After this performance last week on the Brit Awards, “Someone Like You” shot to the #1 (live version) and #4 (album version) spots on the iTunes chart in UK. Adele’s label quickly made the song available as a single, and this week the song is #1. My first number one song in the United Kingdom.

Happy holidays! I’ve made a new recording of a new song, “Are You Lonely Tonight, Mrs. Claus?” I used my rapidograph pen to make some illustrations and write out some of the lyrics, thus this Youtube video. I hope you all have a happy holiday season and a beautiful 2011. If you like this, please send a link to your friends.

The Dan and Matt Wilson show at the Pantages theater in Minneapolis was one of the highest high points of a very eventful year for me. Matt and I hadn’t planned to record the gig, probably thinking that a live recording might add stress to a potentially challenging show – just the number of lyrics to remember was slightly intimidating to us. (See the various false starts of “Hello Stranger,” for example.) But in the end the preparation was fun and lighthearted, though hard work, and at the last minute I called engineer John Rausch and asked him to haul his live rig to the gig. (Sorry for the complete lack of advance notice, John!) And the recording actually turned out beautifully, especially thanks to the mix by Brad Kern.