Lots of gigs coming up...

I am so humbled to be a part of Linworth Baptist's music program. And Father's Day is going to be a special type of service. Bill Mowry and the men's ministry are assembling it and they asked if I would help with music. So we are going to do some familiar praise and worship music with a small band, but I am really getting stoked to work up Mercy Me's "Finally Home". It will tought to sing this with my Dad only being home with the Lord for only two years, but I really love the song and think it will touch a lot of people. Pray for me there!

Next, Farrel and I are doing the Powell Festival on June 25...this is a fun, outdoor amphitheater show in old town Powell, Ohio (Tim's residency). So we are expecting a lot of families on blankets, setting sun, and some acoustic guitars and harmony from Farrel & Stevenson.

Should be fun!

Granville rocks!

Wow did we have a blast Saturday playing the Harvest 2009 party in Granville. Farrel & Stevenson is having a ton of fun knocking the rust off of the vocal chords and guitar parts...it was kind of surprising how fast it all came back actually. But Hugh Price's bands are fantastic. His acoustic group Common Thread has some great musicians in it and they have some really fresh tunes and harmony parts. Andy Carlson is a really mean fiddle player! That group is going to make a great companion group to Farrel & Stevenson and we are working on a date at EYMC. The Embers were a good old fashion power classic rock band and they sounded fantastic, too. My small Taylor really cut through the mix nicely so I think I am going to use it heavily on our October 9 show at EYMC...see you there!

Espresso Yourself coming up!

So it has been way too long since Tim Farrel and I jammed and the time is here! We got together about two weeks ago and I have to say that it was kind of amazing that we picked up where we left off...the old songs came pouring out and we quickly realized that we needed to gig. You see we never practiced...I mean never...gigging was our practice. If we were going to learn a new song, one of us would learn it and the other would add their part. So now we have three gigs in three weeks. First, the coolest realtor in the country, Hugh Price, invited us to come out and jam at a fall festival in Granville, Ohio, and for a good cause. So we can't say no to that and we are going to collaborate on a song or two. Then Espresso Yourself in Powell, Ohio, on October 9 and then a Tappas bar in Powell, Ohio, on October 16. Fun cubed. Hope to see of you there.

Count down is on for the 16th...

I just dropped off my workhorse Taylor at J. Thomas Davis Guitars in Columbus.  Great shop.  Having a bone saddle put on her, slight neck adjustment, new strings...should be tip top for the May 16th show.  I really love this guitar and it deserved a little love!  We have the set pretty much put together as well and the band is sounding great - hope to see you there!

Concert!

I hope to see you guys out for our May 16th concert at Linworth Baptist Church.  It's a free show, and I've got some of my band put together for it - Brandon Montgomery on lead guitar, Jonathan Prenosil on bass, me doing my thing.  That night I am going to share some new music that I have written in the last few months and play most of the material from the "Faith, Family and Friends" CD as well.

Speaking of CD's, they are all going to $5.  I figure if Subway can do it, then so can I!

Now this is fun - Tim Farrel is going to join me for a few tunes!  We have not played together and in a long time and not sure how long it will be to the next time either.  But we are going to have some of our Farrer & Stevenson CD's there as well, again for $5, and there is a deal: two for $10!

So if you need directions, visit: www.linworthbaptist.org.

Show times will be either 7 or 7:30 that evening.  Hope to see you there!

New Music

So where does it come from? New ideas and new music...they are such gold to me and yet it seems that I do everything I can to prevent them from coming. I got the privilege of debuting a new song this Sunday and it went well. Musically it was new for me and Brandon and Keil did a nice job dressing it up for me. What an honor. But it is interesting that so many of my activities distract me from that still small voice that tells me what to do, where to go and what to say. Perhaps that is why busy is spelled the way it is...burdened under satan's yolk. The Holy Spirit wants to help us communicate and commune with God, but we drown him out with the noise of this life. Well, here is to caring, writing, dreaming, loving more and actually doing less.

My bluegrass roots are showing...

I had a blast playing in church Sunday. I dusted off an old hymn called "Brethren We Have Met to Worship" and did a little acoustic thing with it. I heard a killer arrangement to this song from Bard Millard's "Hymned Again" collection and couldn't resist taking a crack at. So I drug my band's guitartist, Brandon Montgomery in on it to do some rythymn work and we also recruited his wife, Libby for that classic alto harmony that makes bluegrass ring. Well, thank the Lord, we pulled it off and it was a real blessing to us. I grew up on Appalachian music so this stuff kind of falls out of me naturally, but I peppered in "I'll Fly Away" and an original arrangement of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Sweet By and By, and Old Rugged Cross" and it was a nice little set for our worship time at Linworth. I think we made some friends with the senior folks in our church who get a little tired of the contemporary stuff, and it was an honor to get to do it!