Summer Wrap Up

Whew! The summer’s touring is over… several weeks out in the mid-west, more dates in the northeast followed by a few camps… I am exhausted! But, what a great summer…

Since my last update I had the chance to share the stage with Chris Lucas and Alathea in Maryland, lead worship for junior high youth in Pennsylvania, sing songs and tell stories to elementary and junior high campers in New York and perform several concerts all over! Now it is back home to catch up on office work, booking new dates and updating everything from websites to blogs! And we can’t forget the most wonderful day of the year… NY Schools start on September 4! Hallelujah!

Favorite memories for the summer… concert with the band in Liverpool to debut music from the new CD, the concert at River Valley Ranch with Chris Lucas and Alathea, breaking my cell phone at the YFC Camp in PA, and the whole week at Mission Meadows!

On stage at River Valley Ranch

Hello… are you in there?

With Chris Lucas and Alathea

Tearing it up with the band

Paul and Danny

the band

NFTR #5

Two more nights down… and great ones too! Tuesday night in Kansas City, KS at a Celebrate Recovery Meeting and Wednesday at an evening service in Festus, MO… I think the biggest joy of this trip is that all of the places I have played have been return gigs, places I have played before… and what has been so humbling is that people are excited to have me back and remember what I said and sang last time so they are excited about the new CD, about what is going on now…

Another nice thing is that this tour is the first sustained effort with a new set list incorporating the new CD… a few tweaks here and there, a few modifications and the new set list is really tightening up… thought you might like to have a view from behind the mic, these were taken right after my soundcheck in Festus…

From behind the mic…

pedals and setlist…

Notes From The Road #4

Halfway through the tour… 5 dates down and 5 to go… yesterday was fantastic, First Methodist in Denton TX in the morning and H2O Church in Ada, OK in the evening… the morning was a mix of traditional services and a jazz contemporary service and the evening was a concert held in a sanctuary decked out in current movie themes… each moment was wildly different from the others… that is what makes being a wandering minstrel so cool… getting to step in to peoples’ lives for a moment, getting to share your story and God’s grace and then move on with the memories firmly implanted… how cool is that?

H2O Church’s Sanctuary decked out like a movie…

Indiana Jones Running Away from the Boulder in the H2O Church

The Stage ar H2O Church

Notes From The Road #3

Welp, I discovered the one place that Verizon Wireless can’t ‘hear me now’… Ballinger, TX! But, other than that, last night was perfect! First of all, my GPS system worked like a champ… love this thing! Plus, it gives me someone to talk to while I drive… The event in Ballinger was held outside in a park, complete with hot dogs and watermelon. 3 choirs from local churches came and sang and then my bit…

It was a glorious 101 degrees and reminded me of a Texas picnic from 1989… on that night a girl told me I had three months to ask her to marry me… she was right!

GPS Rules

Winters UMC Choir opening the show

Yep, it WAS this hot…

Notes From The Road #2

Here I am in Dallas, TX… staying with my buddy Rex, bass player from the Watermark days (for you hardcore fans)… it was 20 years ago today, Watermark moved to Dallas to play… really… it WAS 20 years ago today… played tonight at White Rock Coffee… good show, saw some old friends who used to own another coffee house in the Dallas area that I have played in the past… playing coffee houses is sort of the ‘Christian bar circuit’… you play long sets, later in the evening and you are essentially background music… but the fun comes in having the freedom to do all sorts of things off the cuff, or pull out an old song, or a new one that you haven’t really rehearsed… or just make up a loop and jam it for awhile…

Broke down today and finally bought one of those portable GPS things… gotta be better for the environment than my printing off hundreds of pages of Mapquest directions every year… I will give it the crucial test tomorrow, let it lead me to Ballinger, TX for my next gig… so, Joe, if you are reading this… I should be there by 4, assuming this GPS gadget works!

White Rock Coffee!

Playing and Singing...

Notes From The Road #1

Day 3 of a two week tour… first night was in Grove City at East Main Presbyterian Church. What a great night! Got to spend time with several old friends and catch up, then play songs from the new CD for them! Monday it was on to Nashville. No gigs, but meetings and photos and such. Monday night I had the opportunity to attend a House Concert featuring John Standefer who was in town for the Chet Atkins Festival. John is a world class finger style player and definitely worth checking out… I picked up his instructional books and hope to learn a little of his style.

Day 3… more meetings, songwriting sessions for a couple of ALBIE Entertainment artists, and a photo shoot for Breedlove’s website… show casing the guitar I received back in March. Finally, I wasn’t able to be in Kansas City this past April for the KCCM Awards when I was fortunate enough to receive the award for Acoustic Rock Artist, so the folks at ALBIE presented it to me here.

Tomorrow? On to Texas!

With John Standefer

Breedlove!

KCCM Award!