YONDER BREAKS

Ever since my Grandfather and I would ride around running errands or going to the buffet listening to classic country music, I've been a fan. I'm talking about songs from the 40s-70s by the likes of Loretta Lynn ,  Hank Williams and Patsy Cline (which, if you follow my music, should come as no surprise given my EP Here Are Some Covers ). The other day I was watching a video of Faron Young and Willie Nelson talking about "Hello Walls," which was one my grandfather really loved (he thought it was so funny that a guy would be talking to walls). If you haven't heard it, go listen to the original, or if you're feeling lazy you can watch my cover of it here: With that song in my head, a little phrase popped up while I was cleaning the kitchen: "I don't need to be anything that I'm not...I don't need anything that I don't got." Sounds pretty country, so I decided to fill it out into a song. I also had a submission for a work competition I...

I mentioned a few posts ago about a book announcement and I am excited to relay that the day has finally come to launch the project! It's called All Roads Lead to Dockweiler: Devotions from the Ocean in the City of Angels , and it was one of the most fun things I've ever written.  Here is the story. I used to blog quite a bit about surfing. In fact, my first paid writing gig was to blog for StoreYourBoard.com , where my job was to make board storage interesting enough to read about. True to form, I wasn't content writing "Top 5 Surf Racks" and "Best Surfboard Rack for Shortboards" pieces (though I certainly wrote my share), so I always tried to tell stories alongside the content, incorporating truth and comedy with the important information. The exercise was fun, and at the time (2013-2014), surfing had become a full-blown passion of mine.  In fact, I was having so much fun writing about surfing and all of the stories and ideas that went along with it t...

A few weeks ago I went to a men's retreat for our church. Now I've been involved in men's ministries for years, and even was partially in charge of events for one of them, but it's been quite awhile since I've done something like this. The last several years or so, I seem to have developed a "too cool for school" attitude towards them. I missed the one last year and I even sort of tried not  to go to this one, having scheduled plans on the other side of the country to see some family and friends and catch an old bandmate's 40th birthday show. But when everything I had planned kept not working out, I thought maybe that was God's way of telling me He might have something for me at this retreat. If you're not familiar, men's retreats are usually when a bunch of guys go out into the woods or mountains to a retreat center to study scripture, worship God and usually do some sort of manly, rustic or extreme activity. There are usually a healthy d...

Two years ago I took a job working the ramp for an airline, which is a pretty physical, 'blue collar' job. I had done the job in Charleston several years prior on a very part-time basis, but this go-around it was more involved and at a bigger station in the big city. Immediately, it became clear to me that the people I was working with had come from a very different background than I had, which was, and still is, very eye opening. On my most recent shift I had a particularly interesting conversation with three other guys, all a bit younger than me and each in various stages of life. We were talking about high school and what it was like with school, teachers and girls, and the contrast between their lives and mine was so stark it was worth noting, and gleaming a little life lesson from. Wing walking, 2016 I wrote in the last post that I grew up in the South, in the mid-sized city of Charleston, SC. I told them I had spent most of my childhood in the suburbs. They interpreted ...

I'm lucky to have grown up in Charleston, SC, with its rich history and vibrant music scene. I attribute a lot of my sound to the country/western music my Grandfather played while driving around to shop for cars he'd never buy, after hefty meals at the buffet we frequented enough to become regulars. I found out I liked bluegrass music while eating at a middle-of-nowhere barbecue joint with a no-name bluegrass band playing in the corner, even though I knew very little about the genre at the time. But all that southern influence was about more than just the music, and when I turned 25, it hit me in a whole new way... Just two kids in love! (Photo by David Strauss) You see, people in the South get married pretty early. I knew lots of kids that graduated college and before they started work, they started a new life as married couple. I even knew some youngsters who got married in  college. There's nothing wrong with any of it, but when I ended up in the big city of Los Angel...