UNTO HIM - in concert 6/17/2008

Sunday evening I'll be playing bass for UNTO HIM, at Lexington Baptist Church, at 6PM. My blogger buddy, Jim, will be on drums, and our friend Stan will be on lead guitar. This is a free concert (about 1 hour long) and should be really good. The guys from UNTO HIM have some awesome original material and sweet harmonies. So record the Olympics and come out and hear us.

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

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!

Celebrity Autograph

My son, Grant, got a famous bass player to autograph his guitar last night.

Do-It-Youself EarBuds that Fit!

We use in-ear monitors in the praise band at church. I've been wearing the $99 Bose earbuds because they sound amazing, especially for a bass player (nice low frequency range). However, they didn't fit well at all. The little earpieces didn't sit in my ears well and they frequently fell out. I was constantly having to reinsert them. So I decided I wanted to to convert them into custom fitted ear buds, like the kind the pros wear. However, I didn't want to go to an audiologist to have custom molds of my ear specially made, nor was I brave enough to use a caulking gun in my ears. So while Googling how to do this yourself, I found the website for EarPlugsThatFit.com. Which also advertises the same product specifically for custom fitting earbuds. I ordered a kit, which arrived yesterday and promptly turned my uncomfortable earbuds in to awesome ones. They send you 2 canisters of different materials, which after you combine them and insert them into your ears will cure into custom fitted silicone earplugs. For only $16.49, this was WAY cheaper than a custom molding at the audiologist. I've been wearing them for hours tonight while working on the computer and I almost forgot I had them in they're so comfortable. I highly recommend this product to anyone who wants a custom fit for their earbuds.

UPDATE (April 21, 2009) - As you can see from the comments to this post, Earplugs that Fit has sold the company to Radians.com , so if you're interested in this product, you can find it there.

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.

Keys To The Future?

Last night I rehearsed with the Eastminster Presbyterian Church Praise Band. My buddy, Jim, and I are filling in this Sunday for their evening contemporary service (Jim on drums and me on keyboards and bass.) It's been a while since I played keyboards and although I was rusty (really rusty), I still had a blast. I am especially looking forward to the service because the minister is my brother-in-law, Amos, and this will be the first time I've ever played in one of his worship services.

It's going to be a busy weekend with Thanksgiving in Johnston on Thursday, Thanksgiving part deux lunch in Greenville on Friday, Praise Band Cookout Friday night, Blogger Brunch Saturday Morning, Carolina/Clemson game Saturday evening, and 2 Church gigs on Sunday. Plus I want to squeeze in some mountain biking, tree-trimming, rehearsal time, and a nap. So much for a long relaxing weekend, huh?

Unto Him AJM

Aaron, James, and Matthew Warren are friends of mine whose band, Unto Him AJM, just launched a new website. I've played and recorded with these guys and they are top-notch musicians and sincere Christians. You can link to iTunes from their website and buy their songs if you're interested (I played bass on those tunes, so I highly recommend them.)

Session Work (part 2)

Unto Him (those guys for whom I recorded bass on their demo last week) got their final mastered tracks back from the studio. We recorded four tunes, but I'm only going to include one here. It's my favorite out of the four. It's called "We Lift Our Hands". Let me know what you think.

Session Work

I've got a gig this evening. I'm laying down bass tracks for Unto Him, a trio of guys from my church who are trying to break into "the biz". I played for them last winter when they opened for Larnelle Harris. They recorded three songs from that performance and have been selling approximately 50 CDs per show since then. Pretty cool tunes, with lots of thick vocal harmonies. They play guitars, percussion, and mandolin too. Kinda' reminds me of Jars of Clay.

They're recording all this week at Strawberry Skies recording studios. It's been a long time since I've been in a real studio (back in my Nashville days), so long in fact, that I played a completely different instrument back then. Nevertheless, I think it should go well and I should be in and out of there in less than two hours (as my recollections of studio work include quick work for the bass players.)

Once the projects is complete, they're going to shop it with some Labels and try to get some "air time" locally. I'm so out of touch with that world anymore (if I ever actually was), I have no idea if they're doing things right or not. Even though this is a paid gig, I'm going to persuade them into letting me post the songs as MP3s on my Blog. That will be their ticket to stardom for sure!