Kevin's Big Year

When each of my children turned one, we made them Shutterfly, hard-cover, photo books to commemorate the occasion. Each time, we called the book “_____’s Big Year.”

I have to say that I’ve had lots of very significant feeling years in my life, but 2026 is shaping up to be a wild one. I wanted to send this to you all so that you might know about the things I have going on this year and, hopefully, can be involved with some of them in some small ways.

I am writing this from a very comfortable bedroom at a private single-family home that the Rabbit Room and the Board of West Kilns have turned into a writing retreat space for art makers. Outside my window, I see a lovely landscaped rock waterfall feature, and, peeking above the fenceline, I can just barely see the familiar North Wind Manor through the woods. I am 9 days into a 30-day stay here. I’ve been writing songs all themed around waiting and arrival. I hope to produce some things I can share with you later as a result of my time here. If you have a creative project that you need some time and space to explore, I recommend applying for a West Kilns Residency of your own.

Thanks to an amazing partnership that will be more delineated in the near future, Settle In will be coming to vinyl this spring. This is exciting for a lot of reasons, but what has me most jazzed right now is thinking about the beautiful 12x12 deluxe booklet that will accompany the album and will contain multiple new sketches from the album art designer, Lindey Dietz. I am also very excited to put my music into the hands of vinyl lovers in their preferred medium for the first time. Preorders will be coming to socials very soon. I’ll try to remember to drop a note here as well. In case I forget, though, if you know you want one, feel free to let me know now, and I will personally let you know when the preorders are live.

From 2017 - 2020, I feel like I was on tour with my dear friend Chris Bernstorf perpetually. One of the few times we were not on tour together, we had taken a break so that Chris could marry another great friend of ours, Amanda. Even this wouldn’t keep us apart, as I officiated the wedding. For the fall of 2020, we were planning our biggest trip together yet, a 6-week tour of Europe. But for reasons plain to anyone alive in 2020, this trip did not happen. Even worse, the covid-induced break from touring together has continued all the way until now. Thankfully, that all changes this summer. Not to be outdone by our past selves, we are aiming to go farther than we ever have before. The Everywhere-er We Can Tour (a sequel of sorts to a 2016 nationwide tour of Chris’s) established a high bar, but we intend to eclipse it with the MOUNT EVERYWHEREST TOUR. As an added bonus, the tour will feature not just me and Chris, but also Amanda and her amazing project, Visitor Pass. Things get started in earnest with a July-August trip across the pond to play concerts in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and potentially more European countries. If you know anyone, literally anywhere in the world, that you think would love to have us come and play a show, please reach out and connect us so that we can try to make it happen. Here is a little road map of our plans:

July - August 2026 Europe

September - November 2026 Eastern US

January 2027 Oceana and Asia

February - May 2027 Western US

(ps. I will be touring the US without Chris and Amanda February - June)

While I am so thrilled to be at West Kilns and to go to Europe, I am nervous about spending so much time away from my family this year. The current plan has me apart from my family 1/12 - 2/12, 2/23 - 3/16, and 7/9 - 8/12. This is an insane amount of time for us not to be together, and it tempers my enthusiasm for it all. My family is making the most of it, and Maddie is performing in a musical for the first time in her life, March 20-22, and rehearsing for it between now and then (making proverbial Frozen lemonade from our lemons). Still, I covet your prayers that this time apart do something good. If my first 9 days at West Kilns is any indication, the rest of my family is more cut out for this challenge than I am.

That is my first big update of what feels like a very full and formative year. In some ways, I, like my babies as they turned one, am experiencing so many firsts and might be a little wobbly as I figure out how to get my feet under me. Hopefully, I will remember to take some pictures along the way to commemorate this Big Year.