3/13/09: Album Release Date Announced!

Hey everyone, I hope you’ve all had a great week.

I’ve been staying busy traveling all over the place and singing my songs. Also I’ve literally had my phone strapped to my ear calling my friends at radio stations across not only the U.S, but Canada as well. For any of my Canadian fans/friends who are reading this, I figured you might want to know that my brand new album is set for release in Canada on March 24th. I’m super excited that it’s finally coming out. To my new American friends/fans, I'm excited that it is going to be released in the U.S later this year as well.

In other news, I had the opportunity to write with Billy Dean this past week. Billy has had lots of success with songs such as “Let Them Be Little,” “Billy The Kid,” and the list goes on. I actually just recently found out that Billy and Richie McDonald (former lead singer from Lonestar) wrote “Let Them Be Little” together. My parents get emotional every time they hear that song. I guess when you’re a parent, a song like that hits you a little differently and tugs at the ole heart strings. If there is anything that I miss telling you guys about I do, I apologize because everything is important to me it’s just that we cover so many things in a given week, it’s hard to keep track of it all.

Some of my more memorable moments that stick out in my mind though, is us going to Jordan’s Furniture in Boston, for my friends from WKLB. The event was based around their St. Jude Marathon, to raise lots of money for St. Jude. I met a 12-year old boy there named Colt who completely inspired me and showed me another reason why St. Jude is a blessing. Colt has already had to overcome so many obstacles in regards to his health for such a young guy, and he’ll tell you himself that he’s thankful and owes a lot to St. Jude. This young man totally blew me away and I guess if you had to go through everything he’s gone through in his life, it would force you to have to grow up a little faster. I just sat down and chatted with him one on one and seriously, I have never before met a young man like him. I say young man because he’s so much beyond a 12-year olds maturity and way of thinking. I really felt like I was sitting there talking to an adult. I gave him my number and we're going to keep in touch. I’ve talked to Colt now a few times on the phone and he left me a message a few days back giving me the total earnings for WKLB's St. Jude Radiothon...and it was over $400,000, WOW!! Think of how much that’s going to help out. And Colt, if you are reading this buddy, I’ll keep you in my prayers bro.

This Jordan's Furniture place where I performed was absolutely amazing. The area where I performed had all these things made out of Jellybeans. I think I heard there were about 35 million jellybeans in there, it was crazy. And, they were giving trapeze lessons...all kinds of stuff. Pretty cool place. You can check it out on my website on a segment of my AGTV!

After I performed at Jordan's, I went to dinner with Mike & Ginny from WKLB. They are such great people. Their son Ben came too, he's such a great kid. And, my labelmates - Kate & Kacey Coppola joined us for dinner as well, we had a great time. I'm looking forward to several more dates on the road with them. Thanks to Ginny & Mike and WKLB for having me in for the St. Jude Show, I'm so happy to have been a part of it.

The next morning Shelley, Mark and myself flew to Sacramento. Upon arrival, we immediately headed to visit with my friends from KNCI. I went on the air with Greg Cole, and totally unexpected when we got there, Richie McDonald was in the studio already and asked if I’d like to sit in with him. I thought that was pretty cool, so I went in and we all chatted. One of the first tours I ever went on in Canada was with Lonestar, so I figured it was a great opportunity to share some of my experiences with them, and all three of us were laughing. It’s great memories, and Richie is one of the coolest people. That night David Nail, myself and Richie did an acoustic show for an audience of about 2000 screaming girls. Yep, you guessed it, it was “Girls Night Out”. The three of us and maybe a hand full of other guys who were working there were the only guys allowed, lol. It was an awesome show we had so much fun. Thanks to Greg and Mark from KNCI for inviting me to be on the show. Later on that night, I was talking to Richie a little more and asked if he would consider writing with me sometime and he said he would love to, so hopefully we'll make that happen.

Now I’m at home in Nashville and it’s been a relaxing Sunday. My evening is looking open so I’m just gonna take advantage of the time and relax... Talk to y’all soon and have a great evening and week ahead.

God Bless!

ag)