I’m a big fan of the changing portions of each year. Breathing in four distinct seasons in the lower 48 has been one of the few things that has effectively sustained the lengthy separation from my beloved Alaskan homeland. I love each season for different reasons: The autumn is particularly brilliant here in New England – never has death looked so good. The winter is wonderfully quiet and inspires true affection for the roof over our heads, the electric kettle my housemate’s mom recently bought us, and the shockingly pure uniformity that the snow brings to everything visible. Every spring it’s hard to imagine the resurrection coming, and each year it miraculously stuns us all once again. And who could deny the bloom of summer and the abundance that accompanies it? The seasons have taught me – 28 and a half times in my lifetime, to be specific – that we are continually dying, living, and transitioning somewhere in between the two. Often I find my soul identifying directly with the state of the nature around me, but this year, as summer begins to round its final corner, I feel its vast possibility just beginning for Marisa and I.
I released Moratorium on July 31 at the end of a week in Northfield, Massachusetts. I’m sneaking in some pictures so you can get a proper glimpse. The week definitely exceeded my expectations on all sides. I was barefoot for ten straight days, jumped off an old bridge into the Connecticut River a time or ten, downed an unprecedented amount of ice-cream from the local Creamie, wrestled/wondered/stirred up life in Jesus through some incredible teaching and discussion, reunited with old friends and made some amazing new ones… and culminated each night with a well-balanced inhaling and exhaling of the evaluated life over sunset. It was exactly one year since we moved from Kansas City, our home for the previous 7 and a half years. The release party was simple, unglamorous, and absolutely rich. When I look at the life of Jesus, I see a man who made real, long-lasting, die-hard disciples, not quick, cheap or shallow converts. I’m hoping this album does the same…
Accompanying the sunset
The official Northfield 2010 posse
The Creamie experience
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Moratorium has been out a couple weeks now, and the fall tour is beginning to take shape. This weekend Marisa and I will be venturing over to Kansas City to offer back some of these tunes to our family at the KC Boiler Room, where many of them were originally born. Hopefully sometime through the autumn we’ll be stepping into your corner of the woods too. (Well, slight modification. Marisa won’t be joining much of the fall tour, as the moratorium on her studies is finally lifting, and she’ll be starting classes at New England School of Law in another week and a half! If you’ve tracked at all with us Chuds over the years, you understand what a massive step this is.)
We’re quickly (and with some serious joy) adjusting to the significant changing of the seasons, and want to give you the chance to help spread the love in a couple ways as it relates to Moratorium:
1) If you’re enjoying the album, log into iTunes and rate/review it
2) Sign up on the facebook page
3) Let people know you found something you like. They just might like it too…
4) Contact me at chudnathanmusic@gmail.com if you have questions, suggestions, or requests.
In the meantime, thanks for the love through the seasons… Watch this space for more tour information and a soon-to-start weekly featurette (is that a word?) on various Moratorium tracks. Word to all your mothers.
Nathan Chud 