22February2009
Posted by nate under: music.
February has been my busiest travel month in years. Jodi’s too. This week will be the first week since the end of January that neither of us are leaving the state. Fear not though, there’s still plenty going on.
This last Friday the original Nate Houge and the Honest Folk line-up made a migratory journey south. All the way to northen IA. Oh, and for you younger fans the original Honest Folk line-up is Jason Moran. Jason is was and always will be the Honest Folk. Although in the early days we sometimes went as Jason Moran and the Lying Stinkin’ Guitarist.
In IA we lead music at a jr. high retreat hosted at Lutheran Lakeside Camp. We brought a bunch of percussion instruments (about 30 altogether) and did an entire evening worship service without me playing guitar. I did lead one song on acoustic lap steel and one song on fisher price xylophone (the kind with rainbow bars) but everything really depended on the percussive leadership of Jason.
It was great. The executive director at the camp had a huge native american drum that he lent us so we included Heleluyan, a hallelujah from the Muscogee tradition (171 in the ELW) that I just learned 3 weekends ago at a global music training event. I was really pleased with how Jason and I were able to facilitate worship with the percussion, but even more amazed at what a great group of singers had assembled. Once again the bar has been raised for Jr. High kids everywhere. This group was outstanding.
It was also funny to think that only a week before I had been loading in a dozen stringed instruments and now I had traded that in for a suitcase of shakers, sticks and bottle caps, and was pretty much doing the same thing. They’re all just tools some times and us artsy fartsy types get the luxury of picking the right tool for the job.
What a great job.
13February2009
Posted by nate under: music.
Friday morning we picked up Craig and Michael (drums and guitar) from the airport and together we headed down to the DE-MD High School Synod gathering. After a stop, per Michael’s request, at Wawa we arrived at Ocean City MD mid afternoon. We were greeted by a ton of helpful High Schoolers who quickly loaded in all our stuff – up to this point we had only been doing acoustic stuff but now we got to bring in the electric stuff too. Here’s what they brought in:
2 electrics, 3 amps, two pedal boards, electric lap steel, acoustic lapsteel, banjo, mandolin, melodica, xylophone, 2 acoustics, a bass, small keyboard and merch.
Indulgent. But, I’d like to point out that everything was played during the weekend. We made good use of our resources. I also learned that you can quietly play a small xylophone with brass fingerpicks. Good to know.
It was a great band. Micah switched over to bass and along with Craig on drums they kept us all together. Michael did his thing that he does so well on electric, I got to fill in on whatever was left, usually mandolin or banjo, but there was room for slide and electric stuff too. Rachel Kurtz hammered out her songs and we backed her up and got all kinds of great compliments. It was a vocationally affirming weekend.
Like every other day of the tour we were up till at least midnight and every morning I was awake by 7 – usually earlier. It allowed me to get a few runs in, but really I would have appreciated my body letting me sleep in a bit later.
We wrapped up the weekend with lunch at Panera (my new favorite chain when traveling) and Micah and I said goodbye, got back in the van, and drove another 8 hours towards home.
10February2009
Posted by nate under: music.
Gettysburg.
The drive to Gettysburg was fine till we got to the rolling hills. I think we were on Hwy. 30. Lots of ups and downs and twists. Micah and I were glad we hadn’t started the day with a large glass of warm whole milk. As it was we came out of that stretch a wee bit nauseus.
We arrived at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg a bit later than hoped due to the twisting and turning and a stop at Starbucks (where for the first time in months the barista actually cared about coffee and teach us a thing or two about what we were drinking). Our host Joel was gracious and after a relatively quick set up in the chapel he gave us a cliff notes tour of the battlefields surrounding the seminary. Maybe its me getting older, maybe it’s the US invasion of Iraq, but those fields hold way more significance to me now than they did when I last visited them 12 years ago. That’s all I’ll say about that for now.
It was a great show – it’s hard to beat playing for a crowd of smart young Lutherans. Check out Micah’s flicker site for a few photos. The greek professor and a few of his students were present so I did Metanoia and quizzed the students. They didn’t quite pass… but the prof totally appreciated it and also gave me a nice Bill Mallonee compliment after the show. (Metanoia is greek for ‘repent/turn around’) I also met a pastor from MD, Pr. John Greenstone http://www.emmitsburg.net/elias/about_joh.htm who’s doing really cool work with faith and the environment.
We followed the show with great Chinese food. The next morning I went for a run and ran across the field along Picket’s Charge. It was moving. No pun intended. Micah took this photo of Pickets charge:
Great coffee and scones at the Ragged Edge, and we were off to pick up the rest of the Rachel Kurtz band in Philadelphia. The Nate Houge and Micah Taylor leg of the tour was over and the Rachel Kurtz and the Rescue Mission leg had begun.