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Had to share this

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Time for a little update. Things were a little slow this summer and I took some time off the band to recover. While I'm still in a long uphill battle to fully heal which may take years, I did play a couple times in August with the band at the service. We've lost a couple members of the band over the summer for various reasons but still have a core group of 4-5 people including a fourth guitarist which will allow me to focus more on the bass.

Tonight was my first official night back in action and I plan on being there every week now during the winter months. We learned a new song tonight and after practicing it twice we decided to play it in the service during the eucharist. It's a very uplifting song. Anyways, here it is. (not us performing it of course)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTThPMWzxRs

Another of the songs we do regularly is "Forever" by Chris Tomlin. We went down to Minneapolis to see him perform live back in March. It was an awesome concert with around 12000 people there. We were basically right in the first row. Very moving. Here's the original version of the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15Rb6cQh-sk
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Back to regular routine now. We've been back to our regular practice and services since September. We meet at the church every Friday evening at 7 for practice and play Saturday. I used to stand up to sing and play but until my back gets better it's the chair for me. Just thankful I can still walk. [emoji3]

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NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
We've got a big ole church. It was built over 100 years ago starting in I believe 1903. Our bell tower has the only manual bells played this way between the Toronto area and Winnipeg. Tomorrow night, we are hosting an open house for people to come tour the bell tower. Just prior is the usual 5pm service I play at. I've picked the music already that the congregation will be singing.

If you click on the news link and watch the video, it shows the bells being played. Some friends of ours in the video.

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/Artsente...h_open_house_to_let_people_try_carillon_bells
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Here's a few pictures I took tonight of the belltower and the church where I play.

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Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
So I've added another member to the herd.
2c299bd025971db0aada7348651292ef.jpg


I now have seven (I believe ) guitars. Why so many you might ask? Well, I have one for at home playing. One for the kids to learn on. Two sitting at church that I use every weekend. One of which is a sweet sounding 12 string. An acoustic base I bought last year for the band. A nice electric I haven't played in years sitting in its case downstairs. And now this one to have at camp as a cheap little plucker around the fire. It's awesome to play and has a really nice sound. [emoji2]

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I went to a small concert last month in town here. The band "the color" was performing. They are an upcoming Christian band that has been touring the country. I got to meet the band and chat with them during intermission. They informed me that they'd be back on November 30th opening for a big name band "building 429". Both bands are a Christian rock genre. They had a contest on Facebook if you liked and shared the ad for the concert. I normally don't share anything but this time I did. They posted a short video on the tour page tonight announcing that I won 4 vip tickets. I originally planned to go anyway but now I'm taking a friend and our two older boys since my wife is taking a course weds.

https://youtu.be/-r88mz7vNT4

https://youtu.be/9pv5wVS7yzk

living the dream
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
I went to a small concert last month in town here. The band "the color" was performing. They are an upcoming Christian band that has been touring the country. I got to meet the band and chat with them during intermission. They informed me that they'd be back on November 30th opening for a big name band "building 429". Both bands are a Christian rock genre. They had a contest on Facebook if you liked and shared the ad for the concert. I normally don't share anything but this time I did. They posted a short video on the tour page tonight announcing that I won 4 vip tickets. I originally planned to go anyway but now I'm taking a friend and our two older boys since my wife is taking a course weds.

https://youtu.be/-r88mz7vNT4

https://youtu.be/9pv5wVS7yzk

living the dream

The Color.
I love their sound. :smile:
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yes. I like that song too. Hits home to me. I had never heard it till I went to the concert last month. During intermission I was talking to the singer who asked me why I was walking with two canes. So I told him what happened to me last summer. When they came back on the stage they gave a little talk about how everyone goes through tough times then he pointed out to me and dedicated that song to me. I damned near broke out in tears while they were playing it. I came home and grabbed my guitar and learnt it.

living the dream
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
On average we have a crowd of 20-25 people attending the 5pm service I play at. We have a song inventory of around 75 different songs to choose from every week so we are familiar with them.

This week though, we are down 2 members of my band for the upcoming 5pm service. Plus, it's Christmas eve. So we will most likely be playing to a packed house and the song selection will be of course Christmas carols. And I've been asked to play an acoustic fingerpicking version of silent night during the offering. No singing. Just me and my guitar playing to about 200 people. Some friends of ours from camp have said that they plan on being there too as it's intended for families with younger kids.

living the dream.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
We posed for a picture after the Saturday evening service to put in the annual church report. Still going strong after 4 years.
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Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
It's shrove Tuesday so that means pancake supper at church. Our old organ was 110 years old and finally died last year so it was replaced by a new one just before Christmas. Rather than scrap the old one, we moved it downstairs and converted it into a cafe for coffee hour after sunday morning service. Check it out. Freshly ground coffee. It's even plumbed in with a water line.
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NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
So I've added another member to the herd.
2c299bd025971db0aada7348651292ef.jpg


I now have seven (I believe ) guitars. Why so many you might ask? Well, I have one for at home playing. One for the kids to learn on. Two sitting at church that I use every weekend. One of which is a sweet sounding 12 string. An acoustic base I bought last year for the band. A nice electric I haven't played in years sitting in its case downstairs. And now this one to have at camp as a cheap little plucker around the fire. It's awesome to play and has a really nice sound. [emoji2]

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
While the epiphone was setup great and a nice player guitar, I found the large dreadnaught body size to be more difficult for me to handle as I have a hard time lifting my arms.

I opted to sell it and replace it with a Parlor guitar. I picked this up. The setup is near perfect making it a great little player. For a smaller body it really projects the sound. It's an Alvarez ap610s. It has electronics built in including a great and accurate tuner.
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NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm still playing every Saturday at church with my band. We now have 6 members. Still 3 of us playing acoustic and all of us singing. Tomorrow, we have a busy afternoon as we are playing Christmas carols at a seniors luncheon down the road from my place. As soon as we're done that and all packed up, we head back to the church and play the service. I just came back from a 2 hour practice at the church. It's a 25 minute drive to get there from our place.
 

NorthernRedneck

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GOLD Site Supporter
Now that camping season is over, I'm back playing at the church. How it worked when covid hit in march, we started doing livestream services online with no congregation in attendance. In September, they were able to start back with people attending but maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks. What did that mean for us playing? Well, we normally have 7 people in the band. Now, we're only allowed 2 people. Sitting like 10 feet apart.

Over the summer while services were still suspended, our church invested in new lighting and a whole new sound system. So that means that our guitars are now connected wirelessly. We each have a wireless headset with microphone and earphones so we can hear each other. We also have someone at the back of the church mixing and blending the sound so it's even.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=94EKqewRJzM

I talk to myself to get an expert opinion.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Fast forward to the present. We just recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary of doing the music thing every Saturday from September to June every year.

Lately, it hasn't been all sunshine and roses as we have struggling with attendance since covid. The writing has been on the wall for the past few months as there were a few Saturdays where it was just the band and the minister and maybe 1-2 people.

I can totally understand how big professional bands split up after being together for many years. So it's been myself, Anne and Jim as the main members with up to 7 of us at one time playing and singing every weekend. Jim began bringing his son along. He is a very good guitar player but very "by the book" and thinks that we should be doing only a limited number of songs and we can only play them as written in the key and tempo they were originally done. To the point where we are practicing and he stops mid song and starts picking apart how I'm playing because it's not exactly how he does it.

About this time of year, I'm done anyways as we start going to camp. I already told everyone that I will not be back full time in the fall as this currently takes about 3 to 4 hours of my time a week to practice and search for music then another 3 hrs every Saturday for a 35 minute service then get there and nobody shows up. So next winter, I plan on taking full advantage of every weekend to get out doing things that I have been sacrificing for 10 years.
 
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