A happy first birthday to Derek and Sandra’s delightful little boy, Rhodes. Yeah, it’s been a year already. Crazy, no?

And Derek’s other child came into being this week—NoiseTrade finally launched. [You will be forgiven if you were wondering if it would ever happen.] We’ve all been playing with it for a while, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s pretty cool. And hey, if that doesn’t get you to try it, maybe getting The Ringing Bell for free will…

From derekwebb.com

For Performing Songwriter’s 15th Anniversary Collectors’ Edition they have published, with Derek’s inclusion in the special feature, the Top 100 Indie Artists of the last 15 years. A highly respected industry magazine, Performing Songwriter caters to the true music fan, featuring the stories, artists, instrumentation and craft behind those who both write and perform their music.

Their quoted as saying:
“Performing Songwriter is just a humble and heartfelt attempt at creating a place for songwriters to come together in a safe community where they’re understood and supported and heard by those who love music.”

As you can imagine, this is a huge honor and we wanted to share this information with you. Please check out the site and more importantly please support Performing Songwriter in this issue and in the future.

He made it into the “visionaries” category with none other than Radiohead. Check out the issue to see what that have to say about Derek. Congrats DW!

We here at dw.net hope your birthday is filled with happiness and a few Dos Perros

From Jim Wallis’ blog on Sojourners

Jesus-Following vs. Social Activism (by Derek Webb)
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Claiming to follow Jesus is a ridiculous thing to try and do. He’s a really hard guy to follow, especially when he talks about loving the poor, loving our neighbors, and loving those who hate and oppose us. Loving people who love us is sometimes hard enough, but loving our enemies is just counterintuitive. It goes against every instinct in my body. When someone does or seeks to do harm to me or my family, it’s my knee-jerk reaction, my default, to return violence with violence. I am violent to the core. To confess anything less would be a dangerous land mine to sneak over.

This is why it’s so important to know who Jesus is and what he’s asking us to do. And luckily, for our benefit, we have his answer recorded in a historical document. When asked point-blank, “What are the most important things we’re commanded to do?” it’s curious what Jesus says. And what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t mention all of the overwhelming issues of morality that we seem to obsess over in the Christian ghetto. He doesn’t mention any of the countless issues that are dividing our churches left and right. He says, “Love God and love your neighbors,” that, in fact, all of the law and prophets hang on these two commands, and that these are literally the context for all other commands we keep.

This is the work of following Jesus — to love and care especially for those whom it is difficult. It is therefore never a political position to be on the side of the poor. Working for justice in all areas of society is not peripheral to the proclamation of the good news of Jesus; it is central. His message was not that of the individual salvation of men and women, but of the “being made right of all things.” While this certainly includes the stories of men and women, that is such a small part of the whole. It’s a story about our families, our environment, our governments, our neighbors, about the whole of what God has made. And proclaiming half the truth as the whole truth is no truth at all.

How do we tell the whole story of the coming reign of God, a new way of being human and relating to God and God’s creation? We put our hands to it. We proclaim a day coming when there will be no more thirst by giving water to the thirsty. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more disease and death by caring for the lives of those whose bodies are broken. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more war by preemptively sowing the seeds of peace.

It’s true: The Bible does say that there is a time to build up and a time to tear down, a time to rejoice and a time to weep, a time for peace and a time for war. But we live in anticipation of the day coming when there will be no more time to tear down. There will be no more time for weeping. There will simply be no more time for war. Soon we’re going to run out of time for these things. This is the day we work for. This is the day we pray into today.

The folks at Berry College put together a video featuring an “interview” with Mr. Webb. Here is what resulted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jibykHsJ75Q

Coming to a CD player near you… The Ampersand EP

It looks like pre-orders will be taken starting on Valentine’s Day. The physical record will come out in March or April. You will, however, get the full digital download as soon as you pre-order. Derek and Sandra will be out playing shows together to promote once the pre-order starts. Derek told me that they consider Valentine’s Day to be the actual release date for the EP

We here at dw.net are very excited for this release and I, for one, am very glad Watch Your Mouth has found a home and am excited to see what Sandra can add to it! Stay tuned to dw.net for more updates!

Well the year is new and I wanted to give everyone an update about DW. This won’t be much new or “insider” info but more of a “what’s on tap” sort of thing.

Derek and Sandra are close to finishing the duet EP that they are releasing in February.

Derek will be working on Sandra’s new solo record in January

Starting in February Derek will be heading out on the road with Caedmon’s Call on the Overdressed tour

During this time he will also be working on his own new solo effort.

Noisetrade, which is Derek’s latest project, is set to go on line this spring as well.

Stay tunned to dw.net for updates on these projects, and more, as they become available.

The Date is now January 10th instead of January 3rd/4th according to Derek’s Manager. Sorry for the constant changes everybody.

DSC_0108

Originally uploaded by jholland444

You know, Cliff’s been balding for some time, but this is the first time I’ve seen photographic evidence of him clean-shaven.

Looks like hanging out with Derek again is having an effect.

Looking for more info on this whole Noisetrade thing is that Derek has mentioned on his website?

According to Brannon at Portland Studios, things are still in development mode. We’ll be tracking the developments as we get more info…