Friday, June 16, 2006

Catching you up-to-date

We had a fabulous Homecoming concert this evening with Phil Cross, Testament, Jamie Thietten, and the phenomenal Homecoming choir directed by the unimitable Gerald Van Order. It featured the debut of Crossing a mixed trio consisting of Phil Cross, his wife Rebecca, and another lady who has been a family friend of the Cross family. They had an outstanding first outing! Their style is the melding of Southern Gospel with vertical praise. Awesome! I will soon be posting a review of their new CD.

We're heading off to 3 more concerts this weekend with Crossing in Wendell, ID; Caldwell, ID; and Baker City, OR. After a week of all-day studio sessions and evening rehearsals my voice is weary. God has been good to me, though. I can at least still sing.

I'll be posting a more in-depth concert review next week. Stay tuned.

By the way, be listening for a new song penned by Doran Ritchey and Phil Cross entitled "I'm His" which will be on our new CD (coming out in September or so). I love the material on our new album already, but I think this song is on a whole other level from everything else.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Looking Ahead and Behind

I got in early yesterday from another weekend in Oregon and Washington. We had a great time. Sunday night we were with another group, the King's Heirs. They are some of the greatest guys in the world. We had a fantastic time together. The concert (in Clarkston, WA) was held at the First Christian Church and they, along with the congregations from the First Assembly of God and the Clarkston Church of God, came ready to praise God. We had a beautiful time of worship.

I just returned from the studio. I feel like we have lived there the last few weeks. Fortunately, we are almost finished with our Old Time Gospel Songs album (just a few touch-ups to take care of). We are now working on a project featuring brand-new songs, most of them written specifically for Liberty. We got to the studio about 10 this morning and stayed for about 7 hours. Phil Cross is working with us, arranging and producing our vocals. This is the first time I've been able to spend time with him and I have to say the guy has an incredible ear for harmony. I'm very happy with the two songs that we cut today. Good stuff!

We'll be in the studio the rest of the week finishing up at least half of the album. Then, this weekend we'll be singing at the annual Idaho Homecoming concert featuring Phil Cross & Crossing (a mixed trio), Liberty, and several other groups here in the area. There is also a 100-voice choir singing on about 9 songs. I think it's going to be a fun evening. We're going to be traveling with Phil Cross on Saturday and Sunday in Idaho and Oregon.

I probably won't be doing a lot of updating this week due to my schedule. We'll see what happens.

By the way, Travis, I'm praying that the Cubs fall off the end of the earth. They have cast some sort of spell over the Reds, I'm confident. The Reds can't take out the weakest offensive team in the Central division. Pathetic!

Oh yeah, one other thing for my motorcycle-riding compadres: Wear a helmet, for crying out loud!