Joyce Meyer Conference in LA

Joyce preachin'!

A year ago I never would have thought I'd be playing guitar with Darlene and the Hillsong team for a Joyce Meyer Conference at the Staples Center in LA. But that's exactly what happened on 13th - 15th of July. Darlene called my mobile phone at about 3pm on the Thursday afternoon and asked if I could make it to LA to play with them that night. I rushed home and got my stuff together and then made the mad drive into LA at the crazy end of the day as far as traffic goes. I arrived at the venue 20 minutes before the start of the night (at 7pm) and plugged in and away we went. Talk about flying by the seat of my pants. Half the songs I had heard but never played before, but it went great. I ended up going in for the Friday and Saturday morning sessions as well. It was a great honor to be asked and it was a lot of fun too.

The preaching over the weekend was shared by Joyce Meyer and Brian Houston. They were both brilliant of course. Delirious did a special concert on the Friday night (which we couldn't make it to).

Marty and me.

Darlz in a familiar pose.
The Team sitting in a meeting: (R-L) Nigel, Gio, Rolph, Darlene, Bobbie.

Abe Laborial & Friends

One of the morning sessions at the Saddleback Worship and Creative Arts Conference was set aside for Abe Laboriel and Friends to lead us in worship. Abe had Sheila E on Drums, Kirk Whalum on Sax, Paul Jackson Jr on Guitar and Tom Brooks on Keys. A Superband if ever there was one! They set up some atmospheres and some cooking grooves and blazed over them with virtuosic improvisation. Truly amazing and inspiring. These are the guys I was so into about 15 to 20 years ago

In fact, Abe had another band way, way back called Koinonia. A band of incredible Christian musicians playing instrumental music par excellence. (Just as a side note - I met Hadley Hockensmith the other day. He just lives down the road from me. He was the guitarist in Koinonia and was an amazingly tasteful, melodic and soulful player. Still is I believe.)

Abe and Kirk Whalum - Wailing!

Paul Jackson Jr and Sheila E - she got off the drums to encourage some crowd participation at one point.

Paul Jackson Jr. playing in the Spirit.

Here's a video of Koinonia nearly 25 years ago featuring both Hadley and Abe. Both looked a lot younger then!

Vicki Beeching

This is Vicki Beeching, an English Worship Leader/Artist who hails from England. She's now living in Nashville and doing pretty well here in the States judging by the number of appearances she is putting in at Conferences, concerts and Seminars all over the country. And so she should be. She is a great songwriter with a great heart and a bubbly personality. (These pics were taken at the Saddleback Worship and Creative Arts Conference in June.)

Her latest album, Painting The Invisible, has had a good thrashing in our car over the last few months. Great stuff! Music following in the footsteps of Matt Redman and Tim Hughes with a great female voice. My favorite song is The Wonder Of The Cross which is a hymn she wrote in response to her Grandfather's prompting to write something he would like.

Here are some of Vicki's own words about her album:

“Trying to describe the Eternal using earthly words is like trying to scoop up the whole ocean into the palm of your hand. It’s like trying to count every star in the endless midnight sky. All of our words fall so short; every melody failing to capture the true beauty of the Heavenly.” So says Vicky Beeching, a fourth generation worship leader, music prodigy and Oxford-educated songwriter.

“When we write songs about God,” Vicky says, “though we see him in everything he has made, to some degree we are flying blind. With our limited human resources we are struggling to find ways to express something that is heavenly…that is Other. Yet because it is our passion, we can’t remain silent. So we search for words and melodies to describe Him. Hunting and rummaging into every corner of language and expression, raiding the closet of linguistics for a suitable outfit to clothe our feelings in words…we are describing the indescribable. We are ‘painting the invisible.’”

Newsong Cafe

From left to right: Brenton Brown, Vicki Beeching, Matt Maher, Michael Gungor, Tim Hughes.

Well this was certainly a treat! This was one of the breakout sessions at the Saddleback Worship and Creative Arts Conference back in June. Five great worship leaders and songwriters presenting a couple of songs each, telling the stories behind the songs and how they were written and then singing them raw and acoustic. Just a very casual approach and very intimate and honest presentation. It was fantastic!

All these guys were fantastic, but I was most impressed with Michael Gungor. Great songs! Great energy and creativity. Check him out for sure!

Check out the worshiptogether website for more on these guys and many other worship leaders.

Future Of Forestry

Bryce, Daniel and I went to see Future of Forestry play at The Vault last Friday night. Great band. It was hard work staying for the two bands that preceded them, but it was worth waiting.
They have an album out called Twilight that I have been thoroughly enjoying for 2 or 3 months now. Go to the website and listen to some of it. (Or here).

Not only great alternative rock'n'roll, but very worshipful and heartfelt. There are some beautiful lyrics in their songs too.

I will go where glory meets the crude and weak
I will go where mercy meets the shame
I will go where strength will find the small and meek
I will go where magic meets mundane
And You're all I want, You're all I want
You're all Ill find
You have my heart forever
You are all that I could need
I will go where grace and healing love restores
I will go where peace and rest is known
I will go where friendship finds my heart in yours
I will go where beauty leads me home

Great guitar player - very creative with sounds. I like that.

There's the really interesting stuff right there on the floor!

Nice amps too...

Daniel On Top Of The World

While Ali and I were on our San Francisco trip Daniel was on a 21 day wilderness trip with his school, Coastal Mountain Youth Academy. Here he is at 10,834 feet, on the summit of Mount San Jacinto in the San Bernadino mountains. This accomplishment came towards the end of the program which included activities such as high ropes, rock climbing and backpacking. This was certainly an experience of a lifetime for Daniel and the other young adventurers, and one that they will never forget.

The Amazing City Of San Francisco

It was a beautiful day so I was able to get a good panorama. This was 9 photos stitched together. You gotta love Photoshop! Unfortunately at this size it doesn't give the full impact.

One of the most famous and most recognizable bridges in the world. The Golden Gate bridge from the North shore.

San Francisco City Hall. There are some amazing buildings in this city - old and new!

Side by side...
Groovy!
Reflected...

Surrounded...
Looking straight up from street level.

The city area is huge. Block after block after block of tall buildings. There's not a lot of flat ground so you're going up and down a lot. It adds to the feeling of constant motion and the buzz of something always happening.

This guy was rocking out on the city street corner in the full blazing sun. he was pretty good too. Actually, this city is one place where you'll see it all. Lots of creativity, lots of money, lots of degradation and moral decay, and more homeless people than I've ever seen anywhere in the Western world. It was quite confronting actually.

There are some seriously steep streets... like a rollercoaster.

The Palace of Fine Arts, a Roman-style remainder of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The outdoor rotunda, and its lagoon, are some of the city's most-photographed sights.

These ruins are amazing. Just like being in Rome... well, maybe not, but impacting all the same.

We loved seeing San Francisco. A beautiful city for sure but underneath the gloss there's a lot of pain and dirt - more than she'd have you know.

Cookin' a Break!

Beat Box Kitchen

This guy is talented! I thought it was worth sharing. Enjoy.

Brooke Fraser in LA at the Hotel Cafe

On Monday night Bryce (Green) and I went into LA to the Hotel Cafe to see Brooke Fraser play live. What a funky little venue! It's been a while since I've been to a venue like that and when we walked in I thought we might need night vision glasses. It's a small and intimate club where relatively unknown bands of generally a gentler leaning come and play. One band each hour starting at 7pm. The crowd ebbs and flows with the talent. I felt sorry for the guy who was on after Brooke, as the room emptied when her set was done.

Brooke did a great set consisting of Lifeline and Arithmetic from her first album, What To Do With Daylight, and a whole bunch of tunes from her latest album, Albertine. As always she was vocally exquisite and these songs come straight from her heart.
This album is outstanding. Brooke is an amazing songwriter - eloquent and musical, emotive and credible. This CD has stood the test of "endless repeats" in the car. There are not many albums that can go the distance for me, but this one does. You have to get it!

DecembeRadio Blaring Out Across Orange County

Last night we went to see DECEMBERADIO play at The Flock just down the road here in Irvine. It was a 7pm start at Woodbridge Community Church with about 100 people in attendance. I'm still amazed by this - a Grammy nominated band, nominated for 4 Dove awards, a single that's done really well - and no crowd...

These first two photo's give you a pretty good idea of how the night went. It was rockin'! This really took me back to the early 90's when I used to play in a rock covers band. I must find a photo or two from those days to put up!

These are the influences they list on their MySpace site: "Black Crowes, Audioslave, Lenny Kravitz, Led Zeppelin, Porcupine Tree, King's X, Tonic, Thornley, Aerosmith, etc". Actually, I think they left one or two out. They sound remarkably like Giant - remember them from the early 90's? I loved 'em! Perhaps just a touch of AC/DC too. They describe their sound as Guitar Rock with soaring melodies and musical heroics. That's pretty close I reckon.

This boy can sing! He's pretty good with the rock poses too :-)

Well I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the night and we were home by 9pm... Only in America!

This is their debut album. Great production. Great Rock'n'roll!