1/30/11 @ Bethel Bible Church

Good day at Bethel. Did a live phone call with our youth pastor and his family in Ethiopia, had a lot of media that ran perfectly and a cool video for our "Snapshots" class. Here are the tunes we did...

A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD (D)
We've hit this one three or four times. We did it with mandolin again, which really transforms the original version into something a little more unique. From a band perspective, this one's feeling a little flat, simply because it's a simple arrangement and the band has learned it cold. That's not to say it's not valuable or working in the congregation, but I think we've hit that "comfort" level with it. This happens with songs quite often - it's normal for a band to become a bit tired of a song before the people get to that point. Just one of the challenges of the job!

EVERYTHING GLORIOUS (D)
Second week to do this one. Meh. Congregation sang well, but I don't think we'll hit this one again for awhile. Last week's version had a more instrumental stuff happening throughout, which gave it some flavor, but this week's attempt seemed a little dull.

SONG OF HOPE (A)
This is such a great song for the church to sing. The band did great on it. Crowd was maybe a little more subdued on this one than normal, but it was still a good tune. Compliments to my guitarists for making it work.

COME AND WELCOME (A-B)
This is an Indelible Grace song that I've wanted to do for about two years. It's an old hymn with a great musical setting and I was hoping that it would work. It did! Had multiple compliments about it and the gang had fun playing it. I like doing these tunes because they carry all the power and poetry of hymns but still retain the excitement and novelty of a new song. We'll hit it again next week.

YOU ALONE CAN RESCUE (B)
Halfway through our on-stage phone call at the top of the service, I figured we'd be short on time, so I decided to cut the full version of this song. We did a few choruses and I think it worked. I wasn't totally sure the full pass was going to be as strong as it needed to be.