I am thankful for my family, Barbara's rolls, my sister's apple pie, my friends, falling asleep on the couch watching football, going to a movie thanksgiving night, the boulevard bolt, that I get to play music for a job! (that's crazy), for a really awesome house in my favorite neighborhood in Nashville, a clean car, fleece slippers, YOU, and for nothing to do tomorrow but hang with the Fam!

Happy Thanksgiving!
MATT

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#wertzwednesday instructions:
1. Follow me (@mattwertz) on twitter
2. Look for the #wertzwednesday question and reply
3. Be sure to include #wertzwednesday in your response to enter

Ok, so It's coming up on the holiday season, and if your family is anything like mine, hours upon hours are logged watching movies together. I thought it might be fun to put together a little pack of 5 of my favs, so here they are:

Blood Brothers (Bruce Sprintsteen and the E Street Band)- This is a documentary of the reuniting of the E Street Band after an 11 year hiatus to record some new material for Bruce's greatest hits. The tunes they feature are 'Secret Garden', 'Streets of Philidelphia', and the centerpiece is the song 'Blood Brothers'. Its so fascinating to get a glimpse into these guys' process- it's SO GREAT!


Nacho Libre- I really don't know how to communicate how much I love this movie, other than to say that 40% of my communication has been influenced by it. Period. It's also the way to get my dad to laugh the hardest he's ever laughed.

Elf- Put it up there with 'Home Alone', 'Christmas Vacation', and 'It's a Wonderful Life'- seriously a new classic. It's where the other 60% of my communication comes from.

Jerry Seinfeld 'Comedian'- One of the most inspiring documentaries creatively that I've ever seen. It tells the story of Jerry Seinfeld, at the top of his game, scrapping his entire stand up routine and starting from scratch. You follow him from trying out a couple jokes at open mic nights in NYC to doing a full set by the end of the movie. The journey from point A to point B is fascinating.

Bottle Rocket- the first Wes Anderson film, and the first Wilson brothers film as well. My publishing company name was taken from a line in here, THAT'S how much I love it. Quirky as CRAP- if you like movies like 'Raising Arizona' you'll love this- it gets funnier the more you watch it.

Ok, that's it for this week! Good luck, y'all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Matt

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Thanks for participating in #wertzwednesday! Our winner is @MicahChaplin! It was really fun reading through all your responses. We'll be back next week with something fun, so don't miss out!

- Matt

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Ok, so here's what i'm going to be giving away this week to the lucky winner of Wertz Wednesday- 5 of my favorite books. Just tweet an answer to this question, with the #wertzwednesday hash tag in your tweet:

'Read the book or see the movie?'

That's it. Which describes you?

We'll pick a winner after the day is over and post the winner Thursday morning!

Here's a little description of each book-

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon VanAuken. One of the best love stories i've ever read. I for real cried my face off as I was finishing this book for the first time. But it was a good cry. Kinda like when Johnny Mellencamp says, it 'hurts so good'.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. Some of the most insightful thoughts on life I've ever read. Told from the perspective of a small town Kentucky barber named Jayber. I wish my name was Jayber.

The Shack by William P. Young. I knew him as just 'Paul', years before this book came out. Paul has an amazing way of making me think about God different than I have my whole life. I love him and his book.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Definitely the funniest, most inspiring books on writing I've ever read. I need to read this every day-

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Don's most important book yet if you ask me. He looks into what goes into crafting a good story and asks what it would look like if we approached our lives that way.

I just hope whomever wins likes to read!
Good luck, and HAPPY WEDNESDAY!
Matt

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My friends at Collings guitars made use of one of the new pics- check it out!

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My buddy Micah Kandros did a photo shoot for me recently at my friends' (and favorite denim/retail store on the planet) Imogene + Willie and I wanted to show y'all a couple of the pics that came from the shoot- click 'em to make them big!

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Hey y'all!

Thanks to everyone who participated in this experiment we've decided to call 'wertzwednesday'- it was so fun to read the albums y'all bought most recently! We DO have a winner, that we randomly selected from all the posts marked #wertzwednesday, and the first winner is @samanderson78!

We'll do it again next week for something completely different but equally AWESOME!

- Matt

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Each Wednesday til the end of 2009, I'll be giving away something every week. So how do you win?

1. Follow me (@mattwertz) on twitter
2. Pay attention every Wednesday for my twitter instructions
3. Be sure to include #wertzwednesday in your response to enter

That simple!

Contests are from 9AM CST to 11:59PM CST every Wednesday.

Good luck!

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Ok, so a lot of people have responded to wanting the vintage merch I found around the house, and a lot of y'all have downloaded the free live album i put out there last week, so here's what i'm thinking... how about I give something away every week through the end of the year? Like, every Wednesday? we could call it #WertzWednesday or something like that.

Here's what i've found:

Orange EP (released summer '02), contains REALLY early (and acoustic) versions of:
Red Meets Blue
Way Back to Yesterday
Counting to 100
Hiding Behind a Smile
I'm Sorry, Mary

This was produced by my friend Steve Wilson who produced Somedays- we packaged the orange ep in a double disc case with Somedays for a little while. Fun Fun Fun.

My first 8x10 glossy promo shot EVER! I had this taken in the summer of '01 before I moved to Nashville. The picture was taken on the historic square in my hometown of Liberty, Missouri.

A 'blingin' since '79 shirt (medium only!)- This wasn't the FIRST Matt Wertz shirt ever, but it was the first one i made more than 100 of. They came in all different colors, and I randomly have a baby blue one left. I stopped printing them when I the word 'blingin' stopped being cool....What? It wasn't EVER cool? Nobody ever tells me these things...

the 'MW' flame sticker. I don't know what I was trying to communicate with this sticker. maybe that I was en fuego or too hott to handle or something like that. Needless to say, there aren't any more of these being made, so this is the only way to get one!

A handmade bandana necklace! Yeah, if you look closely in the promo pic- i'm rocking one. They were my signature for about a year or so, and I made a bunch and sold them at shows. I found a couple - i dont know if they will fit whoever wins, or if they are even cool enough to wear, but just know that yours truly sure did think they were cool for about 14 months.

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I found some vintage merch while I was digging around the basement- anybody want it?

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