Thursday, May 17, 2018

My Intro to the Story

Recall that I had talked about my dream and the story that came from it?
Well, this is the first song. It is a rehash of an old song I wrote back in the 90's called "Desert Presence." I changed up some chords and lyrics and have what I would call a sonic description of an impending storm. I renamed it "Desert Prescience" because the lyrics sing of sensing and shadows of forthcoming events. Enthralled? I hope so.

There must be something that keeps me facing toward the wind.
There must be something; a shape in the clouds in the sky.
I close my eyes, but continue to see
All the things, all the places, all of the times.

There must be something, a distant thundering from the edge.
There must be something; a thing that cries in the night.
I only see, but never, never have been,
What I see when I look into your eyes.

Monday, May 14, 2018

A New Chapter - First UMC Rolla

     So, I'm sitting at my desk on a regular work day, doing my "real job," and my old boss comes in to chat. He's retired from the position and is back on a consultant basis. We don't have much to chat about; we never really have done much chatting except things outside of work. That boils down to the weather, golf, mowing the lawn, etc. So we finish our chat and he turns and leaves. I turn back to my computer and he pops back in and says "Hey, they're looking for a worship leader at my church. First United Methodist. I forgot to tell you." Well, at first I was like, "Wha-a-a-t?" You almost just forgot! But then I calmed down and thanked him for the info.

Okay, I am not a story-teller.I tried, and now I quit. It's not fun for me. Sorry.

--I got the job-- 





I'm the Praise Worship Leader at the First UMC Rolla Church, leading the Contemporary Service which starts at 11AM on Sundays.




So, to wind it all up:



You know when you are walking through the right doors, because the enemy will try his hardest to botch it all up. he tried, and is failing because I am a Child of God. Nuf sed.

So, I've got my first Sunday done, and I am so happy!




More to come, I guess....if it's fun.






Monday, February 20, 2017

SinnerSaved Is Still Alive

Once a month I get the chance to lead worship at the Salem United Methodist Church in Salem, MO. It is a great blessing to me and my band-mates. I love the hearts of Pastor Doug and his First Lady Carol Walter. Pastor Doug's message this Sunday was about Jesus' commandment to Love One Another. Easy, right?

SinnerSaved is me and my worship band, no matter what.

Beth Abner playing the grand and singing "Come Alive." 
My grandson Cameron Cummins, playing my awesome Toca djembe.

Plying the trade.


Monday, January 23, 2017

Doing It!

January 1st is a special time for me. I DO make resolutions. You can call them mile-posts, wake-up calls, whipping posts, whatever. This January I re-focused and determined that if I were ever to get recording done, I need to DO IT.
I need to DO IT COMFORTABLY! So I bought a new recording desk, big ol' monitor and a comfy chair so I can dig it without suffering! Duh!
Here's my rig now.

So...I got two songs recorded! Yay me!

I am all over the board when it comes to music genres. I just can't stick to just one. That's may be my downfall, but it's what comes out of me. Take for instance this song; "Good 2 Me" which began as a song playing in my dreams. Probably 2, 3, 4 a.m. or so and this song is playing in my head. I get up and grab my phone, walk down the hallway, so as to not wake up Suzie, and half-whisper/sing this song into it. "You are good to me, wo-oh. La-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaah You are good to me wo-oh..."

A few days later I put together some lyrics into one of my song books and play with it, over and over and over. I can't get it finished. I'm not satisfied with the chord structure, so it sits there. Now, last week I pull it out and start laying down tracks, getting the chords right, and writing the rest of the lyrics. Here it is. Genius? Hokey? Rockin'? All I can say is I like what I did. Suzie wants a re-write to change the genre to something less "Archies." Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Your Will Be Done

Abba Father, please watch over me...

This song was written years ago. I used to play this live with the San Diego SinnerSaved. It is going to be song three of my concept musical , somewhere after Desert Presence. It is simple and complex at the same time. And now, it is going to be recorded and added to the next compilation from Greentree Christian Church.

Callout

About a month or so ago, Nathan Hall, (our Worship Leader at Greentree) asked members of the music ministry to submit songs and song ideas for consideration to be included the album. I looked through the listing of songs I had recorded enough to be a demo, and pulled out "Your Will Be Done." My reasoning for this song is that it is different, and it is a prayer, and the arrangement is complete.

Scenario
Let me set the scene for you: Reverend Philip Vessel has just walked into the sanctuary, and has found the baptismal font, the centerpiece of the apse, in ruins. The font is broken, water-less and unusable. The poor minister is distraught knowing that the font is his key to leaving this poor, hopeless and seemingly God-forsaken church. Without it, he is bound to serve, and bound to stay in this drought-stricken dust-bowl of a town. He prays...

Here I am in San Diego playing "Your Will Be Done" with Lisa Hoyman on keys, Jean Perrault on bass and Frank Merlich on drums.



This is a song about prayers being answered with "not yet" or "no." This is a song about faith and trust in an Almighty God, who is a provider and comforter in all ways and means. This is a song about obedience and submission; being microscopically less than God. As with many disappointments we experience, it sets the scene for a wonderful redemption.

All Glory to God! All Glory to Jesus!
Amen




Thursday, May 12, 2016

Desert Presence. I'm ready to get started.

Desert Presence

I'm ready to get this started.

Last night I sat in front of my laptop, hooked up my Scarlett 2i2 and launched Sony Acid Pro.



I get nervous for some reason as I start recording....I don't know what it is, but I recognized it last night and will be working on enjoying the process. Go figure, right?

This is the first time I have started building a song with two time signatures.

I was apprehensive at first, but then relieved that:

  • The application Help file is so helpful and easy to search.
  • The software makes it very easy to change time signatures.

So the song starts out in 7/4, just to make it interesting and set the mood.

After that we are going to 4/4 to make it interesting too.

The key? what else? E-freakin'-minor. Ha Ha


Like some of my recent songs, this is a distillation of an older song. Desert Presence was written in the 90's when Nick Phares and Cristine Nostrand and I were together as "The Kensingers," an acoustic vocal group in San Diego very much like Trilogy. It was written in 6/8, and was pretty straight Em,D, C with a flamenco kind of feel. It still is a good song, but I wanted to twist it a bit to make it more sinister. Em, Em7, Em69. Two tense notes waiting for resolution into a minor. Pretty tasty and fun to write with.


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Interview - Upstage with Caitlin Johnson

A few months ago I ran into a friend of mine, Brad Hayes, who was hanging out watching the Mojo Bros (John Pratt and I) over at Ricky Bobby's on Pine St. As we were talking, he mentioned that he would like to interview us using an up and coming TV local personality, Caitlin Johnson. Well, we missed each other here and there, and with scheduling as it is, I ended up doing the interview solo. So, here it is in three parts!


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3