That's good. Now you mentioned your daughter. You are married now and you have a family. Do they get to tag along on some of these trips?

Hardly ever. Once in a blue moon my wife and family will come to a concert. They all have real lives and my wife has a real job. So they're pretty set there and I get to go and do this. I'm grateful that they're so supportive. I couldn't do this to the extent that I do it apart from that support. So I'm really thankful when I get to be home for a short while.

How do you keep connected with them on a regular basis?

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Pretty much the phone. . . You know, there's all kinds of communication these days. So phone and text messages and email. . . You can stay pretty connected even when it's difficult to get a hold of somebody. A lot of times, my wife's hours and my hours are very different which can make connecting pretty hard, but it's really not an issue when you're both interested in making it happen and it's not a chore to do it. You actually want to. And then you have to put quality above quantity. We both realize that we don't probably get near as much communication as the normal, average couple that lives in the same home, but we just try to make the most of the communication.

Yeah. And I know from my own experience that phone calls with two-year olds are very precious.

(laughs) Oh man. Yeah, that's my favorite. I have so many messages saved on my phone from Brooklyn singing me the twinkle twinkle star song or the ABC song. It is really, really nice and I find myself listening to those as I'm driving down the road.

Always puts a smile on your face.

Yeah, it does. It's a great blessing that wears you out, but I would never trade it. It's so exciting and fun and energizing and it's a blessing to be a part of the actual formation of a little life. So, you know, at times it gets hard, but all good things are hard and many hard things are good. I am grateful.

So on Tuesday, you released your latest album. Can you tell us a little bit about Love Will Rise?

Well, the album is just kind of... Each song is a faith expression of mine and hopefully it's a little catchy. Hopefully, it'll give people something that they can hold on to. I just want to direct people towards Jesus with the music I've been given and to make something of a really high quality. I didn't want to just rely on the fact that it has a Jesus stamp on it so it doesn't have to be as good artistically as what's out there. I hope that it's good.

(laughs)

I never really set out to make thematic records, but the theme that did arise long after I was well into the process of recording this project was that love will rise. I wanted to put a balloon on the cover, because I'm trying to be a balloon these days with my life. In the sense that a balloon isn't what it was fully intended to be until it is filled with that which is lighter and less dense than what's around it. A balloon isn't what it can truly be until it begins to rise. Love Will Rise, the spirit of the Lord will rise. So I'm just trying to open myself up to being filled because that's my only hope of rising above circumstances and situations that come at me in this life and being truly what I'm intended to be. So I'm hoping that I can communicate that to people through these songs and I hope that I can remind people that love will rise in the midst of our struggles. Our struggles and in the midst of what is hard because that seems to be when the Lord is most instructing us and turning us into the people that He would like us to become. So I'm just getting to do music and hopefully I'll communicate that to people. I'm just grateful that I get to document these songs and like I said, I hope it's catchy and quality and that it glorifies God.