I haven't written one of these in a long time so I wanted to reach out before everybody went off to college and got married and had kids and found their first grey hair and started scoping out retirement communities and forgot they even were on this mailing list. Speaking of which, before I continue, let me say this:

 

1. there is a link to a free song at the end of this email, so if you're in a rush then by all means JUST CLICK HERE.

 

2. thanks for caring enough about music to actually buy music or see a show in an age where staying at home under the covers watching 6 second loops on Vine or streaming songs for 2 seconds on Spotify is becoming a normal Saturday night.

 

So, wow. What a year. I don't know if I told you that I moved to New York, but I moved to New York. I decided to take a year off so I could just write in a new city and get to know myself in a new place. Have you ever done that? You know what they say--"wherever you go, there you are" (meaning, there's no running away from yourself)--and that's true of course, but it's also true that you can learn so much from a new place, not only about the place itself but about yourself.

 

It's been fun living in a place I first saw and kind of fell in love with in Annie Hall. I miss Portland weather, landscape, and temperament a lot, but I guess the hustle and bustle of New York has kept me busy enough not to rush back. This has been a year of new beginnings: new songs, new writing partners, new teammates. Since Felony Flats came out, I've become even more grateful to each and every person who has paid for one of my songs or albums or t-shirts or concert tickets with their hard-earned dollars. I'm grateful for each person who has told a friend about me and my music or my t-shirts or my whatever. THANK YOU for supporting independent artists, musicians, and performers. I'm grateful everyday that I am supported by you and that I get to continue writing songs and performing for a living. 

 

But I digress. So, this year I dove back into writing. I rejoined Bob Schneider's Songwriting Game, and as a result, I've written about 60 songs--some for others, some for a future album, some for TV and film, some just for myself in the shower. Suffice it to say, it's been fun, and I'm always shocked at the end of every week when I've managed to churn out a new song. I can't wait to release the next "thing" of songs--whatever that may be--in 2014!

 

If I could include a picture of all my highlights of 2013, I'd have quite the photo album (but I guess that's what Instagram is for). When I look back on the best parts of the year, I picture: living with my adorable and amazing and hilarious roommate (comic Nikki Glaser), traveling to Barcelona and Mexico City to spend time with family and loved ones, touring the country with one of my best friends, Tristan Prettyman, writing songs with Louise Goffin and TP and Alex Cuba and all the talented folks at the Sunset Sessions in Tulúm (thank you, Michele Clark and all my SS alums), appearing on Inside Amy Schumer, having Amy + her sister Kim sing the sweetest backup vocals at my show at Rockwood, getting to write with people from all over the world and all different genres of music, writing with Kylie Minogue, recording with Roger Greenawalt at Shabby Road Studios in Williamsburg, horsing around the set of Saturday Night Live with Jewel, visiting with friends passing through New York, seeing plays and musicals, making a video with Hope Royaltey for "You Are Invisible," singing at Susie Mosher's Backstage night at 54 Below, playing Union Hall and Sofar and Bowery Ballroom, meeting up with Eric Hutchinson for soup at Veselka, seeing all my favorite comedians at the Comedy Cellar...the list is endless. I feel lucky right now as I write you from a balcony in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

 

Will you do me a favor? Send me a picture of the highlight of your 2013. Include a caption in 10 words or less that tells me what it is or what you were doing and email it to amradiopod@gmail.com.

 

Here's mine.


 

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