I am spoiled, and I am the first to admit it.  Why, you ask?  Well, among many other reasons, I have two identical black Macbooks – one personal, and one for work.  Let’s be real: that is just ridiculous.  More than anyone could ever ask for.

But last week, my personal Macbook went kaput.  It’s broken – broken like… searching for a simile… broken like… my toe?  Except my toe has a fighting chance at mending – and I really don’t think that the computer will be resurrected.  I turn it on, and it pulls up a white screen.  That’s all.  It’s like the moment after Juliette hits the bomb with the rock, except it never skips to the credits.  Eternal nuclear uncertainty.

Get over it, Annie – right?  I mean, I have a WHOLE OTHER COMPUTER.  But my personal laptop held all of my iTunes, all of my pictures, all of my super secret documents that no one is ever allowed to see.  Most of it is backed up on an external hard drive, but I don’t want to put it on my work computer.  So there it will remain – locked up forever.

Mostly this is bad because I want to sync my iPod to my iTunes to get my new music and podcasts.  And not only can I not put them on my iPod, I can’t even access my iTunes at all.  I am SOOOOOOO BORED with my current selection of songs (I only have ninety million or something).  And Ira Glass is saying things that I might never get to hear – which makes me panic.

IRA!!!!  I NEED YOU!!!!!!!!

I had recently downloaded Sara Groves’ latest, “Fireflies and Songs,” but have no way of hearing it again.  Lady Antebellum has a new album released today.  The Handy Graham recommended Sarah Jarosz – and since he was the first one to tell me about eastmountainsouth, I trust him – not that it matters, since I can’t get my grubby paws on these songs.

Today, I have India Arie and Phil Collins on YouTube.  It’s all I have left.

Oh sorry – did I quit blogging for a couple of days?  I apologize.  It’s just that OH MY WORD, LOOK AT MY NEW DESK.

It’s called a PARSONS desk, for crying out loud – can you say meant? to? be? This is what Gina, Leigh, and I will be supporting the Emma community off of.  And I might occasionally drape myself across mine, just out of sheer obsession.

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If “the British” = “Julie” then call me Paul Revere.

It’s true.  JULIE IS COMING!

Yes, Julie of JAM.  When I get home from work tonight, there she’ll be.  And for a few days, all will be right in my world.

- – - – - – - -

I took my car for an oil change this morning.  The man at the counter asked, “Make and model?”

“Honda Accord,” I replied.

“Year?” he asked.

“1990.”

“Nineteen-ninety…?” he paused, prompting.

“1990.  Period”

“Ninety?  Really?  Well, okaaaaaaay.”

No one – not even mechanics – can believe that the Honda is still alive and kicking.

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I want to be in this so bad.

Awwww, yeah!  How’s about that – Troubled Annie, for the wind!

Listen to some of their new stuff here.  “Be Mine” is so catchy, it’s practically SARS.

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!