How much would you pay?

Today, we ordered 2nd Wave shirts.  Though we won’t have them in time for Saturday’s gig, we will be taking pre-orders, so please give us a shout if you want one.

 

Speaking of which, 2nd Wave will be playing at 1pm this Saturday at Forsyth County’s Christmas in Central Park.

 

Then, on Dec. 4th, we’re throwing a Second Wave Christmas block party in Cumming called Christmas in the Cul-de-sac, the sequel to last year’s Concert in the Cul-de-sac.  We plan to have hot cocoa, hot dogs, and such.  There are also rumors of an opening band containing Second Wave parents.  More info forthcoming.

 

So, how should we price these shirts?  How much would you pay?

 

 

Coast to Coast

I’m pretty proud of my partner Dan for the high profile work he’s been getting in the music industry.  And I’m excited about the doors it could open for ONE Atlanta as we begin doing our own recording projects in the near future. To add to the previous post, here’s a couple more pics from Dan’s mixing trip to LA.

 

But I have a pretty good story to share about Dan, too, and it happened back East, right here in the ATL area just a few days ago.  

 

Here’s the account of what happened at Picasso in historic downtown Buford GA last weekend, according to Rudy Vaughn’s keyboardist Mike Hankins:  We were “sloshing through” the intro to Purple Rain… So Dan - completely cool - comes up and takes the mic - guest vocalist Sam Tesh was struggling with the words… So they are singing together… We get to the break and… Well - it was a little weak… So Dan turns around and says “(Dang)… The band doesn’t even know the song”… And sat back down… It was actually a light-hearted moment… We love Dan!”

 

 

 

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?

 

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?

 

 

Hola, Amigos.

ONE Atlanta’s Rudy Vaughn (who recently signed a recording agreement with ONE Atlanta Music’s new music brand), performed at Suwanee Town Center Park this past Saturday.  The event was the Amigos For Christ Music Festival.  

 

He told me all about it in an email: “This past Saturday gathered several hundred people from all around the community to bring up the issues of need for Nicaragua.  Basically, the goal was to raise money to help pipe water into an area of Nicaragua where people are unable to get any.  I teamed up with fellow songwriter Ansley Rushing and keyboardist Mike Hankins to kick off the first set of songs to be performed at the Suwanee Amphitheatre, and was followed by a very entertaining world touring family band known as Shae Laurel.  12Stone Church brought some rip roarin’ rock music as the day continued on, finishing their set with a rousing version of “Twist and Shout” which had the entire crowd doing the twist.  The night headlining bands were The Afters, and Caedmon’s Call, but the talk on everybody’s lips was the needs of people who are suffering and our responsibility to help them.”

 

 

“Ye, Souls who are bound unto Canaan…”

by Michael Johnston

 

“…come join in and help me to sing.”   What a great opening line for a song! I’ve heard it said before that one of the most remarkable things about being present when Sacred Harp is being sung is that you have this powerful music being created by strong passionate singers giving life and breath to rich, time-tested lyrics, but when each song is over there is an awkward silence. No applause. Not even congratulations given among the singers as a response in the absence of praise from an audience. That’s how last night’s pre-release party for Help Me To Sing started.

 

Packed into the back of Criminal Records in edgy Little Five Points, surrounded by new and used vinyl and a well curated collection of comics and graphic novels, the singers formed a hollow square as best they could. I couldn’t tell who said it as I was passing off the camera to veteran film maker Michael Ivester, but I heard someone call out a number and the hum began. After three songs, each one building with enthusiasm and adding to the tension in the room, those who came to listen and meet the artists who contributed to Help Me To Sing couldn’t help themselves and broke into applause. The singers, who were already smiling because they love it that much, were unaffected and seemed to deflect the praise back to The Sacred Harp - those who wrote it and the One who inspired it.

 

Tim Eriksen took the stage from there and appropriately paid homage to the understanding that the songs are best unchanged and sung by a seasoned group of singers. Nonetheless, Eriksen and the others performed live what they accomplished well on Help Me To Sing, the companion cd to the soundtrack of Awake My Soul with each artist’s performance followed by the original being sung from the book by the crowd turned performers. Tip of the hat to Matt Hinton for the time and effort involved in bringing his concept to reality on the album and in person. Help Me To Sing is uniquely a transcendent collection that is eclectic in sound and style yet grounded with a firm respect for the singular tradition of The Sacred Harp. If the in-store performance at Criminal Records is any indication, many more souls who are bound unto Canaan are responding to the call to come join in.

 

 

Links to previous ONE Atlanta posts about Sacred Harp and Awake My Soul:

Awake My Soul Pre-Release Party, posted 9.13.08

#376, posted 7.18.08

 

 

 

Jax Beach

So, Rudy Vaughn and I are here in Jacksonviille FL where we’ll be playing and singing at Access Church tomorrow morning. Our host for the day was Rudy’s cousin Andrea, whom we owe many thanks for our trek over to the beach. It’s the first time I’ve so much as sniffed the beach this year (and I got sand in my nose). Andrea and her boyfriend Vordet (I’ll bet I spelled that wrong) also took us to one of the restaurants he owns called Galangal and treated us to amazing Thai fusion; this place had major vibe and incredible food. Please treat yourself if you’re ever in the Jacksonville area.

I’ll report on how tomorrow goes.

 

 

I have road stories, too. (2 of 2)

by Moxie

 

So the second story goes like this…

 

My old band Sundry was playing at a festival in the Midwest called…yeah, right; I’m not saying any names. We played on Thursday, I think, and we were just hanging out until Saturday to see our friends Smalltown Poets and Third Day play. Well, the Poets finally arrived, and I wanted to say hello and help them get their stuff onto the stage.

 

But there was a problem. We were a “side stage band” with “side stage passes.” If you aren’t familiar, that means we don’t have main stage backstage passes! So I’m thinking, “Who cares?” I walk back there and hang out for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden the person running the festival came up and interupted the conversation I was having with Poets’ bass player Miguel. She said ” WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE!??” I said, “Helping The Poets load in.” She said, “YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO BE HERE!!” The entire time she was LETTING ME HAVE IT, Miguel was standing behind her making faces at me trying to get me to laugh. Well…he succeeded!

 

She WAS NOT happy and called Danny to say that Sundry would never play there again. Thanks, Miguel! However, before we left that night, Third Day was playing “Sky Falls Down,” and Mac invited me on stage to sing it with them. I didn’t go on from the back; I went on from the front! LOL! So I made it onto Main Stage after all!!! I have the picture to prove it! (Can’t find it right now, or I’d post it.)

 

Thanks for reading.  Hope to see you soon whoever you are.  

 

Mox

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