Heat thunder callin’ on a summer’s evening
I was six years old
Went to my window and all I could feel
Was curiosity for your world

Mid-autumn currents are around him flowin’
growin’ older now
His heart is simple, his eyes are twinkles
And he knows who gave this gift

Yeh, I am getting excited about teaching a 10-week Sunday School class to the high school / young adults.

I am hoping to brainwash them. Eph. 4:22-24

The topic is “Don’t Waste Your Life”. Loosely based on the book by John Piper, we are going to be looking at how to redeem the time we have here on this earth and make it really count. I was emotionally stirred in this vein during my lunch break today when I cracked open “More Miracles We Have Seen” by our friends Jack & Winona Terry. The first few chapters highlighted some of my peers and work they have done in concert with the Terrys that has already borne much fruit. Wow, hallelujah!

From the dontwasteyourlife.com website tonight - Trip Lee interviewed on current culture and the distracting influences we are dealing with. As a bonus, for those of you who are loving the Holy Hip Hop scene, the Jesus Muzic vid from Lecrae and Trip Lee is appended to the interview. Okay, peace and grace to you through Jesus Christ. - KC

So, to me, music is like romance - I haven’t figured out what makes it so appealing, it just IS.

Here are a few of my musical highlights from 2008 journal:

Kory, Philip, Joe and I went to the Music Mill for a performance by Monte Montgomery. Wowee zowee! I was almost ashamed that the turnout (~ 150 people) was so low. Monte is perhaps the most skilled guitarist I have witnessed in person. There are some talented guitarists out there, but what Monte does during his live performances puts him in his own league. The only other live, acoustical guitarist that I can compare him to is Phil Keaggy (1, 2, 3). In fact, that’s a pretty good comparison - both of them have fairly lackluster recording albums, yet have amazing live shows. This was my second time to see Monte. In the past, he stayed fairly local to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I am hoping that he will break onto the national scene in a big way soon!

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Art * Music * Justice Tour
Adam alerted me of this tour. It features Sara Groves, Derek Webb, Brandon Heath, Charlie Peacock, and Sandra McCracken. With the exception of Miss Sandra (who I am not familiar with), I would go to see any one of these artists individually. However, to get them altogether - bonus!

Talk about bonus - the concert is also a benefit for IJM

With dates running from Sept 19th through October 26th (concert listing below), the tour is a unique concert opportunity to “add to the beauty, seek justice and give God praise”, desiring to further educate the church on God’s heart for justice, gain advocates for the oppressed, and show evidence of a God at work in this world. Each evening will bring inspired music and stories of God’s people in action and their heroic experiences across the globe. Incredible stories of rescue from the International Justice Mission will be told, while giving audience members the opportunity to be involved in Groves ‘adopted’ village in Rwanda thru Food for the Hungry.

The concert was a real treat, especially since I was able to travel to it, road-trip style, with some great friends.

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June 27: Review of Jon Foreman’s Spring/Summer
I am so excited! I am sitting here listening to the new Jon Foreman release: Spring and Summer EPs. I had a dickens of a time tracking down a physical copy; although it was officially released on the 24′th, I couldn’t find it in a store until yesterday. So, I ended up paying the list price to have it right away.

Review
My first impression is slight disappointment. Perhaps I had undue expectations because of the outstanding Fall/Winter album, but it seems that Spring/Summer possesses in diminished quality all the elements which made Fall/Winter spectacular. I’m not complaining, mind you, about the new album – it is good. It’s just not one of the albums that I’ll play every single song… and then put the album on repeat.

Music = simple, elegant, and melodic.
Words = parables, precise, powerful.

“Your Love Is Strong”
Paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer. I love how he goes emo at the end!

“Deep In Your Eyes”
Exhortation of hope to his love. Encouraging her to continue to reach for her dreams - of who she truly is.

“The House of God Forever”
Rendition of Psalm 23. Simple song; the same verse repeated twice (I could listen to it for at least five more repeats). I really like the insertion of a female’s voice for the second verse, and beautiful duet harmony.

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Jon Foreman and Sean Watkins (of Nickel Creek)
They have teamed up for fun, collaborating in their spare time between their times of surfing together, to create an EP. Although I love both of these guys’ music, I haven’t been holding my breathe for this album because they have been talking about it for a couple of years now. In fact, I first heard of the collaboration when the duo went by the name “The Real SeanJon” - hoping that Sean “Diddy” Combs would sue them. Now, they are going by “Fiction Family” and they finally have a website up.

Check out Fiction Family. They’ll be in Indy on Jan. 17 of next year, so I hope to scrape some cash together for the concert!

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Lecrae’s new album “Rebel” came out 9.30.08. I downloaded it on iTunes and was not disappointed. Lecrae follows in the vein of SFC in packing as much gospel message as possible into each track. Yow! What a gift.

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While Nathan Thomack was in town over the summer, I took him out to White River for the Umphree/STS9 show. I don’t think he had ever been to a jam-band concert, but he took to it like a fish to water - we had him dancin’ like a hippie with us. On that note, I love the way my brother Kevin dances. He gets me excited even when I tire… buster-roozy.

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Dec. 17:
I’ve taken great enjoyment in playing my guitar lately. I think it’s because I haven’t led praise & worship for my church fellowship lately. Does that sound weird? Well, anyway, I am learning some songs of Bob Dylan and of Rich Mullins. Also, I’m trying to learn better flat-picking technique. I am looking forward to playing some music with Uncle Mike while he’s in town.

Adam Bryan alerted me of this one:

Phil Wickham has made his latest release available for free download at http://philwickham.com/singalong/

I’m downloading it right now, so I haven’t reviewed it yet but I am sure it will be great!

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Update: I downloaded it.  Phil gave us permission to make copies and redistribute the music (thank you, Phil) so I’ve included the zipped file on my server for those who are interested in the music but don’t necessarily want to sign up to Phil’s mailing list. [Right-click and ‘Save as…’] this!

I have really enjoyed online Pandora Radio. For a free service (or at least very cheap), it has provided a very respectable product: ad-free, personalized, on-demand music channels - exactly what I am looking for.

But it looks like its days may be numbered. The issue comes down to the fact that the recording industry doesn’t feel that they are being fairly compensated for the artists’ music. I’m all for fairly compensating artists. Now, whether or not it’s fair for an oligarchy to pay a select few hand-picked performers millions of dollars while systematically limiting the not-pretty-enough artists to can-i-pay-my-rent wages - well, that’s another question entirely!

You can research the main scoop and the major players here.

My opinion as a consumer, which apparently doesn’t matter, is that I WOULD like to fairly compensate the artists AND the online providers. I’ll volunteer to pay the 2.6 cents per hour royalty charge that SoundExchange is clamoring for. But, and it’s a firm BUT, I want that 2.6 cents to be evenly divided between the artists who’s songs I listened to (and if I skip it or give it a thumbs down it doesn’t count). Are we all clear?!!