Songs I Sang On Sunday
10.30.2008Comment
It was good to be back at Elevation yesterday. I heard Elijah Stephen did a fine job filling in for me the week before, which I’m thankful for. Having been out of town for so long, and not having much prep time. I wanted to keep the worship set for church fairly simply and I really just wanted to enjoy the music and focus on leading people into worship. So here is the set I went with:
The Everlasting – Damian Horne (that’s me)
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
Hallelujah Jesus – Evan Wickham
Holy is the Lord – Chris Tomlin
You Are My King (Amazing Love) Billy Foote
Grace – Phil Wickham
Sing, Sing, Sing – Chris Tomlin
So, The Everlasting, is the oldest song on my new album, Practice of the Presence. I wrote it the day before my 2nd daughter Macie, was born. Took a bunch of imagery from Isaiah 40, and put it into a song that people seem to enjoy.
Wanted aother an up-tempo song in the Key of A, hadn’t done Marvelous Light in a while, fun song that ended up really tying in with the message.
I am really surprised that Evan Wickham hasn’t blow up yet, this album, Mysterious Things, from 2006 is great with some fantastic tunes for corp. worship.
Holy is the Lord = Christian Anthem.
You are my King = Christian Power Ballad, just continuing with a working formula here.
Grace, is a nice song, I know some might think it’s a mental stretch to sing to Grace, but I think people are smart enough to appreciate the lyric and make the connection.
Sing, Sing, Sing, token four on the floor driving Chris Tomlin song to close out the service. I did have to instruct the audience they needed to clap double time not just the the 2’s and 4’s. I hate having to tell people how to clap to the rhythm, but sometimes it just has to be done.
Waiver Wire Wednesday
10.30.2008CommentSo this is my 4th season of playing fantasy football. I love following the NFL, so fantasy football is a happy time of the year for me, not so much for my wife. I started the Elevation Nation league at our church 3 years ago. Not to brag, but I’m the reigning back to back champion, going for a third straight title. Currently I’m in third place, but holding a playoff spot over halfway through the season. I haven’t done a great job in the initial draft. Most of my success has come from studying and playing the “waver wire”. If you’re not into Fantasy Football, I’m sure you’ve clicked off this blog by now.
For those of you still with me, I thought I would take this day to share my latest move. I’m playing in 3 leagues, so I’ll just go over one move.
In the ESPN league I’m 4-3-1 but I have a decent team, the only problem I have is I’ve got Eli Manning as my only QB, because I’m having to carry so many RBs for my oft injured Brian Westbrook and Willis McGahee. Now that we’re past a bye week, I’m going to drop my lesser defense to pick up another QB. Eli’s been okay, but not really putting up big numbers. So I’m going to try and get Chad Pennington first and David Guarard second, just in case they start getting hot ala what Kurt Warner has done for me in my other leagues. Now I’m starting to cross leagues, so lets end this blog here. I’ll let you know how it went this week. What moves are you making on the wire this week?
My Last Week
10.24.2008Comment
Well, I just got home wed night. Ten straight days of up at 5am done at 7pm sometimes midnight has wiped me out. It’s a good thing this pays well. I leave Sunday Night for 4 more days and then I’m home for a couple weeks. It’s kind of like touring except instead of singing & playing guitar, I’m setting up sound systems & projectors to listen to people speak about real estate, economics, energy, & health care. Which is basically the topics of our evening news and presidential debates so I can’t get away from it.
I can’t believe I’ve been doing AV for like 8 years now. I guess that’s what happens to people when they find a side job that pays well, and then acquire a mortgage and have three children. Well if I’ve learned anything from all of these speakers this last month is that I should be thankful just to have some work in this California Economy. Right now I’m just thankful to be home. The kids are out of school so it’s going to be a Family Fun Day off to the pumpkin patch in search of the great pumpkin…or three.”
Songs I Sang on Sunday…
10.13.2008Comment
So as I previously mentioned, I lead worship at Elevation Church in Auburn, CA. It’s awesome being a founding pastor of a church plant for many reasons, but a selfish one I have is that we’ve pretty much laid the foundation for what type of Church this is going to be so when it comes to sound & style, I get to just be me. I love playing lots of songs, old & new. So I thought I would follow Brody’s lead and create a couple consistent article trends, so here we go, Songs I Sang on Sunday….
Sound of Melodies – Leeland
Let Everything That Has Breath – Matt Redman
Doxology – Hymn (David Crowder Arr.)
Great and Mighty – Jason Kennedy
Glorify Thy Name – (Old Maranatha Song I think, don’t know who wrote it, too tired to look it up right now)
Jesus Lord of Heaven – Phil Wickham
Everlasting God – Brenton Brown (Chris Tomlin Version)
This might get kind of long if I talk about each song so let’s see what I can do. Love playing Leeland songs, Let Everything is just a solid up-tempo song and we include all the kids in our first set so I try to get at least one really familiar song in there. Also like to usually do at least one hymn. It’s like the vegetable is to a balanced meal. I don’t really like many vegetables, but I do like a few and I know I need to eat them so this is pretty accurate because there’s probably only a dozen or so hymns I’ll do regularly. Great and Mighty- big anthem chorus. Jesus Lord of Heaven is one of those songs that are great transitional songs where you start or end with a slower chorus to work with your other songs. And finally, it is rare that I lead worship without there being at least one Chris Tomlin tune. Just a catchy uplifting song to close out the service with.
So, in the spirit of interaction, do any of these songs strike a special chord with you? Or did you sing song on Sunday that I need to learn. Let me know….
Up In The Studio
10.10.2008Comment
Recording Studios are cool. “That’s where the magic happens” as so they say. I’ve always enjoyed recording music in the studio. From the first time at the Pus Cavern in Sacramento when I was 18, to being fortunate enough to work in some state of the art facilities in LA & Nashville – and I’m pretty sure I paid for every hour in those places, or at least the label “loaned” us the money, but it was always worth it.
When I decided to take a break from CCM & Touring and move back home to northern California, my wife and I had plans. First off, we wanted start having kids, and now we have three; Chloe-6, Macie-3, & Dawson –6mo. . Secondly, I had a desire of becoming a worship leader at a church, to build my own studio, and to hopefully keep writing & recording music for whomever. That was 8 years ago, and slowly over time I’ve got to see these things come into fruition. Definitely not at the pace I had in my mind, nor has it exactly turned out the way I was thinking. For a year, I went into construction. A year later I was offered a part-time job as a student worship leader for High School & Jr.High. Then I went into Audio Visual Production, Sales, & Installation. Finally, a few years later I had the courage to start my own studio business. A couple more years after that we were part of a church plant, called Elevation, where I’m currently the worship Pastor. And just this summer finished recording a collection of songs for the church, Practice of the Presence, that I’m truly proud of.
God knows the desires our hearts and I believe, that if they are of His will, He brings them to fruition in his time. The cool thing is that he keeps putting new desires inside of us, so when arrive at one, he’s pulling us to the next. That’s where I sit tonight, wondering what God has in store next. Not like a spoiled child opening one present to the next at a birthday party. More like reading one good chapter of a book and craving the next.
'Practice Of The Presence' Available Now
10.9.2008Comment
My new “Practice Of The Presence” is now available on iTunes for download, as well as a four song EP available for free at Noisetrade.com.
For those of you that have downloaded either the record or the EP, I’d love to know your thoughts.
-damian
I OPENED FOR THE NEWSBOYS…sort of
10.6.2008Comment
As I’ve started to re-engage the Christian Music Scene, I find a lot of my conversations somewhere include me saying. “I used to be in the band Silage”. I’m not sure why I feel obligated to disclose this information. I guess it’s my human nature to try and establish some level of acceptance by my former peers, to be remembered or be known.
Yesterday, I was invited by Passion4People.org to lead some worship at the end of Brad Butcher’s talk at the Rock of Ages Festival in Napa, CA right before the Newsboys closed out the show. Long sound-checks & rain delays put the show about 2hrs behind schedule, so Andrea (my wife) & Dawson (my 6 mo. Son) just hung out in the large green room and waited it out. It was great talking with Peter Furler of the Newsboys about family, travel, & music, with Trevor from Thousand Foot Krutch about band managers, & Jaci Velasquez about our chubby babies & her taking my former bass player to the dove awards as her date in 1998.
Finally, it was time to take the stage, Brad was preaching the gospel, as a flurry of stage hands were taking Seventh Day Slumbers gear off, and bringing on the Newsboys risers and mics. I went up to the front of the stage to plug my guitar in and adjust my mic, only to find there was nothing there. Seems the stage manager completely forgot about me, and the crew has already pulled all of the old lines and are hooking up the Newsboys system. The sound guy is totally stressed, and doesn’t know anything about me playing. Tells me to go talk to the promoter. I’ve got about 2 minutes before Brad is supposed to transition to me leading worship, and I’ve got nothing except an empty mic stand and a guitar cable hanging out of my acoustic.
Someone tells me they’re working on it so I’m just standing there behind Brad looking at a few thousand people; wondering what’s going to happen. Completely helpless, I look out at the sky and pray, “okay God, I know you brought me here today for a purpose, and maybe it’s not going to be play music, but I’m okay with that, because we’re here to worship You, it’s not about – me being remembered or known.” Literally, seconds before Brad says, “and as the music plays behind me….” A stage girl plugs in a xlr into my direct box and turns on my wireless mic. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”
