Christmas!!

Serious rewind, here…

It was 1991, and I was a sophomore at Purdue University. When Christmas rolled around, I was painfully low on cash. I wasn’t sure what to do for my family for Christmas that year. I had been doing a lot of creative writing over the last few years, so I came up with the idea of writing a Christmas short story. Little was I to know that so many feelings… so much of me… would find its way into the story. When I read the story to my family Christmas night, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was a beautiful moment — one that I will remember forever!

Now, fast forward nine years…

It was the year 2000. I had spent almost every waking moment that year writing music for a studio band that I was in, so I decided to attempt writing a Christmas carol for my family’s traditional talent show that we do every year on Christmas night. Easy stuff, right? Ha! I was only able to write a couple verses in the few hours that I had, but it went over really well. It was fun when I asked my family to sing along after having only heard the song for the first time just a few moments before! I wasn’t even sure what key the song was in!

Well, the next year, I had a little surprise up my sleeve. Starting in late summer, I began collaborating with Brian Hazard of Color Theory to finish the song. It wasn’t easy writing a traditional-style Christmas carol — trying to capture the true warmth and magic of the season without being too cheesy — but it was incredibly rewarding when we finally wrapped it up! And what a wonderful surprise for my family that year! I couldn’t even wait for the talent show Christmas night. Christmas Eve hit and I was all aglow… I just had to share!

I had really started getting into the spirit of Christmas early that year and it was a long wait until December 25th! Since I had a small recording studio in my home, I had also decided to record an audio version of my Christmas story. It had gone through a lot of small revisions over the last ten years, but it was time to finally put it in stone. So, while I was working with Brian on the Christmas carol, I decided to ask him to write a short instrumental to include in the audio version of my story. It was designed as a companion song to my carol, but was meant to capture the deeper, more personal side of Christmas. I swear there was such an amazing degree of divine intervention involved, because Brian created the song with very little direction from me; yet, as I began to piece everything together — layering his music in with my reading — I must have cried a dozen times out of sheer joy! The timing and overall feeling of the music matched the storyline perfectly! Bravo!

Please visit Brian’s site at colortheory.com — beautiful music from an incredibly talented individual!

I am sharing these two productions with you simply because I love Christmas and I hope they will somehow touch you the way they have me all these years. Please feel free to share this site with anyone and everyone — it’s a great way to help your loved ones get in their spirit! Christmas is such a beautiful season! It brings out the best in us… reminds us of everything we take for granted.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Listen to the original Christmas carol and read the lyrics here: The Magic of Christmas

Read the original Christmas short story and listen to the audio version here: The Warmth of My Santa’s Beard

These pages will forever be available in the sidebar under Pages, so feel free to share the web address.

Benjamin was delivered via an unplanned Cesarean after nine hours of active labor. One in five deliveries end in unplanned Cesareans, because they are often the safest way to deal with any complications that may occur during labor. It’s never an ideal scenario, of course, but we are thankful for the excellent medical staff and overjoyed that Benjamin is healthy and beautiful! We are happy to be home and getting back into a routine. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and congratulations over the last several days.

Music by Creed.

We’re working on a playlist of contemporary Christian worship music and would love to hear your thoughts. What are your favorite songs from Church or the radio? We’ll keep our list updated on our Worship Music page (in the menu on the right.) God bless everyone!

I just released my latest music mix, unfold. It’s full of great tunes that we played at our wedding rehearsal dinner last year and some that I’ve discovered since. This is my eighth mix in the last six years and my last one for a while… we’ve got a baby on the way!!

I hope you enjoy the mix. You can download it at himhalo.com. My other mixes can be viewed on the Elvie Music Mixes page. I hope to spend some time remastering my previous mixes and posting them for download. Stay tuned!

As we get closer to our one year anniversary, we thought we’d share with you a few snippets of our wedding video. After all, not everyone is going to make it by Austin anytime soon, so why not use the web to share it?!?

We’ll post ‘em on Our Wedding page. Stay tuned for a handful more between now and June 17th.

“Come on everybody, let’s take a trip to Brazil…”

This morning Kristin & I are listening to Bobby J’s Saturday morning jazz program on KSYM. Once a year, he does his Brazilian Jazz Show, also known as Samba Saturday. If you’ve never been introduced to Samba, just let me know — I’ve got a Samba compilation that I put together a few years ago with Bobby J’s help. Bobby J throws some great jazz parties, where we all just sit around visiting, drinking and spinning his 5000+ records, many of them original pressings!

Thanks to Cisco for introducing us to Bobby J and his wife Freddie, and also for taking this picture on his cell phone. There are a handful of things that Kristin & I miss about San Antonio, and Bobby J is at the top of the list.

Scott Leger of Wideawake submitted his song Maybe Tonight, Maybe Tomorrow to the International Songwriting Competition and won grand prize! You can download the song for free, or support the fight against cancer by purchasing it for $1 from iTunes. 100% of the proceeds go to LiveStrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Upon learning of a friend’s cancer diagnosis, Scott wrote this song both as a personal coping mechanism and as a way to honor cancer survivors across the world. According to Leger, the song is dedicated not only to his friend but also to the millions of people affected by cancer. His hope is that the song will encourage people everywhere to live life to its fullest, whether they are dealing with cancer or any other challenge. The song was debuted at the Lance Armstrong Foundation Gala in front of a room full of VIP’s including former President Bill Clinton. In addition to its lyrical content, the song’s memorable chorus and strong pop sensibility resonated with the ISC judges, culminating in it being awarded this year’s Grand Prize.

Congratulations to Scott for this amazing accomplishment! Some of you may recall that Scott and Eddie from Wideawake played at our wedding. I’d like to say “Thank You!” again for a performance Kristin and I will never forget!!

Dave Gahan, lead singer of the band Depeche Mode, widens his artistic expression on June 7th, and opens up his first restaurant. Named “the bitter apple“, after Gahan’s song “Bitter Apple” (from his first solo album, “Paper Monsters”), the restaurant opens the door for Dave to express his culinary side. “I’ve always wanted to open up a restaurant, but with obligations to Depeche, as well as my solo career, I never had the time. Now is the time.” Taking over the restaurant site formerly known as Poetessa, the bitter apple promises to be one of the cooler restaurants in the NYC area. With a small sound stage in the back of the restaurant, owner Dave Gahan promises to “have the joint rocking”.

This was a great April Fool’s joke! How perfect!? A Depeche Mode restaurant!? The menu is a total riot if you’re a DM fan.

Kristin and I went to the sold out Blue October concert at Stubb’s this weekend. We’ve been looking forward to this show since we last saw them in the Fall of 2005. As it turns out, they were recording a live CD, which made for a great — if controlled — performance, but we left a dash unfulfilled. Stubb’s is a 2200-capacity outdoor amphitheater with great ambiance, but we weren’t in the mood to fight the crowds. Instead, we moved around a lot trying to find a place where people weren’t talking. It seemed like we were the biggest fans there, cuz we just wanted to listen to the music and watch Justin sing, but everyone else was more interested in their own endless small talk and tomfoolery. No matter where we stood (and, at one point, we were pretty close to the stage), it was like we were in a bar and listening to a jukebox or something. Come on, people.

Consequently, it was tough to really get into it. I kept wishing they would put together more intimate concerts from time to time, where we could really get up close and personal. It’s not the band’s fault. I mean, Stubb’s is an intimate venue, right? Well, maybe not. I must be getting older, cuz I’m looking for a place to sit down and sip on a bottle of red wine while listening to the band and nothing but the band. No joke telling or half nelsons allowed. Yeh, I’m getting older. It’s official.

You know, it seems like bands could take steps to recognize that not all of their fans are the same. I mean, there were the five-year-olds propped on their fathers’ shoulders blocking our view. (Yes, it was an all ages show. Perhaps part of the problem?) Then, of course, the college kids who were punching each other in the arm and hitting on one another’s girlfriends… Tickling and tackling. I wonder if these people would be willing to pay more than $30 to see Blue October live? I’m thinking of an auction process where the bidding starts at $100. Or maybe $150? The higher your bid, the more likely you’ll be sitting up front. Yes, sitting. Think MTV Unplugged. Capacity 200. Followed by a full concert the next night, of course. Concerts 2.0. It’s like the “Demand” feature of Sonic Living meets eBay.

When we were hanging out by the merchandise booth, we noticed a shirt that had “5591″ on the front. This intrigued me, of course, and a little searching helped me discover that Justin sometimes does some low-key acoustic shows highlighting various selections from the 500+ songs he has written. Now, THAT sounds perfect! Here’s a sample from a show he did over a year ago. I can’t seem to find any evidence of more recent or upcoming 5591 shows. From what I gather, these shows are mostly word-of-mouth and sell out quickly. No sign of any distribution or announcement list to join, and he’s not listed on JamBase, so that seems to confirm it. Hmm. Concerts 2.0. Perhaps I’m on to something.

It occured to me tonight one of the reasons that I love music so much. It’s a way to approach life… a way to define life… a way that cannot be constructed or constrained by anyone else. It’s yours. If you like a song, it’s okay. No one can say it’s not right. It’s yours. You embrace it, wrap yourself up in it and drift away in its rhythm.

I think of a story I once heard of an elderly woman in an assisted living facility. She had no friends. Laying there at the end of her life and still no friends. Her disposition, perhaps rightfully so, was one of negativity. She had no choice — life had dealt her a sour hand. She had no friends and couldn’t even make friends with the nurses who were paid to be her friend. What was the one thing she wanted? A puppy.

Isn’t that what we all want? A puppy? To be loved and appreciated unconditionally? Nice. Well, a puppy may not be perfect for all of us… and a puppy may not always be a reasonable option… but I believe this is where music falls.

Where music falls.

Something personal and perfect for you… Makes you feel loved… It doesn’t judge you. It is what it is… and it is for you. No one else can touch it.

Well, here is some music from me to you. I’m not sure what you’re gonna hear, but I did my best… beneath this beautiful shady tree. If anything, it’s something for you to hear. From me. If Alexi Murdoch plays, it’s no coincidence.