men and gentle-ladies,

we are very pleased to inform you that calling out closer has added a fifth man. we'd like to introduce you to guitarist scott valenza. the man sports a fine track record as a former member of two retired bands: checkgauge and kurios. we're all quite excited to have him on board. but enough theory:

scott actually played his first show with us in chambersburg this past saturday night. we don't mean to brag on his behalf, but it seemed like he'd been playing with us for months, not week. yes, one. beginners luck? we think not. but enough words:



that there work of photoshop art is courtesy of scott's former bandmate jay of checkgauge. those gents were convinced that since we operated near lancaster county, we must be amish. alas, don't expect to see scott in full beardage anytime soon.

see you soon!

-calling out closer

well. it was good to hit the stage again after a few weeks off since purple door. couple of highlights: we debuted a new song (tentatively titled "my departure") after spending a decent part of saturday's practice constructing it. it is a lot of fun, and it was certainly good to fast track a new song idea to the live setting after a few months of filing away new material in our back pockets.

also worth noting: a fuse blew and knocked out the mics, keys, and bass halfway through "name of glory" (our last song of the set). this actually turned out to be a lot of fun as well, and we want to thank those of you who were there for enthusiastically singing your "whoa-oh" part along with us until normalcy resumed. good work.

-ben

well. purple door has come and gone, and i must say that it was quite an awesome experience. so thanks to those of you who made it possible, and to those of you who dragged yourselves out of bed early to make it to our set.

i think i'd just like to say that we're all finding ourselves in an interesting place at this point. i don't mean to sound cryptic, but it would appear that some changes are coming (for the record, NOT in a "we're breaking up" kind of way). but we feel God is working in something good here, and it appears that his timing is starting to direct our futures.

basically what i'm trying to say is that your prayers and support are very much appreciated. we'll see you in september!

-ben