David Cook

Isn’t it great to watch a star being born? We’ll be listening to David Cook for a long time – win or lose. If you don’t watch American Idol, why not?

Chip & Chuck

Well, it’s been almost 8 years since I did any regular gigging. For those not familiar with the word, it has nothing to do with frogs. It is simply playing music somewhere…anywhere…where people will listen – or at least feign interest.

This Friday, I make my symbolic return to gigging with my good friend Chip Cash at Harper’s BBQ, 112 W. Trade St. at the corner of Trade and Tryon in downtown Charlotte. We could probably have picked a lower-profile location for our first gig, but why? 11:30 – 1:00. Some great food in a lunch-time environment. Come out if you have the chance.

Trouble in Paradise

Ever hear a song that you haven’t heard for a long time, and it brings back a vivid memory?

The other day, I heard the song “Trouble in Paradise” by Al Jarreau. (As a side, if you’ve never listened to Al Jarreau, or the only thing you remember him singing is the theme from “Moonlighting,” you really should take a minute rediscover him. And it is getting to be the perfect time of year to listen to Al – as this story will attest.)

Anyway, for the first 3 years we were married, Aprill and I lived in Schenectady, NY. It was a great time – cold at times, and under mounds of snow and ice occasionally. But the summers were festive and jam-packed with good things. One of those things was SPAC and the Kool Jazz Festival. SPAC is the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It’s in Saratoga Springs (25 minutes north of Schnectady). It is an outdoor amphitheatre in the vein of Tanglewood (as opposed to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre). Built into a natural setting, serene and a very cool, shaded lawn.

All three years we were there, we would enjoy SPAC. We saw Dan Fogelberg, Bob Dylan, Kenny Loggins, Whitney Houston (it was her first concert!), Henry Mancini (with the Philadelphia Philharmonic), the Moody Blues and I can’t remember who else. We were able to see the New York Ballet on summer hiatus. And all three years, we went to the Kool Jazz Festival.

The Kool Jazz Festival was a 2-day all-jazz weekend. It was incredible. During the three years, we saw Spyrogyra, David Sanborn, Weather Report, Chick Corea (among others)…and Al Jarreau. Jarreau is such a great performer. Here’s a youtube clip of another of my Jarreau faves – Roof Garden – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X42UySfQTx8

It’s a long set-up to saying that when I heard “Trouble in Paradise” this week, I immediately remembered hearing the initial strains of that song at the jazz festival, jumping off the blanket that we had our picnic basket on, and dancing with my beautiful wife on the lawn. It was a warm evening in July, right around sunset. I can remember the rays of the sun breaking through the pine trees, the first crispness of a summer evening that you only get in the north, and Jarreau wailing in the background.

Good memories are a blessing.

Pandora

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a webaholic. I love the web. I seem to surf endlessly. For me, there has never been anything quite its equal to waste my time. I figured out that the web is now my magazine. I have my laptop with me all the time.I see quite a bit of junk. But occasionally, I come upon a site that is so good it’s impossible to think how it could be better.

One of those sites is www.pandora.com. If you haven’t visited www.pandora.com yet, stop reading this senseless drivel and go there immediately. Pandora is a site that allows you to create your own personalized web radio stations. You select an artist, and it plays a song by that artist. Then, it plays songs by artists that match the genre of the artist you first selected. You can rate the subsequent artists with “like” or “don’t like.” Before long, you have a radio station that perfectly fits your listening tastes.

Then, just when you think it couldn’t get any better, you can create another station based on another listening mood.

Finally, it’s all free. Pandora.com. If you like music at all, you’ll love this.

A Surprisingly Good Sunday

Today was Youth Weekend at church. We only have two “special” weekends a year – Youth Weekend, and Senior Weekend. (They’re weekends now because we have 5:21 Saturday!) What makes them special is essentially a 5-minute presentation within the context of the service.

But one of the things that I’ve committed to is giving our youth worship team the platform in the Cafe on Youth and Senior Weekends. I always play the role of lead worshiper to keep the flow, manage the transitions, etc. Since this was only my third time doing it since becoming worship pastor, I had moderate expectations. They’re always zealous, but not always focused.

This year, big difference. I really, really enjoyed myself. The team was amazing. These kids led one of the best worship services that I’ve ever been a part of. The vocals were stellar. The musicianship was professional. These were 16- and 17-year-olds, and the music was spot on.

For any of you who have the chance to work with the next generation’s leaders, I encourage you to do so. I don’t do it enough. But here’s what I see when I look into the future. I see adults like me sitting around a restaurant talking about things, and one of them says, “when I was a kid, we tried to have a worship team in our youth group…” Then, he or she will say one of two things. 1)”…but no one really seemed to care. We didn’t get any encouragement.” or 2)”…and there was this guy named Chuck Jones, and he really encouraged us and helped us.”

I don’t always make it – but I sure want that conversation to end in #2. If you have the chance, make sure yours is #2, too.

I’ll try to post an mp3 of a song from today. To Brad, Brian, Hannah, Madeline, Julie, Anthony and Daniel, it was incredible.

Darden Smith

Tonight, after 5:21 Saturday, I had a great guys “early night” out with two of my very best friends – Lance and Jim. (Notice, I’m writing this post before 11:00 PM – no late nights for me anymore.) To my recollection, the three of us have never been out together. I’m not that big on guys nights outs. But these are two really good friends – and as my favorite writer Bill Bryson once penned, “I found myself enjoying it immensely.”

We went to the Evening Muse and saw Darden Smith in concert. If you don’t know Darden, pick up some of his music. He’s an Austin-based singer-songwriter who just writes great music. His voice is very distinct.

There’s one lyric from Darden’s song “Loving Arms” that I really like:

“Count the bad, count the good. And all I wouldn’t change even if I could.”

That’s a pretty good way to approach life, I think.