From the Mind of MandoRon

Hola! Welcome to this week’s edition of the Sunday Setlist.  As always, you can find more Sunday Setlists over at Fred McKinnon’s blog.

Here is the setlist from GracePoint:

• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2 (walk-in)
• No One Like You by David Crowder Band
• I Am Free by Jon Ega/Desperation Band
• Sing to the King by Billy James Foote/ Passion
• Hope Now by Addison Road
• When We Are Alone by Amy Brown (prayer time/offering)
• Pull Me Out by Bebo Norman (offering in 1st service only)

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For … We’ve found this one works better with a female vocalist.  It’s pretty high, especially after we bump it up a 1/2 step to get away from detuned guitars.

No One Like You is a fun one from DCB.  It’s been in the rotation for several years now.  There was a little issue in the second service.  We didn’t all come out of the break at the same time…  It’s also bumped up a 1/2 step.

I Am Free …  We play this one in D, similar to the Promise Keepers version.  A little more rocked up though.

Sing to the King is an awesome song.  You can’t keep yourself from clapping at the line “Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King.”  Christina always is awesome on this one.  Tommy ripped a very tasty guitar solo too.

Hope Now is a new one for us.  It’s a pretty good song, though I’m not sure it’s perfect for the “worship time” before the sermon.

When We Are Alone is an Amy Brown original.  Amy first sang and played this a year ago.  I posted the lyrics then, and you can check them out here.  Good song.

Pull Me Out is a great song from Beb Norman.  It was also new this week.  Unfortunately, it was axed at the last minute in the second service because we were running long on time.  It’s pretty easy to play and a lot of fun.

That’s it!  I played acoustic guitar and mandolin this week.  The rest of the band: 1 male vocalist, 2 female vocalists, electric guitar, acoustic guitar/mandolin, bass guitar, keys, and drums.

Next week, I’m out of town.  So let me know if you’d be interesting in writing a guest post for the GP Sunday Setlist.

Thought I would share a couple of things:

1. Be sure to check out Edge of Grace from GracePoint Church tomorrow night (May 16th) at Reuben’s (corner of Douglas and McLean).  I think they start playing at 6:30.  After the concert, stick around to check out the fireworks as the River Festival draws to a close.
2. Blake Aaron Guthrie will be performing on the Team Kansas Toyota Food Court Stage at Century II at 6:00 tomorrow (May 16th).  The River Festival people have good taste!  Blake has sang a few times at GP.  Great guy.  Go show Blake some love before Edge of Grace gets things ing.
3. On Tuesday, one of my favorite bands, Carbon Leaf, is releasing their new album “Nothing Rhymes with Woman”.  When I was thinking about buying a mandolin five years ago, I googled “mandolin rock” just to see what showed up.  The first link was to Amazon where they had several songs you could download for free.  I ordered two of their CD’s that night.  Amazon has a special edition of the new CD with two bonus tracks for $13.99 if you pre-order it.  I did.
4. Next Saturday (May 23rd…), I’m heading down to the Old Town Farmer’s Market to hear Trent Wagler from 10-noon.  A co-worker gave my his newest CD, “Adrienna Valentine”, for Christmas and I love it.  His band plays acoustic, Americana-type stuff.  A little bluegrass.  Some incredible ballads.  Trent’s voice is somewhere between Neil Young and Dan Fogerty.  If you’re interested, here’s a video of “Corrine”.  He’s got a pretty good mandolin player too… Jay Laap.  It’s my understanding, that Trent is Kim’s little brother…
5. Have you heard the new Jars of Clay album, “The Long Fall Back to Earth”.  I’ve been listening to it a lot.  It’s quite tasty.
6. Speaking of new albums… my friend Carmen Kamps has a new album out.  Check out “Here. Me. Now.” from Ferocious Mary over at CD Baby.  If I ever get around to following up on things, I’ll probably be having a giveaway on the blog in the near future.
7. U2 in Norman, OK on October 18!  Can’t wait!
8. Made a new friend recently.  Go check out www.circle37.com for some great thoughts about music.
9. And now a rant.  In the last few weeks, I’ve seen three musical performances that have me scratching my head.  Paula Abdul on American Idol, Ciara on Saturday Night Live, and Katy Perry on American Idol.  All three basically performed in ie with less than stellar vocals.  Paula was all effects.  Ciara rarely sang - mostly gyrations and back-up vocals.  Katy sounded terrible.  Is this what music has come to?  What does it show the Idol wannabe’s?  Usher was on earlier in the season.  What a great role for up and coming singers…  But apparently, you don’t need great vocals if you’ve got a great body.  Just check out the free video from Jessie James on itunes this week…

That’ll do for now.  Have an awesome weekend!

I’m excited!  I get to spend 4 hours this morning helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity.  For the second year in a row, my employer is sponsering a house and allowing employees a half day off (with pay) to go help.

I had a lot of fun last year even though I ended up mudding and sanding on drywall.  (Yuck!)  This year, I think we are only a week into the build so it will probably be more structural work this morning.  I’ll find out.

Anyway, I encourage you to help out if you ever get the chance.

How about you?  What experiences have you had with Habitat?

Check out “The Mom Song”!

http://www.vimeo.com/3050547

Thanks for posting this Fred.

Good morning all!  I hope that you took care of your mothers and wives for Mother’s Day yesterday.  If not, don’t expect anything on Father’s Day…

Yesterday was a great day at GracePoint.  Bryson preached an inspiring sermon about elevating your faith.  The music was off the charts!

The setlist:

• Elevation by U2 (walk-in)
• Never Going Back to OK by The Afters
• In the Blink of an Eye by MercyMe
• Sing My Love by Sarah McMillan
• Solid Rock by Delirious
• Dreams by The Cranberries (offering)

Elevation is one that we had learned several months back for a different series.  It’s a lot of fun.  I tried adding a dynamic high-pass filter on Mike’s vocals during the bridge, which I thought worked pretty well.  I did the same thing on the rap in Solid Rock…

Never Going Back to OK was a new one.  It’s not my favorite song in the world, but the band nailed it. Gil’s vocals were spot-on.

In the Blink of an Eye has been in the Sunday rotation pretty much since the beginning of GP. 

Sing My Love is a great worship song by Sarah McMillan.  It’s got some nice lead guitar riffs, and a very tasty, melodic  guitar solo.  The other reason I like it is just because it’s different than most of the songs that we use.  The lyrics have a very feminine feel to them, which I hope speaks to some people (women???) in a way that other songs may not.

Solid Rock is a fun one from Delirious.  Rod lays downs some cool Steve-Wonder-esque vibes on this.

Dreams was probably the highlight of the morning.  Amy brought the house down!  I finally got the EQ on her vocals nailed down in the 2nd service, and it sounded incredible.  I also added some heavy delay to the “La Da Da…” at the end which ended up sounding really cool.  It felt like there were 2 or 3 Amys singing at that point.

That’s all…  For more setlists, check out Fred’s Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival.  It’s the 42nd consecutive week!

Have a great week!