I ran into a Goldilocks problem this year.
I released two very different projects—one too small for a vinyl record, and another too big. The Weathered EP is just three songs, a ten-minute meditation on storms, change, and whatever passes through us and leaves a mark. And then there’s Live in Austin, eleven songs from a night at the Saxon Pub that ran almost fifty minutes. That’s too long for one record, not long enough for two… and in vinyl land, the laws of physics still matter.
If I had pressed them separately, I’d end up with two records full of blank sides. One side of silence for Weathered. One side of unused vinyl on the live album. It didn’t sit right with me. It felt like the form wasn’t honoring the music.
That’s where my friend and designer, Lance Schriner, came in.
Lance has that rare combination of good taste and good engineering sense. I told him the problem, expecting a shrug. Instead, he smiled like someone who could already see the shape of the solution. His idea was simple and elegant:
Put the two projects together. Let them solve each other.
So that’s what we did.
And here it is:
The Weathered EP fills one side of the first disc. Flip it over and you’re dropped straight into the beginning of the live show—voices, clinking glasses, the hum of a room full of friends. The second disc holds the remaining two sides of Live in Austin. No blank sides. No wasted space. Just two pieces of the same story sharing a home.
It ended up feeling truer to the music than two separate releases ever could. The outdoors focused songs of Weathered naturally lead into the indoors energy of the Saxon Pub.
We made a small first pressing—100 vinyl copies and 100 CDs.
If folks want more down the line, I can always press another run. But there’s something special about this first batch.
If you’d like one, they’re available now in my online store.
Thanks to Lance for the clever design.
And thanks to all of you for listening—on vinyl, on headphones, in cars, in kitchens, wherever songs travel with you.
OT
