Playing with the Legends

This weekend was quite a whirlwind. Downhere played in Pine Bluff, AR for a benefit concert for people suffering from Lu Gehrig’s disease. And not only did they play but they got to “headline” the show (which means they played last). They had two of the founding fathers of the Christian music industry, Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill, open for them (although they were really just playing first – those guys don’t “open” for anyone!). Randy is an excellent singer/songwriter and wrote songs like “Shut De Do”. He is quite a goofy guy and really does a great job entertaining and including the audience. He has been active in the Christian music industry for over 35 years now. Phil Keaggy is probably one of the top 3 guitar players in the world – and is also a singer/songwriter. If you are ever in the same town as Phil then I suggest you catch a show and marvel at the gift God has given him. He’s been around for about as long as Randy. Jeremy and I watched both of their sets not only because we enjoyed them, but out of respect, as they have led the way for Christian artists today. It was pretty cool! Oh and as a sidenote – the venue they played in held a museum of celebrity artifacts and one of the “display” items was Johnny Cash. Yes, The Man in Black himself - a life-like version of him playing the guitar and singing. You could push a button in front of him and he would start strumming his guitar and singing “I Walk the Line.” It was kind of creepy and kind of amusing all at the same time – I felt like his eyes followed me as I walked past (sort of like the Mona Lisa).

Since it was a benefit concert we didn’t feel that it was appropriate to do a World Vision presentation. We DID decide to have the table set up just in case anyone wanted to learn about it or even sponsor a child. And since Dave and Jess (our sound guy and road manager) are expecting in June, I will be taking care of selling the merchandise. So Jess is giving me tips here and there in preparation for that. That will add more responsibility for me on the road, of course, which I am really looking forward to. The volunteers we had for the evening were part of the CMA (Christian Motorcyclists Association). They were so helpful and easy going. Oh - and they all had on their leather vests and everything…it was great=}.

We stayed in host homes last night and since this was downhere’s 3rd time to play in Pine Bluff Jeremy and I stayed with the family he has always stayed with. Scott and Kelly were so generous - we stayed up and talked until 1am eating carrot cake and getting to know each other better. I guess the last time Jeremy stayed with them he had just proposed to me so they wanted to hear my side of the story and find out all about me. Then Kelly made us a delicious breakfast at 8am and dropped us off and now here we are, back in the van again. Thanks to Circleslide for letting us borrow their van for the weekend as ours is in the shop for some major repairs.

So tonight we are leading worship in Franklin, TN (Jeremy’s old church), which is nice because then we get to sleep in our own beds=}. I guess that’s it for now. More updates to come. God Bless!