So, I started off the morning with a table bible study at breakfast. I still didn’t feel like I had slept (foreshadowing of the sickness that would really hit me hard that night) and still regretted missing the David Crowder Band. The morning worship session with Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin really helped to get my day started right though. This was followed by a ridiculously long meeting for all the registrants where we got to “meet” the important staff and basically learn about all of the things going on during the week.
Competitions: Following the orientation meeting, I had to immediately get ready for a contemporary vocal competition. One of my biggest regrets for the whole week was that I missed the Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio songwriting class because I was competing. I can’t say that I bombed my song, but I was also not pleased with how I did, thus did not expect to move on to the semi-finals. There were a lot of great and talented singers and songwriters in my group… including my friend, Nick Atchley. Nick, if you read this, I still have “Tiny Spaces” (or is it “Tiny Places”?) stuck in my head! Anyway – after eating lunch, I went to compete again in the Southern Gospel category. Now I didn’t really think through the difference in singing in Estes Park with the elevation and lack of humidity being slightly different from Arkansas – it definitely showed up as I sang David Phelps’ version of “No More Night.” It was not great. Again, I pretty much knew that I wouldn’t be moving on to the next round… the disappointment that I felt, however, came from both knowing that I could have done MUCH better in both categories and in knowing that I had missed nearly an entire day’s worth of classes to do these competitions. It’s not that I wouldn’t recommend the competitions to anyone, but I would say to REALLY evaluate how important they are to you beforehand.
Artist Teaching Concert: Geoff Moore
I really enjoyed this… Geoff Moore was at least interesting to listen to speak and sing although I must say that it sometimes seems that he is on drugs (am I the only one who thinks this? … my apologies, Geoff… just an honest thought).
Monday Evening Concert: Sponsored by Compassion International
This was a really great night of music and worship. Danny Oertli kicked things off as he was joined on stage by Dave Beegle. Several of my roommates commented that Danny Oertli was not a very good guitarist, but when you have to stand next to Dave Beegle… well… anyway – I actually have heard Danny play before by himself and he is quite a good guitarist. He actually let me play his guitar after the show (pretty cool, right?) at which point I became ruined to any other guitar as they all pale in comparison. It was an Olson and I probably haven’t even the ability to dream of owning a guitar of that caliber. Danny was followed by Kim Hill, Geoff Moore (who also hosted the evening and was joined for a song by his good friend, Steven Curtis Chapman), The Isaacs, The Afters, and Bebo Norman.
The Isaacs were outstanding musicians as a group and as individuals. Even if you don’t care for bluegrass or other similar styles of music, you can’t help but be impressed by this group!
The group that blew me away, however, was The Afters. I immediately went and bought their CD which is great though they are even better live. The song “Wait” was absolutely amazing live.
Bebo Norman played on a broken leg and you could tell that he didn’t really have the energy for that long of a set though he still did a great job.
[tags] Bebo Norman, The Afters, Afters, The Isaacs, bluegrass, Geoff Moore, Steven Curtis Chapman, Olson, guitar, Dave Beegle, Danny Oertli, Compassion International, David Phelps, No More Night, Nick Atchley, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, David Crowder Band, songwriter[/tags]
