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.

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!

Happy Mother’s Day!

We wrapped up the Modern Family series today at GracePoint.  It’s been a good series focusing on the crazy things that affect families today.  As a special Mother’s Day treat, the K-3 kids sang and danced with the band on two songs.

The other special Mother’s Day treat was Bruce holding up the back of his guitar to show the words “Hi Mom”, a message for his mom watching the internet feed in New Jersey.

We also welcomed a new drummer, Phil Herman, to the band this morning.  He did a great job!

The music:

• No One Like You by David Crowder Band (walk-in)
• We Won’t Be Quiet by David Crowder Band w/ little guests
• Salvation is Here by Hillsong w/ little guests
• Amazing Grace House of the Rising Sun style
• Finally I Surrender by Misty Edwards
• Wasted by Carrie Underwood (offering)
• No One Like You by DCB (exit)

No One Like You is a fun song to kick things off with. 

We Won’t Be Quiet was a new one for the band.  It was one of the two songs that the kids sang and danced on.  Something just seemed right about the kids singing out “We Won’t Be Quiet!”… 

Salvation is Here was the second song  with the kids.  Fortunately, this arrangement (for the kids) was just a little different than what the band was used to…

Amazing Grace gives us our hymn-points from time to time, even if we play it to the tune of House of the Rising Sun…  My favorite part was Rod’s one-handed organ solo.  Have you ever noticed that when he plays something cool, it’s usually one-handed and he usually looks bored?

Finally I Surrender has such powerful lyrics.  My favorite line is “You are Creator, and I’m what you made.”  That line will preach!

Wasted is one we learned for the country-themed series a few months ago.  It seemed very appropriate for the sermon today.

The band:  Jamie - vocals, Gil - vocals and bass, Rod - keys, Bruce - guitar, Phil - drums.

For more Sunday Setlist action, take a few minutes to check out the Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.

Welcome to the May 2, 2010 edition of the GracePoint Sunday Setlist.  Although Mike preached a PG-13 sermon on sex for week 4 of the Modern Family series, this post is rated E for everyone…

We had an unusual double Wark sighting on Sunday morning, since both Jim and Christina (husband and wife) were in the band this week.  It’s probably been a few years since that happened… 

The music:

• All Fired Up by Pat Benatar (walk-in)
• The Time Has Come by Hillsong
• If We Are the Body by Casting Crowns
• Sing My Love by Sarah McMillan
• Audience of One by Big Daddy Weave
• Love You ‘Til the End by The Pogues (offering)

All Fired Up … we’ve been playing this one for quite a while.  It’s just a great high-energy song to get things started.

The Time Has Come is a fun song to play and makes a perfect “call to worship” to kick off the worship set.  (This might have been the first time that someone other than Carmen has sang it…)

If We Are the Body is an oldie, but a goody.  It’s got such a powerful message behind the lyrics.

Sing My Love is one we introduced a few years ago.  Good song. 

Audience of One used to be in the regular rotation four or five years ago.  For some reason, it only shows up infrequently now…  Ever since Thomas auditioned to sing in Edge of Grace last year, I’ve heard him singing this in my head.  He did a great job.

Love You ‘Til the End is a song we’ve used a few times over the last several times.  I’m probably the only person who cares about this… but it’s one of the few songs that we play with mandolin in the original recording.  Sunday, I played the piano solos on mandolin as well. 

The band:  Christina - vocals, Thomas - vocals, Chris - drums, Stephanie - piano, Jim - bass, Jeff- electric and acoustic guitar, Me (Ronnie) - electric and acoustic mandolin .

I think that wraps it up for this week…  To read what other churches are doing, be sure to check out  the Sunday Setlist Blog Extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.

Have an awesome week!