Busy but great weekend

We had a very busy but great weekend.  Friday I played for an event at the University of SC in Columbia.  It was for a resident appreciation event for the Woodlands complex, off campus.  Man to have lived in a place like this while going to college.  It was so first rate... huge with all the amenities one could ever hope for. I had a great time playing for these folks and made lots of new, young, friends.

Saturday was the official trick or treating day and I was off... kinda.  :-) I spent a big portion of the day choosing and preparing songs for my portion of the day at Celebration Church on Sunday. Carrie and Jeanna came over Saturday night for hot chocolate and marshmallows roasted over the fire...  then more practice for Sunday.

Those of you that have seen me know my setup for one person is huge... a lot to carry in and a lot to drag around... so I'm always looking to downsize when I can.  Lately I've been doing a lot of reading on old Cigar Box stomp boxes and guitars... and decided late Saturday that making one would be pretty easy and it might be an alternative for smaller gigs instead of carrying my boxdrum and snare setup.  So after Carrie and Jeanna left I started experimenting with ways to do this.  I ended up with a cigar box setup that worked well.  It had one of my kick drum mics inside and sounded great.  For the snare I ended up using a small tambourine on a kick pedal stand.  All in all, I thought a great setup for smaller places.  It all fit in one, rather big, rolling bag I have so I was happy.

Sunday morning started early, especially since I stayed up to 2:00am practicing and tweaking the cigar box.  setup.  My setup time was at 7:30, yes in the morning and my sound check for the 9:30 event was at 8:30.  I was one of 5 folks from our church providing music entertainment while over 300 volunteers were being honored with breakfast.  I love being able to use my music in church and quickly said yes when my friend and worship leader John Lewis called me.  I the last one to perform and I wasn't sure how everyone would react to my brand of music.  John had been clear that he wanted me to do "my stuff" and not water it down so my song list included 2 Paul Thorn songs and one of my new songs.  I started out with I'm Still Here by Paul Thorn.  They all started clapping along and were hooked.  I thought, cool... this is going to be great.  Then I played one of my new contemporary Christian worship songs, We  Do Not Deserve Your Love.  Compared to the 1st song it was very intimate and the Godin sounded like a dream.  The place was whisper quiet and again I thought... cool, well received.  Then I ended with Paul Thorn's Mission Temple Fireworks Stand... a song about a man that quits a big church to run a tent revival and fireworks stand on the side of the road.  I love the song and the place went wild.  The music at our church is very upbeat and non-traditional, but this one pushed the envelope and I was afraid it might push it too far... but no, it was great.  For me it's always great to give back and be a part of the music at our church.  By the way, if you're in Wilkes county, be sure to visit with us sometime.  If you like my music, then I think you'll fit right in with us there.

So back to the cigar box.  I think I'm going to stick with the box drum and snare.  Old dog... new tricks I guess but I missed it yesterday.