So as the tour comes to an end, I think that it is apropos for me to finally add my mark to the blogs. By the way, this if my first blog ever, so bear with me. (And we’re learning the business, people)
At this time last year, I gave my wife (then fiancé), Julia, a Christmas card in which I had written, amongst other things, how blessed I felt about my life. We had just moved to Las Vegas from NYC, where she would be opening a new company of Jersey Boys. We were spending the holidays in beautiful San Francisco, where the show was previewing. We had just moved our wedding up two months to accommodate the opening of her show. In addition to all of that, we had moved to a great two bedroom apartment, a far cry from the shoebox-sized places we had living in NYC for the past six years. All in all, when I sat down to write her that Christmas card, I can honestly say that I felt truly blessed and content. I had no idea what was in store for 2008.
In the past year I have:
Gotten married, been signed to Atlantic Records, recorded and released a wonderful album (Holiday Spirits, in stores and ITunes now. If you don’t have it, seriously, stop reading this and get to it. Seriously. Go.) , moved again, been on The Today Show, Christmas in Washington (with Darius Rucker, Kristin Chenowith, Julianne Hough, Casting Crowns), sang the anthem at a Packers game (and been part of a Lambeau Leap!), been the number one album on both Amazon and ITunes, sold over 75,000 albums to date, and reached as high as #67 on the Billboard Charts. Wow.
Some of you may be reading that and seeing this:
In the past year I have: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
(which is the sound of me honking my own horn)
But I promise you, I am not. I am not singing the praises of the group or myself, I am really just trying to go over it all and pinch myself. I honestly have to sit back at times and try to take in all that is happening for SNC. I constantly am reminding myself to count my blessings and realize all that I have been lucky enough to do; telling myself that this is real. An A Cappella album on the Billboard charts? SNC concerts selling out in Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco? I don’t know how this is all happening, but I cannot be enjoying it more. Yes, the travelling is exhausting and I am looking forward to a couple of days of getting more than 4 hours of sleep, but getting out on stage with these nine guys in front of unbelievably amazing audiences makes it all worth it.
Yes, I remember to thank God for everything in my life, maybe not often enough, but I do. But I haven’t gotten to thank some people enough. Those people are you who are reading this now. Thank you. Thank you for passing the video around to all of your contacts in your address book (whether they liked it or not!). Thank you for telling people about it. Thank you for coming to shows and bringing your friends and family with you, many for the first time. Thank you for buying the CD, and for giving it as a gift. Thank you for coming to the website and becoming a member, it shows that you are fans of real music, just like we are. Thank you for inviting us into your homes for one of the most special times of the year by playing our songs while you spend time with your families. Thank you for all of the awesome blogs and emails, telling us how much you enjoyed a concert or the CD; about how we helped make the holidays a little more fun or helped you through a tough time. Thank you for giving us more blessings than we can count.
Our lives have been turned upside down and shaken over the last year, trying to record and tour while keeping our day jobs and trying to pay rent or mortgages. Moreover, it looks like we are going to have the wonderful problem of doing it again starting in January for our second album! This time without those pesky jobs that were holding us back (cross your fingers that none of our families starve…). There are 10 people and 10 families that are going to give it another go and try to make a 10-man A Cappella group successful in a struggling music industry (somebody call Oprah, stat, we’ve got a story here), and I, for one couldn’t be more excited. Everyone who is a member of sncmusic.com, a fan of the group, or just someone who got dragged to a Christmas concert this year is responsible for that and words cannot describe how appreciative we are for it.
So, as we all take a little much needed family time at the end of this year, we are already looking toward 2009. I hope that you have all had a great Holiday (whichever holiday it may be) and I look forward to hearing from you, reading your blogs, or meeting you at our next concert near your home. I know quite a few people who will be listening to a certain song on New Year’s Eve and looking back at an amazing year gone by. So when you play it as the ball drops in your time zone and you raise a toast (with NO chaser!), remember these thanks and know that you are a part of something special, and I dare say, pretty cool. Here’s a toast to our fans, we couldn’t have done it without you.