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.

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.”

In nearly every major publication I've read lately, I've stumbled on photos of U2's current 360 stadium tour.. and every one of them makes my jaw drop. They're legendary. If 10% of Tucson attended our concerts, we'd be performing to audiences of 100,000 people. It would be legendary. U2 would be opening for us. We played a house concert in Malta, ID tonight to an audience of 17 people. It was legendary. Malta, ID has a population of 171, and 10% of that population came to hear our music and our message - in the back room of the Cattle Country Steakhouse. And while Bono was screaming, for 60,000 fans, we were singing about this "Long Wide Open" road that brought us to Malta... by request...for someone who drove 2 1/2 hours to be in Malta tonight. I like nights like tonight... remembering that the journey can be just as fun as the destination. "It's...

Guest Blog, by Michael Lin. Ryanhood, formed by Arizona natives Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, gave a free concert last week in their second home of Boston to a small but excited crowd of fans and newcomers. Defined primarily by smooth vocals and slick guitar work, the duo performed a mixed repertoire of flashy jams and deep ballads that demonstrated why, in spite of not having a Wikipedia page about them, they continue to gain new fans with every show.