Sentimental Journey Dance Band (Video) #FCM14

May 7th, 2014 – On the last night of the conference, there was a “Patriotic Tribute” to those who served in WWII and the rest of our veterans.  As part of the celebration, the Sentimental Journey Dance Band came in and performed several patriotic and WWII numbers.
I’m a huge fan of big band swing and I also love live music, so I was pretty much on cloud nine throughout the evening!

Long Way Home

  October 4, 2013-Well, today we said farewell to the white sands and ocean to set our faces North for home. We did most of our packing last night and loaded up the van and car back up this morning before hitting the road. I thought this song was fitting for our drive today:

Music @ the Jones

  This evening we gathered with friends at the Jones home for dinner and to play some music together.  It’s so much fun to get two musical families together like the Thomases and the Jones.  We played a couple hymns and some worship songs.
Afterthought: Would’ve been fun to have some video. 

Michael on the acoustic guitar, Mr. Thomas on the drums in the back and Mr. Jones playing a “mean” bass guitar!

It was great to hear Mr. Thomas on the drums…

He brought his drum kit all the way up from OK!

Later we switched up the instruments playing.  In this song, Ashley is on the piano, Michael is on the violin and yours truly is playing the acoustic.

Micaiah playing with a mini djembe.

Jack & Brittany

Mrs. Jones, Cedric, and Zach

Marscel

(stole his brother’s guitar while he switched to violin)

Matthew
(stole his brother’s guitar when he wasn’t looking…)

Kate & Melanie

I was finally coaxed into playing my guitar, but with great reluctance.  It was really my first time ever playing my guitar with anyone, whether that be vocals or other instruments.  It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  Since then I’ve been trying to practice with other people and I play with Kate throughout the week.

I seem to have a hard time finding the rhythm of a song, but I can usually follow along with someone who has.  Also, after playing solo guitar for so long, I tend to go into full right-brainer mode and don’t stick to a consistent number of beats or stick with the chord structure or a strumming pattern!  Trying to work on that …

Route 66

My Mom has the opportunity to drive a box truck from Indiana to Los Angeles for a dealership. She would "convoy" with my grandparents (who were also driving a truck )to LA, deliver the truck and fly back home - about 2000 miles to drive in 3 days.

Below are some photos from the trip that my Mom took from the truck.  Listen to the classic song, “Route 66” because it’s a very accurate description of all the towns they passed on the way to CA.

“Well, it goes through Saint Louis, Jopin, Missouri…”

“..you’ll see Amarillo…”

“…and Gallup, New Mexico.”

Hotel in, “…Flagstaff, Arizona…”

“…Kingman, Barstow…”

“San Bernadino!”

Little Cody

   On the third day one of the trucks had to stay behind and some logistical problems ensued, but thankfully the Lord worked out  away  where Mom was still able to catch her flight from California and was able to return home safely!

Thanksgiving @ CFC

Cody Winton and Ben Serven share a classic...
We went to the annual Thanksgiving service held by Covenant Family Church in Troy, MO.  As the evening came to a close a couple of the young men, Ben Serven and Cody Winton, started singing some a very jazzy “White Christmas.”
Partly based off of the “White Christmas” recorded by Michael Buble…certainly prefer Cody over Shania Twain!
Corrected: This is actually the version of White Christmas that "The Drifters" popularised.
 

Tobymac Success: Victory or Defeat?

Scott Brown recently posted a great article about the state of Christian music, in the light of TobyMac’s great hit, “Eye on It.”  ToyMac is becoming the first Christian artist in the past fifteen years to achieve the number one position on the Billboard Music Chart.  Scott Brown attributes the success of this song in both the Christian and secular world to a spiritual famine.  Read the full article here: http://scottbrownonline.com/tobymac-success-victory-or-defeat/

I’ve posted the song below:

 

I found this article to be interesting, because I do agree with Scott Brown even though I used to be a fan….or maybe just a listener…of TobyMac/DC Talk many years ago.

How Great Thou Art

Kate playing and singing on a very out-of-tune piano, but it doesn’t matter too much when the words are so good.