In the Waiting

"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope,For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith,But the faith and the love are all in the waiting.Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."

TS Eliot

In January, I traveled to Nashville for a four-week residency at West Kilns hosted by the Rabbit Room. When my application was accepted, my mind ping-ponged from excitement about being chosen to frantic logistical searching for a way to make it work. Before long, I had a plan and began to settle in and look forward to the start of my time in Nashville. Upon arrival, an awkward sort of reality presented itself: I told them I would write waiting songs... Ok, great... Time to write songs about waiting.

It's a difficult thing to write songs on demand, and comical to try to do so when the subject matter is waiting. After a few minor meltdowns and a couple of reality bending days of non-stop working in isolation, I came to an important realization: I would not get any valuable waiting songs in this state. It seemed I'd have to pay for these songs by first learning their lessons.

After a formative month of reflection and writing (and forming some new callouses thanks to a generous amount of right-handed tapping), I emerged with 14 new songs, 7 of which I went on to begin recording in April. These are songs of waiting... songs of Advent. I am excited to share these songs with you later this year, and for you to join me for the time being in the waiting.

I'll be keeping myself busy in the waiting by embarking on my first world tour. I'm so excited to hit the road with my dear friends Chris and Amanda Bernstorf from July 2026 - May 2027. For those who've been with me for a while, these names are very recognizable, but if you have only been around since 2020, those names might not ring many bells.

Chris and I were nearly inseperable touring pals for much of 2017-2019. His poetry is deeply profound and carefully crafted. The words on the page would bring value enough, but he amplifies the power of the text with a frenetic and impassioned stage performance. His wife Amanda is another good friend that I had the pleasure to tour with before and after they were married (the only wedding I've ever officiated). Her project, Visitor Pass, is everything good about gritty pop punk. She'll be playing solo on this tour which should be a special treat.

We've done a lot of life together and love each other a lot. I'm excited for the way that their presence will expand our ability to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of the folks we interact with nightly.

As I mentioned, this will be a world tour, and we're proving it by starting the run with a trip to Europe.

Here's what we have so far:

7/12 Oxford, UK

7/14 Leicester, UK

7/15 Bangor, UK

7/16 Port Talbot, UK

7/17 Cardiff, UK

7/19 Wroclaw, PL

(some Scandinavian dates are nearly ready to announce here)

7/27 Chemnitz, DE

7/29 Berlin, DE

730-8/1 Freakstock Allstedt, DE

8/2 Salzburg, AT

8/3 Munich, DE

8/5 Maastrict, NL

8/7 Belfast, UK

8/8 Londonderry, UK

I'm excited to make my first trip abroad and to get to know some new people and bring my odd brand of missional music to do many new places.

Quickly, if you haven't yet picked up Settle In on vinyl, you can do so here. We're so proud of how the records turned out and would be thrilled if you decided to grab one for yourself.

Goodbye for now! More exciting news to come. If I won't see you in Europe, I hope I at least get to see you at Audiofeed.

Kevin Schlereth