Look in My Eyes

On Saturday, I was privilaged to record "Look In My Eyes" for Mike Bauer. He and another Nashville artist penned the song, and felt my voice would be perfect for it. It was such a great experience, and I want to say thanks to Mike and Kata for giving me that opportunity. Also thank you Kristen for all the coaching and improvements! The song came out great, and when mixing/finalization is complete, I'll post it here and on my website.

The song was written for an independent movie, which is in production. The idea sounds cool, and I can't wait to see the movie. When complete, I'll also put a link here, so stay tuned!

Have a great week, and let me know about any of your projects!

Don't forget about the house concert on Sept 15!

Phenomenal Guitar Players

I was looking around myspace the other day, and came across this guitar player named Erik Mongrain.

He has this awesome way of playing the guitar. His song Percusienfa is here.

While there, check out Air Tap too! It is so cool.

Another great artist who is similar but different (does that make any sense?) is Rodney Branigan. Check him out too!

Leave a comment for any other great videos you have of unique guitar players!

Concert In Your Home

The new trend in concerts and live performance is House Concerts. Last year at the Americana Music Conference, house concerts were the topic of conversation.

The format is something like this. Everyone arrives at the house carrying a dish to share. The concert starts with about a 45 minute set. At the end of the set, there is a break, and everyone shares in the pot luck. This allows the artist and crowd to mingle, talk, and communicate. Then, the artist finishes the evening with another set, usually 45 minutes.

If the host decides to have 2 artists, they will split the evening with one taking the first, and the other the second. Sometimes, they will play together as well, which is a special treat!

During the evening, the host usually passes a bowl/jar/hat/anything to collect a suggested donation (usually $10-$15). This goes to the artist(s) to help with traveling/living costs. The artist also usually has CDs for sale as well.

For the audience members, this provides an opportunity to go out for a special evening with live music, dinner, friends, all without having to battle the "downtown" crowd, deal with smoky atmosphere (for those sensitive) , and poor sound. This is all for a "suggested" donation, which even at $15 each will save money over "going out on the town."

This new format is quickly growing, and becoming a favorite for all musicians, from veteran musicians to up-and-coming artists.

If you are interested in hosting or checking out more information you can click here or e-mail me. There are tons of resources on the web, so feel free to google House Concerts as well.

There will be a house concert on Sept. 15th here in Nashville TN. E-mail me for directions, and come check it all out.

Kim Richey

So about a month ago, I'm at work and Stef calls me and says...."if there was a someone coming in town for a concert, and it was in your top 3 of people to see of all time, would you want to go." So I'm like DEFINATELY!!! Long story short, she tells me it is Kim Richey, the best songwriter of ALL time! No joke. Check her out. Her craft and lyrics are phenomenal! No comparison. Tell me of someone else who has the ability to craft words in such a way. I bet you can't.
Anyway, we went to the concert at the Belcourt. Great intimate setting and it sounded AWESOME!!!
So after she gets a standing O for about 5 minutes, she comes back out to do an encore. I hollered out for her to do "Hello Old Friend." She didn't think she could remember it, but..did it anyway. SO GREAT! Didn't even mess up.

So, if that wasn't enough, she did about a 30 min encore finishing with a great rendition of "What a Wonderful World."
When we walk out the back of the theatre, she was standing there for a meet and greet. So, not only did I get to meet her

but she signed my guitar too!

Completely awesome.
Stef had her sign the CD covers, and she was gracious enough to sign one for a friend too. ("Mike, where the heck were you?")
Anyway, the best concert I have ever been to, and a completely wonderful evening!

Emmylou

This past week we went to a really AWESOME concert. The Franklin Factory is hosting a series called Wednesday Night Wags. It raises money for the humane society. About 2PM on the night of the concert, I got a call from my next door neighbor. She is big into the movie industry, and was doing some shoots down in the area. Her boss asked her if she would like to ask some friends to come to the concert for free. So enter the 2PM invitation. We didn't have anything planned, so off to the concert we went.

It was so good. Performing with Emmylou were three great musicians. They had some fantastic harmonies, and really put on a top-notch show.
After the concert, we stopped by Logans for a bite to eat. All in all it was a great evening! (even if we did forget the van at the mall) :-)

Singing Sunday

I spent my Sunday at Silver Springs Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet, TN. It was a nice church. I got there EARLY! (not really, but had to get up around 6AM) to lead two services. The first was at 8:30 AM and suprisingly was bigger than the second service at 11AM. However, both were good, and I had a great time leading them in worship (despite the allergy induced "cold" I have).

We rushed back home, stopping by the mall to check on our kiosk, and then had some lunch. We rested for a few minutes then headed off to FPU. We are currently going through the Dave Ramsey plan for getting out of debt. Praise the Lord we have paid off our first debt since beginning the plan!! :-) We are so excited. There is still a lot to go, but we are "baby steppin" our way through it.

Have a great week, and I'll try to post about my exciting day at ENCO tomorrow.

A Great Party!

Just wanted to write a quick note and thank Courtney and Daniel Rose for having us to thier house this evening. It was a great party. We had some awesome chicken tenders and squash and twiced baked potatoes. Then it was polished off with some smoothies topped with supposedly "light" cool whip. Either way it was SO good.
Thanks again guys...(I won't Mad Gab that to make you figure it out :-) )
More tomorrow on what's going on around here, but for now, I'm off to get rested up for tomorrow. I'm leading worship at Silver Springs Baptist Church in Mt Juliet. Stop by if you're in the area! I would love to worship with you!
Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Posters, (Am I Back in Jr. High?)

I was referred to this site: Posters by this guy and just had a ball. Here is my first (of hopefully not too many) submissions to the great inspirational catalogue.



Were you inspired? Let me know what you think!