worship team follow-up

So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went really well, too. Nice to be back in the groove. I did an Andrew Peterson song for the offertory: Faith to be Strong. I think it was well-received.

worship team stuff

We had our first WT practice in about a month on Wednesday night. It was good to get back to it. I don’t know what was up on Wednesday, whether I turned the monitors up higher than usual, or what, but we sounded really good vocally. Harmonies were tight. Everybody sounded nice and even and balanced. What a nice sound. I’m looking forward to Sunday… hopefully we accomplish something similar then. Hate to leave your best stuff on the bullpen mound in warmups. But the glory goes to God either way.

One of the good things that’s come out of my sickness over Christmas and my efforts to weed out my schedule has been several people coming forward to help out with leading the worship team. For much of the six years I’ve led the team, it’s been hard to line someone up for just the occasional Sunday I had to be gone. (Just a few times a year!) But things are changing. One woman who has attended for a long while and has led worship other places in the past wanted to start participating. So we got her involved. Now the gal who volunteered at a moment’s notice when I was sick back in December has indicated she’d like to be available to fill in from time to time. And then earlier this week our bass player (a phenomenal all-around musician) said he’d really like to lead some services and he could do that playing either the bass or the piano. Praise God for his supply!

I distributed a WT schedule for the next two months that includes me having one Sunday off each month and another Sunday where we are more informal and don’t have a WT. (That was the pastor’s idea, not mine… but I don’t mind it.) We’ll see how it plays out, but I think this is the start of some easing off of my WT load… and that will be very nice.

back into the swing of things

Today I’m back at work after 11 days of holiday. I was just about ready to come back… I can only spend so much time away from routines before it starts to drive me crazy.

So I’m sitting at work today, but with some Christmas gifts to entertain me; right now I’m listening to (and quite enjoying) Jamie Cullum’s new album Catching Tales. It’s a nice mix of jazz and pop, very listenable. I also have listened through Switchfoot’s new album Nothing Is Sound, though it was a bit of a pain getting it onto my iPod with the copy protection Sony put in place on the CD. (Quick solution: rip the files with CDex, then import them into iTunes.)

Finally, the last bit of fun for now: Becky IM’d me from home a little while ago to let me know that my copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0/Premiere Elements 2.0 came from Amazon today. Oh, the fun I will have photo and video editing…

Ben Shive, Harmony, and the Blood of Jesus

All the recent posts about the AP Christmas concert at the Ryman last weekend reminded me of one little amusing thing that I had heretofore failed to relate. It happened during the AP Christmas concert in Cedar Rapids a few weeks ago, which I have written several posts about already.

As AP and crew were coming back from intermission to start the second half of the concert, Andrew came up to the microphone with his guitar and led the audience in a verse of the hymn Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. He used the guitar only long enough to get everyone started on key, then he stopped playing. Ben Shive, keyboard guru to the stars and really nice guy, was still playing keyboards as we sang.

When we hit the chorus of the hymn (“O precious is the flow…”), Ben went to play some funky chord instead of the standard I (one) chord. Now, I can understand that… the hymn is pretty boring, harmonically. I, IV, V, that’s about it. It’s definitely ready for some spicing up. The problem for Ben was, there were 700 people singing along, and singing in full standard harmony. When he hit that chord, Andrew looked back at him with raised eyebrows as if to say “well, that’s not gonna work…” and Ben responded with an amused look of his own, and switched back to standard harmonization.

I realize at this point that I may be the only one ever to read this who would’ve been amused by this situation. But it’s my blog, so I can write about whatever amuses me. :-) So, word to Ben: keep up the funky harmonies, man. I would’ve (and have, many times) done the same thing. Or, next time, you can just let everybody sing a capella. :-)

Andy Gullahorn

Geof Morris once referred to him as “Andy ‘It’s really sad that the only thing that the only song of mine that the .net knows is that silly Roast Beef song I did’ Gullahorn”. And up until Saturday, that was pretty much all I knew of him.

(In case you’re wondering, Roast Beef is a silly song Andy wrote about Andy Osenga’s missing (amputated) toe. It is pretty funny.)

Last Saturday I had the privilege of meeting Andy Gullahorn when he came as part of the Behold the Lamb Christmas tour to Cedar Rapids. My first impressions were these:

  1. He’s tall. Almost as tall as me. That sounds like a funny observation, but compared to the other guys on the tour, who are mostly all short, Andy seems like a giant.
  2. He’s a heck of a guitar player.

Then I got to hear him in concert, and I discovered two more things:

  1. He’s really funny.
  2. He’s a heck of a songwriter, too.

The first song he did was a little piece of satire entitled Holy Flakes. It had the place laughing through the first two verses, and then suddenly quiet when the third verse revealed the moral of the story. I was thrilled. I can’t think of the last time I’ve heard a song so funny and yet so pointed at the same time. The second song he sang was Freedom. It’s a more serious piece, but a masterful bit of songwriting.

When the concert was over, I beat a quick path to the CD table, and purchased both of Andy’s CDs. (My purchasing choices were made a bit easier by the fact that I owned nearly every other CD they had for sale that night.) I don’t think I’ve listened to anything else since Saturday night. The songs are spare, not a lot of fancy production or instrumentation, but the lyrical content is right on. A song like Beginning of the End resonates with me in ways I find hard to describe.

Last Saturday provided me with many wonderful opportunities. But near the top of that list was the chance to become familiar with Andy Gullahorn. You may now count me as a big fan. Oh, and if you get the chance, go visit his website. You will see the humor shining through. :-)

So much to say...

So Saturday night was the Behold the Lamb concert in Cedar Rapids. As you know if you read my previous post, I was the runner for the day. And what a day it was. There are so many aspects I want to write about that they’d make for one absurdly long and multi-faceted blog post. So, I’ll try to split it up a bit.

Let’s start with the basics. I showed up at Kennedy HS about 10:15 Saturday morning to help unload. Pretty much all the gear had been carried in from the bus, but the sound guys were just starting to unload. There were a bunch of people to help unload, though, so it went relatively quickly.

My first run of the day was pretty simple; I took the bus driver (I think his name is Perry?) and Chris Biggs (the sound guy/road manager for the tour) over to the hotel to get everybody checked in. Then the next trip to the hotel was Andy and Jill (Phillips) Gullahorn. Then there was a trip with Andy Peterson, Andy Osenga, Garrett Buell, and Cason Cooley. Then there was a trip with Derek and Sandra (McCracken) Webb. Ben Shive was in there somewhere, too. OK, so I’m name-dropping out the wazoo here. It was just a treat to get to meet all of them and chat a bit.

Later on in the afternoon, as the snow started falling (we got 4 inches of snow that afternoon… fun times driving), I got to drive and go along with Andy P, Andy G, and Jill as they visited the woman who was the inspiration for AP’s song The Queen of Iowa. It was a powerful time. I’ll write a separate post later.

I thought that perhaps by the time we got to the actual concert, it would be anti-climactic. Boy was I wrong. The first half of the concert was time for solo songs. They sang:

Andy O - If I Had Wings, Early in the Morning Andy P - The Queen of Iowa, Let There Be Light Andy G - Holy Flakes, Freedom Derek - A New Law, Lover Jill - I feel horrible about this, but I can’t remember which songs she sang. One of ’em was “so new I haven’t learned the guitar part yet”, so Andy G played it for her. Sandra - Where I’m From, and I don’t remember the other one

During one of the car trips, Jill noted that one of the things she thought was so cool about this tour was hearing how even though they had many of the same musical influences, each of their songwriting styles is still distinct and plays out just a bit differently. That was quite clear at the concert, hearing these songs. I’ll write more about them later, too.

So let me wrap this post up. After the show was over, I helped load stuff up, picked up the bus driver from his day’s sleep at the hotel, and somewhere in there managed to get almost everybody to sign a concert poster which now hangs on my cube wall at work, right next to the Share the Well tour poster that I got signed at a concert last year. They will continue to bring back memories of great days and concerts.

ok, so I'm a little bit excited...

Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard about it months ago, and I’m still a bit in awe of the fact that Andrew Peterson, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Andrew Osenga, Jill Phillips, and some others will all be in concert on stage less than 3 miles from my house. (Only 1 block away from the previous place we lived!)

In addition to just going to the concert, I’ve volunteered to help out for the day. I’m showing up at 10 AM when the truck shows up, and then will be the “runner” for the day. This will include taking all the aforementioned musical types to their hotel, to the house where they’re eating dinner, etc. I think it’ll be pretty cool.

I’m also looking forward to just getting to meet some of them; I’ve met the Andys before (Peterson and Osenga), but haven’t met Derek or Sandra. I hope it’ll be as cool as I think it will be…. if not, at least I’ll get to see the concert, and that’ll be great in itself. I’ll try to post some pictures or something next week.

So I call you my country, and I'll be lonely for my home

And the coal trucks come a-runnin’
With their bellies full of coal
And their big wheels a-hummin’
Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman
Who hid the spies who were lookin’
For the land of the milk and the honey

And this road she is a woman
She was made from a rib
Cut from the sides of these mountains
Oh these great sleeping Adams
Who are lonely even here in paradise
Lonely for somebody to kiss them
and I’ll sing my song, and I’ll sing my song
In the land of my sojourn

And the lady in the harbor
She still holds her torch out
To those huddled masses who are
Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them
The immigrant’s children see their brightest dreams shattered

Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the
Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral
And they stoop in the silence
And there their prayers are still whispered
And I’ll sing their song, and I’ll sing their song
In the land of my sojourn

Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you’ll come to love it
And how you’ll never belong here
So I call you my country
And I’ll be lonely for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me

And down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley
All those drain pipes are drippin’ out the last Sons Of Thunder
While off in the distance the smoke stacks
Were belching back this city’s best answer

And the countryside was pocked
With all of those mail pouch posters
Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of
These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in
When the old world started dying
And the new world started coming on

And I’ll sing His song, and I’ll sing His song
In the land of my sojourn
“The Land of My Sojourn” Rich Mullins (c) 1993 - Edward Grant, Inc., 1993 - Kid Brothers of St. Frank Publishing

I was prompted by Kari’s piece the other day to revisit Rich Mullins’ A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band. I have long counted this as one of my favorite albums, but it tends to be one of my forgotten favorites; I don’t listen to it for a while, and then when I turn it on again, I wonder why I ever forgot about it.

I can’t pick a favorite song of of this album, but the song I quoted here is one of the best. Rich nails the feelings that I have about the land where I live with these lines:

Nobody tells you when you get born here How much you’ll come to love it And how you’ll never belong here So I call you my country And I’ll be lonely for my home And I wish that I could take you there with me

Not much else to say about it… but if you haven’t listened to this album for a while, get it back out. You won’t be disappointed.

The first time I've ever played a concert with somebody riding a cow in the background...

The guys in concertLast Saturday afternoon I got to see Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga in concert at “Cornfest” in Clermont, IA. Clermont is a little bitty farm town, and this “Cornfest” thing was pretty much a start-up festival, I think… they had some small Christian music acts going for most of the afternoon, and then their headliner was the aforementined Andys. I’ll note here that it’s a good thing that they booked those guys - probably 70% of the folks that were there for the concert came specifically to hear Andy P.

I felt kinda bad for the Andys that the concert was not very well attended - maybe 150 people, max. They had a large flat-bed trailer for a stage and had to battle bugs all afternoon - asian beetles, bees, other nasty things. Some lady shared some bug spray with them after about the third song and I think that helped things out a bit. And yes, there was somebody riding atop a Holstein cow in the background. Only in Iowa.

Technical difficultiesAnyhow, it was just three of them - the two Andys and then Ben Shive on keyboards. They did a two-hour set, with lots of stories and bad jokes in between. There were also impromptu versions of the Rawhide theme and an old Spin Doctors song (can’t remember the name…) I’m not familiar with Andy P’s music yet (an omission which I am hurriedly correcting) so I can’t give a song-by-song breakdown. Suffice to say that he did a few songs off of his new album, took several requests, and filled in with other favorites.

The show was marred by a few technical difficulties; Andy was complaining all afternoon that his guitar sounded funny in the monitor (it sounded fine to the audience) and so in the course of several songs they replaced the guitar cable, the direct box, the mic cable that connected the direct box to the board, and then both the 9-volt batteries in his guitar pre-amp. (Andy O had to steal 9-volts out of two of his guitar pedals to make this last fix happen.) The time required for these fixes gave time for Andy O to sing one of his songs (High School Band, so I wasn’t complaining about the other issues. :-)

Me and Andy OAfter the concert the three of them hung around and talked with folks until almost everyone had left. I was really wanting to meet Andy O (having missed him at the Caedmon’s concert last year), and was not disappointed - we talked for a while and had a good time. Ben and Andy P seemed like nice guys, too.

But the best was yet to come. There were a couple little kids who had a couple favorite Andy P songs that they wanted to hear and that he hadn’t done in concert. So, he grabbed his trusty Taylor and proceeded to take requests for another 45 minutes… just him singing and about 20 of us perched on the side of the hill listening. It was awesome. I kept thinking he was about ready to wrap up, but then he’d ask for any more requests, and somebody would ask for a song, and so he’d tell the story about the song, and then sing it… wow. After a while Ben and Andy O came and sacked out on the hill next to the rest of us, just enjoying the music and the beautiful afternoon.

the mini-setSo then towards the end of that “set”, Andy P sang a goofy little song he’d written for his daughter. I don’t know what it’s called, but the chorus has a line about her “one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten pretty little toes”. About halfway through the song Andy O got up and wandered off - I think he was going to pack some gear into his car. But it was too good not to comment on, so after the song was over I asked Andy P if he’d run Andy O off, made him feel inadequate by singing a song about somebody with ten toes. (For the reader unfamiliar with Andy O’s toe situation, see his blog here.) Andy P got a good chuckle out of that, then told the story about Andy O’s run-in with the lawnmower, and mentioned that it was the middle toe, “Roast Beef”, that was missing. So then I had to mention Andy Gullahorn’s song by that name, and so we tried to come up with the lines to that song… but between Andy P, Ben, and myself, we could only come up with the first few lines. It was still pretty funny.

Let me say here just last that I was also hugely blessed by my wife that afternoon; our daughter Laura was getting tired and antsy as only toddlers can. Becky was very gracious and willing to deal with her so that I could take advantage of the chance to enjoy the concert and meet the guys. Fortunately Laura fell asleep right before the acoustic mini-set, so she got to enjoy that time.

I could ramble on for quite a while, but I’ll spare you. Let’s just say I came away from last Saturday with a good sunburn, a heightened appreciation for my wife, and a real blessing from getting to meet one man who is my favorite artist right now, and another who is quickly climbing that list.

(Full-sized photos of the afternoon are available on my flickr page here.)

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. 2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries. 3. An instance of making such a discovery.

Practical definition:

Discovering a good concert near your home just a week before said concert.

Specifically? I was browsing Andrew Peterson’s website this morning to get details on his Christmas tour.

OK, just a bit about the Christmas tour first. Andy P will be bringing his “Behold the Lamb” Christmas tour to Cedar Rapids, IA on Saturday, December 2. It apparently is being hosted by Youth for Christ as a fundraiser. Seeing as I know the local director of YFC, I’m going to have to see if they need any volunteer help for the day. :-) Bonus number 1 this morning was finding out that Derek Webb, his wife Sandra McCracken, and Jill Phillips will all be coming along on this tour. (I suppose the die-hards already knew this, but it was news to me.) So, a big woohoo! for Andy, Derek, and Sandra all in concert in my home town.

Now, the other serendipity: Andy P will be playing a concert in Clermont, IA (about a 2-hour drive from my home) on October 1st (a week from Saturday). It looks like it’s an outdoor concert, 3pm, at the “Cornfest” (and yes, I know, that sounds about as stereotypically Iowan as possible) at Heritage Farm Park in Clermont. Sounds like a nice way to spend a fall Saturday: a drive through the countryside, a good concert, who can ask for better? I’d been wishing to hear some of the stuff from The Far Country in concert… now my wish can be fulfilled.

Well, that’s my happy report for the day. Rejoice with me! :-)