Seven Good Things - Volume #3

Music! Cookies! Books! Guitar Stuff! Apps! Thoughts!

The leaves are falling, the candy aisle is overflowing, and that means it’s time for this month’s Seven Cool Things.

But first I want to thank everyone who’s purchased my new book How To Remember. I don’t know any official numbers, but for a while there Amazon was sold out of them, so I figure that’s a good problem! Thank you for that!! Lots of fun posts about the book, too!

If you’ve read it and enjoyed it, would you consider taking a minute and heading over and leaving a review? Having 50 or more positive reviews does wonders for helping the message of a book spread on Amazon.

Ok, without further adieu… Seven! Cool! Things!

1. Max Richter - Sleep

Ben Shive told me about this album. An 8 1/2 hour long instrumental piece by pianist / composer Max Richter. This quiet, meditative project never stops. It just keeps evolving - from piano, to orchestra, to synths, to voices, and all sorts of blending between them - all while never really reaching a crescendo. It’s stunning.

You’ve absolutely heard Max Richter’s music before. He did the soundtracks for Shutter Island, The Leftovers, Black Mirror, The Crown, Ad Astra, Invasion, and more. The guy is not messing around. But this “Sleep” project is just another level.

2. Magnet

Apparently Ben Shive is the theme today. This past December we were out on tour together and he was working on the Rich Mullins album that came out yesterday.

Apparently, I thought the lyrics to the chorus of “What Susan Said” were always “the things we have lost” but they are actually “the things we have kept”. I’ve thought that since high school. So I sang them wrong at the Ryman.

Thus, seven years later Ben and I were in some random church’s Sunday school room where he had his computer set up to do some editing and I was there to re-sing that one word on each chorus. All of a sudden he did something on his screen and - Boom! - ProTools was on one side of the monitor and the lyrics were on the other side.

“How did you do that!?” I asked.

“Oh man. It’s this app called Magnet. Best five dollars I’ve ever spent” he replied.

It lets you divide your Mac screen into all kinds of different quadrants. It’s super intuitive and has made my workflow so much easier. I bought it a few minutes later and I have used it every day since.

3. The Maker Of The Mountain / My Beloved Child

It’s almost Christmas time and, while not all of us have little kids at home, everybody has a cousin or a friend or coworker who does. Two wonderful books have come out in the last few months (one just yesterday!) that deserve a spot under the Christmas tree.

Sandra McCracken and her husband Tim have written this sweet story of a bear on a grand adventure to find The Maker Of The Mountain. It’s fun and tender and introduces kids to vital Scriptures about who we are and whose we are.

Sarah Kroger has taken the idea of her incredible song “Belovedness” (produced by Ben Shive - there he is!) and turned it into this beautiful book, teaching children that to God they are “My Beloved Child”. It’s wise and winsome and gorgeous to look at.

Both books are absolutely delightful, inspiring and perfect gifts for every kid in your life.

4. Apogee Hypemic

I’m not sure who told me about the HypeMic, but I know it wasn’t Ben. This is a $350 USB powered condenser microphone taht comes with three cables, so you can plug it in to an iPhone or an android phone or a laptop or just about anything. It has a compressor built into it, which actually sounds fantastic.

This might sound like an expensive mic for something you’d plug into your phone, but this thing is such high quality. I’ve seen some videos that compared this to a $2000 Nuemann U67 and people couldn’t tell the difference. Usually I don’t believe that stuff, but with this microphone I actually do. You know how I know? My top Spotify song was recorded on this microphone - and only this microphone.

this is how I recorded my first acoustic hymns EP

Both of my acoustic hymns EPS, and a new one which will come out early next year, were recorded in random rooms (an Airbnb, a hotel room, and a rustic cabin on Amy Grant’s farm) with just this mic plugged into a laptop. No preamp, nothing else.

To be honest I kind of forgot about it for a little while after those recordings, but then I ran into some audio struggles working on my podcast and decided to try it on that and it sounded amazing there, too. It’s got a headphone out and comes with a little stand, pop filter and case.

5. Snickerdoodles

Look, the best cookie is undoubtably the chocolate chip cookie. It’s the champion. The undisputed king. I’m not going to make any argument otherwise. But when it comes to the vice president, the runner-up, for some reason people seem to jump to either the oatmeal raisin cookie (these people are insane) or the chocolate cookie with chocolate chips (which is a good idea in theory, but ultimately just too much of a good thing).

Friends, I submit to you that the number two, Will Ryker to the chocolate chip’s Capt. Picard, is none other than the humble snickerdoodle.

A snickerdoodle is a sugar cookie that tastes good. It is a round, dough-y piece of heaven. If the chocolate chip cookie is heaven, the snickerdoodle is us here on earth on a really great day.

6. Dead Ringer

My old bandmate Derek Webb has created an absolutely brilliant little guitar accessory, The Dead Ringer. Like a lot of guitarists these days, I’ve been chasing the sound of a rubber bridge, but I have not wanted to give up an entire guitar just for that purpose. (Uncle Andy’s not made of money, after all.)

I had built my own version with some rolled up surgical gloves, and then tried another thing I found on YouTube, which was a little better… then I saw Derek selling this on Kickstarter and immediately backed it. I texted him to say what a great idea it was and he was already putting one in the mail for me to try out that day.

I’ll tell you this. He nailed it. Quest over. I’m glad I still have another one on order because I’ll use two. If you’ve been curious about this sound, or you’ve been really chasing it hard, either way, it’s 20 bucks and it’s worth it. Great Christmas present for the guitar nerd in your life.

There’s about a week left on the Kickstarter so get yours today.

7. Memory Foam AirPod Buds

I love my AirPods more than I should. I use them all the time. But the little tips that come with them never stay in my ears. A couple years ago I found these black mold replacement tips. You squish them up a little in your fingers, and then they are never going to come out.

I can run in them, hike in them, you name it. They’re super comfortable and the bass response stays consistent when I am moving around. I bought these three years ago and they’ve outlasted the Airpods I first put them on.

---

I’ll say this:

From Sandra and Sarah‘s books to the little guitar creation, I’m inspired and encouraged by them all. I have been thinking long and hard about all that is broken in the music industry, and our economy at large, and I keep coming back to this idea that artists need to find ways to create physical goods for their communities again. Whether it’s T-shirts and hats, vinyl records and CDs, books and wall art, or innovative useful little products like the Dead Ringer. I will support any artist who is making something beyond the 0s and 1s these days. (And I try to support the 0s and 1s, too.)

But the truth is, music is not a viable career for most anybody these days. That can sound entitled, I get it, but all of our lives are made so much better by art in its many forms. We interact with art all day, every day. It’s just that the people profiting are the conduits not the creators.

So THANK YOU to all of you who support artists by going to shows, backing Patreons, buying books and vinyls, kicking in a few monthly bucks for things like this Substack. Believe it or not, it’s how we make this world the place we want it to be.

---

---

Finally, here’s this week’s podcast. An interview with the incredible Sarah Kroger.