May 8, 2025

I’d buy time, if I could.

We’re moving so fast these days; I find myself looking for ways to slow time down. I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve written you all.

It’s further astonishing to me that this September will mark 30 years since we made American Standard. Which means, a little over 30 years ago, the band and I were hunkered down in a basement in Charlottesville, VA taking a swing at making an album, resulting in our first release, Churn.

Anniversaries arrive and pass, some with celebration, some with bone-crushing closure, all with the opportunity for an examination of what we did with our time, and even more important, possibly, offering an angle of assessment into what we are currently doing with the time - right now.

And what of tomorrow?

I haven’t been ignoring High Shelter for no reason. My time away has been filled with a few things, old and new. I’ve been looking through old pictures and listening to old tapes. I might even have a found a few you haven’t heard before (probably for good reason).

While excavating something shifted. I started recording again.

I have some thoughts on Churn and AS that I’ll be sharing here in the coming weeks, and you might even hear some stuff pop up on your hand computer wherever you listen to music, that might take you back to wherever you were when we were in that basement 30+ years ago.

I, for one, am done looking over my shoulder – I’d like to skip a few steps and get to what I’ve been up to lately, but, like I said, I’m trying to slow down and get the house in order.

Then I’ll be heading back out to the wild.

Yours,

JR

PS love you Jojo