Big Announcement

7 days left…

8 days

Big announcement.  It’s coming…

what a weekend!

Easter and Good Friday planning, a Worship and Arts Vision time and a last minute fill in leading worship at Clovis Hills Saturday night had me worn out and seemingly frustrated by every little thing.  We were asked to lead worship at another church on Sunday morning and it turns out that was exactly what I needed. 

The group that I was playing with was awesome, everyone was in great spirits and just fun to be around, and I’ve got to tell you, this was one of the greatest worship experiences of my life. 

The church is small by our standards, only about 40 in the first service and 150 or so in the second, but man did they love to worship.  The church we were at has been through a lot in the last several months; they are transitioning and trying to find a new Pastor and after 50 years in existence are trying to stay relevant and impact the community.  It felt like they enjoyed our time together as much as we did.  They were singing, raising their hands and because of their energy and the size of the building I had a lot of freedom to step away from the microphone and let them go for it.  It was awesome! 

What is always especially great for me is to get to experience it with some really great friends that I’ve made here.  I realized how fun it is to play with the musicians and singers that we have here at Clovis Hills and how surprised I am that they have become such a big part of my life in a relatively short time.  I could share more about what happened at Sierra Heights, but I’ll let Dana tell you the story. 

 “Today I got up early and headed to Sierra Heights Baptist church to jam for the folks there. I have to say it was an incredibly moving experience for me. I have the awesome blessing of playing with some of the best musicians I’ve ever jammed with and today we played two services; one contemporary, and one a little laid back. Sierra is an older church. It’s been here for years and years and so the congregation is mostly older folks. But they seem to be trying to reach out to a younger generation and so they have one service that’s more rocking, and another that more traditional.

Now I am a rocker through and through. I’m listening to Metallica as I write this post. But honestly, today as I played the “traditional” service, I was blown away. We were playing at a lower volume and I was really holding back on the drums, but as we were playing, I could hear all these voices rising up, singing along with us… and there’s something about seeing folks in their 60’s & 70’s in thier sunday best singing out to God completely unhibited.

You know, we’re so uptight about how we look to other people and we’re so concerned with how our voices sound and so we hold back…. but here’s these older folks who could give a rat’s behind, just belting out songs in praise of our Lord. And I was just really moved by the beauty of thier voices and thier unabashed singing. Honestly It was all I could do to keep from crying like a baby behind the drum kit.

Later as I was reflecting on the day, it reminded me of church as a kid. I remember going to church and sitting there with all these really old people dressed in suits and dresses and just not understanding it at all. But I still remember my mom singing the hymns and how beautiful her voice sounded to me. I have no idea what that all means just yet, but it was just a great day of worship.” 

going electric?

I will be the first to admit that I am not the world’s greatest guitar player.  I get teased a lot around here because my capo is my best friend most of the time, though I contend that it is a legitimate tool and because of the quality of musicians around me, I don’t need to do much more than support a driving rhythm section.

That’s often times a little funky on the acoustic.  It’s hard to really lend any support to the low end with a relatively thin acoustic sound, so I’m looking into getting a new axe.  I like some of the hybrids that are available (that would allow me to go back and forth between electric and acoustic and would allow me to blend those sounds together a little bit).  Here are my top two choices.

Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II – It’s cheaper than the Gibson Les Paul, but is the same guitar and is a hybrid.

Taylor T-5 – Much more expensive, but a quality guitar that would more than do that job, and potentially sounds better on the acoustic setting.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Crazy week and the pounds are droppin’ like flies

The blog’s been a little slow this week.  We’re preparing for Easter, Good Friday, Recording a song, getting ready for the next couple of weeks, trying to get ready to play at a different church next Sunday and Jenn’s been sick.  Those are my excuses.  Sorry.

 Things should be pickin’ up though now, as I’m hammering through the last of this Easter/Good Friday stuff today. 

On another note, getting ready for the Race for the Cure in October is coming along nicely.  We weren’t able to get out running at all this week because Jenn’s been sick, but last week I dropped 5 pounds and this week (as of my unofficial weigh-in this morning; I was curious) I’ve dropped another 2.  So we’re cruising right along. 

Crazy busy this time of year and still so much I’d like to get done.  One thing at a time I suppose.

 In the words of Casahoun, Peace Out Hommies!

have you seen this?

A church in Tampa, FL is getting a lot of attention for a new series they’re doing.

My pastor just challenges me to pray more. bummer.

wogging

I got an email from Dana last week asking if I wanted to run in the Race for the Cure with him in October. I said yes.

Yesterday, Jenn and I started training. For many of you, you read the word “training” and you are immediately taken to a music montage from any of the 30 or so Rocky movies, where Sylvester Stallone is getting his rippled muscles into even better shape to fight an opponent who is always a better fighter and athlete, but who’s always evil so Rocky wins. That’s not what this is.

We went wogging yesterday. You might ask yourself what it means to wog, and I’ll tell you; it’s half walking, half jogging. I’ve got to say, I thought I would look like this:

Turns out, I wasn’t that bad. While my wogging mile time wasn’t great, it’s a start.

The goal is to drop several pounds, run a 5k in under 30 minutes and raise some money for a great cause.

We’re hoping to put a team together from the church too, so if you’re interested, let’s wog! Eventually, we will have to run.

long weekend

We had a good response to this weekend’s services. Even though, personally I wasn’t feeling all that comfortable with what we were doing musically, I got comments all three services that it really was great for people. Go figure. I suppose not having it “right” allowed us to get out of the way and let God do some cool things. Though don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy when God works through sets that are tight and done well.

Last night we hung out with Micah and Erica, and watched “No Reservations.” I’m not sure why the girls always get to pick the movies, because we always end up watching some romantic comedy, which is usually neither romantic, nor funny. It was fun either way, and now Jenn and I are going out for our quarterly shopping trip. We save monthly and then go and hit the town like we’re loaded.  Every three months is about all I can handle for big shopping trips, but it helps that I need some clothes big time.

I love three day weekends!

I’m going, going back, back to Chili’s, Chili’s

I know that at least a few of you got my Notorious B.I.G. reference there.

Tonight, Jenn and I celebrated Valentine’s Day. Our routine is to stay in on the actual day and celebrate the day after to avoid all of the hysteria, though since today is Friday, we got a little hysteria anyway.

We went and saw a Valentine’s movie, and since I’ve already seen the new Rambo movie, we settled on 27 dresses. Privately, I might say that it was enjoyable, cute and pretty funny, but publicly I am renouncing it as a pointless chick-flick and totally stupid (just don’t tell my wife).  After the flick, we went out for a late dinner.

We settled on Chili’s which was fairly weird. I worked at Chili’s in LA for 5 years this was the first time I’ve been (other than eating at one in a Chicago airport) since moving to Fresno.  It was a bit strange, mostly because all Chili’s are designed the same and have the same layout inside, so it felt like I was at my Chili’s in LA.  Also, it was weird because the food wasn’t as good as I remember.  This could be because I had to pay full price for it, which always makes it taste a little less satisfying.

For a moment I was brought back to all my fond memories of waiting tables and hanging out with co-workers, and thought to myself, “I wouldn’t mind working here again.”  Then I remember the long shifts with only 30 bucks to show for it;  The ditsy waitresses who cursed way too much and the inner struggle that comes from wanting to simultaneously be a Christian and punch a customer in the face.  I like my job.  I don’t go home smelling like beer and french fries (at least not every day).

All in all, it was a pretty nice V-Day. I got Jenn some balloons and brought her Starbucks at work yesterday, which I think sufficiently communicated how much she means to me (j/k). Yep, my Valentine is pretty special.  She’s fun to be around and, at the risk of being as mushy as the movie I saw tonight, she’s my best friend.  You can tell her I said that one.

Robbie Seay Band

I went to the grocery store a few years ago and bought several bags of grocieries.  Upon arriving to my apartment in San Dimas to unload, I was greeted by a tall, gangly fellow who offered to help.  That short walk to my apartment with bags of groceries sparked a conversation about faith, church and music and a friendship with Ryan Melling.

 Ryan now lives in Minnesota with his wife Corrinne and, aside from introducing Jenn and I to phase 10, he also introduced me to The Robbie Seay Band.  I borrowed some music and listened to this gravelly voiced Texan use words that I didn’t know existed (like resplendent) and rhyme them with words equally difficult to spell.  I was hooked.

In August, The Robbie Seay Band came out with a new album which is awesome.  Fewer big words, but music that just kind of grooves.  We’re doing some of their stuff here in the future, but these guys are definetely worth checking out.