Just found this on Rhapsody. Here's the track listing:
1. Open The Eyes Of My Heart - Diamond Rio

2. I Can Only Imagine - Emerson Drive
3. God Is In The House - Rebecca Lynn Howard

4. We All Bow Down - Ricky Scaggs

5. Awesome God - Charlie Daniels

6. Shout To The Lord - Linda Davis
7. Here I Am To Worship - Lenny LeBlanc
8. He Ain't The Leaving Kind - Rascall Flatts
9. Lord, I Am Yours - Not printed
10. Get Up In Jesus Name - Collin Raye
11. God Of Wonders - Bryan White
12. Amazing Love (You Are My King) - Rachel Robinson

13. Come Now Is The Time To Worship - Oak Ridge Boys
14. How Great Is Our God - Trinecia Butler

15. All For Love - Marty Raybon

16. Doxology - The Wilsons

Yes, I will listen through and give you an update. So...what do you think would be the most interesting track?

Special thanks to John Simmons for passing THIS my way. Take a minute or two and check it out.

Tuesday Tavin

22

BIOs

Thanks to Alex Burdine, I found this quote in a blog bio:

"These pages give you a glimpse of my nature. I am an admirer of truth, the environment, communication, compassion and chivalry. I am a poetess, keyboard player, bonsai grower, dreamer, dancer, candle maker, calligraphyist, origamist, story writer. I promote peace and I enjoy target shooting. I relish slow hikes in the mountains and fast drives in my Mustang. And still there's more. Drop me a line and see what's below the surface."

It was written by a girl named Lisa Shea. I haven't taken much time to look through the blog, but the bio has me thinking this might a really interesting site to explore.

So...what's YOUR bio?

The Emergency Gig

After moving for two days, a one-day retreat gig and Sunday morning worship, I could not wait to spend time with my family.

Today was fantastic, complete with a birthday party, a nap, "trunk or treat" at the church a visit to my parents and grandparets where Jonah and I had a massive wrestling match narrated by my father.

Jonah was Kid Crusher. My moniker for the match was Vanilla Thunder.

It was a close fight, but in the end, the 5-year old took the title.

Also, if you haven't been over to my wife's blog lately, she wrote what I believe is one of the most poignant blogs I've ever read in my life. In just a few paragraphs, she encapsulated what it means to be a family. So proud to call her mine!

A lot of you know John Sherrill...he's an anointed writer, pastor and worship leader and his family needs your help.

http://www.prayforkyle.com/

A FEW NOTES ON MOVING...

1. Always, always, always ask dudes who have extensive Tetris experience to help you move.
2. Even a small family of 4 with a small house can accumulate a ton of useless junk.
3. You may think you need the biggest U-Haul available, but you don't. Seriously, Todd, that thing's like a semi.
4. Don't take a gig during moving week.
5. Even though you're excercising a good deal while moving, be prepared to gain weight. 'Cause when the cupboards are empty, you will be consuming vast amounts of whatever you can get your hands on (i.e., a quick run to the convenience store, burgers for the movers, donuts in the morning, copious amounts of soft drinks, etc.)
6. Moving is a great way to see if your random friends will get along with each other. If they do, you're golden.

It's 10:24pm. I've been moving furniture all day.

Do I go to bed or watch this?

Revival, Day Four (...or why Todd isn't very good at what he does...)

Chris and I headed out for one more day of two-acoustic-worship-jamming. (I took to calling us "The Larivee' Brothers" throughout the week. I found it much more funny than Chris did, but since I was paying big-time rockstar money, he graciously laughed every time I referenced it.)

All throughout the week, I've been trying to do pretty balanced sets - couple of hymns, couple of choruses. So, my thought was that since this was last night of revival and these folks already had 3 days of Todd and knew what to expect, then things would be awesome.

What I didn't plan on was the fact that being a Wednesday night, there would be a large group of people there simply because it was Wednesday night church. This meant that while some of the folks were familiar with what was up, there were a lot more blank faces on this particular night. The set:
----------------------------------------
Stir Up A Hunger
O For A Thousand Tongues
Lord, I Lift Your Name On High
I Am Glad
----------------------------------------

All in all, it was a nice close to the revival, but certainly not the best set we had played. After service, we enjoyed a very healthy meal of Chicken Fried Steak! Chris and I made a couple hundred bucks, so all in all - a pretty good week.

Revival, Day Three

Same as the day before: Meet Chris at 6, plug in the iPod and head for Colmesniel! Actually had my projection stuff a bit better organized, so that made for a bit less stress. The set:
----------------------------------------------------------
Revive Us Again
Open The Eyes of My Heart
My Savior's Love
Here I Am To Worship
Seek Ye First
----------------------------------------------------------
The high points: After Open the Eyes, I read Ephesians 1:17-18 and talked about how even though we were singing some "new" songs (which they're not always crazy about,) we WERE singing scripture. I talked for just a bit about how we weren't really doing anything new - we were singing the same ideas and concepts that God's people have sung for centuries. I also talked about how we need to do a better job of making sure that songs line up with scripture and spend less time arguing about style. I acknowledged that style was important, but not foremost, and they seemed genuinely supportive and in agreement with what I was saying. I also did a very simple, but nice transition to move from the G key of My Savior's Love to the D key of Here I Am To Worship. Since the keys were pretty complimentary, I just played right into a G/A (the 4/5 of the new key) and rolled right into D. It worked out perfectly - I don't know if anybody even knew I had changed keys.

I'm exhausted from the revival and the packing, but one more night and we're done. However, I just booked an emergency gig today for Saturday. I'll be heading for a gig three hours northeast at 4:30 Saturday morning. Pray, brothers and sisters, pray!

Don't Mean To Brag, But...

Debated whether or not to throw my solo from last Sunday's big 125th Anniversary Service up on the blog, but it came off really well...

Hope you like it:

Tuesday Tavin

Revival, Day Two

Chris and I headed out of Lufkin a little before 6. Revival started at 7, so we sped just a little so we could have some time to make a few notes before playing. Again, my projection stuff wasn't ready yet, so I had to speedily do some Powerpoint magic before we started. (Yes, I take a "master" Powerpoint file to these things; it's just that my master doesn't usually contain an abundance of hymns.)

I was a bit nervous...our first night went well, but you never know if the energy level will continue. Here's what we played:
---------------------------------------------------

I'll Fly Away
Stir Up A Hunger
How Great Thou Art
You Deserve The Glory
I Have Decided
---------------------------------------------------

They were all up in I'll Fly Away and seemed to remember Stir Up A Hunger. I changed up How Great Thou Art a bit, but I think it came off okay. I don't know if they actually knew You Deserve The Glory, but it went pretty well. I Have Decided was really nice - folks weren't singing along that much - it was such a prayerful time, Chris and I just played over them. It was really powerful.

Revival, Day One

As much as I'd love to a confessional for every day of the revival, the addition of moving this week is really messing all the important stuff like playing video games and making stupid videos.

However, if you're just dying to know how the Colmesniel gig went, I will be happy to share.

Things started off a bit weird yesterday around 12:30 or so. After our big Homecoming Service, we had a church-wide meal. While there, I ran up to the sound room to turn on a microphone. After I got the system on, I got on the computer upstairs to check email where I found an email from the Pastor from the revival telling me that bringing a full band might not work. He loves music and loves it when I bring the whole band, but he felt that the people for this particular service might be too distracted by the full band.

I immediately got on the phone to try to contact my band to tell them things might be changing. I finally got the pastor on the phone around 1, and we talked about a plan B. I eneded up cancelling my drummer and keyboard player and moved my bass guy to acoustic.

Chris and I showed up at around 5 and started plugging in and getting projection setup. Here's what we played:
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Revive Us Again
All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name
Stir Up A Hunger
I Am Glad
Jesus Paid It All
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It was a really good night. Chris did a fantastic job on 2nd acoustic. He ran direct with H20 pedal which gave us some nice chorus and delay stuff. The sound system was also pretty good with bass tones...Chris almost sounded like a bass guitar in a couple of places.

The folks dug the hymns and tried to sing along on the new stuff. Sermon was good and there was a definite sense of reverence all through the night. Afterward, we were treated to a meal at the Texas Star Cafe which was very very very very very good.

We're back tonight for Day Two. Meanwhile, it's moving week, so I gotta' get workin'!

So, the staff and I are eating breakfast this morning before heading to the conference and DAVID starts talking about the guy in the other room eating with his family. It was this guy:

That's right, Thomas Gibson. Star of Dharma and Greg. (And that really creepy show with the dude from The Princess Bride.)

We didn't bother him. He looked kinda' grouchy.

But I did shake Leonard Sweet's hand yesterday! (He smelled like cigarettes.)

Blogging from the Mariott Residence Inn in the Woodlands. Spent the day at the Smart Growth Church Conference at The Woodlands UMC.

A few notes about the day.
Opening Worship - Zach Hendrix, one of the worship leaders on staff, led worship with a female vocalist and a second acoustic. The second acoustic player was obviously an electric player, complete with Gibson Jumbo run through 5 or 6 pedals into the system.
They opened with "Forever." In B! It was really high for most of us and early in the morning at that! Then they went into "Blessed Be Your Name," which was nice. They closed with the Tomlin version of "Everlasting God," which was pretty dead on but, again, way too high in C#.

Then we heard Mike Slaughter from Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio. It was phenomenol sessions. I was so impressed with his heart, his honesty and the bold steps he's taken in leading his church.

Then I headed to a session on "media" for the Loft. The Loft is TWUMC's "alternative" service. The session was pretty lousy - it was a bunch of tech guys who, while being very smart, seemingly had done so little to prepare. We did tour their media offices and I got to see their new recording studio. It wasn't finished, but it was laid out really well. They let us hear some stuff from an upcoming Matt Brouwer Christmas record. It was pre-mix, but it still sounded nice.

Went to lunch at Macaroni Grill with the staff, then back to the conference to hear my old pal Leonard Sweet, who totally killed. His session reminded me why I like him - because he's brilliant and bold and willing to say what needs to be said.

For the next session, I headed back to the Loft to give them one more chance. The session was led by The Loft's pastor which was very cool. It's a pretty programmed service (which always has its ups-and-downs) but I commend the dude for being honest and backing up his ideas with scripture.

After that, we grouped up and headed to the hotel for snacks, resting and a little blogging!

There's a Blue Like Jazz performance tonight. Apparently, it's a drama now.
We opted to skip the Blue Like Jazz performance. I believe it is a wise decision.

The Season 1 Finale of the West Wing has to be one of the most powerful moment in the history of dramatic television. I've seen it so many times, but still find myself on the edge of my seat regardless!

I highly recommend this show to anybody interested in great acting, creative writing and political conversation!

Just finished MANHUNT, by Peter Maas. The book records the amazing attempt to capture and convict a former CIA operative named Edwin Wilson who was guilty of providing arms to America's enemies and using his government contacts to make profits illegally. It's a great book, as I am prone to say since I'm a sucker for spy books!

The book was originally published in 1986 and I found the closing paragraph in the "author's note" section to be really interesting. Check it out:

"And a particluar thank you to John-Michael Maas, who unraveled the mysteries of the IBM computer used to write this book. I'm not sure if the computer is the greatest invention since the wheel. I have do doubt, though, that it is the most revolutionary turn in the history of father-and-teenage-son relations."

Jonah On Sunday

Jonah gave a very special performance at our church on Sunday. I'm not sure who any of these other kids are, but I think they were his backups. Enjoy:

BIG MUSIC NEWS FOR TODD WRIGHT MINISTRIES

Hey, guys...

I wanted to wait until I had some confirmation on this thing, but I think it's finalized now, so I can finally share it with you!

A lot of you have been really encouraging about the upcoming CD and even a few of you have asked how you can help out when its released.

For those interested, I'm hosting a "CD Day" next Thursday, October 25th. Here's what we'll do...on that day, I'm inviting all interested parties to my house on Brenda Street. We'll gather up, get our instructions, and then we'll all start grabbing furniture and loading it into a U-Haul as we talk about how great my CD is going to be.

"Wait," you say. "Todd, this sounds like a ploy to trick us into helping you move next week." No, no...it's not a trick.

Will we be moving? Maybe?
Will we be having a total blast talking about me while we move? Absolutely.

That's CD Day - this Thursay, October 25th at around 9am!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All jokes aside...can anybody help? I can't pay you, but Blake Stewart might be there. That's gotta' count for something right?

Tuesday Tavin

Worship Confessional #21

Finley Grace...

Shot this Saturday night before the kids went to bed...BEWARE...the cuteness may be too much to handle!

This is James Lipton. He is an American writer, poet, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series, Inside the Actors Studio.

Lipton is most famous for his dramatic "questions" that he poses to all of his guests on his show.

Know what I think would be fun...if all of you answered Lipton's questions for yourself. And here's the deal...I think this thing will work best if you really try to answer them honestly! Be sure and list your answers with the right "question number" so I can keep track of all the wonder that is YOU!


1.What is your favorite word?

2. What is your least favorite word?

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

4.What turns you off?

5. What sound or noise do you love?

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

7. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

8. What profession would you not like to do?

9. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

In our local grocery store, there is a Cotton Candy rack. Jonah asked for cotton candy EVERYTIME we're in there.

My reasons are good ones:
1. Cotton candy isn't very healthy
2. Cotton candy is too expensive
3. You haven't eaten lunch yet

Today, we ran into the store to pick up sweets. The only purpose of the trip was to find some delicious sweet goodness for the family to enjoy on a Saturday afternoon.
We walked in and Jonah asked for cotton candy...in a voice that said "I know this guy's not gonna' buy me any..."

I looked at him and said, "Yeah. Go get some."

I can't describe the way his eyes lit up as he bounded over to the rack to pick the absolute PERFECT bag of cotton candy. When we got home, the joy was still all over his face. This isn't a pose folks...this is how glad this kid was:

What about you? Anybody remember a time where your Mom or Dad surprised you in some little way?

I grew up watching Sesame Street. Say what you want to about the erosion of family programming, but my kids watch Sesame Street and it hasn't changed all that much.

Jonah, our five-year old loves Elmo. Always has. And even though he sometimes acknowledges that he might be getting too old for America favorite little red monster, he still will stop everything he's doing at watch.

Finley, our our 20-month old, has a different love - Ernie. Just like her brother, Finley is transfixed when Ernie is on screen. (She also doesn't seem to get the difference between Bert and Ernie. They're both "Ernie" to her.)

The folks a the Sesame Workshop have introduced a few new characters over the years, but for the most part, it's still pretty much the same crew, which is nice as it plays up the nostalgia with parents in their thirties like me and Kristen.

So...
What was your favorite Sesame Street character?

The kids woke up at 5:30. I think Finley's cough woke her up, plus her room was pretty cool. (Fall has arrived in East Texas!) Jonah woke up at 5:30 because, well, that's just what he does...

Kristen finally got Finley to lay back down and Jonah somehow ended up in my bed. I laid down in his room for awhile, but couldn't go to sleep. At 6, I went to our room to tell Jonah he could get up. Kristen wasn't having any of that (probably because today was her day to get up with the kids first!) so Jonah hung out in his room reading for 10 or 15 minutes. Kristen got up with him and I finally fell back asleep.

Kristen woke me up at 7:30. I came in to find Jonah watching some TV and then heard Finley waking up.

I let Kristen sleep until a little after 8, then we started making a plan for our day. Don't you just hate it when your Friday off is filled with 3 or 4 errands. (Ha ha!) We ate breakfast, started getting ready and began picking up the house. How does a living room get filled with toys EVERY SINGLE NIGHT?

Went up to the church at 10 to help out a church member who's having an event tomorrow and needed some instruction on the sound system/cd player...had just enough time after CD training to grab a free Diet Coke and some M&Ms as a reward. Drove home with the windows down and the A/C off for the first time in a long time. Got home, Krist took the car and went to work.

While Kristen worked, I cleaned up the house a bit and Jonah begged to play video games. Finley was extremely grouchy - I think she must have a sore throat because all she wants to do is drink. I did my best to tend the children and get the house presentable for the appraiser who's coming by this afternoon, the last hurdle in the whole house-selling thing. Well, if you don't count packing, moving, unpacking, painting, wallpapering, flooring as a "hurdle," that is.

Kristen got home and we got ready to head to the bank to deposit her paycheck. I went out to crank the car and decided to check the mail. Imagine my surprise when I found money in the mailbox. We got a couple of refund checks and some cash refund for something for Jonah's school. You know what money in the mail box means, right?

LUNCH!

So we headed to our new favorite lunch joint, UFO Pizza for some Oven-Fired Flat Bread and a 14-inch Planets of Pepperoni! Delicious! After lunch, Jonah and I dropped the girls off and then headed back into town to do a little grocery shopping. After that we headed to the church to grab a DVD.

Came home, unloaded groceries and took off my shoes. (I can't stand wearing shoes non-stop for a full day. In fact, if I don't get a little "foot" break at some point in the day, I get really sad...I'm so weird.) Jonah caught the ending of Word Girl and Kristen sat in the living room reading some old book she got from the library. I checked some blogs and laid around debating on whether or not I could talk my wife into allowing me to take a nap.

No nap happened. Finley woke up from her nap and we all headed back into town for some primer (we're painting tomorrow.) After that, we ran over to my mother-in-laws, then came back home. We bathed the kids, got them in bed, then sat around deciding what to do with a Friday night. I kept debating exercise versus renting a movie.

I rented the movie. We watched "Perfect Stranger" with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. It had a great ending, but overall, not worth the money. Acting was really lousy and the cursing was so over-the-top it was laughable. Read: Stay Away from "Perfect Stranger."

(Perfect Strangers, on the other hand, was a fantastic sitcom that followed the crazy lives of Larry Appleton and his naive, but good natured cousin, Balki Bartokomous.) And it had way less cussing.

After the movie, we checked on the kids and went to bed. Tomorrow, we paint! (And wallpaper, too!)

New To The Links

Just added Jenni to the links. Jenni is married to John Simmons and she is currently the owner of one of my wife's favorite blogs.

The other night I came in and found Kristen reading Jenni's blog.

"This blog is beautiful."

A beautiful blog?

"Yes. I love it."

So, onto the links Jenni goes!

BIG NEWS

I'm getting to preach Sunday...

Our associate pastor is bringing me and the youth guy up for a little team preaching on Luke 17:11-19 (The Ten Lepers.)

I don't want to give anything away, but I will be referencing this:

Millenials, Continued...

Let's dig a bit deeper into The Millenial Generation by Donald E. Miller and Richard Flory (Worship Leader Magazine, September 2007.)

Miller and Flory have just written a book entitled Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post Boomer Generation where they identify four different responses to cultural change in America. Let's take a look:

Appropriators
"...tend to embrace the latest cultural fad in their style of worship and programming...tend to cater to a younger generation of teens and their parents. Indeed maybe the only way to get these kids into the church is to present the gospel in a package that is competittive with other cultural options. However there is a grave danger to this approach in that it often ignores the radical teachings of Jesus in favor of Jesus logos, hip happenings and politically conservative politics. Furthermore, it is not clear that hyped-up forms of Christianity are sustainable when these teens start to have families and begin to encounter some of the deeper challenges of life, although many mega-churches for the moment seem to provide a Disneylandesque sort of refuge from the challenges of suburban life."

Resisters
"...a much smaller group - who focuses on the primacy of beliefs over any attempt to embody the Christian faith in contemporary cultural forms...tend to hide out in places such as various seminaries issuing their critiques of postmodernism and seeking a rational defense of the faith. They are caught up in an Enlightenment dualism that separates mind and body and places the emphasis on right beliefs with little regard to the fact that transformative religious experience may involve all the senses, not just cognition. The attempt by the Resisters to reclaim the faith has legitmacy, but is appeal will only be to a small group of intellectuals or philosopher wannabe's. It has the feeling of a sectarian response - trying to create a 'pure' form of Christianity - without respect to the complex ways in which Christian faith and practice have always been culturally and politically embedded. Furthermore, the Resisters may use computers to write their tomes and send e-mail, but they have little appreciation for the potential of digitally generated art or music in worship."

Reclaimers
"...they seek to resurrect various liturgical forms and practices from the past (e.g., the 'smells and bells' of the Orthodox or Anglican traditions), finding the worship in many mega-churches to be shallow and entertainment oriented...the Reclaimers are reacting to the sterile worship locations of most mega-churches and the emphasis on entertaining worship. They happily forego the skits and jokes and Hawaiin shirts of Appropriator clergy in favor of a gothic cathedral, flowing incense, candles on a well worn altar, robed priests and dim light streaming through stained glass. They believe that tradition has value - that the saints of ancient times developed liturgical and meditation practices that have the potential to bring one closer to God. While they are backward looking, they are surprisingly postmodern in their desire to unite mind and body in mystical union with the Holy. Although some Reclaimers seek out Orthodox churches (e.g., Greek, Russian, etc.) in which to worship, a much larger group of people are turning to the Anglican tradition and especially to those congregations that prize the sensuality of 'high church' liturgy. In terms of digital revolution, Reclaimers typically see the church as a refuge from the bombardment of the commercial world. Worship is a time to shut out the external buzz of contemporary life and move inward to a place where God's presence can be felt more than proclaimed in words."

Innovators
"...not simply packaging cultural elements are rebranding them with a Christian label, (Innovators) are seeking to embody the message of Christianity in geniuinely authentic ways that relate to the culture..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that no lengthy description was given of the "Innovators" as the point of that particular label is meant to communicate very specific ministry approaches that vary from church to church.

Okay, gang...what do you think of these four classifications? Totally right? Totally wrong? Biased or no? And...WHICH ONE ARE YOU?

Headed to this conference next weekend at The Woodlands UMC.

Keynote Speaker: Leonard Sweet.

Now I'll get to see if he's as crazy as I think he is.

In Case You Were Wondering...

You know, I am very often asked,

"Todd, when you talk to Regional Rock Star Ross King on the phone, what do you two guys talk about?"

It's understandable, of course. We're two very enigmatic characters, Mr. King and me.

Normally, our calls usually start with a great amount of gushing from Ross. Stuff like, Todd-you're-so-fantastic or please-help-me-co-write-my-next-worship-album. Stuff like that. I know it sounds great, but trust me, it gets OLD.

However, I am "happy" to report that our phone conversation went to a whole new level (Ho Nuva Lebel for Jeff.)
I won't get into particulars, but through a strange set of circumstances, Ross and I began discussing certain foods that might be surprising and/or disturbing to find in one's backpack.

Well, that was too good to keep just between us, so now I offer it as what I hope will be my best conversation starter to date:

What food would you find most surprising/disturbing to find in a backpack and why?

GO>

Tuesday Taving

Buzzword Warning...

A couple of things caught my interest in the most recent issue of Worship Leader Magazine and I thought they might spark some interesting conversation among those of you who stop by here from time to time.

If you'll allow me, I'd like to spread my thoughts out over a few posts (though, not consecutively of course - we need our Tuesday Tavin tomorrow, don't we?)

The first thing I want to throw at you is from the cover article entitled "The Millennial Generation." Yes, I said "millenial." We're all tired of hearing it, I know, but the article got me thinking...

Of course, authors Donald E. Miller and Richard Florry spent a few paragraphs describing millenials and how religious culture (read: business industry) has responded to the particluar culture's needs.

The real interesting thing came when Miller and Florry referenced their own research at USC and some other "college religiosity" surveys. Check out the excerpt:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some characteristics of Millinials:
-They perceive religion to be a choice and not an obligation.


-Religious labels, including denominational identifications, are relatively unimportant to them.

-They are typically tolerant of other people's beliefs and, in fact, enjoy the variety of different religious practices that they see on campus.

-Religious authority is internal rather than located in some external source, such as the hierarchy of a church.

-They see more value in relgious experience than in a codified set of beliefs.

-They affirm the idea of being on a religous journey rathe than embracing a static set of beliefs and practices.

_If they join a relgious group, they are more interested in the authenticity of the people - their honesty, openness, and humility - than they are in an authoritarian presentation of the truth.

-They have no problem being eclectic in their relgious taste, which sometimes includes creating their own hybrid relgiious identities.

-They want to make a difference in the world and therefore believe that relgion should address issues of justice and equality.
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Now, we can bemoan this as horrible information about millenials (those born after 1975,) but I'd rather talk about this:

For those of you ARE millenials or who work with them, do these characteristics ring true? And if so, what have you found most beneficial in reaching this particular group.

UPDATE

Matt Papa's You Are Good was released in October of last year. I read a few things about it, but never gave it much thought.

Then, a few months ago, my music-mafia buddy David Runnels threw the CD my way. Over the past few days, I've really come to enjoy this record. Here's why:

1. Vocals - Matt Papa has a fantastic voice. While worship is filled with tons of great male worship leaders, I would venture that there aren't a lot of true male "vocalists" in the worship game. There are unique voices, but Papa proves himself to capable of using his wide range to meet the requirements of the varied stylistic leanings of this record. Mostly singing in tenor-range, he's able to emote without screeching, and occasionally shows that he can handle the lower register stuff, too.

2. Variety - Some might say that variety is the death of a record, but as far as worship resource, variety is everything! You Are Good has a few straight ahead pop-punk things (a la Crowder,) some ambient hymn remakes (think Phil Wickham,) and a surprising number of piano-driven ballads that are great. For somebody like me, looking for songs that focus the heart of the Father in fresh and passionate and skillfull ways, this record is excellent. He seems to really dig the Psalm-song, too, which is never a bad thing!

3. It's Worship - While the great vocals and the variety of pop experimentation could easily push this record into the ever so popular "pop-music-disguised-as-worship-music," this record isn't overwritten or filled with too much musical saber-rattling. The point is to generate songs for singing to the Lord and it works.

If you're looking for some variety, check out Matt Papa's You Are Good. I'm planning on digging into it for songs for some upcoming deals I've got coming up.

ALL THE FREED is coming...

Finalizing "mix notes" right now - very daunting, hoping to communicate everything clearly and praying that my ideas make sense...

Jenkees, Man

In about three hours, I'll be singing a John Michael Talbot song. Never thought I'd see the day...

By the way, JMT's got a blog...who woulda' thunk it?

Jonah's favorite lyric these days:

"Dev-a-station from the sounds we're makin' and there's no es-capin from the BASS!"

Heaven help me...my son is memorizing Family Force 5.

Thad's recommending this movie...it looks pretty interesting!

My Friday

Wake up to the presence of a wiggling 5-year old in my bed. Apparently, Jonah woke up at 5:20 and didn't want to go back to sleep. So, and thirty minute sleep/shush/argument session began. Finley woke up at 6, so Krist got up and took Jonah and Finley into the living room. I snuggled back into the pillows for a little extra rest...

Six minutes later, I hear a loud clacking. As if a five-year old is hitting two blocks together. I open the door and say, "What's going on?" to which Kristen responds, "There are ants in Finley's room!" I get up, play exterminator for a bit, then head into the living room where Jonah's clacking his Silver Surfer action-figure against his Silver Surfer Action Surfboard. (We rented Rise of the Silver Surfer last night and watched 10 or 15 minutes of it, which was more than enough to send Jonah into his room to grab a comparable toy.)

In the living room (6:20ish, now,) Jonah's begging to watch more of the movie. We get the kids some breakfast and I say SURE WE CAN WATCH A MOVIE. Watching movie at 6:30 in the morning - either I'm the coolest dad ever or the worst one in the world.

Pretty soon, Krist wanders back to the bedroom and catches some sleep. We're all fighting a losing battle against the fast-approaching East Texas cold season, so many of us are crashing at weird times. Jonah and I finish the movie as Finley keep bringing me different clothing items she wants to wear. All girl, that Finley Wright...

Went to wake up Krist around 7:30. She mumbled, "Ten more minutes," which means LEAVE-ME-ALONE-TODD. So, I gave her 10 or 15 extra minutes before taking over the sleeping duties. She left me sleep for about an hour, then woke me up. Ate breakfast while Kristen got ready for work. I showered, built some Lego towers with Jonah and chastised Finley for tearing up her books. That's what she's into these days. We all got ready, took Kristen to work and ran around Lufkin until she was done. We went to Sonic for some milkshakes, then we stopped at a gas station to unload some junk in our car into their sizable trash bins. While at the gas station, we noticed a MediVac helicopter coming in, so we chased it to the hospital and then pretended we had orders to blow it up. (Not that we were trying to blow up a medical helicopter...we were doing a whole G.I. Joe type thing...you kinda' had to be there.)

Once we picked up Kristen, she told us she had heard on the radio about the grand opening of UFO Pizza Company, a brand new brick oven pizza join that they've been working on for a few months now. We drove there immediately. We loved it - affordable, nice atmosphere, and space decor. Not near as interesting to Mom and Dad as it was to Jonah, but hey, it made him excited to eat, which is always a blessing.

Came home and put Finley down for a nap, then helped Jonah earn more "Shine Sprites" on Super Mario Sunshine. Even Kristen helped us out. (She's more of a gamer than me and Jonah combined.) After way too much video game playing, Krist and I picked up the house a bit for a BIG party going down at the Wright house tonight.

Headed into town around 4:40 or so to get ice cream for everybody. Came home, put on some party clothes and got ready for the craziness.

Uh Oh...

Anybody else find this hilarious?

Recent Musical Observations...

On Shane and Shane's Pages
I think I'd really like to hear more solo stuff from Shane Everett. To me, he's the coolest thing going in that whole Shane and Shane thing. Such a great voice.

On concerts
When it did become trendy to look like you just woke up?

On Crowder
It ain't A Collision, but some of it is still pretty good. ('Course, I could live without all the bleeps and blurps...) Wait a second...I hated A Collision!

On gigs
What sort of band do I take to for a 4-night revival in a tiny East Texas town?

On concerts, again
Will Blake take me along to see Family Force 5 and Jonezetta, even though I killed his chance to see Baloche earlier this week?

On Phil Wickham
Hey...there are actually some worship songs on this record!

About to dig into Phil Wickham's Cannons. I'm apprehensive, but Blake says I'm gonna' dig it, so I'm going in with an open mind.

Anybody heard it? Anybody like it? (Not you, Blake. You're fast approaching stalker-level with both Wickham and Crowder.)

An Open Letter to (a pioneer of) the Christian Subculture...

Dear Steven Curtis Chapman,

First of all, I love your music. Always have, in fact. Even at your goofiest, I've stuck by you, because I knew I was getting stellar songwriting in spite of the random clunker on an album or two. Truth be told, while Paul Baloche was the guy who inspired me to use my guitar for worship, you're the dude who inspired me to pick up a guitar to begin with.

Lately, I've not followed you as closely as before, but I still think you're a stellar musician and songwriter and powerful voice for people of faith.

But I just have one message for you - as one who still thinks you're pretty awesome...

Not Every Song Has To Be So Stinkin' Big.

You write fantastic, epic tunes, but it's time for something smaller, man. How about a record of tunes with just you and few other musicians with songs that don't swell to massive proportions by song-end? What about a record with no string section? I'm not saying it has to be unplugged or anything, but I think your songs are good enough to stand on their own without a lot of extra production.

Sincerely,
Todd Wright.

Anybody else think SCC's tunes get way too big these days? Anybody else feeling me on that "simple album" idea?

Cue the Daniel Powter Music...

Tuesday morning, 1am
Attempt to blog about Baloche concert. Screwed up HTML code in blogger, finally figure out the code command to make my blog like it used to.

Tuesday morning, 9:30am
Get to office, plug in iPod. iPod says, "Hey, do you want to update?" I click YES. And all my songs disappear. Although is way too long and boring to post here, suffice it to say that my morning became filled with iPod woes.

Tuesday afternoon, 2:30pm
Runnels and I are working on some projector stuff, waiting to help with setup for a Conference Training Seminar to be held at the church. Conference staff shows up and its discovered that all of the classrooms they had reserved weren't available. Don't know why the worship guy (ME) got stuck with finding new classrooms, but that's how it went down. We eventually found plenty of room.

Tuesday afternoon, 3:30pm
Funeral happening in our chapel. They've brought a powerpoint slideshow and want it shown during the ceremony. Grab Runnels and make him do it while I do some last minute prep for the Conference deal.

Tuesday afternoon, 4:00pm
Slowly discovering that God must not want us to get a new projector lamp as it is somehow physically impossible to locate one for our old, old, old projector.

Tuesday evening, 5:30pm
Home for a bit before the seminar; Jonah begs his mother and me to let him give me an early birthday present. He brings in this box wrapped up in paper that he's colored with marker. I open it to find a brand new Bionicle action figure. Smart kid, that Jonah.

Tuesday Tavin

Monday Night Concert

Saw Baloche in Tyler tonight. The set was sadly familiar with a couple of new things thrown in. Here are the songs as best as I can remember it.

1. O Come Let Us Adore Him (G)
2. Hosanna (G)
3. Because of Your Love (G)
4. Praise Adonai (C) extended jam, ending with Bb chord, then transitioning to F
5. All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises (F)
6. Offering (F)
7. I Will Give You All My Worship (F) chorus only
8. Here I Am To Worship (F) holding Bb
9. Your Name (Bb)
10. Rock of Ages (A?)
11. Our God Saves (D)
12. Above All (A)
13. Draw Me Close (A) chorus only
14. Open the Eyes of My Heart (E)
15. How Great Thou Art (A) CD version
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What Worked: the chance to sit back and get my praise on, hearing three songs from the new record, watching Ben Gowell nail every single electric guitar part, hanging with friends, worshipping beside my dad, eating food that was oh-so-delicious and yet oh-so-un-nutritious, getting excited about my own record (I don't know why...) and impressive, yet relatively invisible tech production by the church.

What Didn't: set felt a bit phoned in, sound wasn't balanced very well, flow could have been better paced, Carl Albrecht overplaying (a rare thing) and no words on screen!