Blog Coming Soon

I realize that I haven't posted a blog since September. A lot has been going on, I'll update you all in a few days.

Everyone here is doing just fine, hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!

-ME

-- Post From My iPhone

September Is Upon Us

Ah, the smell of German roasted nuts, new carpet, popcorn, and freshly pressed suits. If all of that didn't give you a warning maybe the surplus of new products will... NQC is near. A time to fellowship with other artists, be it in Freedom Hall or gathered around someone's iPhone reading comments on A Very Fine Line to see how well your group performed last night.

NQC means new CDs and DVDs from many of the artists, and this includes us. In a few weeks, you will be able to purchase our brand new album, Expecting Good Things exclusively from us. Expecting Good Things is in the duplication process right now and will be available by NQC. This project has been in the making since June of 2008. A lot of hard work has gone into making this album the best it can possibly be, and I feel, it is one of the best albums Jeff and Sheri have ever released.

I won't go into repeating details. You can search through my previous posts to hear all of that information. I will say that I have really enjoyed being a part of this album, from it's conception to it's release, and that you are all in for a treat.

I hope to see many of you in Louisville in a few weeks.

ME

Movies, Movies, Movies... and a little TV

A friend of mine and I LOVE making lists, AND we are both major movie buffs. So we've emailed each other our 100 favorite movies (in no particular order). I figured posting this would give you all a little taste of some of my favorites. As I told my friend, I probably forgot about 50 movies. These are just the first 100 off the top of my head.

*Note* The ?'s mean that I didn't know if that particular movie fit into that category or another.*

Action/Adventure

1. Die Hard

2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark

3. Fight Club

4. Kill Bill (Vol. 1&2)

5. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

6. Star Wars Episode 5:The Empire Strikes Back

7. Reservoir Dogs (?)

8. Pulp Fiction(?)

9. The Matrix

10. Heat

11. Sin City

12. Predator

13. Batman Begins

14. The Dark Knight

15. The Untouchables(?)

16. Inside Man

17. Shoot Em' Up

18. Back To The Future

19. Back To The Future Part II

20. Star Trek (2009)

21. Gladiator

22. Tombstone

23. Jurassic Park

24. The Rock

25. Goldfinger (Didn't want to put a Bond flick, because then I'd have to put 10... but this one needed to be on)

Comedy/Romance

1. That Thing You Do!

2. The Princess Bride

3. This is Spinal Tap

4. Tommy Boy

5. Dumb and Dumber

6. Anchorman

7. When Harry Met Sally

8. Young Frankenstein

9. Blazing Saddles

10. Home Alone

11. Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

12. Mallrats

13. Very Bad Things

14. Clerks

15. Amelie

16. The Notebook

17. Kiss, Kiss Bang, Bang

18. Sleepless In Seattle

19. The Goonies

20. The Sandlot

21. As Good As It Gets

22. Jerry Maguire

23. Big Fish(?)-May be Adventure

24. Ghost

25. Sabrina

Drama

1. 12 Angry Men

2. The Godfather

3. The Godfather Part II

4. Goodfellas (?)

5. The Departed (?)

6. The Shawshank Redemption

7. Forrest Gump

8. Schindler's List

9. American History X

10. American Beauty

11. To Kill A Mockingbird

12. Saving Private Ryan(?)

13. Gone With The Wind

14. Scarface(?)

15. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

16. The Deer Hunter

17. Dead Poets Society

18. Silence Of The Lambs (?)

19. Braveheart

20. Fargo

21. Almost Famous

22. Quentin Tarantino's IB (didn't want to offend anyone... even though it is the title of the movie)

23. JFK

24. The Green Mile

25. The Usual Suspects

Horror/Thriller

1. Let The Right One In

2. The Others

3. The Shining

4. The Thing

5. The Lost Boys

6. Fright Night

7. The Descent

8. Rear Window

9. Psycho

10. Dawn Of The Dead

11. Misery

12. Se7en

13. Memento (?)

14. Saw

15. Planet Terror

16. 12 Monkeys

17. Alien

18. Aliens

19. Interview With The Vampire

20. Donnie Darko

21. The Sixth Sense

22. Scream

23. A Nightmare On Elm Street

24. The Hitcher

25. The Frighteners(?)

Funny thing: I own all of these... and that's only about 1/6th of my total collection.

And now, the top 15 Television programs...

1. Six Feet Under

2. Dexter

3. True Blood

4. The Office

5. Arrested Development

6. Lost

7. Friends

8. The Wire

9. The X-files

10. Oz

11. Entourage

12. The Wonder Years

13. Boy Meets World

14. Dead Like Me

15. Seinfeld

And to answer your final question... Yes, I am extremely bored.

Videos-Gaither Alaska Cruise/Video Shoot

Hey everybody,

Just wanted to say that I'll be recording and posting a lot of videos to my youtube account over the next week. We'll be in Alaska doing the Gaither cruise/video shoot. Between me, Wes, and Mark, you should all get a pretty good idea of what's going on.

To view my videos go here. I'll probably post the first one today, Shan and I have to go to the mall to get a few last minute items.

Talk to ya soon,

ME

Testing A New App

This app I just downloaded SHOULD allow me to write my blogs while I'm not on my computer.

I'm so glad you all seem to be enjoying the new album from the clips. As far as a release date, we still don't have one. My money is on it being before NQC in September. If you can make it to any of our shows in the next few months, you'll be sure to hear a few of the cuts.

Help us pump this thing up, link our website's sample to other forums, blogs, etc. If you like it, pass it on.

We're so excited about this record. It's sure to be a favorite.

Talk to you soon,
ME


-- Post From My iPhone

Free Sample Anyone?

We've put up a little sneak peak of our new album over at our website. Don't judge the site though, the real set up is still under construction. The current layout is just a temporary fix.

Post your comments about the album here, at my blog. I'll make sure Mom & Dad see every comment.

www.jeffandsherieaster.com

-ME

June Update

Mom had her last reconstructive surgery two days ago, nothing major, just finishing everything up. She is recovering and doing very well. We are so happy to be on the other side of this thing, it's hard to believe it has almost been a year (July 2nd was the day we all found out). It's been a tough road, but I know for a fact it has made everyone in this family stronger than ever. We all really appreciate every-single-one of you that prayed for us and sent us countless letters and e-mails.

Now that we're all done with this mess we can look ahead, we have the new album coming out and I just got off the phone with Mom, she just gave me permission to release my three favorite songs from the new album. This will be the first place where we have released official titles from this record.

First off, I think my favorite song from the album is Born to Climb. This song, along with EVERY other song on the album, describes a specific part of the past year. The song features all three vocalists and has a blend that you wouldn't believe, it is in the same vein as Over and Over.

My second favorite song on this album, Sun Will Shine Again. Written by Jim Brady of the Booth Brothers. He told us when he first wrote this song he could only think of us. It has come out sounding awesome! I really love this tune, the melody is great and the music is rockin'!

Finally, Love Remains. This song was written by Hillary Lindsey (Jesus Take the Wheel). It has a cool little Beatles feel to it. For you musicians, the verses progress from a 1, 5m, 4, 4m so that should give you a feel of the tune. That video I posted a while back... the solo came from Love Remains.

All in all I think this album will really be enjoyed by our fans. There are 13 tracks in all, and I am happy with all of them.

Take Care,

-ME

P.s. The story behind the Q&A... Mom has her answers and Morgan's answers on her computer, since we all just went on vacation we haven't had 30 sec. together for me to get them from her. I promise they will be up as soon as I get a chance. They were all great questions that I had fun answering.

Yup... I Love BTTF, And Had Some Extra Cash Lying Around

If I were forced to name a favorite move, one that I could watch over and over until the end of time... It'd probably have to be Back To The Future. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that it was on TV in the delivery room while I was being born, or if it's just that great of a flick, but that trilogy NEVER gets old to me.

 I was perusing the inter-webs and found a site that sells nothing but BTTF memorabilia. Once this beauty caught my eye, I knew it had to go in my collection of movie goodies. My geek shrine, if you will, contains things such as my Dark Knight bobbleheads, my Heroes action figures, my Dexter bobbleheads, Office bobbleheads, my Dark Knight script and other things of that nature. Now my shrine will have the Gray's Sports Almanac (with transparent blue receipt).  Now I just need my flux capacitor to be built into my amp, and I will be set.

I'm sooo cool.

-ME

Any Questions?

Ok, so I'm going to steal something from a buddy of mine, this should be pretty fun. Over at CrabbRevival's blog, Micah has a set up a little Q&A, the cool thing about this is that the fans get to come up with the questions. I'll take the first 15 questions and have everyone in our group answer them individually. If you have a question for a specific person and don't really want everyone to answer, then address the question to the person you'd like to answer. Got it?

This should be fun...

Go!

**UPDATE**

Questions are in! I'll get everyone to start answering them tonight. I think I'm going to post a video blog too... Wes and Mark inspired me. That'll be up soon too. Stay tuned.

***LATER UPDATE***

Taking a little longer than originally planned. Mom, Morgan, and I have answered, but Kyle and Dad have not. I promise, I will post the answers ASAP. Thank you all again for these great questions. I may do these once every few months.

****EVEN LATER UPDATE****

GEES!!! I've been trying to get Kyle and Dad to do this thing and it's just not working right now. I will post Mom's, Morgan's, and My answers today or tomorrow. I'm really sorry about the delay, y'all.

-ME

New Website

I just received a comment asking about our website. Our website is under construction, and the current page is temporary. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Keep checking in to see if it has been updated.

Update On Mom

Mom is doing great! She had her port removed about a week ago, the port was used to inject the chemo into her body so, needless to say, she was thrilled to have that quick operation. She's gone through a few of the minor surgeries and she is doing very well. It seems like she goes to a different doctor's appointment every day, but as long as they keep telling us "100% cancer-free" she can go as many times as she wants. 

She really does appreciate everyone that prayed for her through this difficult time, and she lets every one of them know that she felt every single prayer. It was a tough year, but we got through it. Bad things happen, and the only way you can get back to the good is to know that you have to win the battle, and if you have faith that you can... you will.  What I just said sums up my favorite song from the new album, "Don't be afraid of the mountain, because, you were born to climb." 

I'm ready for people to hear this thing. Strong stuff on there.

Take Care,

-ME

The Third Tidbit

Another special guest we'll have on the album... Mr. Eddie Stubbs. You may know him as the voice of the Grand Ole Opry.

My Time is Valuable

Well Then...

I spent about 45 minutes typing up a blog, then "Safari unexpectedly shut down." So, now I'm a tad irritated. I'll get back on later and try again. 

Just letting you know, a blog is coming.

-ME

Twitter

Hey there,
As you can tell from reading my blog, it's difficult to write on the road. So I've set up a twitter account to help me keep fans updated, but this way I can do it quickly, and from my phone. For those of you that don't know, twitter is basically a blog that is only a few sentences long. The URL that you will need to enter into your web browser is www.twitter.com/MaddyFatty -Nice nickname huh? Let's give this a try, let me know how you think it is working by leaving me comments here on my blog. Oh and by the way, I will continue writing blogs, I'll just twitter more often.

The Second Tidbit

As I said in my last post, we are going to have a few special guests on this album. The first two are......

                                                           Marty Stuart & Connie Smith

Sasquatch

4lb Patty, 1 full onion, 1 full tomato, 1lb of Fries, 2 whole dill pickles.

Needless to say... I was defeated.

The First Tidbit

As promised, I'll give you guys (and gals) little sneak peaks at our new album. This first one isn't very juicy, just a few liner notes and things of that nature, but I promise that they will get better as time progresses. 

First thing's first: musicians. We used some phenomenal musicians on this record, and their talent really shows in the sound of the songs. 

Electric Guitar-Brent Mason
Acoustic Guitar-Bryan Sutton
Piano/Organ/Keyboards-Gordon Mote
Bass Guitar-Duncan Mullins
Drums-Scott Williamson
Fiddle-Aubrey Haynie
Steel Guitar-Paul Franklin

Now songs. We have, I feel, one of the best collections of songs that we've ever had on one album. We've got everything from a dirt country tune to a rocking Beatlesesque pop tune. And lyrically, every song touches on what we have been through this past year. The songs come from amazingly talented writers and even artists themselves, such as Jim Brady of The Booth Brothers, Wayne Haun, Hillary Lindsey, and, as she has on almost every album, Mom has written a few songs for the record.

On Life is Great... We had a few special guests (Daryle Singeltary and Vince Gill) come in and lend us their vocals, and this album will stay in keeping with that. I'm not going to say who we've got so far, but I will say that you all will enjoy it. 

This will also be Morgan's first album with the group singing on every song. She's come a long way in a year's time, and I only see her getting better. I truly believe that she is going to make a lot of you very proud.

Well, I guess that's about it. We will be cutting lead vocals this Friday and Sunday so keep checking in to find out more information on the new album, and, at some point, maybe a few sound clips. I'm not exactly sure how Blogger works, but I'm pretty sure if you go to my profile and follow my blog, it will e-mail you when I have a new post.

Talk to you soon.

-ME

Just a Quick Update

Hey,

I realize my last blog was posted on Dec. 24, sorry about that. After a relaxing holiday, the touring started back up pretty quickly. We just got off of the Singing(Jubilee?) at Sea cruise, and we had a blast! It was nice to just see some friends, hang out, and eat like we were never going to have the chance to see food again. We also had a chance to squeeze in a few games of Mafia with a few of the other groups.

Mom is doing very well, she's about the same as she was in my last update. She'll be 100% cancer-free for one year this July. For anyone that didn't know, the doctors declared Mom cancer-free before she decided to have chemo treatments, she opted to do that as a precaution.

Morgan and Kyle are also fixing to reach their one year anniversary with the group. 

The new album is kicking! I'll see if I can give you a sneak peak at some point...

Well, that's about it. Not too much going on here. I'll try my best to stay on this thing to keep you updated, summer is just around the corner, there should be some free time there.

Take Care,

ME