Someday, my heavily photoshopped countenance with dominate media outlets worldwide. But not this day.

This day, I’m a little known guitar player, songwriter and singer- a song and dance man who, objectively, can't dance for shit. That said, I've been dealt a reasonably decent hand over here. My full time band pays me a livable wage. I’ve traveled the world, picking and grinning, several times over. I have elite status on several major airlines, the kind of fancy that fattens you up on complimentary dark chocolates but only occasionally gets you upgraded. My dumb face has even been on national TV a few times. And yet, even to diehard Allen Stone fans, I’m largely an abstraction. Why have I been so reluctant to share more of myself and art with the handful of folks who might be interested?

Judgment? Not really- I want people to hear my music and saying more dumb crap publicly would do me good. Failure? Sure. I mean, all creative people fall in love with an idealized version of themselves, hence the photoshop and egregious auto-tuning of carefully sculpted pseudo vulnerability. I'm as guilty as anyone.

I think it’s this- when you spend most of your time strumming along in the stage left shadows, it’s easy thinking this muted version of yourself is what the machine requires rather than the full, raw flavor. As I sit her, tippity-tapping away outside the Frothy Monkey on a gorgeous Nashville evening, I'm feeling more like an obliterated, boiled-to-shit bowl of green beans, brown and unappetizing, rather than the crisp, in-season offering I know I am. Yes, I've taken this metaphor too far, I know, and I haven't written in a while so I'm working out the muscle here. It's fun! I can still string words together, it turns out.

I’m not a genius, thank god. I can’t imagine what that must be like- it’s hard enough being smart enough to know how little’s really up to you. But I really enjoy, you know, doing stuff. So, here’s to sharing- music, tons of new music, blogs, podcasts, videos, photos and so much more. I dig bumbling along in real time, and it's long overdue.

So, join me! It’ll likely be pretty good, I think, and failing upward is a noble pursuit. 2017, I’m coming for ya!