Hair Care

My youngest daughter has developed the routine of coming up behind me when I am sitting in a chair and combing my hair. At first I thought she was just pampering me, but now I see she has a motive. She combs through my thick, dark locks in search of... it pains me to say - gray hairs. Our routine goes something like this:

Comb, comb, comb.
HER - "Oh, this one is definitely gray!" YANK!
ME - "Ouch!!!"
HER - "See dad, it's white as can be! Wait, I think I see another one..."

I'm not worried about getting gray. I'm concerned with losing too much blood from my scalp as the gray hairs get easier to find.

Wish I'd Written That

Every once in a while I come across a song that reminds me that songwriting is an art. Recently I've been hooked on a tune by Beth Nielsen Chapman and Matt Rollings called "Touch My Heart." It starts out...

There are songs I love that catch my breath
When the first chord starts to play
Effortless and true, it's funny but I knew
You would always touch my heart that way.

Couple that with a great melody and haunting track and you've got me. Check out the whole album "Beth Neilsen Chapman - Look". Great stuff! You go girl.

Under the Cover

It took all last week, but the graphics for our new CD are FINISHED and at the printer!!! I thought you might enjoy being first to see the new cover--->

Today we will be listening to the "hopefully" final mix of the songs before mastering. Everything is coming together for our June 21st release concert.

On The Radio

There is a radio station here in Kansas City that plays a lot of our music. I'm always hearing from folks (mainly my mom) that they heard us singing that morning. We are thrilled by the station's support (thanks guys!). Still, every time someone mentions hearing us I always feel a little guilty of false advertising. You see, the album they most often play songs from is a live recording of classic gospel music we did eleven years ago. My concern is, if people hear that album and come out to see us in concert, they will find...

1. We won't be doing any of those songs,
2. Our current sound is quite a bit different from back then, and
3. that CD is not even in print anymore.

I'm not complaining, I'm honored that people can still be ministered to by something we did so early in our career. I hope that folks will come out to see us live. I think we've improved a ton in the last ten years!

They're Singing Our Song

This weekend we had a really awesome experience. On Friday night we sang at a Mother/Daughter banquet for a downtown Kansas City church. We have been with these folks several times and just love them. They are like family to us! There were some people in attendance who had never heard our testimony so we decided to end the evening with Pam sharing about our wreck and God's miraculous healing, and close with singing her testimony song, "I Stand." There was such a warm spirit in the room, Pam got pretty emotional while sharing her testimony. When it was time for her to sing, all she could do was cry. She tried a couple of times, but nothing came out.

Then without prompting, everyone who had heard us before (most of the group) started singing Pam's part. It was such a God moment. We were there to minister to them, and they ended up ministering to us. What a blessing!

Gospel Hair

After our morning concert, we were to meet some friends for lunch. When we entered the restaurant, a waitress walked right up to me. She said there were some folks in the other room waiting for someone with "Gospel Music Hair" and that had to be me.

I'm still trying to figure out, should I be pleased or insulted?

Writing on Writing

While in the studio recently I stumbled on a great songwriting book called "Writing Better Lyrics." When I got back home, I surfed the internet to find a copy. While searching, I found many recommendations for another book called "Tunesmith" by Jimmy Webb. I found both books reasonably priced at Overstock.com so I slapped down my credit card and made the purchase. (Speaking of which, I miss those old credit card imprint machines. Remember when the cashier would put your card in the slot with a 3-part receipt and CHA-CHING with the big heavy roller. That really felt like you were purchasing something. Now it's just type in your numbers and hit the button. Of course, I've even heard some folks talk about using dollar bills and coins, but that was before my time.)

Now where was I? Oh yeah, the books. I had heard so much about the Jimmy Webb book, when they arrived I started with that one. I'm two chapters/35 pages into it, and so far all he has done is gripe about a variety of subjects. It looks like the good stuff is about to begin. I'll let you know my opinion when I finish.

I'm thinking about writing my own book on the subject. I think I'll call it, "How To Write Songs They'll Never Play On The Radio." Now there's a topic where I could use my vast experience.

It's Who You Know

I was listening to the mix of one of our new songs and thought, "Something is missing." Then it hit me, it needs mandolin. So I called Glenn, but Jeremiah answered so I talked to Susan and she said she'd call David. I told her to hold off for a minute and I called Mark to ask Wanda, but they are swamped so I told Susan to go ahead and call David. Then I called Kevin and he said, "You should call Wanda," which I told him I already had so he said he would call Dennis. A little bit later I got a text from Kevin saying Tammy would play the mandolin part. So I called Susan to tell her not to call David, but Kevin had already called and everything is set.

Who says I'm not in the loop?