Randall is a premier musician, singer & songwriter and flies slightly under the radar. I was hoping for ~100ppl and the nature of how things go it could be anywhere from 50 to 200ppl. We had about 30. We were smacked by a HS basketball game, another church's winter carnival, a HS play; plus the usual ambivalent attitude for friday night events.
There's almost too much to get words to, without going 5 pages. So here is a list of slightly organized thoughts:
- I was generally a mild RG fan 4 days ago. Great music, but I like to sing along sometimes and his jazz-ish style makes that tough. Great kid's music. I didn't always "get" the songs. I am now a BIG fan.
- Soundcheck went miserably. The church system wouldn't pickup his guitar. Many tries, & some frustration. We ended up putting a mic in front of the guitar and it came thru well. We discussed this over late-night eggs & basically when things get frustrating you may not be trusting God.
- I lost my voice the night before the concert. It's almost back, 2 days after the whole thing. Conversation was tough. Jason did an excellent introduction (thanks).
- It was very much a house concert (talking back & forth). Ups & downs to that.
- It must be tough being on the road for a musician. Randall stayed at our house & we were intentional on he can talk with us, watch TV, play games or hide in his room as he pleased. He's slightly lactose intolerant, so lasagna roll-ups and a cheesy egg casserole for breakfast might have been tough. Some lactaid saved the day.
- Also being on the road and shuttled is draining in aspects other than being away from family. It isn't a case of "always under the microscope", but certainly aware that the "camera is on" for a majority of your time.
- Randall & I talked much about music, Christian music, his music, kids music. Family. Writing songs for other people. C.S. Lewis. Theology & life. It's hard to say we talked when I didn't say too much.
Right now just a feeling of "I can't believe I was able to be a part of all this."
Thanks, Randall. Thanks, Becky. Thanks, Center Presby Church. Thanks, Hebron Church (for the intro end to the tour and the warm-up adult concert) and Mike & Heather.
My one "regret" from the whole experience is that we didn't talk more people into coming to the concert. He deserved a bigger audience.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that is maybe more exciting than even the multiple concerts in western Pa: the wide reception that Randall received here. There were a number of people at Hebron that had the chance to take him to lunch, to corner him for a long talk, to pick his brain about communicating the Word to children and youth, or just explore the mysteries of potato pancakes with apple sauce and sour cream. While we failed to provide a large audience for his non-invertibrate music, I do hope he felt the strength of the affection we all had for it. There were very few dry eyes in the RG concert at Hebron, and many of those folks had no idea who they had come to see.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to a second chance to promote his next concert in this area - and maybe to reminisce about the camel song and pirate santa.