Park Concert coming up...

This coming Sunday night my brothers Aaron and Andrew and I will be doing a concert for my church. Noelridge has annually had a church potluck in the park on Labor Day Sunday; for the past several years we’ve had the Faris family (talented bluegrass types from Kansas), but now they’ve moved up in the world and we can’t afford them any more. (Good for them!) So as their amateur replacements, the Hubbs brothers will be providing the musical entertainment this year.

I’m looking forward to this immensely. I have blogged before about the fun of playing music with my family, and this is no different. The music will be stuff that we’ve goofed around with before but never really performed; stuff by Caedmon’s Call, Derek Webb, Andrew Peterson, Andy Osenga, and others.

I only have a couple of more tasks in preparation: I need to try to drum up an electric piano we can use for the night (I know who to call, I just have to make the call) and I need to practice. I need to practice a lot.

What: Noelridge Park Church potluck and concert in the park Where: Noelridge Park Pavilion When: Sunday, September 3rd, 5:30 PM Bring: a dish to share and a lawnchair.

'Cause we're all praying for the ice to break...

This song has been rattling around in my head for the past day or two. It’s beautiful, intense, personal stuff, made all the moreso by the knowledge that Andy was really writing this about himself.

My struggles haven’t been specifically with anger like is dealt with here, but I still understand the feeling of “waiting for the ice to break” - for that cold stasis of the soul to crack up into rushing, vibrant spring - Rich Mullins’ streams “all swollen with winter, winter unfrozen, free to run away now…” What a beautiful call to repentance, renewal, and refreshing.

You’re floating like some Lost episode
Now you’re there and I want you but how
How can I get there inside your house of mirrors
Are you looking for a window,
Are you looking for a door?

Cause it’s been too long, too long - It’s been like this too long.

There’s Scripture taped up to the wall now
Are you getting any solace
From the promises, the Word?
Cause you’re angry,
And you can call it what you want to,
But the tree grows from the seeds in your ground

And it’s been too long, too long - It’s been like this too long

Cause you’re lonely
And when Matthew said forgiveness
Your heart leapt and your eyes looked away
You get so busy with the hours and the mortgage
You can turn cold and ignore how you’ve changed

Cause we’re all praying for the ice to break
Waiting for our friend to come back to us again

Cause you’re hurting more than anybody
And they’ve got no power over you now…

-- Andrew Osenga, House of Mirrors

Listen to The Morning online.

Random Thoughts on Classical Music

For those of you brave enough to read past the title, congratulations! Now instead of me talking about music by people my age, you get to hear me talk about music written by dead people. Well, they weren’t dead when they wrote it… but let’s not confuse the issue.

I grew up listening to lots of classical music. This was pretty much due to the fact that my parents listened to lots of classical music, and I was too young to buy records or run the record player. So classical it was. I remember Bach Cello suites, including a neat recording played by John Williams or Segovia or somebody on the guitar. Dad liked Stravinsky, so we heard some of that, too. And then there was the requisite Beethoven, and then some fun stuff by Prokofiev. (Though the title “Love for Three Oranges” sounds kinda kinky now that I think about it…)

Then I started taking piano lessons, and gained some more personal appreciation for composers. I think I initially got started playing Grieg because my friend Lydia was playing him, and I wanted to out-do her. However, he quickly became a favorite. Then I got my skill up to where I could tackle Chopin’s Ballades. They’re still some of my favorites. (How do I pick between No. 1 in G-Minor and No. 4 in F minor? Too tough to call!) And then there was Rachmaninoff. I hacked through his Second Piano Concerto during my first couple of years of high school. It was only after college that I picked up some of his Preludes, Etudes Tableux, and his wonderful arrangement of Kreisler’s Liebesfreud.

Oh, and any talk about my classical music history wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that tape of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Capriccio Italien that got played over and over and over and over in the van.

I don’t have classical music on that much any more; I’m going to have to make sure that I turn it on more often so Laura and Addison grow up with at least an exposure to it. Laura, though, already watches a Classical Baby DVD that has a bunch of good stuff on it; Mozart, Bach, Schumann, Bartok, and Villa Lobos, to name just a few. I guess that’s a good start. Next I’ll pull out some Mussorgsky…

I love used CDs

Last night, FYE at Coral Ridge Mall. Hem’s Rabbit Songs. Used. Price: $4.99. But wait, there’s 20% off on all used CDs today. Final price $4.00. W00t!

A quick update: this is a terrific album. Beautiful music. Wowza.

Road Trip: Andy O CD Release Show

After hearing the announcement that “much rock will be had”, I decided if I could make it work in my schedule, I’d head on a road trip to Nashville to see Andrew Osenga’s The Morning CD release concert. The schedule worked out, and next thing you know, I was on the road.

It’s not as bad a drive as I’d feared from Cedar Rapids to Nashville. I left at 4:30 am, and with very minimal stoppage I arrived in Nashville by 2:30 pm. I checked into my motel and then left to drive around and aquaint myself with the Nashville area. I drove past one shopping mall that was very dead, and then another one which turned out to be the Green Hills Mall that Andy Gullahorn sings about. After having located Mercy Lounge and how to get there, I went back to my motel to crash.

I apparently gave myself too much time to get down to the Lounge, because I got there about 30 minutes before the published “doors open” time. Deciding to escape the heat and humidity outside, I stuck my head in and managed to hear the end of Andy and the band’s sound check.

There were two openers for Andy; the first was Dave somebody; he sported a Napoleon Dynamite-style afro and a bunch of falsetto vocals with his acoustic guitar. Not bad, but not very memorable. The second act was Matthew Perryman Jones. MPJ is one of the Square Pegs, but I hadn’t heard any of his music until that night. He was very good. He played a few songs solo, then brought Andy O, Cason Cooley, and Eric Weigel up to play with him. Again, very good stuff. I bought his new CD Throwing Punches In The Dark after the show.

Then it was time for Andy. He was playing with a full band: Cason Cooley on keyboards, Eric Chris Weigel on bass, Paul Eckberg on drums, and a guitarist Jason Feller on guitar, and a percussionist whose name escaped me. They played a lot of music from Andy’s new album The Morning, starting out in album order with In Gym Class In High School, After The Garden, and White Dove. He played a few songs from his earlier album Photographs, including Kara and When Will I Run. The highlight of the night was probably his rocking Santa Barbara from the new album. It is a classic roll-the-windows-down rock and roll song, and it was great that night.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and also the chance to meet a bunch of folks, some I had already met, some I had not. This is where I name drop (though is it really name dropping if the people are only “names” to a few people?) : Geof Morris (of rmfo.net fame), Ron Davis (aka Ronzilla) of moreron.com, a couple of other dot.netters, and then in addition to the aforementioned band members, there were Jeremy Casella, Chris Mason, Andy Peterson, Ben Shive, Randall Goodgame, and oh yeah, Andy O’s wife Alison. Very cool.

After helping carry Andy’s gear down to his car, I called it a night and crashed hard at the motel. The following day brought me back on the reverse trip from Nashville to Cedar Rapids; again about a 10 hour drive. It was a great time, well worth the drive. As I told Andy, next time I’ll come back, but I’ll bring my wife along. :-)

Andrew Osenga - The Morning

Only 18 more days until release. If you’re a fan of Andy Osenga’s already, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about; if you’re asking “Andy O-Who?”, let me introduce you to the man who is hands-down my favorite solo artist. Andy Osenga is a wonderful singer, songwriter, and guitar player, formerly of The Normals, currently with Caedmon’s Call, a member of the Square Peg Alliance, and now releasing his second full-length album in what I hope will be a long and brilliant solo career. (By the way - a link to his blog has been sitting over in my sidebar for months now. If you’d paid attention, you would already know what I’m about to tell you. :-))

May 16th will herald the release of The Morning. Andy has released four of the songs on his blog over the past week - if you get over there soon, you may still be able to hear them. After The Garden is a rockin’ tune, reminding us that he doesn’t fit neatly into that acoustic singer-songwriter stereotype. Santa Barbara is only slightly more laid back. House of Mirrors gives a smooth, relaxed vibe that will just leave you wanting to hear it again. And New Beginnings? Well, as Andy says, it just about sums up the themes of the whole album.

Go and listen to his songs. Then hit his website and preorder a copy today. Or, buy a couple of copies. Heck, stock up on his older stuff if you haven’t got it already.

OK, so this is a rather shameless promotion on my part, but seriously, folks, this is some good music, and Andy is just the kind of guy you’d want to support by buying his music. I’ve already ordered mine. :-)

Caedmon's Call, Dubuque, IA, 4/23/06

Last night I had the opportunity to see Caedmon’s Call play in concert at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, IA. It was a great time. The night started off nicely when I was able to find the venue just fine, and found free parking on the street only two parking places away from the arena. Amazing.

I walked into the arena and my first thought was that it was the worst setup for a concert that I’d ever seen. This particular arena usually is home to ice hockey and basketball. They had the stage set up against one of the long sides, and then had 40 feet of bare floor between it and the seating. And they hadn’t bothered to pull out the low bleachers, so the lowest seats were still about 12 feet off the ground. It was very weird. But the design redeemed itself when I realized that they were going to allow, nay, welcome people to stand on the floor. You could stand right up at the stage. That was pretty cool.

The opening band was a local band called Ineloquent. I’d never heard of ’em before, but they weren’t too bad. They have a husband and wife that are lead singers. He looks like one of the old contestants from The Bachelor, and sounds a bit like Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay. His wife’s vocals reminded me just a bit of the Cardigans. Anyhow, they played a 6-song set, then the lights came back up for a 20 minute break while the stage was reconfigured.

As they got the stage set up, I talked to Andy Osenga for a quick minute as he was testing to make sure his pedal board was ready to go. He said that he was excited that they had the whole band back together for the show. Andy got his blog post written sooner than I did, so you should go read his thoughts about the show and they fun that they had. It was a blast with the whole band together.

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They played 13 songs, by my count, and Andy got to do a solo number in the middle. Here’s a quick rundown:

Lead of Love They started with an oldie. The crowd down around the stage, a group of 200 or so college kids, didn’t know it. But they had fun, anyway.

Before There Was Time This got the crowd cranking, clapping and having a good time. Nice upbeat stuff.

Walk With Me It suprised me a little bit that they’d do this one in concert - but it’s a good song that features Danielle’s lead vocals nicely.

The Talk Then it was time (a bit early, but ok) for the talk. This concert was a fund-raiser for a group of students from the University of Dubuque who are going to minister to the Dalits in India this summer. The cause of the Dalits is near and dear to Caedmon’s heart as well, so Cliff took several minutes to describe what they go through. This led into the next portion of the concert with songs off of the recent Share the Well album.

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes OK, so this isn’t a Caedmon’s song, but they sure enjoy doing it. Cliff pulls off a pretty nice interpretation of the Paul Simon vocal (not an easy task!), and it’s just a fun way to head into the Indian theme.

Share The Well For this one, Garrett moves down to the front of the stage to play the tablas (small Indian drums). They weren’t mic’d very well - at least I couldn’t hear them very well, but still the song was fun. The younger crowd knew this song much better.

Bombay Rain This was Andy’s chance to sing lead, and he did a great job as usual. It started off a little bit weak with only his guitar, but it cranked right up as they hit the first chorus, and it was all good from there.

As that song ended, it was obvious that the next song on their set list was Andy’s solo song. But Cliff called the band back to the stage to do one more India song, since the crowd was enjoying it so much. And Cliff starts out by saying “now this is a song that I really like, but I’m not sure I remember all of it.” To which Andy replies “Is it Bon Jovi?” The crowd cracked up at that, and then Josh in the background started playing a little Bon Jovi on the organ, and Andy kicked in with the guitar, and next thing you know the crowd is singing along with the chorus of Wanted Dead or Alive. It was a hoot. But the song that Cliff really wanted to sing was…

Sarala He had to tell the story about this one first, and talked for a while. But he remembered the song, and it sounded good.

The High School Band This was Andy’s turn to do a solo song. The rest of the band cleared the stage, and Andy stole Cliff’s acoustic guitar to play while he sang. I’ve heard Andy sing this song in concert several times now, and I think this was the best I’ve heard him sound singing it. Those high notes are tough, but he just nailed them last night. My only objection was that he always sings that song - I’ll be glad when the new album is out and he can sing something newer.

Step By Step As the band came back out, Cliff had the crowd sing through this classic Rich Mullins tune a couple of times. Josh was playing the organ, and almost got the crowd lost a couple times with his weird harmonies, which earned him a dirty look from Cliff.

I Will Sing - Hope to Carry On The a capella tune I Will Sing gave Andy, Cliff, and Danielle a chance to shine. They were really into it at this point, and the tight three-part harmonies were wonderful. They used that to lead right into Hope to Carry On, which probably qualifies as the oldest Caedmon’s song of all time. (Of course, it’s really a Rich Mullins song, but…) This was where the crowd really reached its emotional peak of the night. The band was cooking. Andy was ripping it on the electric guitar. He jumped off of the drum riser at the end. It was awesome.

God Of Wonders This brought things back down a bit, but the crowd was still singing right along, and it sounded good.

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Hands of the Potter This was a fun way to wrap up the set. Todd, Garrett, and Josh all move to the lower stage to play percussion, and the song wraps up with a long drum solo. Good times.

Dalit Hymn They pulled this out for an encore, and again Cliff said they hadn’t done this one in a while and he hoped he remembered the whole thing. He did seem to have a bit more trouble with it - Danielle was looking at him in bewilderment a couple of times as he sang what must’ve been the wrong lyrics. But still, the crowd knew this one pretty well, and it was a good finish.

I got the chance to talk to Cliff and Andy after the show and thank them for a great evening. I suggested to Andy that we need to be able to buy t-shirts with the artwork from his new album on them… I think they’d be awesome. He said that idea, and others, were in the works, if only they could find some funds to get it kicked off.

As we were talking, Todd came out from packing stuff up with a big box of cookies that somebody had made for the band. He said they were gonna get tossed if nobody ate them, so he was out there handing them out to fans in the lobby. The peanut butter cookie I got was huge and very tasty.

My only regret from last night’s concert is that Becky wasn’t able to come. It was just impossible to find a way to take a one-month-old baby along to the concert, or to leave her home for the evening. Becky hasn’t seen Caedmon’s in concert before, and this would’ve been a great way to introduce her. Well, maybe next time.

See the rest of the concert pics on my flickr set.

going to see Caedmon's...

Thanks to Andrew Osenga’s timely posting of more tour dates, I found that Caedmon’s Call will be playing in Dubuque, IA - only an hour from my home! - this Saturday night. My wife has graciously agreed that she could do without me for the night, so I bought my ticket this morning (curses, Ticketmaster, on being the only game in town! one day there will be a reckoning for your extortionary fees!) and will be there tomorrow night. Should be fun. I’ll try to post some pictures and a review this weekend.

New Music

I placed an order today for some music that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time: Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio. (The link is to the audio CD so you can listen to samples. I ordered the sheet music.) This is some phenomenal jazz/classical/whatever-the-heck-it-is fusion. I dunno when I first heard it - sometime in high school, I suppose, and immediately I wished I could get with a trio and play it. But that seemed unlikely and the folio with the instrumental parts cost about 50 bucks.

Flash forward to today. I was looking online for a decent collection of Debussy piano music, and while browsing, came across the Bolling suite again. I decided that I could now manage the 45 bucks, so I ordered it. I also know a couple good flute players and a really good bass player, so I might just be able to get a little trio together to work some of it up. I know I’ll need to get practicing on it - it’s some challenging stuff. But I’m excited to just give it a shot.

too much new music?

I didn’t think it would ever be possible, but at the moment, I feel like I have too much new music to handle.

Within the past week, I have accumulated six new CDs:

  • A fabulous mix CD from Susan as part of the RMFO Mix CD Circle.
  • A pretty darn good mix CD from Chris in Houston from the previous RMFO Mix CD Circle. It’s a little bit harder stuff than what I’d usually listen to, but there’s still some quite good stuff there.
  • In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing, the latest offering from Caedmon’s Call. I got the pre-release for worship leaders as I noted in my previous post. I’ve listened through it 3 or 4 times so far.
  • The Builder & The Architect, from Sandra McCracken
  • Beams of Heaven: Indelible Grace 4
  • Indigo Girls - I picked this up for three bucks at the used bookstore.

My excuse for the last two is that I’m looking for some good hymns to add to our repertoire at church. And the Caedmon’s disk was an unexpected freebie, so that’s not too bad. But I just feel like I don’t have the time to really dig in and give this music the time it deserves. I guess I’ll have to cut down on the CD buying for a while. (Did I say that?)