June 2005
My journal is going to begin with the entry that started it all, our trip in June 2005 where we recorded our "Still Feelin' Fine" project in Nashville, TN.
Click here to go to the Nashville Journal.
The rest of the month of June was rather easy, but after being gone for almost half of the month in Nashville, I was ready for it. The only other concert we had this month was an outdoor concert held in Jones, OK. One of the thing I remember about that concert was that when we were between songs, you could hear a blues act that was performing a couple of blocks over at the city festival. We had a fun time while we were there!
July 2005
July and August were two extremely busy months. Between these two months, we did around 30 concerts. But even though they were as busy as they were, there were still come awesome memories created during that time.
The month started off with us singing at one of my favorite places just before the July 4th Holiday, Del City Nazarene in Del City, Oklahoma. A friend of ours, Randy Mullino, also performed at that concert, and it was nice to get to perform with him again. Pastor Vera is a precious person, and everyone there is always so friendly! Congratulations Pastor Vera on your ordination!
After the holiday weekend, we had a couple of concentrated work days before we were scheduled to go to Iowa for an extended weekend of concerts.
Click here to go to the Iowa Journal.
Our Iowa trip was full of wonderful memories. I can't wait until we do it again next year!
The following weekend, we were booked over towards the Enid area for both Saturday and Sunday. We planned on leaving out first thing Saturday morning, so I woke up extra early so that I could get several Still Feelin' Fine CDs packaged and shrink-wrapped before we left.
I arrived at my office to make two disappointing discoveries. Upon entering my front door, I was greeted with temperatures that were well over 90 degrees. The Air Conditioner unit was frozen up. Moments later, I noticed that I had a message on my answering machine. It was from my largest vending account. The only frozen machine that I own was out of service. That usually means that I am losing a lot of money, and quickly. "Houston, we have problems!" I had to make a decision that I hated making. I was going to have to bow out of traveling with the group for the weekend. I called Scott and made arrangements for him to swing by and pick up a supply of new CDs while he was on his way to meet the rest of the guys. After that, I began dealing with the issues in front of me.
As it turned out, the concerts on Saturday were outdoor concerts, and it was HOT. Gee, I'm sorry I missed that! I was able to get the office A/C unit back up and running rather easily, but the problems with the frozen vending machine were a lot more challenging. I also had to throw out all of the product in the machine (approx. $250 in value). Intermittent problems are extremely hard to diagnose, and will prove to be a challenge for the next several weeks.
The following weekend proved to be a lot better than the previous. On Saturday, we got to sing a joint concert with The Tulsans and The Weatherfords in Ochelata, OK (near Bartlesville). I had been really looking forward to this concert. It is always a joy for me to get to be with The Tulsans, and the fact that The Weatherfords were there also was even better. One of the most memorable things from that concert happened when Steve Weatherford of The Weatherfords and Doug Bortnem of The Tulsans both did impressions of Jake Hess. It was a hoot! Everyone had a great time! Thanks for including us Joyce!
The next morning, an interesting thing happened. We were booked in Chelsea, OK for a morning concert. We didn't have anything scheduled for the evening, and when we arrived at the church parking lot, the pastor met us at the door of the bus. He had a place for us to sing at that evening in Vanita.
We had a great concert that morning, and they had an all-church potluck dinner after the service, which they invited us to partake of. Let me tell you, that church can COOK! If you ever hear that Chelsea Nazarene is having a dinner, do yourself a favor and go! We enjoyed it so much that it was borderline sinful how much we ate. Everything was absolutely WONDERFUL!
The concert that evening was a nice concert. It was a smaller church, but everyone was very friendly, and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Afterwards, the pastor took us out to eat at Pizza Hut. It was a nice end to a great weekend.
The last weekend of the month was quite enjoyable! We spent it in Branson, MO.
Friday, July 29, 2005
We left on the bus at around noon on Friday. From Tulsa, the trip normally takes around 4 - 4 1/2 hours, depending on traffic. This time, traffic wasn't as favorable. A scrolling road sign said there was an accident about 20 miles east of Joplin. We opted to exit before we got caught in a potential parking lot. That took us down some side roads and through some small towns. Needless to say, we got there later than we expected.
On the way over, Mark Brooke gave us a status report on the purchasing of the Cathedrals' old bus. We were approved for the loan and got the terms that we were wanting. So at that point, it was decision time. The back roads to Branson took us through some of the Ozarks. While we were going (very slowly) up one of the hills, Mark Brooke seized the opportunity to take a vote on whether we wanted to make an offer on the (faster) Cathedrals' bus. It was unanimous. We wanted the bus! We planned on making an offer on Monday.
We finally arrived in Branson. We were singing at the Gospel Praise Gathering, which was held at the First Baptist Church. Fortunately the church is located right off Highway 65 on 76 Country Music Blvd. Not long after we arrived, we noticed some friends come in, Bill and Lynda Johnson. Lynda and their son, Kris, used to sing in Forgiven a few years ago. It's always great to see them.
While we were out on the bus getting ready for the concert, I got a call from Doyle McAlister. He had some bad news. A precious friend, Mary McCollum, who had been a been such a supporter to me and so many local gospel groups, had died. It hit us all like a ton of bricks! We all loved Mary! She will be greatly missed. Before I could even finish with the conversation with Doyle, I got another call, this one from a buddy who works at the vending account with the frozen machine. The call was indeed about the frozen machine (which I had refilled just yesterday). It had gone out, again. Fortunately I had left him a key to the machine, and he was able to get the product out of there and into a freezer before I lost very much. SHEESH! When it rains, it pours!
By then, it was time to go in for the concert. After a word of prayer, the evening started. Forgiven wasn't scheduled to sing until late in both sets, so we got to sit and enjoy some singing. Everyone did a great job. It was great to see some of our friends sing again. For me, one of the most memorable songs was sung by Kevin Martin. He did an absolutely AWESOME job. April Henderson & Debbie Brooke arrived part way through the concert. They drove over after April got off work.
After the concert, a few of us went to IHOP in Branson to eat. Unfortunately, the service was horrible! But it is always great to get to eat with friends, and we saw several others that hadn't been at the concert, which was a bonus.
After that, we retired back to the motel for a restful night.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
We got to sleep in this morning. It's always nice to get to do that while we are out on the road!
As is our custom when we are in Branson, we had to go to the Hard Luck Diner and see Bernie! Since we had a full day, and today would be our only chance to go there, We did that first thing. It was great to see her. She is a precious person. If you ever get the chance, do yourself a favor and go to the Hard Luck Diner in the Grand Village. The food is great, and the dining experience is wonderful! And who knows...If we happen to be in the area at the time, you just might get to see us sing a song.
That afternoon, We were scheduled to have an on-air interview at 1:00p with KWFC in Springfield. So after an enjoyable lunch in Branson, we departed for the radio station. Going up and down the hills again north of Branson reminded us again that we wanted the Cathedrals' old bus. We arrived at the KWFC studio and met with our interviewer, Jonathan Edwards. Inside the broadcasting room, they had stacks of CDs from all the great groups. One CD that caught my attention was a CD by Gold City called Movin' Up. Movin' Up was the first gospel Cassette that my parents ever bought my on the night back in the late 1980s that I fell in love with Tim Riley's voice. This was also the project that they recorded "Midnight Cry" on. I would love to add that CD to my collection.
Jonathan talked to us a few times on air while we were there and played a few of our new songs. I had a scare while they were playing "It's All Gonna End One Day" on the air. Their CD was scratched pretty heavily, and it skipped really bad during about half of the song. What made me nervous was the fact that I had duplicated the CD, and thought there might have been something wrong with my CDs. You can only imagine how glad I was to see that the CD was scratched. Needless to say, we swapped out that CD with a new one.
We left the studio at 2:00p and went to Lambert's Cafe south of Springfield. When we got there, there was a 2-hour wait, so we added our name to the waiting list and went back to the bus. Jonathan was joining us, so we got to talk to him while we were waiting. Fortunately, the wait didn't seem as long as it was, and in no time, we were being seated. Lambert's Cafe is an awesome place to eat at, and is worth the wait!
After we ate, we went back to Branson to the Grand Palace. I had been able to get us tickets to see The Oak Ridge Boys, and was even able to arrange for us to have a meet-n-greet back stage with the boys before the show. I got to introduce The Oaks to The Southern Gospel Quartet FORGIVEN. The Oaks are such neat guys! Duane and Mark Green were even joking around about the lead singers being the most important singers in a quartet. After the meet-n-greet, we returned to the beautiful auditorium of the Grand Palace and waited for the show. And what a show it was! The Oaks did AWESOME!
After the concert, we returned to the motel, and turned in for the night. What an exciting day!
Sunday, July 31, 2005
We did not get to sleep in this morning. We had an early-morning concert at the Skyline Baptist Church in Branson. Skyline Baptist has a beautiful venue! It was formerly the Goldrush Theater. Hobby Lobby bought the building and made it available to them at an unbelievable price. (My hat goes off to Hobby Lobby for supporting the spreading of The Gospel in such an amazing way!) We had a great time at Skyline Baptist, and even got to see Bill Johnson one more time before we had to leave Branson.
That evening we had a concert at Crescent Valley Baptist Church in Tahlequah, OK. On our way back to Oklahoma we found some more hills that reminded us again of just how bad we wanted the Cat's bus. We finally arrived in Tahlequah (a little behind schedule as a result of the hills) and set up for the concert. Brad Henderson, the music minister there assisted us in getting everything set up, and even ran a large amount of the sound for the group that evening. He is extremely talented!
After the concert, we went to El Chico in Muskogee, and had a great time of food and fellowship with the Hendersons. What a way to end an amazing weekend!
August 2005
Ok...ok...confession time. I am finally writing this portion of the journal several months after it happened. My recollection of many of the events for this month are sketchy, but a few of them still stand out pretty strong.
When I think back to August 2005, I remember it being a busy month! It started off with a Thursday evening concert for the "39ers" Group at Calvary Baptist Church in Tulsa. This is not the first time I have been here. I had been here a few months before with The Tulsans, but this is the first time I've been here with Forgiven. At this point, I would imagine a few people are wondering just which group I'm with. (a little later in the year I will be back there again, this time again with The Tulsans. I'm sure that will really confuse some people.) The 39ers always have a wonderful meal before the concert. This time, I almost missed it because I was on the phone almost up to the time the concert started. I was trying to finalize some arrangements with some video camera equipment and operators that I would be hiring for a shoot that Saturday (more on that in a little bit). After the meal and a few brief announcements, Forgiven took the stage and delivered a great concert. The 39ers are always a fun group of people to be with.
That Saturday, I had a video shoot with Master's Voice in Bristow. They were celebrating 10 years of ministry at a block party at their home church, ironically also called Calvary Baptist Church. Saturday started out to be overcast and rainy, which had us all nervous for multiple reasons. We were nervous that it might hurt attendance, but more importantly, we were also concerned for our respective sound and/or production gear. Fortunately, with the afternoon came the sun. Saturday actually turned out to be a scorcher. At one point during the sound check, I even got to try to sing bass with one of the iterations of Master's Voice while Mike was getting the board set up. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of running up to the stage, and with the temperature as hot as it was, I had a hard time catching my breath. It was still fun anyways (Thanks guys!). As evening drew closer and setup neared completion, camera equipment and operators began to arrive. This concert was unique in that I had hired a crane camera to be used for this video. What an amazing addition that proved to be! I am now officially hooked on crane cameras! Master's voice did an awesome job, and delivered a powerful and memorable concert! The recording came off without a hitch, and for that I am proud of my production crew! I couldn't have done it without them! I would like to encourage you to pick up a copy of the Master's Voice 10 Year Reunion DVD! It turned out great, and shows the caliber of talent in the group!
The following weekend, Forgiven was booked in Texas. Our trip to Texas was definitely an enjoyable one. We started things off on Friday by singing at Rosie O'Toole's "The Place" in Sherman, TX. Rosie and her husband were such precious people to be with! Unfortunately, bless their hearts!, they were having some electrical problems. At one point during the second set, the power went completely out while Forgiven was on the stage. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to sing when your equipment doesn't have any juice to run it. It doesn't work very well. The guys made a couple of jokes about it, then did an amazing thing. They began singing The Star-Spangled Banner without any sound system at all. That was an amazing sight to behold! With the power back on then, the concert resumed. What a great concert, and we even got to make some new friends!
We sang in Mesquite, TX on Saturday evening, then drove to Ennis, TX to get our gear set up so we didn't have to get up quite as early the next morning. In hind-sight, I am glad we did! Sunday turned out to be a marathon day. We performed four concerts on Sunday. We started out with two morning concerts at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Ennis. After a quick tear-down, we drove to Seagoville, TX to sing at the Seagoville Correctional Center. The security check was an interesting process. After we unloaded all of our sound gear at the front door, they had to go through it in order to make sure we weren't bringing in anything dangerous. After that check, we all got to go through the metal detectors. Most of the guys didn't have any problem, but I wasn't so lucky. I had removed everything out of my pockets, so I didn't have to worry about keys or change or anything, but the buzzer kept going off every time I would remove something that might have been suspicious. After getting rid of my belt (the last piece of clothing that had metal on it), and making a joke about being worried that the metal wire cemented to the back of my teeth (after braces) might have been setting the buzzer off, I walked through yet another time. BUZZ!!! Absolutely perplexed, they grabbed the wand and it turned out to be my dress shirt that was causing the problem. The material was a shiny material, so we just figured that it was the what was setting the detector off. Just to be safe, I went ahead and took my shirt off (thank goodness for T-shirts) and went through the detector without any problems. As I was putting all of my removed articles back on, you can count on the guys ribbing me about the now-past situation. Once past the security check, they finally let us in prison. (Imagine that...someone actually wanting to go in prison. Heh!) It's an amazing (sinking) feeling to see the metal doors close behind you and know that you are locked INSIDE the walls. Once in, we set up our equipment as quickly as we could, by-passed the sound check, and went straight into the concert, with me dialing them in on the fly (thank goodness for hand signals). By the way, you typically want to be selective with what you sing in prison. Basically, "Let Freedom Ring" wouldn't be a good choice of songs to sing. We sang 12 songs for the inmates. They seemed to love it! After we finished we packed our gear up and went over to another area of the facility to sing for a separate group of guys in a lower security area. We sang the same set of songs, with an even greater response from the inmates. The difference between the rooms we sang in was pretty large. The first one was a nice chapel. The second, to be honest, had the acoustical presence of a bathroom with concrete floors. But we had a great time, and hope to have been a source of encouragement for the inmates. For the next few weeks, when we tell audiences of how God has blessed us, we will often get a laugh when we tell them that we went to prison this past year, and the amazing thing is that they let us all back out. I must admit, thought, that it was very relieving to get back outside the gate.
The next week I will never forget! The seller had accepted our offer for the Cathedral's old bus, and we were anxiously awaiting its arrival on Friday! Scott flew to Nashville to drive the bus back to Tulsa, and we scheduled a bus cleaning party on Saturday. Bill Johnson started a thread on the SoGospelNews message boards about us getting the bus. Mark Brooke and I both contributed to the thread. There's some interesting and educational exchanges on there, so let me encourage you to visit there and share in some of the excitement.
Anyways, back to the arrival of the bus...
As I was running errands on Friday, I kept watching the highways for the bus. Friday evening I went over to help a friend out with some audio issues. On my way back home that night, I (conveniently) drove through Glenpool. I couldn't resist the temptation to drive by Scott's house, just to make sure the bus made it safe-and-sound. As I rounded the corner, there it sat! At that moment, that 14 year-old bus was the most beautiful bus on the face of God's wonderful creation! As I (slowly) drove past our new bus, I saw our old white one sitting in the driveway. Then I noticed the size difference. The new black one is HUGE! It's taller, wider, and longer! I never thought I would ever refer to a bus as small, but our old one suddenly seemed to qualify. As I drove the rest of the way home, I don't think my smile diminished one bit. SILHOUETTE WAS HERE TO STAY!
Saturday morning arrived, and we all headed to Glenpool to give Silhouette a good cleaning. That evening, after we finished, we drove through town to go to the car wash. By the way we were acting, you would have thought we were riding in a brand-new $2 million customized coach. We were so proud!
The next morning we sang in Ponca City. We had a great concert at an all-church picnic for First Lutheran. It was held at a Ponca Lake House, and was followed by a wonderful lunch! After we packed all our gear up, and got back on the bus, Mark Brooke read a sweet thank-you note from Rosie O'Toole. She is such a precious lady! After that, we headed to our next concert in Oklahoma City.
We rounded out the month with a few more concerts, and had a great time at all of them. What a time these past couple of months have been! There seems to never be a dull moment when you travel with four extremely talented guys that you love.
Back to top.
|
