BREAKING NEWS: my EP (yes, of 2009 renown) is finally available for digital download.

What took me so long?  Oh, I don’t know.  My mom getting cancer.  Moving across the country.  Running so much.  Traveling so much.  Going to so many weddings.  Various existential crises.

I guess it took the Honda dying and leaving me with endless free time to actually get this done.

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Speaking of, if you’re wondering where I am, and you’re still thinking Kansas City, then you’re right.

Stuck.  Stranded.  Marooned.  In middle America, and a week behind in my latest half-marathon training schedule.

But not for long.

My mom and sister Sarah are driving out to my rescue today, and after a 9-hour drive, good Lord willing, I’ll be safe and sound in my Denver apartment tomorrow night.

Does this mean I’ll be making another driving video?

Maybe I will and MAYBE I WILL.

I’ve got a few boxes of CDs in the trunk of my car, and I need to move them out.  You know – to make room for the dead bodies.

My EP is on sale for half-off – yes, that’s right, just $5!  Now is your chance to get a few extra copies to set aside as stocking stuffers, or a gift to suck up to your boss, or a birthday present for your niece.  I’m big with the tweens.

Or you can do what I do, and occasionally put them on the windshields of complete stranger’s cars.  A wee bit awkward, yes.  But then I remember the dead bodies.

So THIS IS YOUR CHANCE.  Go ahead and place your order – for the price of a sandwich at Subway, you will get 7 songs, and help pay for my cavities.  And because they’re half-off, you can order multiple copies.  Right?  Right??!?

Thanks, all – my cavities, and EIGHT UPCOMING CROWNS, are grateful.

Seth just texted me.

“Annie!  Did you already know about the Disc Makers catalog and were just waiting to surprise me?”

I stared at the phone.  What catalog?  Disc Makers?  Wait – am I in Disc Makers?  AM I IN DISC MAKERS???!?

“On the COVER.”

I am on the cover of… well, not quite a magazine, but IT MIGHT AS WELL BE A MAGAZINE.  I am arriving in thousands of mailboxes, worldwide, as I type.

Thank you, Seth Kiehl, for creating such a gorgeous design… one that Disc Makers rightfully found worthy of their catalog.

Oh, and the front page of their website, too.

Pretty much the happiest thing that could happen to me on a Monday.  I seriously can’t stop smiling.  Thanks, Disc Makers.

I have to say, it’s scary to take little pieces of my heart and toss them out into the big bad world. But you have been a most gracious audience!

Thank you so much for listening to my songs this week – and thanks a million for buying the AP EP. Your support is helping me recoup some of the money that I spent to make it – which isn’t what it’s all about, but let’s be honest: it’s super helpful. My heart is overflowing with gratitude.

“By the Time”

There are only two things you need to know about this final track:
1) I love the “oooh-wah” harmonies during the bridge.
2) I like to pretend that I’m much more of a badass than I actually am.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

I am blogging through the weekend, because I started this thing, and I am not a quitter – except for when it comes to dieting. And Type From Home.

“First You Cry”

This world is totally screwed up. It’s a place where men leave their wives, where husbands and fathers have to be taken off of life support, where parents lose their 3-year old sons, where my own sweet mama was diagnosed with cancer this past Tuesday. Things are completely and utterly twisted, and we are sometimes left with the impossible task of picking up the pieces.

But the world doesn’t wait. Life goes on. You still have to do all of those little things that make up everyday life, even when you don’t feel like it.

But first, you cry.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

It’s Friday (happy Friday, by the way – congratulations on making it through another week).  Typically, I do not blog on the weekends – but we still have two more tracks to go.  So be sure to check in tomorrow and Sunday for the inside scoop on the final tracks!

“Starting Today”

In the fall of 2007, I spent 3 ½ months by myself on a road trip around the country; this song was born out of that time.  I wrote scraps of it during The Big Trip, and finished it right before I moved to Nashville.

But the song was really bad.  No, seriously – like, REALLY bad.  I didn’t want to play it for anyone, because it was so trite, so obvious.  So I did what any respectable human would do: I dropped it.

After tucking it away for about a year, one day, I happened to pull it out again – and realized that there might actually be some redeemable parts.  I decided to try to re-write the chorus, and wound up writing three different choruses – cart-wheeling choruses that remind me of what I felt like during those 3 ½ months on the road: “a poor broken heart chasing broken white lines.”

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

And… we have arrived at the title track.

“Wish That I Was”

Sometimes, we write what we have experienced. Sometimes, we write what we have observed. And sometimes, there is no difference.

This was the first song that we recorded, way back in February, and I feel like it acted as a sonic compass for the entire project. Josh and I spent a long time talking about the “sound” that we were aiming for on the EP – what the instrumentation would be, what would unify all of the tracks, what the feel should be.

When the second chorus hits, you’ll hear it.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

“Could’ve Sworn It Was You”

This was the very last song that we recorded – we finished it just about a month ago.  And when I listen to the project as a whole, I think that this song is my favorite; Josh’s got it pretty perfect.  Probably because I told him that I wanted it to sound like a country version of “More Than Words” – and I’m sorry, but that idea simply cannot fail.

When I got the idea for this song, it was a complete idea – that is, I had the line “I could have sworn it was you,” and immediately knew exactly all of the different ways I wanted to use it.  Sometimes, a gift is just dropped in your lap – and then you might spend the rest of your days trying to find something like it again.

Listen for Josh’s harmony vocal (golden), as well as his super country dobro solo.  I think that his production really shines in this song.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

Thanks to all of y’all, Nashville is officially out of padded envelopes.  I took the first wave of orders to the post office today, and I am so grateful for your support!  I’ll probably be saying this a lot, but it won’t ever be enough: thank you for helping me to do something that I love – even if it’s on a small scale, even if it’s on the side, even if it’s homegrown and occasional.  To me, it means the world.

“Take the Money”

This song fell out quickly – I actually don’t even remember writing it, except that I was sitting on the red couch in my old Music Row apartment, and could barely play any chords on the guitar (which hasn’t really changed).  I must have been feeling sassy, though, because all of the cheeky lines didn’t require any amount of thought.  Like Mayumi’s confession, they just SPILLED FORTH.

You might wonder if this song is autobiographical.  Let the record state that I have never smoked a cigarette – but on the other hand, I am currently rocking a 2-years-past-legal Washington state driver’s license.  Clearly, my rebellion knows no bounds.

This song is fun to sing because I get to do that little yodel-flip thing that I love so much.  Also, somehow, I successfully worked in the word “neckin’” without sounding like Toby Keith, which makes me want to high-five myself.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

Welcome to EP release week here on the old blog!  For each of the next 7 days, I’m going to tell you a little something about a song from the project.  It’s like VH1’s “Behind the Music,” but without the heroin.

So feel free to listen each day – and then, if you feel so inclined, order your own copy of “Wish That I Was” – because I now have an ONLINE STORE!  I’ll get your copy to the post office post haste.

“Make a Mess”

Crushes are such sweet agony, such fluttery torture – and “Make a Mess” is my small attempt at catching the feeling.

I knew that I wanted this song to be the first track on the EP, and it was important to me that it feel simple, warm, and organic.  I think that Josh captured it perfectly – earthy and unpolished and welcoming – my favorite kind of country music, the kind that could easily be replicated in a live setting.  Um, like a barn.

Meg Allison and I split the background parts, and I love what we came up with during the bridge.  Have I mentioned that I love singing background parts far more than lead vocals?  Sometimes, I think that I write songs just so I’ll have something to sing harmonies for.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!