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...

We thought it would be meaningful and fun to invite you to share your thoughts and opinions alongside ours, here on this blog. Instead of just letting us know, we want you to tell those stories to everyone. If it’s meaningful to you, chances are good that it will be meaningful to someone else… here in this more-connected/ more dis-connected land of the internet.

I'm at the kitchen table, rocking the laptop, calling A-list band managers while my younger brother is busy making calls to get a late-summer job. He's looking for work in chemistry, or perhaps as a pharmacy tech. Meanwhile I'm going through the metaphorical Rolodex calling music industry bad aces to get them to chat for a few minutes on the phone, or *gasp* come see us play live. And even though we're clearly on different career paths, the story is pretty much the same. What he hears: "Yeah, we're not hiring right now... uh... I don't think any of our locations are hiring. I think we're laying people off... yeah... crap." At which point I overhear my brother say, "Yeah... that's ok... good luck keeping your job," He regroups, and makes another call. "It's a learning experience," I say. "Yeah, I learned nobody is hiring." No one has money right now, I think. And...

…when you show me the cracks in your armor, I will be inspired to show you mine. And in the telling, we end up closer to each other than before.