Happy 10 Years!

Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco, California, 2008 — Photographer unknown

Happy Halloween! In addition to rich trick or treat childhood memories locked into today, it's also been 10 years since I was at the Golden Gate Bridge (with the hottest cup of coffee there has ever been. for anyone, at any time) and played a house show in Oakland that night. 2008 was me circling the country the most I ever have with music and the record at the time If It Feels Good, Don't Do It starting with SXSW that March. Here's me at the furthest point on the quest, a symbolic end point.

Halloween. Oakland, California, 2008 — Photographer unknown

That November was a long foggy sprint back home to St. Louis and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel resistance to it all ending. The year, the album promotion, the traveling adventure way of life. I think I felt popping through Utah and Kansas the sadness of something that was slipping away that I could not hold onto anymore. As bright as that year burned, I was now watching my baby get dark. And feeling like no one there to talk to about it except the dashboard of my '99 Civic.

A few days after this photo the Neon Trees singer told me I “sing pretty!” at my Provo gig so that was quite a buoy in the cold black slog home :) John Steinbeck has a beautiful quote about how a trip can last far longer than when it's ended (Travels With Charley) and I feel very close to those words.

For a while now it's been the inverse of the feelings of loss I had in 08 (and years after) at trying to grasp something that was leaving. I've been in a state of sunrise. Coming back to It. Or It's coming back to me. I look at 2008 Geoff here and am really proud of how brave and reckless I was and I mean that in the best way you could as you commit every decision to what you love and take all the irrational and uncomfortable that comes with the elation of living. I mean I was just a dude from the middle of the country who wanted to dip his feet in both oceans on the same tour. So I did.

Ten years!👍