I got word from AP early this morning that the “Appendix A” project will release sometime in February.  Preorders will likely commence soon at Andrew’s site.  There will be a downloadable bonus track available for those who preorder.

Andrew announce this news here this morning.

I’ve had several people hit this site looking for information on Andrew Peterson’s “Appendix A” project. The 2 same questions keep popping up in my email, so I thought I’d answer them here.

1. Release Date - The last date I heard for an official release was January 17, 2006.

2. Song List - What songs made the cut? I wish I could answer that one. But all I know is what I sent to Andy, and I’m pretty sure that not all of it made the cut. So, basically I don’t know.

I’ll post again if I get any more detailed (and reliable) information on the project.

Well, it’s done. At 2:34 this afternoon, I was officially done with my work on the Appendix A project.

I’ve learned a lot about Andy and his music these last few months, and I’ve seen the quick view of how he has matured as a songwriter. I’ve heard him cover Steven Curtis Chapman songs. I’ve heard him goofing off, crying, laughing, and being serious. I’ve heard him bragging about his boys, his girl, his wife. I’ve heard him making fun of his brother’s bad luck. I’ve heard him compare his grandma to Yoda and Gabe Scott (”The Legend”) to Chewbacca. I’ve heard him excited at the beginning of a tour, and I’ve heard him tired at the end of a tour. But every time - every time - I’ve heard him loving what he does.

It shows in his stories, his jokes, his approach to life, and in his songwriting. “Appendix A” will be a brief compiliation of that - a compilation that no AP fan should be without.

Now I’m off to Nashville to take this collection of bootlegs back to where it should be - out of my basement - and to join in the celebration of Andy’s newest CD release, “The Far Country.”

I’m rounding third and heading home with the Appendix A project. I’m Nashville-bound today, and I’ve got the box of bootlegs in my car waiting to be taken home. I’ve got to do a little editing on a few sound files this morning, but the Appendix A project is basically done and ready to be handed off to Andrew.

…just a quick update for you guys on the “Appendix A” project. I’ve been going back over the bootlegs and pulling the good stuff off to a wav format. The MDs took a while, and I have just a few left downstairs. Tonight I pulled the good stuff from 16 CDs. Yeah, 16.

I told Andy that I’d try to have this stuff done before next Thursday. The plan is for me to deliver the goods Thursday night when I see him at the CD release party for his newest recording “The Far Country.”

(By the way, “The Far Country” will be available in stores Tuesday, August 30. I’ve heard it, and it is amazing.)

Anyway, I figured I could get this done by 9/1, and then (after I set my deadline) I realized how much I have left to do. So there’ll be a few nights like tonight where I have to just buckle down and force myself to make progress on it.

That’s the update for now. Stay tuned…there’ll be more to come in the next few days.

This post comes to you from the depths of my basement. This afternoon is rapidly turning into evening as I have been making some serious progress on the Appendix A project today. I’ve got a probable set list for the CD. So step 2 is over.

Step 3, which I’ve been knee-deep in since about 2:00 this afternoon is listening to different versions of the songs to pull out the best one. I’ve also been pulling some of the more “classic” moments off of disk as well, since we may be putting some of those moments between songs.

Here’s how I’ve been doing this stage. To be quite blunt, I’m tired of the basement, so I am pulling all the good moments from each disk into 1 file. Then I’ll chop/edit that file as needed. That way I can do this while I watch The Simpsons or Family Guy. Also, that’ll keep my wife from forgetting what I look like.

Nap time is over now, and the kids (and wife) are stirring upstairs again, so I’m going to call it quits on this for today. You guys are going to love Appendix A. I’m having a blast doing all this work.

Early this morning - about 1:30 - I stubled through the dark bedroom on my way to bed with a feeling of accomplishment. I feel like I should be in some book of records now. 86 recordings in 41 days is just a little more than 2 per day. Let me tell you, that’s a lot of times to hear “Nothing to Say.”

So today I start the second step of this process. I’ll be reading through my notes and putting together a set list for Appendix A. This second step should only take a couple of days at most. Then step 3 (digitizing) will probably take up a couple weeks. Then I’ll review it, see what might be missing, fill in any holes, and I should have something in Andrew’s hands by the end of the month. That’s the plan.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to sleep and look productive at work at the same time.

3 more. That’s it. I’ve got only 3 more shows to hear before I’m through with step 1 of the Appendix A process. There’s an Atlanta show on cassette (1999 era) and 2 MDs - one unlabeled show and one Missouri show from 2002.

Step 2 is compiling a list of songs to make the final cut. I’ll be putting that together this week after I finish the final 3 shows.

Step 3 will be underway late this week. I’ll be actually pulling songs from MD (or CD or cassette) and putting together the audio files to send back up to Nashville.

After that, it’ll be out of my hands and up to Andrew to finish up the project. Currently, there’s no release date (that I know of) - only that I think it’ll be done sometime in 2005.

It’s really late (or really early, depending on your perspective), and I’ve just finished listening to the 4th and final AP concert of my evening. Tonight was awesome because one of the 4 shows I heard tonight was the first Andrew Peterson show I ever saw. It was October 2001 at CIU in Columbia, SC. It’s amazing how much of that show I actually remember.

Tomorrow’s MDs should be fun. I did a little preview and heard a decent version of Freebird, which probably won’t make the Appendix but was fun listening to anyway.

I’m going to bed now since I have to be up in less than 5 hours. *yawn*

The other night, while listening to some of the Andrew Peterson bootlegs for Appendix A, I came across a taped recording of a radio broadcast. It was the day that “Carried Along” released, and Andrew and company were in the studio of an Orlando CCM station for the morning show. The thing about that recording that stood out the most to me was how terribly awful the female radio personality was. She was bad beyond my ability to explain. (And, no, I’m not going to say the woman’s name or the radio station.)

Today, here in NW Atlanta, I was on my way to lunch. The car in front of me had Orlando area tags and a bumper sticker that had the radio station’s frequency with something like “Positive Hit Radio” under it. I laughed because I’m probably the only person in Atlanta who knows just how bad that radio station is.

In other news, I’ve been tearing through these MDs lately. My current count says I’m on the 54th recording, so I should be finished up with the initial listen a little ahead of time. Then comes the more time consuming process of pulling stuff off of tapes and MDs and assembling a CD for Andy. More on that later…