U2 was playing the last show of the U.S.leg of their 360° Tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. I was one of an estimated 10 million people who tuned in to watch the show streamed live on YouTube. I was blown away. I had to see this show in person.
The next morning, dates were announced for a second U.S. leg of the tour to kick off in Summer 2010. I looked at the dates and saw Denver on the tour schedule for June 12, 2010, the day after my birthday. BAM! There it was! I called one of my best friends, Josh, to see if he was down for heading to Denver to see U2 for my birthday. He was. We purchased our tickets on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, and it was on!
I’m a big music head and Jamie Cullum is one of my favorite artists. In addition to being a great musician, he is an electrifying live performer. I can watch his Live At Blenheim DVD over and over again and it blows me away every time.
I recently came across this video of his live performance of “Mixtape” with the Heritage Orchestra for the Late Night Proms series at London’s Royal Albert Hall. It builds and builds and musically, visually, sonically… there is only one word I can use to describe this:
EPIC.
Turn up the volume, turn down the lights and full-screen HD this bad boy.
Of the 3 primary topics I chose for this blog: faith, life and culture, the one I write about the least is culture. I’m trying to change that.
I’m somewhat of a pop culture freak, love music and movies and am always on the hunt for the latest and greatest sounds that are bubbling just under the surface of the mainstream. I don’t yet know how much it will translate to mass audiences, but my latest musical discovery definitely has my ear.
I just stumbled across James Blake and I’ve got his album on repeat. His sound is like Bon Iver meets Imogen Heap meets… something other-worldly. In short, it’s pure, chilled-out bliss.
Check out the video for his cover of Feist’s “Limit To Your Love”.
Dig it? His self-titled album is chock full of more of the same soulful, quirky and dramatic electronic pop goodness.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several days, you’re aware that Christina Aguilera completely botched her attempt at the Star-Spangled Banner at this year’s Super Bowl. She forgot the words and swapped a line with the wrong lyrics. Fail. Huge. Career. Fail. Even if she hadn’t gotten the words wrong, she over-sung much of it anyway.
The girl can sing, but she screamed much of it this time, and it was painful to experience. By the time she got to the end, it was horrendous. Look, we can’t all be Whitney, so sometimes you need to just sing the song. I mean, Whitney killed it so good they sold that thing as a cassingle! (bonus points if you owned said cassingle!)
Since Christina’s very public debacle has had the nation’s tongues wagging all week, I thought it would be fun to compile some other National Anthem failures.. a “best of the worst”, if you will. Here goes, in no specific order.
This one didn’t have any forgotten words, but man it just makes my ears cry.
This one right here… wow! He’s all over the place and sounds constipated. When he finished, I was expecting him to drop the mic and yell, “Sexual Chocolate!”.
Now this poor girl just couldn’t catch a break. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. But it made me laugh a lot.
And this one right here… *sigh* This thing is the Patriotic equivalent of “O-Mazing Grace”! What is he even singing?!?! Mumble, mumble, mumble, as the lambs gleaming something, mumble, mumble, some bombs in the air. LOL!!
Good times, good times.
Have you ever made a really big, really public mistake?
One part of my story that I don’t really talk much about but was undoubtedly a strong formative season for me is when I was given the opportunity to work with Kirk Franklin.
In 2004 I was working for EMI Music in Nashville when I received a call from Kirk in August of that year. It took me by surprise and I remember calling him “sir” and “Mr. Franklin”. My friend and colleague of 6 years, Carla, had gone to work with him and had told him about me. We spoke for awhile and told me he was starting his new company, Fo Yo Soul Entertainment, and said he would be honored if I would consider moving to Dallas to work with (never “for”, always “with”) him.
I was in shock.
I had been a long-time fan of Gospel music, and certainly of Kirk’s music. After reading about him in Billboard Magazine in 1993, I remember having to special order his first album, Kirk Franklin & The Family, at my local Musicland store in Joplin, Missouri because they didn’t carry it. I had absolutely no idea that one day I would have the opportunity to work with him.
So, back to 2004. I did pray about it, and think a lot about it, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I had to accept his offer and take this leap. Though I had just settled in my heart that Nashville is where I wanted to be and call “home”, I accepted the job, stepped out of my fresh comfort zone and embraced change as I packed up all my stuff and moved to Dallas 3 days before Christmas in 2004.
I spent the next 3 years working closely with Kirk, serving in a wide variety of roles. I’m very thankful for every single moment and experience I had there. I have many incredible memories from that season of my life and someday I may write more about some of the great things I got to be a part of while working with him.
There are probably 2 things that will forever stand out to me about that season: 1) Kirk’s character and 2) the songs.
Toward the end of last year, after having walked through the most difficult year of my life, I called Kirk to thank him for his example of Godly character and to let him know that I didn’t even realize how much of an impact the way he lived his life had on me until this year. Sure, it was a killer job, but I didn’t realize the depth of the spiritual deposit or character development that was taking place during that season until just recently. It shaped me in more ways than I realized. Kirk is the real deal. He is a man of God and I am honored to be able to call him my friend.
And then there’s the songs… Good Lord, the songs!
His 2005 album Herois one of my favorites and I feel a very close personal connection to that particular body of work, having watched it being birthed via much prayer and honesty, melody concepts and lyric ideas all the way to seeing hundreds of thousands of people connect with the songs literally all over the world.
I’ll never forget the first time Kirk shared his idea for “Imagine Me” with us, just sitting at a piano at his house. I literally cried. The following year I stood on the side of the stage, under an open sky as Kirk performed in the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, Nigeria and watched over 100,000 Nigerians sing “gone, gone, all gone!” at the top of their lungs at 4am. It still gives me chills when I think about it.
Speaking of songs, Kirk has a brand new single out, called “I Smile”, and I absolutely love it! It’s from his forthcoming album, “Hello, Fear”, which is a concept album about facing your fears with hope and courage. Having seen first-hand the way Kirk wrestles with God over songs, in prayer and faith… I know the new album will be nothing short of amazing and will impact many people all over the world for the glory of God.
Smile, It’s so hard to look up when you’ve been down
Sure would hate to see you give up now
You look so much better when you so smile
So, smile
Reminds me of this…
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4
Listening to “I Smile” brings back a lot of great memories for me, encourages me and yeah, it makes me… smile. You can buy the “I Smile” single now, and “Hello, Fear” will be released March 22.
What do you think about Kirk’s new song “I Smile”? What song makes you smile?
