Merry Christmas!

Hey friends, seasons greetings from Austin.

1. First and foremost, our new album is finally done and ready for release. 10 original songs, professionally recorded and produced by some of Austin's finest musicians. It's the best we've ever sounded. This is our music like I hear it in my head. (What's it like in there, you wonder? Well, go buy the album and find out!) But make sure you get the CD version with the 24-pages of liner notes, because the photos are a story in and of themselves. It's the story of our lives...  

2. Second, we've created a music video to give you a taste. (I feel like such a poser, just writing that). We have no grand illusions of fame and glory here. Rather, we've got a deep abiding love for Montana (so much of our story unfolded there). And we've got these songs (that stuck with us for all these years). So when we decided to record, I knew I wanted to do it right. And that costs money.

So I asked my friend Diego to shoot a fundraising video.

Diego is an amazing photographer and videographer. He's also a dyed in the wool atheist (maybe someday I'll tell you his story about being raised in a cult in Alaska). Yet Diego loved our music. Especially the title track. "You guys use this in your church? Dude. I want to shoot a music video. In Montana! With you and Marilyn..." So we did! :-)

3. Lastly, you've probably noticed this email has a different look &  feel. For 15 years, I've stubbornly kept writing letters to friends the old fashioned way - not with paper and pen, but with plain text emails and google contact lists. It still feels more organic, but it's become very difficult to maintain (and bcc emails increasingly end up in spam folders. eg. if you're just now finding out that we've been working on an album, that's probably why.)

So from this point forward, christiancryder.com is the place to follow me.

Everyone  on my "friends from afar" newsletter has been auto-subscribed. If this email just showed up in your inbox, you don't have to do anything. But it's easy to subscribe (or unsubscribe). I intend to do a lot more writing over the next few years. This is where it's going to happen. This new platform should help.

As always, thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what you think of the email, the website, and especially the album. But for now, I've gotta get back to work!

Cheers,

Christian & Marilyn