Appendix E-J

2.5 years goes quick, I guess. 2.5 years ago things weren’t too much different. The sun did shine and the grass did grow. Then our good friend Aaron Strumpel released his Elephants stampede of an album. The sun did shine and the grass did grow, but it all looked a little different. The gentle trampling of giant feet can change your perception.

Now we stand here in the early morn and midday swelter and evening cool, and we’ve been looking at the horizon. We’ve been surveying the skies. We’ve heard for some time…for nearly those 2.5 years…that there were Birds coming. We bought new perches and suet feeders for them. We tended the trees to make them a home. We have waited.

Then, in a moment, there were sounds so loud and so near and so prying and so immediate that we could not cover our ears. We could only skip at one moment, stomp at another, flutter at this one, swirl at that…and then the one from over there slapped a groove on our forehead. We stared up for a moment and then decided, “mmm hmmm. yes. this is precisely it. precisely and with joy.”

Today, Aaron Strumpel releases Birds. Birds  moves around and in and about you. It runs after you and you run after it. It picks you up by the shoulders and flies you to vital places…places that will shake your bones and heal the gash in your head if you just open your eyes/ears.

There are familiar songs that have been played live for years: “Angel” and “Black With Tears”. An Everyday Joe’s fav “Home On Your Heart” was featured on our  Love, Everyday Joe’s Vol. 2 compilation 3 years ago, but on Birds receives an analog synth giddy-up that has been rumoured to cause living room dance parties.

In total, 12 Aves wait to build nests in your earholes. The album is available for purchase now (read: purchase it now) on Aaron’s Bandcamp page. While you should just take these words for it and buy the thing, you can also stream the album – in its entirety – below.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Our longtime friend Aaron Strumpel is headlining our annual 90/10 Benefit this coming Saturday. Were you aware of that or have you not been listening to the good things your uncle has been trying to teach you? If you are not aware and want to be, read about the benefit here and then listen to Aaron’s critically-acclaimed Elephants, which he will be performing it’s entirety as part of his set.

The companion album to Elephants – Birds – is getting the finishing touches put on it in Aaron’s mountain laboratory. Out of those finishing touches has come and alternate version of a new song titled “Grandma.” Aaron’s words shall take it from here:

Friends!

Well, just a note. I’m hard at work at the new album, almost. Since you’re in the inside loop, thought i’d jot downn a bit more about this song then what i’ve written elsewhere…

I wrote it a few years back after visiting my grandmother. She always loved to give me gifts when I came, and this time she had a chocolate bar or some snack for me…she lives in a nursing home! Anyway, she said she wished she could give me more and was really actually sad about it. I told her I didn’t want anything more than to see her smile and be with her. It’s a crazy thing this life is…we’re born and everything is brand new for 25 years or so, then things get normal and I feel like a lot of us experience a dead zone of plateau if we’re not careful…then we get older and can’t quite do the things we do…but all through it, love from and to family can just immerse and give meaning and beauty to our times and seasons. Anyway, i wrote the song as an inner conversation with myself about being ok with the passing of time and life here.

I’ve never shared it with grandma and now she’s getting a bit older…gonna turn 98 in a couple of weeks! She doesn’t remember me when I visit, but loves it that I come and seems to know what it means when I tell her I’m her grandson. She wears a rosary i gave her a few years ago everyday and I tell her I gave it to here every time I see her. This last time, my dad visited her the night before, saying she was going to have a special visitor the next day and asked her if she knew who it was gonna be…she answered in her 98 yr old voice, ‘is it our dear Lord?’ She was excited to see me and my folks and said, ‘Will you come everyday, can it always be like this?’ and gave me a bag of chips to have on my drive home. She’s so lovely and I hope I get to see her again.

I hope you enjoy this song. It’s a different version from what will be released.

love,
aaron

Oh that Aaron Strumpel. When he opens his heart it can move one two sizes two small. He is a good man.

Listen to “Grandma (Crazy Version)” below and download the track here to hold with you until the Birds can fly home to you and nest next to the Elephant tracks on your heart.

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FURTHER:

• Buy tickets to the 90/10 Benefit
• Buy Elephants

Popularity: 2% [?]

Elephants by Aaron Strumpel is in my Top 3 albums of the year so far. It tramples my heart into the shape it should be.

Originally, Elephants was supposed be be a double disc release…with disc 2 being titled Birds. But, with Aaron’s success at the Festival Of Faith and music, Birds was put on hold to be released separately but still as a companion album to Elephants.

Well, dear ones, the time is drawing nigh.

Yesterday, Mr. Strumpel posted a video of some driving footaged, soundtracked by a rough mix of the Birds finale. If the beginning & middle are half as good as the end, we are in to have our minds blown. Watch and then watch again:

FURTHER:

• Elephants Chord Charts
• Order Elephants

Popularity: 75% [?]