So here’s the deal… In honor of my Big Date with my daughter Emily this Friday, I’m giving away an mp3 of my song “Don’t Cry (Goodnight Emily)” that I wrote for her when she was a baby.

Click HERE, enter the code SCOTTFREE4FEB and download your free song! Let me know what you think…

The song was on my first solo CD “All I Know” but this version was from a couple years earlier when I was still with the band The Nobodys (the Christian band, not the punk band)… If you’re curious, check out this REVIEW from a British magazine (with song samples).

Hey everyone, I’ve kind of been taking a break from this website lately, but now it’s back to work!

One of the fun/challenging/frustrating/joyful things about being an independent artist is that you wear many, many hats.  The challenge becomes making sure that the most important things get priority, and this is where I tend to stumble. I’m usually juggling a dozen things at once, and my family is often quietly waiting for me to set everything else down and give them my full attention.

My “hat list” (excluding my Worship Pastor hats):

• Booking agent (scheduling shows and church services)
• Marketing director (publicity, website management, social media, etc.)
• Songwriter (or, in my case, alleged songwriter, since I rarely make much time for this)
• Band leader (hiring/firing, travel agent, road manager)
• Radio promoter (actually, I hire people to do this, but I’m very hands-on because I’m a control freak)
• Record producer (didn’t record at all in 2011, but I plan to this year)
• Plus there’s family stuff (karate and dance and 4-H and chopping wood and home maintenance…)
• Etc. (there’s probably more but I’m out of time).

The truth is, most of us wear many hats. You might be a mom who also writes a blog and who works at a grocery store and breeds Labradors on the side … plus you teach Third Grade Sunday School and help out at church youth group on Wednesday nights.

So if I were the “New Year Resolution” type, mine would be to be even more purposeful about spending time with my family. How about you?

I’m about to take the kids out for some last minute shopping this afternoon. I need a Code Word for “Remember, we’re not looking for stuff for us, but a gift for Mom.” Suggestions? I’m leaning toward “Bumbles Bounce” or “Attaboy, Clarence.” Comments, please!

Okay (big sigh) … my website got hacked, and many of you have been trying to buy stuff from my store but kept getting a warning message not to visit my site. IT’S ALL FIXED NOW! Yeah! So, hopefully I haven’t lost a full week’s worth of Christmas sales… Help me out?

T-Shirts (3 colors/designs) and Totes are $16 each, plus there are lots of DVD/CD/Clothing combos. Click HERE for clothing and HERE for bundle deals.

Why, imagine: getting all of your Christmas shopping done at a single website! How convenient! Yes, yes. You’re welcome.

In a couple of days^th, Jaime Thietten and I will launch this year’s Christmas tour.

After last year’s shows, we released a live concert DVD called “Christmas with Scott Riggan and Jaime Thietten,” which contains all 22 songs from the show (including “I See You,” last year’s Top 20 hit). The DVDs are available again this year, but only while supplies last.

The show was a lot of fun, so please pick up your copy by clicking “Add to Cart” below!
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We’re super-pumped about the Christmas tour with Jaime Thietten! Visit my “Tour” page to see if we’re coming to your town. Here’s a promo video for the show on December 4th in Beaverton/Portland Oregon:

My son Josiah and I had a “guy’s night out” last Friday – which of course meant pizza and arcade games. Our local pizza joint has exactly two (2) working arcade games – small town, you know – but it was still fun.

Usually I give Joey just a few quarters (I’m pretty cheap), but since I took his sister on a relatively expensive date last week (Olive Garden and a movie) I let him have a lot more quarters – and he had a blast.

There was another little boy there enjoying the games too. Most of the time this kid was “playing” a shoot-em-up game without putting any quarters in. And although he eventually got his hands on a few coins, he very quickly blew through them.

The funny thing was that I think he liked pretending to play the game just as much as he did actually playing it. (continue reading…)

I don’t really know a lot about sheep. We have a few of them at my house, but I’m not particularly attached to them myself. Mostly they kind of bug me because they’re pretty stupid and they sometimes get through the fence and you have to figure out where they’re getting out …

So it would be fair to say that I wouldn’t be a very good shepherd. (continue reading…)

I have the song “Beautiful Day” by U2 looping in my head today… And it is an absolutely perfect July 4th. Warm (even hot – finally!!) and sunny. I’m getting ready to mow the lawn while listening to an audiobook. Then there will also be grilling and blowing stuff up. Could it be any better?

Oh – and we’ll be making goats-milk ice cream today for the first time. Emily milked her goat Suzy and froze it, so that should be interesting… (Emily froze the milk, not the goat. Just to be clear).

Jaime Thietten and I will be touring the Christmas show again this December, and so far we have dates in the works for California, Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Would your church like to host our concert? Here’s a promo video taken from last year’s shows: