Welcome to My Park

The band had a "high point" playing at High Point church in The O.P.
Everyone sounded great, especially in the 2nd service, where we all felt a little more relaxed and comfortable with the songs.
And, we finally got to see our band's name up in lights, sort of...

Old & New

Old:
Video of band practice from 2007!

New:
Bass Amp for Chuck!

The Pinewood DVDs

If you want one, let me know. Get yours while they last. These are a hot item, and they'll be going fast.

Pinewood pics

Word! I finally got a copy of the DVD from Pinewood. It's pretty cool.

Good news: It's the best video of the band we've gotten yet, (not including the walmart video). This is the first video where you can actually see the whole band playing together.
Bad news: The video quality is less than stellar, due to the fact that it's a DVD copy of a VHS tape (sadly, their DVD recording equipment wasn't working properly the morning we played. D'oh!)

I do not have a DVD burner, so I can't make copies for anyone. If you or someone you love has a DVD burner, please let me know so we can make copies for everyone. I think that I can make mp3s of the songs, so I'll try to do that and put them online.

Pictures from our trip to Pinewood Pres.

The streak

If you had plans over the next few weekends, cancel them. I assure you that you will NOT want to miss the band's summer tour. I'm thinking groupies, fancy hotels, and police baracades keeping our legions of fans safely at bay. I hope you're ready because here it comes.

Sunday, August 13 - Grace Presbyterian Church, Palm Coast
Sunday, August 20 - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Jacksonville (rumor has it, we are playing am and pm)
Sunday, August 27 - Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Jacksonvillle

Excited? You should be.

Don't call it a comeback... we never went away.

(Update! Okay, so we're actually meeting Wednesday 7/12 at 7:00 at Pinewood. )

Yo, Audible Wink
Here's the deal with Pinewood.
We should meet Tuesday 7/11 around 7-8pm at Pinewood for practice. Anyone who needs directions let me know.

As far as how many songs we'll be playing... We'll be leading the music for the whole worship service. They will be recording it for us. It will be a total of around 5 songs. Here's how it will be laid out:

3 songs at the beginning,
(Something more upbeat. Maybe 2 of them familiar with their congregation, and one not so familiar.)
Here's some songs they suggested for the first 2...
O the deep deep
Thy mercy my God
Be Thou my vision
Come thou Fount
It is well
and maybe for the third song of the opening...
O love that will not let me go
Come ye sinners
(Since those might be new, we can repeat the first verse, so they can sing along)

Next, we'll do one song for special music for the offertory.
(Something they haven't heard before, since they'll just be sitting and listening)
No sweeter subject - (From the Gatsby hymnal? - with strings + cello)
Beneath the cross

Lastly, we'll do one more song for the closing. We can pick one from the first list that hasn't been used, or we can pick a new one they aren't as familiar with.

Also, we should have a few backup songs, just in case.

Again, well meet Tuesday 7/11 around 7-8pm at Pinewood for practice. Call me and let me know that you can make it.

Also, Sunday after church, my parents have invited the band over to eat at their house.

Peace out
-Alan

Happy Icelandic Independence day!

(In honor of the Icelandic heritage of our guitarist/lead male vocalist)
Happy Icelandic Independence day!

On June 17, 1944, Iceland was granted independence from Denmark with the
repealing of the 1918 Act of Union.

Due to Denmark being occupied by German forces and Iceland by the British
at the time, Denmark did not have as much influence over Iceland and,
mainly for simplicity, allowed the country its complete independence,
which included the rewriting of the Icelandic constitution and the
transformation of Iceland into a republic. Sveinn Björnsson became the
first president of independent Iceland.

Today, Icelanders celebrate this holiday on a national scale. The
celebration traditionally takes the form of a parade through each urban
area, with a brass band at the fore. After the parade several speeches are
held out in the open. Traditionally there is also Fjallkonan (the woman of
the mountain), clad in the most festive national dress of Iceland, that
recites a poem. She represents the fierce spirit of the Icelandic nation
and of Icelandic nature, this is in many ways an inheritance from the
period of romanticism that was reigning when the first steps toward
independence were being taken. After speeches and other officialities are
over a less formal celebration takes place, with musicians entertaining
the crowd, candy being devoured by children in huge quantities and gas
filled balloons escaping their owners and flying to the sky. It is also
somewhat traditional to expect rain on the 17th of June in Iceland, in
particular the SW part. However statistics will probably reveal that the
incidence of rain on the 17th of June is no more than any other day of
June.

June 17 is also the birthday of Jón Sigurðsson, a major figure of the
Icelandic culture and the leader of the 19th century Icelandic
independence movement.

Hello out there...

Hey, it's your accordion player here, blowing the dust off the old website. Believe it or don't, we have some gigs in the works. Here's the suggested plan for the summer. We should pick a Friday in June to practice at Pinewood, so they can get a chance to hear what we sound like. They said friday evenings would be best for us to go there, so I think 6/2 or 6/9 would be good. We should plan on playing on a sunday in mid-July, probably 7/16 or 7/23.


Also, Steve seemed excited about having the band playing another service at Westminster, so I signed us up for it. He requested "Come Ye Sinners", the different version we played last year at church.



That is all for now.

The "Other" Video

Okay, here's the real video you've been waiting for...
Riding the horses outside of Super Wal*Mart in Titusville.

The Music Video

Here's our very first music video, featuring our performance in Titusville. It's pretty awesome. I was able to zoom in on the people in the picture without losing too much image quality. I wanted to mix the mp3 audio into it, but I couldn't get it to synch up correctly. I'll work on it some more and see if I can get the audio to work. The file is pretty big, so it may take a couple of minutes to download.

AVI Video - Beneath the cross of Jesus

On the road with Audible Wink

Titusville mp3

Hey, I've uploaded an mp3 of the band's performance yesterday morning in Titusville. It sounds pretty good. I can make copies onto tape or CD if anyone would like one. I'll work on making copies of the video as soon as I can. The band lineup for S.N.A.G. (our band name of the weekend = So Not A Gorilla) consisted of Ebin and Mandy on guitar & vocals, Alan on accordion, Alvin on djembe, Jessica on banjo, Tracy on piano and Amanda on backup vocals. Thanks to the Jarvis's for inviting us and letting us stay at your place, and for all of the great food.

Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Watch out Titusville, here we come. For those of you interested, the band will be playing in Titusville, Fl this weekend. We encourage fans and stalkers of all shapes and sizes to join us.

Ruf Band Demos

Here's some rough performances (get it? RUF?) of songs that were recorded by the band at Tracy's house in December 2005.

A Mighty Fortress
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go