Gas Shortages in Atlanta

OK, this whole Gas Shortage thing is crazy. Station after station has NO gas, and when they do, the lines are ridiculous!

I passed this Chevron on the way to take Ella to school today just as they received a shipment. So after dropping her off, I hightailed it back – and within that 10 minutes, this is what happened…

Mind you – this is 5 miles from any type of large highway or Interstate, so this is all local, quasi-rural traffic:

Lined up from THIS street:

And THAT street:

Yep, out on THAT street, too:

Oh, and zoom in and check the price for unleaded: $4.29.

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AAA says it should be back to normal in 3 WEEKS.

Ummm, alrighty then….

Sunday Summary – Music: September 28, 2008

Middle of the Road.

Certainly not bad in any way. Yet not really anything to write home about.

That was yesterday – at least for me.

Yeah, I was playing – which is usually a real charge – but I think I know why I was kinda ho-hum about it:

First of all, we didn’t do any specials (opener or closer), which can make a Sunday a lot more interesting.

But the biggest culprit, for me, at least, was PARTS.

Some songs lend themselves to great, naturally flowing parts – meaning what you play and when. They fall under the fingers with ease, and quickly become second nature. And that allows your conscious mind to focus more on worshipping God than worrying about what to play.

Unfortunately, not all songs are like that – and it differs from instrument to instrument! What is great and natural for, say, the rhythm guitarist might be a nightmare for the bassist. Again, each song is different.

So yesterday, while the rest of the band chugged merrily along, I was in “parts stress land”. Songs that other people love were causing me frustration. Again, not because I couldn’t play them, but that they just didn’t, how should I put it – “flow” from the subconscious.

I know that sound weird, especially if you’re not a musician. But trust me – think of something that’s part of your job that is easy and comes natural, then think of something that isn’t natural and that you really have to spend energy and brainpower on. Yeah, that was me for 2 of yesterday’s 3 songs.

Don’t get me wrong – they’re not hard tunes. It’s just the subtle things that no one else would notice – but we as players do…

BUT…. Todd and Kristian did do a great job leading the people, so kudos to them!

WORSHIP:

Beautiful One (culprit #1)

Let Me Sing (NOT a culprit – one of my faves!)

Son of God (culprit #2)

East Band – Todd Fields, Danny Grady, Karyn List, Pat Malone, Ashley Appling, Me

West Band – Kristian Stanfill, Alex Nifong, Matt Melton, Joe Thibodeau, Brad Gage, Jared Hamilton, Chrystina Fincher

And now, everyone’s favorite segment: Candid shots from stage during the Welcome (being fed from the other auditorium)

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What causes YOU to use too much brainpower on stage?

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Night of Worship – Summary

I’m tired!

Or rather, pleasantly exhausted. Last night’s Night of Worship was great! And certainly one of those events that left you wanting more – almost always a good thing. And in this case it was.

We’d all rather hear folks saying “I’d love it if they did, like, 2 more songs!” instead of “Oh Lord! When will this be over?!?!”

We’d gained a bit of a reputation of ignoring the clock in the past on these special nights, which isn’t always respectful of folks’ time, especially on a weeknight. So our goal last night was 90 minutes.

Well, we started 2 minutes early at 7:28, cut 3 songs from our set list on the fly, and ended at 9:01. That’s 93 minutes. Brilliant!

The biggest “compliment” was the changed up mood, or “vibe” if you will…. No risers, scaled down drum set, lots of live percussion, mostly acoustic guitars with some patented Matt Adkins tastiness on his Gretch hollow body, and I just used a piano sound on one keyboard.

Kind of a “Coffee House on Steroids” feel…

So all that different instrumentation caused us to really have to get creative with the parts and how we played each tune – which was really cool! The forms of the songs were basically the same, but sonically they took on a whole new vibe. It was so great to be a part of a group of musicians that really understood what we were trying to accomplish and worked so seamlessly with each other to get there.

And big kudos to Dave Stagl and Chris Lawton at Front of House and Scott Long and Jonathan Hoover on monitors, and JJ Brummett for filling in all the gaps – thanks guys!

And more kudos to Randy Parker for the killer mood lighting and stage design – thanks for being flexible!

Worship Leaders:

Todd Fields

Eddie Kirkland

Steve Fee

Cori Moon

Electric Guitar – Matt Adkins

Bass – Pat Malone

Drums – Ashley Appling

Percussion: Elliott Moon

Piano – Me

Another rehearsal photo:

A few pics taken by Jennie from the audience:

Night of Worship 08 – Set List.pdf

Night of Worship 08 – Set List.pdf

Night of Worship tonight!

Hey Y’all – Night of Worship is tonight!

Hope you found some gasoline and can make it!!

Catalyst – T minus 15 days…

Alrighty, Funseekers – are you ready for this year’s Catalyst Conference ?

I hope you are!!!

But I’m not! We had a meeting today with Brad Lomenick , the guru of all things Catalyst, and I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next two weeks in my return role as keyboardist, music liaison and all-round musician wrangler. And – dude – I’ve got some work to do!

But I LOVE it!!

This will be my 5th year as a musician for the Catalyst Conference, and it is an absolute highlight of my year.

Whether or not you’re familiar with Catalyst, it’s worth checking out the highlight videos!

I hope to see you there!! Come by and say “hi”!