I wrote an email to one of my favorite singer/songwriters yesterday, and it feels appropriate, given the upcoming holiday, to share it with you. Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers' album Glassjaw Boxer was one of those rays of light that we sometimes see (or hear) at exactly the right time. He's honest in his dealings with family and the pursuit of fame, with his questions, doubts, and hopes. In his song Father's Day, he sings to his daughter about the closeness of their family, as well as the distance created by his perennial absence. "You're like your mom, little girl/ and believe me that's the best thing in the world," followed by "I will always always love you, no matter what you do/ and when you're growing up without me I will always be with you." Even though I don't have any kids, these themes cut right in. And I think it's because...

What is the one thing you wish you had done differently which you learned by experience? This is an excellent question, and a very difficult one. My answer may end up sounding a bit touchy-feely for your tastes, but it's my answer nonetheless. I wish this: that I had asked myself "What do I want?" more often. I wish I had started asking earlier, "What EXACTLY do I want? Is THIS what I want? How close is this thing I'm doing right now to what I've dreamed of, hoped for?" And I wish I'd developed the courage to believe in my answers to those questions earlier on. In other words, I wish I'd started to trust my intuition earlier. Asking "Where am I going, and what do I really want?" is a powerful question, because it prevents you from getting swept along by others' plans for you in the hopes that they have your...

Dear Mr. Hood, I have been enjoying your music for some time, and I love the way you mix intricate musical harmonies with meaningful lyrics.  You may remember me from your show in Boston. I played violin for Back Into Blue. I have been studying violin for 9 years, and also play guitar, piano, drums and sing.  I am in high school, and I am considering colleges to continue my musical education.  I write and record songs, and would like to hone and refine this skill for God’s glory.  Could you give me some insight from your experience about these upcoming years? What was the best decision you made in the pursuit of your music career? What is the one thing you wish you had done differently which you learned by experience? What advice would you give someone like me? Thanks for the time and advice you might be able to give.  Believe me, I will...

Here’s a video of our song “Something More” from the D Town TV show, Tucson, AZ’s Channel 12. Hope you like it!

It's Always About The Songs - Part 4 of 4 These days, I'm a lot more open and excited about the thought of my songs changing and evolving. I try to get a song as prepared as I can - I hone it and sit with it and make sure it's as good as I can make it - and then I open it up to criticism and change. I tend towards certain songwriting habits, and I'm excited by the prospect of letting those habits get turned on their head by Ryan, a producer, fellow musicians. Lately we've been talking about our next record and how we'd like to widen our production palette even more... play more instruments than before. More mandolin, piano... go in directions that make the listening experience different than what we've done previously. Up until now we've tended to stay pretty close to the 2 guitar, 2 voice...

Months later I’d think, “Why was I so particular about the chorus? Why did I demand it be played exactly in that way?” Over time I’d start to see that if I was willing to adapt a little, then the song would live, instead of going off to doggy heaven, never to be heard from again.

Often, I’m very passionate about a song when I first write it. But within a week or a month, the initial high of passion and creation will wear off, and I can sense weaknesses in the songs. I get bored by them. I’ll play them on my acoustic guitar for a friend, and I’ll find myself making excuses like, “Probably the drums will make this more interesting.” Or I’ll play half the song and say, “Yeah, you get the idea.”

As you might expect, some songs make the journey from inception to production very much the way we imagined them, while others change tremendously. The two basic ways our songs end up different than when we first imagined them are changes in the “songwriting” itself, as well as changes to our vision for the “production” of the song. And often the two are closely intertwined.

I got this email from one of our friends in Idaho. Her name is Amy Lapp, and fortuitously, it was her camera-phone recording of "Oh Ellen"  that originally caught the attention of The Ellen Show. Amy and her friend Kris won the award for Driving Farthest to Attend the CD Release Show, (Pocatello, ID to Tucson, AZ), and I appreciate not only her enthusiasm about our DVD and live show, but her generally positive outlook on music and friendship. Here's what she had to say after getting the official DVD video document of that incredibly fun night: ---------------------- Cameron, I just wanted to tell you that I just received and watched the new DVD and loved it! I started reminiscing about the roadtrip to Arizona that Kris and I took to see that show. It was a lot of fun, we saw some cool things, enjoyed the warmth and sunshine, and then concluded...

he dynamic duo played a song they called a work-in-progress – “Start Somewhere” – that to them was a song about the birthplace of their collaboration (which began in Boston, MA after moving Tucson, AZ). For me, as I looked out at the diverse audience, “Start Somewhere” spoke to me about all personal life journeys, which are all “works-in-progress.”