Coolest Gift Ever...

In addition to the awesome band reunion weekend my wife, Jennifer, gave me for my 40th birthday, she also made me a quilt from the old t-shirts of various bands I've played in. They are: Fulmer Middle School and Airport High School Bands, Presbyterian College Wind Ensemble, Children At Heart, Legend Seven, and the Mt Horeb United Methodist Church Praise Band. Of course there were other bands, but they didn't all have t-shirts, so they don't appear on the quilt. This is so cool.

"Sweet Jesus"

"Sweet Jesus" by Gary Chapman

Highlights from Saturday Night

"I Still Believe"

Tonight's The Night....

The Watershed.

Reunion Gig Eve

Members of the old band started arriving yesterday afternoon. Mike and Coley got here around 4 and 5 pm, and Paul rolled in around 6:45pm. We wolfed down a pan of lasagna and converted my FROG from a home school classroom to a rehearsal room. Stan showed up a little later and around 8pm we started playing the first song. Not too bad. We were only able to rehearse about a dozen songs, but we're off to a good start. It was amazing how quickly most of the old songs came back to us. This evening Greg and Alan will finally join us for another late night of cramming before tomorrow's gig. Good Times!

Only 3 More Days...

Only three more days until my Birthday/Reunion Gig. They guys will start arriving tommorrow through Friday evening. With so little time for rehearsing, it's going to be rough. However, it will be a lot of fun.

ROCK!

Here's the photo Paul sent to my cell phone, proving that he is actually preparing for this weekend's gig.

"Where'd I put that pick?"

Children At Heart Reunion

In preparation for my Big Birthday Gig this weekend, I found some old photos of my college band, Children at Heart. Mike, Coley, Paul, and Greg will be coming in this weekend to join me, along with Alan and Stan, for a gig at the WaterShed on Saturday night. We've all been working on the songs via iPod and an online file folder site for sharing chord charts, but with only have a couple of times to rehearse together before performing, so we anticipate it being more fun than "good", but either, way it will be awesome.

"StringBean" Wilson Needs Your Help

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of interviewing an old-time blues man, Elijah "Stringbean" Wilson. Although even StringBean couldn’t remember exactly how old he really is, we know, based on information in the Library of Congress, that he has been writing and recording the blues for over 70 years. Wilson’s lyrics reflect his passionate personality, creative use of grammar, and experience with “hard livin’” (with the exception of those works created during the ‘80’s when StringBean attempted a genre-shift to New Wave music and toured with Culture Club.)

Here are excerpts from my interview:

TW: "You haven't written anything new in a while. What's up with that?"

SB: “My mind ain’t what it used to be. I mostly can start a song, but I can’t finish ‘um anymore. I am thinking about using the Internets to let my fans finish the words for me.”

TW: "Don't you mean the 'Internet'? Is singular, you know. It's just one bug network."

SB: "Son, I may be old as dirt, but I can still kick your punk a$$..."

Currently, his fans can participate in submitting lyrics on the GreanBeans blog. Mr. A. Green, blogmaster for GreanBeans claimed “This is a unique opportunity for fans, new and old, to collaborate online with one of the world’s most average blues men to create something that will at least be classified and ‘interesting’. After all, how often does someone get to publish something they’ve created on the Internet?”

In closing my interview with StringBean, I promised that if his current work got finished in time, that it would be performed live at my birthday/reunion concert coming up on Jan 26th. He replied, “Huh? What are we talking about? Do you smell boiled eggs?”

If you would like to help collaborate on StringBean Wilson’s current project, go to the GreanBeans Blog and leave your lyric suggestions in the comments section.

We're Getting the Band Back Together...

With my big 40th Birthday "Band Reunion" Bash coming up, I keep thinking about this commercial and this classic movie clip.

Save the Date

I'm turning 40 in January, and my wife is giving me the coolest birthday present I can imagine. She's letting me get the band back together ("Honey, you remember the Vortex"). Well, not actually THE band, but a bunch of my best friends that I love jamming with. Many of them have agreed to come from far away to spend a 4 day weekend practicing and playing a couple of gigs with me. The dates and locations are still tentative, but Saturday night, January 26th will be a full concert (probably at a local coffee house) and Sunday morning, January 27th, we'll lead the praise and worship music at the 9AM service at Mt Horeb United Methodist Church.

Here's the line up:

• Me - Bass, BGVs, and maybe some keyboards
• Mike Vaughan - Lead Vocals
• Coley Mynatt - Drums and BGVs
• Paul Reaves - Guitar and jokes
• Alan Green - Keyboards and BGVs
• Shane Martin - Guitar and Vocals
• Stan McAfee - Guitar

Also, I'm going to try to get some of my local friends to sit in on a few tunes with us: my pal Tim has already confirmed. I'm also going to ask Barney, Jim, Tye, Suzanne, etc. It's going to be mayhem and we'll need a crowd of sympathetic fans, so please mark your calendars and try to come and support us. More specifics will be forthcoming (look for posts labeled "40th Birthday Bash")

UPDATE: The dates and locations are confirmed. 1/26/2008 at 7:30PM at The WaterShed, in Lexington and 1/27/2008 at Mt Horeb UMC's 9AM service.

Children At Heart (more blast from the past)

Here's a bunch of really cheesy video's my old college band, Children At Heart, around the time we first formed in the late 80's. These were recorded by a Media Arts Class, at USC, as a class project, so the set and light might look a bit goofy. However, the clothing choices were our own selections. Believe it or not, we eventually got MUCH better (at music, not dressing) and moved to Nashville to pursue a full time rock-n-roll lifestyle.

Children At Heart (left to right):
Mike Vaugahn, Lead Vocals;
Paul Reaves, Guitar;
Greg Sheehan, Lead Guitar and BGVs;
Coley Mynatt, Drums and BGVs;
George Nicholson, Keyboards and BGVs;
Todd King, Bass (on video clips) later replaced by Gayle Godkin (pictured to the right);
and Danny Linney, Sound Technician (not pictured ... ever)

"I Will Rejoice"


"A Few Good Men"


"Armed and Ready"


"Strong & Courageous"

Blast From The Past

Here's a video clip from my glory days playing keyboards with Legend Seven. This is us at the 1994 American Christian Music Awards. We were nominated for Best Rock Group/Duo of the year. Petra won it. Rock On!