I have no words…

 

This left me speechless.  This is an audition tape made by the FBC (probably stands for First Baptist Church, but not First Baptist Atlanta) Senior Choir for a student talent competition; they are also known as the Funky Fresh Senior Choir.  But I haven’t been able to figure out where this church is or why they were entered in a student competition; the web address given in the video isn’t right.  I also can’t figure out…just…why.  But I’m glad they did it.  I needed a laugh.

 

 

 

Comments.  Please.

 

 

Part of the Plan.

 

My buddy Chad Jarnagin works with a great fellowship in Nashville called The People’s Church. I want to point you to this great entry on Chad’s blog, because it so lines up with the idea behind ONE Atlanta Music.

 

The core of guys who started this organization, this “brand” called ONE Atlanta, want to cultivate, encourage, and develop some of the young talent in this town that needs experienced hands guiding them. That’s not at all to brag on my experiences as an artist/agent/manager. But I will brag on guys like Dan Hannon, a guy who continues to get face time with major labels all over the place who are excited about the artists he’s developing and producing (several such discussions this past week). I’m proud to be affiliated with him, specifically in regard to those artists who will be working under our 1ATL moniker.

 

The first of those, in terms of us actually developing, producing and recording an artist under the ONE Atlanta brand is Rudy Vaughn. We hope there are many more.

 

Of course, there’s plenty more young talent out there that we’re getting to pour into, in different ways.  I love being one of the band dads helping with the development of Second Wave.  I love helping other young musicians and singers in different ways, from helping them find gigs to connecting them to other musicians.  I can only do so much of that, of course, but I’ve really been blessed this year to spend a lot of time “pouring into” different artists in different ways.  Again, I don’t mean to talk about myself as if I think I’m something great.  But there’s something very exciting about knowing you’re wired a certain way, and that God is asking you to use that wiring for Him, and then actually having opportunities to do it!

 

Are you doing what you’re passionate about?

 

 

Getting it right.

Here are a couple more pics from Dan’s mixing excursion to LA, as I’ve blogged about much in recent days. These are basically just shots of Manchester Orchestra listening back to mixes, mulling things over, deciding if they’re liking what they’re hearing. 

 

These particular pics remind me a lot of historic Ardent Studios in Memphis, where I spent many an hour back in the day with Smalltown Poets.  We’d roll into town to work on a few songs here or there and would stay in the old, dilapidated “band house” next to the studio.  It was rumored to be haunted.  Don’t know about that, but it was creepy.  

 

On a completely separate, but good, note - today I led worship at North Lanier Baptist Church here in Forsyth County. They’re some good peeps and I had a good time.  The Veteran’s Day tribute in the service was pretty cool.

 

There was a color guard there; veterans were honored according to their branch of service (complete with military theme songs), and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice were memorialized by a bugler playing taps. I love that stuff.  Happy Veterans Day.

 

 

The Logical Choice

I know not all 1ATL readers are music programmers/editors, but please humor me for a minute.  Just want to agree with so many of my contemporaries who are loving Logic Pro 8 for programming/recording music tracks.  Guys like JAMM and like Fee producer Jason Hoard.  I still prefer Pro Tools for editing real audio, especially vocals, but Logic is the stuff when it comes to MIDI tracks.

 

 

Below is a sample of some stuff I programmed using Logic 8, for a David Crowder song called Rain Down that we’re doing this Sunday at Buckhead Church. For those not familiar with what I’m talking about, these are auxiliary tracks that will be played from the computer as we do the song live, to enhance the musical worship experience.

 

Rain Down programming-audio sample

 

 

Oh, what a night.

Not sure where to even start.  Thursday’s night’s final Buckhead Music Project at Velvet Underground rocked.  Rudy Vaughn, James David Carter, and Jamie JAMM Portee all killed.

 

Rudy had a new bass player onstage with him, a good dude/good player named Wes Flowers, who plays for Butch Walker as well.  

 

(Sidenote: Butch Walker has a new record coming out and is playing at The Loft in Atlanta on November 10.  Read all about it here.  Many of you remember the Atlanta band he fronted, The Marvelous Three.  The other two-thirds of the Three (Jayce and Slug) are buddies of ours.  And my son is in the band Second Wave with bassist Holden Fincher; his dad is Jayce, Marvelous Three’s bassist.)

 

Rudy’s set ranged from Michael Jackson’s Beat It to original songs; also, for the first time, I saw Rudy play sax and he destroyed it - in a good way.  James David Carter was excellent, as usual.  Dude has insane falsetto.  JAMM and his band, complete with horns, capped the night off with some great funk/jazz/r&b fusion, or whatever they call it.  Chantae Cann joined him; she’s a background singer for India Arie and is an amazing, new voice on the Atlanta scene.  JAMM also brought both his wife Joni (also known as INOJ) and James David up on stage to do some guest vocals.  

 

Other friends of ONE Atlanta that were there: Michael Johnston of Smalltown Poets, a surprise attendance by original Smalltown Poets drummer Byron Goggin who lives in North Carolina, Moxie Davis with wife Clarissa, Big Snow (on turntables in between bands, doing his thang), Ryan Fitzgerald of theAMP, Casey Darnell, too many amazing musician friends to name, and a bunch of Buckhead Church staff - not the least of which is ‘Los Whittaker (thanks for the pics dude!)

 

 

Go.

 

To this.  Tomorrow night.  I am.  

 

Buckhead Music Project.

8pm at Velvet Underground/Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta.

 

ONE Atlanta’s first official recording artist, Rudy Vaughn, is now opening the night.  Our boys James David Carter and Jamie JAMM Portee are also doing their thing.  I will be there.   

Who’s with me?

 

2 new blogs.

Both Philip Bray and Drew Benton of Safehouse Outreach have started new blogs. ONE Atlanta is proud to be involved with Safehouse Outreach.  These are the kind of people you need to be getting to know in cyberspace, and in person for that matter! They always need volunteers.

 

Philip’s blog at the Safehouse site is here.

 

Drew’s blog is here.

 

What follows is a bit of what they’re all about, as told at the Safehouse website. 

 

You really should stay tuned to their blogs.  Some incredible stories flow out of Safehouse all the time.  It will be fun to have that online pipeline to great stories.

 

What does this have to do with music?  Well, ONE Atlanta has agreed to be one of the bands that regularly plays for weeknight worship services at Safehouse.  We’ve already done it once, as described here, and it was amazing!  Anyway, from their website…

 

Majesty

Have been somewhat removed from blogworld over these last few days.  Just returned from the Charlotte NC area, where I was doing some consulting work with the three campuses of Christ Church.  Great people up there.  Cindy and our youngest, Jett, went with me, and we had a great time.  I was trying to remain inconspicuous as I observed their environments so I really didn’t take any pictures.

 

Folks, I’m in Christmas mode already and I’m loving it.  I’ll be the band leader for Buckhead Church’s Married Life Live on Dec. 13th, and we’re already picking through songs, singers, charts, and the like.  

 

Apparently, I’m not the only one thinking Christmas.  Check out today’s post over at our buddy Casey Darnell’s blog. His Christmas song Majesty is really powerful.  Casey will be a part of Married Life Live as well, but at Northpoint’s Alpharetta campus.  Here’s hoping the song he blogs about makes it onto the program at both campuses.  Please check it out and drop him a line.

 

Who’s ready for Christmas?

Upcoming Waves.

Many of you have asked me when 2nd Wave will end their extended summer hiatus, and get back to gigging. Good news. They have a couple of concerts coming up that you won’t want to miss.  Of course, many of you will also be getting Facebooked with this info.

 

Wednesday Oct. 29th, Bridgeway Academy, Alpharetta GA, 6pm-8pm

The band will be doing a mix of mainstream cover songs, recognizable worship tunes, and original material.  

 

Saturday Nov. 22nd, Christmas in Central Park, Forsyth County GA 1pm

They’ll be mixing in some Christmas tunes for this indoor event.  And, of course, Santa himself will be there!

 

Who’s coming?

 

 

Catalyst

Spent a little time at the Catalyst Convention today at Gwinnett Arena.  Kudos to Brad Lomenick and his team for the great job putting all that together.  Brad has a good blog you should check out here.

 

Dan Hannon and I just had to stop in and see our boy Jamie JAMM Portee singing on the big stage.  He killed a John Legend song; that’s a compliment, of course.  His precious wife Joni was rocking a mic too.  There were so many friends there that I don’t get to see enough of, from fellow musicians and singers to my friend Ben that I actually got to know in China this summer.  (We were on separate mission trips that collided.) 

 

The green room was fun, as I got to hang briefly with Aaron Keyes, Kristian Stanfill, and Fee, who were all there with their bands. There was some other interesting personalities in there as well: Jeff Foxworthy, Franklin Graham (Billy’s son), Dave Ramsey (the financial guy), and my former boss Andy Stanley (to whom I simply offered a “Hey, Brother Stanley.” No one calls him that).   

 

I kept getting congratulations on the job Rudy Vaughn did on sax the previous day at Catalyst.  Rudy has recently signed a recording agreement with ONE Atlanta Music, our first official recording artist.  How weird is it that I’ve never heard him play sax? He’s apparently awesome. I know he’s one talented singer/songwriter.

 

Meeting and holding Candi P’s baby Elias made me cry.  Where’d that come from?  He was just so sweet and tiny.  

 

Oh, and it was also great finally meeting Jeff Moseley and James Rueger from INO Records face to face.   Fee is signed to that Nashville record label.

 

Sorry, but I wasn’t there long and didn’t actually see much of what happened on stage, other than a lifetime achievement award for Billy Graham, who wasn’t there in person.  Is anyone more deserving? His son Franklin is asking that anyone who has come to faith in Christ through hearing Billy speak go here to leave a note for Billy.

 

Must sleep now.  Big day tomorrow.  Tats for Tots 2.

 

Were you there?  Wish you had been?

 

 

Next Page »