From the Mind of MandoRon

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

After last week’s acoustic music, it was time to pull out the distortion pedals and amps again this week…  All in all, it was a pretty good morning.  My only complaint is that I kept forgetting how to play the songs in the 2nd service.  It was bizarre actually.  1st service went fine…  Maybe I needed more caffeine…

The setlist:

• Undo Me by Jennifer Knapp (walk-in & exit)
• We Shine by Fee
• Holding Nothing Back by Melissa How/Jesus Culture
• See His Love by Kim Walker-Smith/Jesus Culture
• My Savior My God by Aaron Shust
• Psalm 130, original arrangement (offering)

Undo Me is one we’ve been doing for the last year or so.  Incredible lyrics!

We Shine is a great song to kick the worship set off.  It was great to see everyone clapping and singing along.

Holding Nothing Back … call me shallow, but my favorite part of the song is the guitar riffs at the end.  I do like the other parts too, however…

See His Love … we shorten this one a bit from the original recording on We Cry Out.  Jesus Culture does a lot of long songs…

My Savior My God is one we hadn’t used in about a year and a half.  The lyrics in the chorus are particularly powerful.

Psalm 130 is an original arrangement of, well, Psalm 130…  (NIV, in case you’re curious)  It all started last November when I suggested to Carmen that she take a stab at making a song out of Psalm 130.  (I had recently listened to Bryan Doerksen’s arrangement of Psalm 13…)  She pretty quickly came up with something which she played for me after practice last Winter.  It was really good!  The song sat dormant until recently when I added it to this morning’s setlist.  Originally, I was just thinking of having Carmen play piano and sing.  But she really wanted the band to learn the song and play it with her.  So we spent about an hour working on the arrangement at practice, and we came up with something that we were pretty proud of.  It’s so powerful to sing scripture!

The band was a little smaller than normal today… Carmen - vocals and piano, Gil - vocals and bass, Bruce - electric guitar, Chris - drums, and Me - electric mandolin.

Be sure to check out the Sunday Setlist Blog Extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.

Just for something different, we rocked it acoustic-style this morning at GracePoint.  It was a lot of fun, and I think we managed to retain the normal energy even without screaming electric guitars.  We did decide to keep the drums for this week, which helped with the energy.  Deric played using brushes and splashsticks on a simplified drum kit on most of the songs, and a cajon on Hey Ya.

The setlist:

• Hey Ya by Obadiah Parker (walk-in & exit)
• No More No Less by MercyMe
• You Never Let Go by Matt Redman
• Hope Now by Addison Road
• In the Light by DC Talk
• Hole Hearted by Extreme (offering)

Hey Ya … This was a cool acoustic cover of the Outkast song. 

No More No Less … I think it had a been a little while since we used this in church.  It’s a fun song to play.

You Never Let Go … It’s always convenient when the last note of one song is the first note of the next song.  (And for full disclosure, it was dumb luck and not planning…)  I played without any in-ear monitors this morning due to the lower stage volume, and you could really hear people singing along on this one.  Especially 2nd service!

Hope Now … “Everything rides on hope now.”  I always enjoy hearing Christina sing this song…

In the Light … For some reason, people always get fired up on this one.  Which is just fine by me.  A classic!

Hole Hearted … I don’t think I’d heard this Hole Hearted until Tommy suggested it a few weeks ago.  Interestingly, the lyrics are very similar to Plumb’s God Shaped Hole…  Very cool song!  Tommy did an amazing job on some crazy guitar riffs.  Gil and Christina’s vocals were great too.

I should point out that Gil put together this week’s setlist…  And he did a fantastic job!

The band: Gil (vocals), Christina (vocals), Rod (keys), Jeff (bass), Deric (drums and cajon), Tommy (acoustic guitar), me (acoustic guitar and mandolin).

For more Sunday Setlist action, be sure to check out TheWorshipCommunity.com.

I’d never seen this Abbott and Costello clip until this morning.  Hilarious!

Happy Sunday!  And welcome to the May 16th edition of the GracePoint Sunday Setlist!

Here’s the music from this morning:

• Breath by Jeremy Camp
• Say, Say by Kristian Stanfill
• King of Glory by Jesus Culture
• God With Us by MercyMe
• Draw Me Close by Kutless
• Time After Time by Spoken (offering)

Breath - Great song to get the blood flowing on a Sunday morning!

Say, Say - This was the only new song today.  I discovered it several weeks ago on someone else’s Sunday Setlist post.  (I don’t recall whose blog it was or I’d give them credit.)  It’s a fairly new song off the Passion: Awakening album.  It’s got everything you’d want in a kick-off-the-worship-set song… cool guitar licks, easy chorus, and a singalong bridge…  Definitely a keeper!

King of Glory - We’ve been doing this one since January, but today was the best it’s ever been.  Tommy’s smokin’ guitar skills really added a lot.

God With Us - I don’t know what else to say.  It’s just a great song!

Draw Me Close - A great, classic worship song.  We like Kutless’ rocked up version best.  For anyone that cares, it was 1 1/2 steps higher than the original recording.

Time After Time - We debuted this one on Easter.  It’s Spoken’s cover of the classic 80’s Cyndi Lauper tune.  Rocked up, of course…  Fun song!

The band: Carmen - vocals, Thomas - vocals, Stephanie - piano, Carlos - bass, Deric - drums, Tommy - electric guitar, and me (MandoRon) on electric guitar.

For more Sunday Setlist action, be sure to check out TheWorshipCommunity.com! 

Have an awesome week!

A disturbing interaction (if you can even call it an interaction) with my dog this morning got me thinking about something.

Most people are familiar with courtesy cars and even courtesy laughs.  But there are many other courtesies too.

So as a courtesy to you, the reader, I’ve started compiling a list of these lesser-known courtesies.  Feel free to thank me later.

The courtesy tail-wag - This is what I experienced with my dog this morning.  He was sleeping on the loveseat.  I scratched him behind the ears and bent over for a little doggie-kiss.  He gave me a courtesy tail-wag and then shot me a look that said, “go away and let me go back to sleep you stupid biped!”  What ever happened to “man’s best friend”?

The courtesy curtsy - These are pretty rare, actually, and only used when you encounter someone impersonating a member of the Royal Family.

The courtesy tip - This a a tip of 25 cents, or less - generally given in business establishments where the barrista/counter-worker has a plastic or foam cup with a piece of paper sticking out that reads “TIPS”.  Courtesy tips can also be used with street musicians that lack anything resembling talent.  Please note that giving pocket change to a Salvation Army bellringer is, in fact, a charitable donation and not a courtesy tip.

The courtesy clap - Frequently seen at golf tournaments when a golfer completes an over-par round.  Spectators will also give courtesy claps when a golfer four-putts on a par 3.  The courtesy high-five, courtesy pat-on-the-back, and courtesy good-game are all close cousins of the courtesy clap…

The courtesy kiss - The oral equivalent of a side hug, administered by your significant other.  Courtesy kisses are often accompanied by the phrases:  “Shh! My program’s on”,  “Have a good day at work”, or “I’m going to sleep”.

The courtesy glance - Typically occurs when someone you know has something important (or something that they think is important) that they want to show you, but you are either distinterested, busy, or both.  Courtesy glances are sometimes followed by double-takes or having the all-important item shoved in your face.

Did I miss anything?  Leave a comment with other courtesies that you’ve either experienced or extended to someone else.