Hope in the Dark

As some of you know - i took a trip last year to Africa and one of the purposes for our trip was for Jeremy Cowart to collect images for a book he was commissioned to put together. Well, the book is out as of today! It is a collection of images and musings, if you will, by Jena Lee - the director of Blood, Water, Mission. It is truly one of the most beautiful books that i've ever seen - Jeremy's pictures are stunning and Jena's thoughts are beautiful and potent. The proceeds from the book benefit a few African organizations, one of which is African Leadership, the same people who run Mocha Club that you might have heard Wertz or I talk about. You can check it out at www.hopeinthedark.com and some of the images are also posted at jeremy's myspace page - myspace.com/jeremycowart.

Hakuna Matata - Barnes

So I must tell you first. I'm extremely excited. Some might say "giddy".

You know how when you were young you would shoot basketball in your driveway alone at night, looking over your shoulder every now and then wondering if the high school coach was driving by at that moment - he would see your no look jumpshot over the head, stop the car, slowly walk down the driveway -

Coach - "What's your name, son?"
Me - "Barnes, Dave Barnes, sir"
C- "Well Barnes, I've never seen a shot like that before. Amazing. Can you do it again?"

Shoot, Score.

C-"How old are you, son?"
D - "Fourt..Thirteen, turning 14 in 10 months, 3 days..."
C- "What would you say if i told you i could use that hook of yours on the team...HIGH SCHOOL team?"

You know how the rest goes - you play for him, score the winning goal, take the cheerleader to the prom at 14, invent a dance move kin to the Marcarena doing the Moonwalk - the Marcawalk or Moonrena - the world adopts it and it takes the world by storm...

All that to say - I've been making music down here in Nashville looking over my shoulder over the years to see if people I love have been looking - today I found out that someone i extrememly respect and admire has. None other than Jonathan Aloicious Caramel Mayer, III. He was so kind as to post a blog about what i'm doing - a HUGE blessing and honor for me - check it out if you want -

http://www.johnmayer.com/blog..9

This is the stuff that makes me excited about the musical community - A huge thanks to John for that. If i could only return the favor....

Clara T - Barnes ..34

Currently Listening Nothing But the Water By Grace Potter & the Nocturnals see related

16 states/1 month

I have an awful habit of giving it all away in the subject. Call me Genesis. It is true, i've been in that many states in that many days. And no, confusion and excitement don't count. I just realized that i started this email with quite an assumption that you will get the 2 jokes so far.

1. Genesis - "Giving it all away"
2. State of confusion

Forgive me if i've assumed too much. By the way, we drove 27 hours straight on that drive back from Phoenix to Nashville. Wow. I think that was the only time i was in 2 states at once. Delirium and Oklahoma.

3. States of delirium and Oklahoma.

I'm going to see "Nacho Libre" tonight. I really don't know that i've been this excited about a movie since Anchorman and before that, maybe Deep Blue Sea. Don't laugh. Sharks as smart as humans? Are you KIDDING me? I enjoyed it, but the 37 friends i convinced to go see it with me were not quite as convinced. I might have lost some friends that night. I'm used to it. I am possibly the worst movie picker to ever go see a movie with. I am the demographic they shoot for in making commercials or movie posters. i am easy like Sunday morning with those things. I really only have a few criteria for wanting to see a movie -

-Jackie Chan/Wilson bros/Jack Black
-humor
-sharks
-ninjas
-animation - especially when there is a sidekick with a somewhere-other-than-America accent.
-more ninjas
-superheros

Now, as you can imagine, this is quite a recipe for disaster. There have, however, been some amazing moments - "Shanghai Noon", "Finding Nemo", "Mystery Men". Pretty much everything else sucked. And I got blamed. Ouch. I lost all points.

In other news, i've got a few shows coming up this summer - a few with Broussard, a couple of my own, one with Paul Thorne - should be fun.

For cool points - i'm reading "A Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela, which is amazing. Another appropriate title would have been "A Long Way to the Last Page".

4. "A Long Way to the Last Page"

5. Barnes

Currently Listening Live at World Cafe By Gabe Dixon Band see related

"Everybody But You" on Paste Magazine Sampler

Okay - so the title spoils it all. Paste was kind enough to ask me to slap one of my songs on their cd samplers - the samplers come free in the magazines, though the magazines aren't free - ahhhhh - you see how it works?

The magazine is great - and this issue especially - it's the June/July one - the cover story is the 100 best living songwriters. Which is tricky - are they the 100 songwriters best at living? A whole nother conversation there - Sting should be way up on that one. Doesn't he only eat fruits and meditate and run around with tigers and stuff? That sure beats me. And no, I'm not in that list - i did, however make the 100 best chocolate milk drinking songwriters. ..46 behind the likes of Pharell of the Neptunes and Duane Allman. Who knew.

Nestle - Barnes