it's springtime in new york and i was running through central park this morning when i saw a napkin crumbled up in the middle of the path ahead of me. i watched a very well-dressed man stop walking, pick it up, and throw it in the trash.

a few minutes later i ran by what looked like the same napkin, crumbled up in the middle of the path. but i ran right over it. didn't stop. just kept going.

until about 20 feet later, when i stopped, turned around, walked back to the napkin, picked it up, and threw it in the trash.

that well-dressed man planted a seed. sometimes doing the right thing does that, and not in some hippie-b.s. kind of way. in a very real way.

as far as the goodbye goes, i'm moving to idaho for awhile with my dog and my horse and wanted to get in one last 'for the sender' show before i left. tickets are here:

http://forthesenderlestats8pm.eventbrite.com

it's springtime. go plant a seed.

none of that really matters, of course. i know firsthand, from watching a family member die a slow, cruel death, that how long you have lived means very little when set against how well you have lived. her last decade has been brutal, and if she had the capacity to know her current condition, she would be horrified. it's not about how many days you've counted, trust me.

we don't usually count february 29th, and you won't have many of them in your life. maybe 20 if you're lucky. what if you looked at every day like that? you'd think that every single moment is precious.

it is.

so get off facebook. put down the iphone. step away from the xbox. 

those things don't count.

today does.

i've been holding a little bird in my hands for the last few years. not many people knew that i'd been caring for her until she was strong enough to fly on her own.

http://www.forthesender.com

there she goes.

my eyes settled on the television just as the second jet impaled the world trade center, and the world has never been the same.

there will be alot of remembering on sunday. there will be justification for our wars, and there will be criticism of their execution. there will be affirmations of patriotism, and there will be conspiracy theory speculation.

but underneath the fast-moving currents of the talk show hosts, facebook posts, our neighbors, and our own minds, there will be a stillness. if we listen, we will hear it. the stillness will be in the moment of silence at the football game and in the first quiet space of morning. it will be on the empty two-lane highway at 3:30am and in the dying embers of the fire from the night before. we can call it awareness or being, we can call it love or god. we can call it pain and hope and grief and anger. it will be different for all of us, but it will be there.

it is the stillness left by a gaping hole in manhattan ten years ago, and the world has never been the same. 

my labrador is with me, as is my gibson. i'm back on another kind of horse, too, writing and singing for the walls and listening to what comes back as chords and words echo around the rooms. i haven't done that in awhile.

i've spent the last couple of years writing songs about other people's stories and recording other people singing those songs. it hasn't been about me anymore, and it's been good. some friends and i took four real-life letters and wrote songs about those letters. i wrote a book around the whole process, with the album of songs on the inside cover. it's called for the sender, taken from a song we wrote about how a letter is sometimes like a prayer, because it's more for the sender than the receiver.

and now i'm in idaho, getting back on the horse in more ways than one.

the benefit project i just finished producing features multi-platinum, multi-grammy-winning artists. we did it at my house. in my living room. with an old digi02 protools rack-mount worth maybe 300 bucks and a crappy set of inputs worth way less than that.

i thought this somehow made me better than the kickstarter nation of independent musicians trying to raise money from family, friends, and fans to have someone else record their songs.

it doesn't make me better at all. worse, in fact, for even thinking it. i was wrong. 

but you know what DOES make someone better than me? and the kickstarter nation of independent musicians? 

being a janitor.

open the april issue of rolling stone and you'll read some words from krist novoselic, nirvana's bass player. he says that nirvana's demo, back in 1988, was paid for by kurt cobain's job cleaning toilets.

cobain was a janitor. he worked a job where he probably got shit under his fingernails and urine on his sleeves. his feet probably stuck to the floor as he mopped away other people's waste.

he did that so his band could make a record.

the first record, the demo, from a band that would have one of the greatest impacts on modern music in my lifetime.

so, would you rather be really good at social media, or a janitor?

i know times have changed.

but some things have not.

http://www.bootcampaign.com/video_blog.html

just two people walking.  

there was a lot of chop in the water, and watching the whales dive got me thinking about how they were fighting surface turbulence on top, but when they dove down deeper, things were probably very calm and quiet. it's like when you're in the pool down the street and the crazy neighbor kids are making a ruckus on the surface... if you head a little deeper, everything is still and peaceful.

time to head a little deeper. 

that summer was a hard one, and autumn soon found me trying to let go of some dreams that seemed to have died with kona, just as they were born with her 15 years before when i picked her out of a litter in my aunt's garage in utah.  

that autumn after she died i got a letter from a fan named em, which told me about a deep loss she had experienced.  i connected to the letter so sean watkins and i wrote a song about it.  the song was called 'for the sender' and was about how often a letter is like a prayer, in that sometimes it's more for the sender than the receiver.

one thing led to another, and before long we had written and recorded several songs about her letter with other songwriting friends here in town.  i received several more letters and we wrote songs about those letters, too.

this song project is now almost done.  it's grown into something i could never have imagined, and i can't wait to share it.  it started with that letter from em, and I've been wondering how many people out there have their own letters, tucked away in a box or a dresser drawer, letters never sent.

and today i realized i have one of my own, sitting in a box downstairs next to a little package with a rose across the top.

i miss you, kona.

we started a garden here at the house and small green shoots are just starting to make themselves known through the dirt.   we lost the map that tells us where we planted everything, so it's all a mystery at this point.  but there's definitely growth going on.

i haven't been on the road much over the last few months, except for a couple of surf trips.  shawn mullins and i did a couple of shows in atlanta, but mostly i've stayed close to home.  a friend put on an event here last month that was so special to play, and i've been producing a project downstairs in our studio that i'm excited to get out there soon.

the dolphins have come back to the ocean out in front of the house, along with the resident seal.  my labrador stella looks for the seal every morning down on the beach while i'm halfway through the first cup of coffee.  and thinking about rebirth, renewal, re-everything.

i got back to the states in time to play a couple of shows with shawn mullins in georgia. someone had a video camera running during one of those shows, and now there's a youtube video posted of the story behind 'the table' and shawn singing it with me. if you're interested, it's right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9m74M16voQ

we'll be playing in folsom again in a couple of weeks, as well as in portland with josh turner, memphis, and here in san diego. details are on the website.

and i think i'm going to let in a little more mystery this year. i still don't know the face or shape of some of the bigger parts of my life, but the best things seem to come from nowhere. so i might as well embrace the mystery, and i hope there are some good things waiting for you in the unknown, too... no hype, all experience.

alex

i've been on this road for quite a while now, and april's tour with shawn shined a light over the journey so far, just when i needed some sort of beacon to guide my way. alot of laughing, learning, and moments that i will remember when i'm searching for some sort of affirmation that i'm doing the right thing. 

early in june i'll head to georgia to play more shows with shawn, and then back to the west coast for another tour with him. i'm looking forward especially to playing seattle again... i lived in seattle for a long time, and i first saw shawn play there when i was just starting out. i never imagined i'd be back through town supporting him on tour. 

'reno' is close to hitting the top 20 on the mainstream country chart... we're re-editing the video i did with sara watkins and will hopefully get a new version out next week. thanks for the kind words and notes you're sending about the song and our journey so far. hope to see you out there in june. 

1) belly up this week.

2) #46 on the mainstream country chart.

3) writing.

4) on the road.

the naysayers and i are doing a benefit for unicef here in san diego at the belly up this sunday, march 22nd. it's an early show... doors are at 4pm. tickets are 10 bucks in advance, timmy curran is also on the bill, and we'll have you home in time for 60 minutes...

"reno" cracked the top 50 on the mainstream country chart this week, coming in at #46. there's a rumor that sara watkins will be at the belly up on sunday to sing it with me... it would be the first time we've sang that song together live. just a rumor, of course. i'm getting through more of the pre-order songs... i got a few done last week and sent out... thanks for continuing to be patient.

and finally, tour dates with shawn mullins are posted on the website and myspace/facebook profiles. if you're in the area, come say hi...

alex

____________________________

http://www.alexwoodard.com http://www.myspace.com/alexwoodard http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alex-Woodard/23295217215

now we're a few days into 2009, and i've been feeling very thankful... for the friends around me, for today, for coffee, for just about everything.  i'm not sure if the turning of the calendar page sparked something in me, but it's almost as if i took a right turn on a different road and i like where we're heading.  

in between my new year's eve spent dodging collagen and fake body parts to the chargers' victory over the colts last night, 2009 has been an adventure so far.  "reno" goes to radio this week, and we're playing my favorite venue (the belly up) this thursday night.  i'm still working on the preorder songs, and i'm looking forward to getting back to the southeast in a few weeks.  

i'm going to try to live 2009 one day at a time.  hope to see you out there.

and waffle house.

i've never been.

but that changed.

from the stone-age buildup of gunk under the stove to the $3.85 breakfast (double-waffle with blueberries and coffee) and suspect bathrooms, i'm in love. finally. like it's for the first time. rachel even snuck a waffle house mug into her bag for me. i of course had nothing to do it. but i'm drinking coffee out of it right now, back home staring at the pacific and catching up on life. i'll be back in the southeast in about 6 weeks. can't wait.

http://www.myspace.com/awsongsforyou

we're playing a free show at the casbah october 25th, so if you're in san diego come out and say hi.

back at it...

http://www.countryweekly.com/freemusic/

yesterday, cmt weighed in here:

http://blog.cmt.com/2008-08-12/alex-woodard-will-write-a-song-for-you/

and today rhapsody is doing a 'listening party' in advance of the new record right here:

http://www.rhapsody.com/alexwoodard/alexwoodard

i gave them a bonus track too called 'the roof'... no one's ever heard that one.  it's listed as track 12 on that page.

hope you like what you're hearing on the new one... we shot videos for 'reno' with sara watkins and 'there is no more time to waste' with dawn mitschele, and those will be  up soon!

aw

there are a few early reviews up in the press section on the site, and at least initially it seems like i got across what i was going for with this album... the stories are about the everyday living side of getting older, and on a few songs i tried to put myself in the shoes of stories i haven't lived yet.

finally, i lost Kona in july... here's what i wrote about it the next morning:

I said goodbye to Kona last night.

As her breathing slowed, a single tear dropped from her left eye onto my shorts. The vet said it would be better not to think of it as crying, but that's what it was.

That tear held love, thanks, and goodbye.

And then she was gone.

I made my way out of the house and took Stella on a run, crying most of the way down the street while folks driving or walking by wondered whether or not they should ask me what was wrong.

We ran on the beach for a long time. I stopped once because the crying was stronger than the breathing and sat down on the sand. Stella came running up to me and dropped something at my feet. It was a little green plastic fish, the kind you might find floating in a kid's bathtub.

She carried that little fish all the way to the stretch of beach in front of the house, where I took all my clothes off and walked out into the water. Stella followed me out until the surf got too big for her to clear, and then waited for me as I came back to the sand. I pulled my shorts back on, walked up the stairs and into the house, and took a shower. I slept without dreaming.

When I woke up this morning, I posted "The Table" for Kona. We recorded it just days before I found out that she had cancer. When I wrote it, I didn't know she was dying. And now I know I wrote it for her.

If you come to my house, you will probably see a little green plastic fish sitting up on the mantle. Stella was sitting in front of the fireplace this morning, staring up at the little fish. I gave it to her and she now has it nestled next to her on her bed.

We both will be saying goodbye for a long time.