It's been a crazy week of learning the ways of Nashville. I spent last week in St. Louis recording, playing live shows, and generally working, and arrived home late on Wednesday night to our little apartment by the big Percy Priest Lake dam.

Over the last few days, I've spent more time hanging out with my wife, and generally relaxing than I normally would. That said, I've gotten to meet with some wonderful people and had some great experiences this week. Here are my week's highlights:

• On Wednesday evening, I got to rehearse with the talented Jill Grossman for an upcoming show at the end of the month. Will be playing a little bit of everything, with an emphasis on some jazz standards. Super excited to play my first show in Nashville!

• I got to meet with some wonderful people this week, including musicians Blair Masters, Steve Brewster, and Charlie Peacock. All of these people are seriously challenging my understanding of music, and I'm sure that they'll be many blog posts in the future about the conversations we've had.

• Once again I'm gone from Nashville for a conference in St. Louis with the talented singer/songwriter Steve Reischl. It's been busy, but wonderful.

Big things I learned this week: redeem the music you play on (even if you're not particularly excited about it), gear isn't the most important thing, and being passionate about music trumps everything else you can do in your career.

I'm spending a lot of time this week behind this- almost 1,000 miles of driving, to be exact.