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.

FURTHER:

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

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1. …a pleasant way to end the work week
2. …a pleasant way to start the weekend
3. …a pleasant way to prepare for the Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit on December 5

Now for the tool.

Aaron Strumpel is headlining this year’s 90/10. What’s more, he’ll be playing his critically-acclaimed album Elephants front to back, with the help of his dear friends who helped him create it.

“La-di-di-doo-da,” I can hear you thinking. “I’ve never heard that album.”

Well, that is no longer an excuse (and in this case, I’m not sure there are any excuses…just bad reasons for missing something great). You see, Aaron has a very kind heart. An example of that kind heart is displayed below, in the form of the entire album streaming for your listening ears. Enjoy it multiple times. Have breakfast with it. Listen to it with your eyes closed or a paint brush in your hand.

Then, buy tickets to this year’s Everyday Joe’s Benefit. They are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, and can be purchased at the shop or online here.

FURTHER:

• …in which we announce the 2009 Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit
• Buy Elephants
• Buy Tickets
  

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For a while, it seemed like Appendix E-J had turned into a place for all things concerning Aaron Strumpel. His album Elephants just excited us to no end and we knew it was going to make its way to other ears and other places and both those ears and places would pass Elephants on to other ears and places far beyond the reach of a Everyday Joe’s.

It is starting.

How about a full review by noted writer Andy Whitman in Christianity Today?

“…in the hands of many contemporary musicians, the Psalms have been neutered, transformed into wispy, ethereal sighs and coos. The powerful drama so evident on the page—the tug of war between intense pain and fleeting hope, the wrestling with injustice and senseless death, the crying out for mercy and forgiveness—has largely been absent. Aaron Strumpel’s new album, Elephants (Thirsty Dirt), intends to restore the blood and desperation.”

MmmmmmHmmmmmmm. That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Read the rest of that review here.

Then you can go ahead and wash down that little word snack with some verbage from the small start-up publication USA TODAY:

“Here’s a fresh reminder of the literary and musical beauty of the Bible — no matter what, or whether, you believe…a new, surprising album of psalms set to music.”

In 5th grade, USA Today was my go-to source for articles to complete my current events reports…mainly because they reported on things like space toilets. Now they are reporting on Aaron Strumpel and people who love his music. Read the rest here.

FURTHER:

• Christianity Today review
• USA Today Mention
• Andy Whitman’s Blog: Razing The Bar

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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:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SoEgk3PRI4

FURTHER:

• Elephants Chord Charts
• Order Elephants

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This past Friday night, I decided to check my e-mail one last time before shutting down the CPU for the day. I had basketball to watch and sleep to get. My inbox held a pleasant treat for me.

I had a message from good friend/good man Aaron Strumpel…and it involved a download of his forthcoming album Elephants. Immediate giddiness came over me causing my wife to tell me to calm down. This is the album that recently won him the Bandspotting contest. This is the album I have been hearing him talk about since September…maybe longer. This is the album where I’ve been told he pushes himself. This is the album that other musicians I listen to almost obsessively have gone ga-ga over.

Ga- ga.

Excited as I was, I was also tired and wanting sleep. I decided to listen to a couple of songs and save the rest for the next day. Eighty-six minutes later I had listened to the album twice. The elephants were in my mind and spirit. They were charging through my body gently holding my heart with their trunks. I went to bed, falling asleep in true peace. Elephants has things to say & you need to hear it & your heart needs to hear it. I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t believe it.

There is not much more I can say here…mainly because I can’t seem to find the words. My wife describes Elephants as tribal. This is a good word for it. It has heavy beats at parts and mandolins and strings and voices of other friends all over it. Elephants run together. They are a parade. This album is a parade…the songs walking together tail-in-trunk like that scene in The Jungle Book. They belong together.

You will be able to order Elephants online here. Aaron Strumpel will be celebrating the release of the album with a show at Everyday Joe’s on May 1.

Further:

• Listen to 2 songs from Elephants
• Order Elephants
  

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