On Saturday, I spent the day at Capital City Contractors farm out in Western HO Co. We were invited to play for their annual fall festival. It is a great time they host for the Mount Airy Bible Church. There is a fishing tournament, a car show, horse rides, tons of cool games and activities for the whole family. We got there at about 9:30 am and set up the PA and all the gear. We started the first of 3 sets about 1 pm and finished up about 4:30.
We had a cool opportunity today. We were invited to play at a fall festival that was an outreach for Mount Airy Baptist Church. We played 3 sets on the back of two flatbed trailers. I don’t know how many people were there because it was so spread out. They had a car show, a fishing tournament, pony rides, a puppet show and lots of food. Here is a shot of us on the trailers-
I will post more pics later. I haven’t sorted them out yet.
Here are a couple of pics from the concert as promised. The lighting was bad for Monk and Neagle and also for Aaron Shust but for Mercy Me it was really good.
Enjoy
So, I didn’t get back to the update as soon as I thought I would. Never the less here it goes. This is part one of two as our camera is still in LeAnn’s car.
We drove over to Williamsport, MD to see Mercy Me, Aaron Shust, and Monk & Neagle. It took about 1 1/2 hours. The show started at 7 so we made our way in to find a seat. It was general admission so all seats were up for grabs. We had Gold Circle seats so we were up in the first 4 rows. Apparently, 30 minutes early was not enough to get a great location but we ended up in the 4th row about 20 yards left of center right in front of the speaker stacks. I kind of had second thoughts about this but they were the best seats that were left.
Monk and Neagle opened the show and played about 5 songs. This is the first time I had ever heard them so I do not know the names of their songs. I gotta say, these two guys are awesome. I can’t think of any two other male artists that I have heard that harmonize so well. Besides their giftedness as singers, they are awesome songwriters and very good guitarists as well. I was kind of concerned when they both showed up with the same guitars because I figured they wouldn’t really stand out from each other but Neagle played capo’d on everything and used different chord voicings from what Monk was playing. They ended their set with a song about a Soldier who was preparing to go off to war and giving his son some advice. As a vet who has been to war, I really appreciated this song. Props to Monk and Neagle!!!!!
Aaron Shust came out next. He really ran through his set. I think they played about 8 or 10 songs including the hits they have on the radio. It was a good set. Aaron is a very gifted musician. He plays multiple instruments and has a pretty good vocal range. I will probably try and pick up some of his music.
Mercy Me closed the show with a great set. If you have ever seen Mercy Me headline a show, you know what I am talking about. These guys really have a heart for God and are so transparent. They talk about the struggles they go through and also deliver words of conviction. If you get the chance to see this band live, you have to do it.
I will put a few pictures up later in the week when I get a chance.
Tonight LeAnn and I are off to Williamsport to see Mercy Me, Aaron Shust, and Monk & Neagle. I have been looking forward to this since I got the tickets. I found them online at work and they turned out to be Gold Circle so I think that is the first 4 rows. SWEET!!!!
I am really looking forward to hearing Monk & Neagle. I had never heard of them but I did some googleing and found nothing but excellent reviews. I will post an update sometime this weekend.
So I have noticed via the Stat counter, my post about the Gibson SG gets the most hits. 77 views a couple of days ago! Why are you waiting? Go out and buy one this minute. I really love mine. It is so comfortable to play and it sounds awesome. I play mine through Marshal DSL 50 watt combo. I would like to play it through a half or full stack or a Soldano SLO100. I really love the sound Soldano. I just can’t afford one and none of my buds have one either. Maybe Warren Haynes will read this and give me one of his…(wishfull thinking there) He is actually the only person I have heard play through one. He generally plays a Les Paul through his. You can find out more about Warren here or his band Gov’t Mule here. Here is one more look at the model of SG that I have.
So, today @ church Bruce spoke about Joshua. It was a good message about being consistent. Drawing a line in the sand and either following God or not. Main point being “Don’t dabble” You can’t play both sides of the line. How easy is it for us to blend into our surroundings when we leave the walls of our church? I have been guilty of that many times. I have been working on that aspect of my life for several years and have been having many successes. I still get caught up every once in a while but I am still in the fight. I haven’t run away. That was the other point during todays message. We all fail and until Christ returns, we will continue. When we fail, we need to have a community that will lift us up and show us God’s grace. So many times people screw up big time and never darken the door of another church because they are ashamed but also because many times the other people look at them funny or talk about them or anything else but showing them the love of Christ and pointing them back to the cross. At the end of the service, we had the opportunity to go to one of the back tables and write down on a rock something that we want to work on in our life and then take it home with us. It is something that we can keep in our pocket to remind us not to run away when we fail. It also was a point back to the message where Joshua used a big rock to serve as a reminder to the Hebrew people of their choice to follow God and forsake the idols of their past. I didn’t get to take a rock because we were playing Mountain of God while everyone was doing the rock thing. Even though I didn’t get a rock, I made my own commitment and I am starting fresh. It’s a new dawn……….
So….long time no blog. That is the story of my life. So, here is some catch up-
I played golf yesterday, it was the annual outing for the company I work for. I catually played ok. The other 3 guys on my team said that for it being my 2nd time(first was 1989) I did amazing. The cool thing was they were very gracious. I actually learned many good tips from listening and watching. I picked up about 75 yards on my drives from where I started the day.
I have been busy with the band at church. One of our leaders took some time off so John and I have picked up the folks from the other band and are rotating them through with our folks. It is a challenge scheduling everyone. Add in rearranging the message series to due to Pastor Esdras from the Dominican Republic coming to speak….I have redone the schedule 4 times. I really hope that God provides us with a new leader for the 2nd band soon. It is really nice to be able to have every other month off so we can be led in worship, and also have the time off to spend with our families.
Tuesday I become a College student. I went into the Air Force directly out of High School and due to the jobs I had keeping me on travel, I never took any classes. I have been out of the Air Force for 8 years now(19 years out of HS) and it is time to hit the books. My company is picking up the full tab so I can’t really put it off any more. I don’t want to live here forever so in order to get a good job where I don’t have any street cred, I have to have a degree. Wish me luck!
Enough about me. On to the title. This week, we are doing worship “in the round”. Basically, we will be arranging the chairs into some sort of a circle with John and I rounding it out. The message is about intimacy in prayer and so we want to create an intimate environment for worship. We usually are up on a stage but this week we will be down on the floor. Originally, I thought we would be the hole in the donut but due to the shape of our worship center, we couldn’t pull it off. I really think that it will be a great service. Last week’s service was amazing. The message was by Terry B. She did an awesome job. If you want to hear it, you can download it at http://www.cornerstone-d6.org/
All for now…
But isn’t it “Pain in the neck” you ask? Well, It is pain in the neck and back if you must know. The last few months it seems like my visits to the chiropractor have not been providing the relief they used to. I have actually been considering selling my Les Paul due to the pain it leaves me with when I play it. For those that don’t know, the Les Paul is a heavy guitar. It has a solid mahogany back with a maple top cap. Mine, being a Les Paul Standard also has ivoroid binding around the body and also the neck. I really love the guitar and it sounds awesome( Not as awesome as it could sound with a different person playing it…) It just kills my back every time I play it. You can see what it looks like here-
I borrowed a G&L ASAT semi hollow from a friend and I really liked the weight of it but as soon as I plugged it in, I realized why I love humbuckers so much. I also didn’t like the feel of the neck-
What I am going to look at next is the Gibson SG Standard-
I am leaning to Heritage Cherry (shown) or Tobacco Burst. The cool thing for me is that it is a good bit lighter than the Les Paul because it half as thick. This has an affect on the tone but I can definately work with it. This guitar was the backbone of all those AC/DC riffs for crying out loud. I think it will be crunchy enough. It is also the prefered axe of Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers band as well as the Derek Trucks band. He is an awesome player and he gets some amazing tones out of his SG’s.
I have a few places I can look for one, Guitar Center and Bill’s MusicHouse. I prefer Bill’s because it is “Not” guitar center and also, I know a guy there…hehehe. As I get closer to my decision I will post more on this……..
So here is the Guitar that I decided on. 2006 Gibson SG Standard. 490R and 498T Pickups. It sounds awesome.
I had to edit this post in order to get anything to show up. I seem to have blog infection and can’t make new posts. I need to get that figured out. I have some more posts for the can’t fix stupid file.
