Today was my day to get those little  things done that I keep putting off. The first thing on my list was to get the oil changed on my SUV. It is amazing how fast three months or three thousand miles rolls around. I was exactly three months to the day but I was over on the mileage. Oops! I get my oil changed at a place that sells tires and the workers speak better Spanish than English. I had a light on my dash that said, Low tire pressure. I had the shop check out my tire. It has a  bad valve stem that was leaking air. I. I am glad that they were able to fix it. I was not looking forward to adding air to my tire in the cold Kansas winter days that are coming. Oh yeah, It snowed today. 

       The next thing on my list was my annual flu shot. I went over to the grocery store on the other side of town to get my shot. I used to work at that store and still go over there to get my prescriptions filled. Julie, the pharmacist, told me this story as she was giving me my shot. She said, " I still remember what you said. "  I was kinda shocked and flattered at the same time. Words of wisdom is probably not my specialty. I do think I have a knack for witty sarcasm but that tends to get me in trouble and is not memorable. 

       She started telling a story about receiving an email from upper management. It was one of those emails that we have all received. She did not go into the specifics but basically it was a confronting email. Sometimes these email lump everybody together. An example might be- We need more sales, You are using to many hours, too much over time, working too fast, working too slow, and the list could go on and on. We have all received emails like this. I happened to be in the pharmacy shortly after she had read her email.

         Julie said, "Her normal response would be to fire back an email and defend herself."  She said, " Jim you asked me one question. Did they ask you a question? " and I said, No." And this is what you said that I still remember, "If they don't ask you a question then don't give them an answer." She said, "I still follow your advice. Those are words of wisdom from a wise man."  That was a very nice statement even though most of the time I would disagree with it. 

        We never know the impact of our words. Sometimes we can share wisdom, encourage others, uplift other or sometimes we hurt others. Julie made my day a little brighter when she shared this story. I now have a story that I can share about Julie, I can say, I remember what you said. 

       

     My granddaughter Alyssa has a birthday in October. Heather asked her, "What she wanted to do for her birthday party this year?"  Heather was probably expecting the normal answers that kids give. I am not normal but here is what I would guess that kids would like. Bowling party, going to a movie, sleep over, video games, discovery zone, bonkers, World's of fun, going to a concert, etc. 

    Alyssa threw her Mom a curve ball. She wanted to bring her friends over to Grandpa's house  and record a song in my studio. Each girl could sing a song with an instrumental track and take home their own  cd. Today I spent some time recording and finding instrumental tracks on Spotify. I had a list of seven or eight songs that the girls liked. I was able to find three that would work. 

     Not all of the songs had instrumental tracks but maybe less will work out better. They can hear the other girls sing their songs and this will help them to learn their parts. It should be fun. Happy birthday, Alyssa!

     I played at church a couple weeks ago. I was planning on playing a new song that I wrote called, Broken Crayons. I started working on a new song called More Jesus and I decided that I liked it better. Here are the lyrics to More Jesus. It is a worship and praise, or maybe  a church camp song. 

                               More Jesus

Everybody wants more, everybody need more

Oh, the thing about more is there's never enough.

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

 

Everybody wants love, everybody needs love

Oh, the thing about love is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

 

Everybody wants faith, everybody needs faith

Oh, the thing about faith, is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

 

Everybody wants peace, everybody needs peace

Oh, the thing about peace, is there's never enough.

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

 

Everybody wants more, everybody needs more

Oh, the thing about more, is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More, more, more Jesus.

More, more, more Jesus.

 

     A simple message that would solve a lot of my own personal problems and a lot of the world's problems.

 

 

 

     I remember when I was a kid and we drove over to Lakewood Hills. Lakewood Hills was a housing community that was built by Lake Perry. It had a community swimming pool and lots of new homes. New homes were different than the old farm houses that you drove by getting there. One of the most popular styles was one called the A frame. A frames looked like a capital A. The two side of the house were the roof. I bet this was a great way to save money on a home and it was the latest fad. 

     If an A frame were a song, "What type of song would it be?"  Bro country, disco, rap country, or whatever everybody is trying to do that is exactly like everybody else's. Their are lots of imitators in the songwriting world and very few originals. I believe Eric Church does a great job on being original. I read an article about him in American Songwriter this week. Kip Moore had a statement that I thought was great.

     "The artist community is kinda like housing communities to me," says Kip Moore, another independent masses. Then you  get those little shell houses (A frames in the seventies) that get thrown up super fast. They're the hot hip thing in an upcoming part of town, (Lakewood Hills) but usually have a questionable foundation and go out of style fast. Lastly, you got that house that is  separated from the others, out on a piece of land. It's built the right way, outta love, passion, and detail That house has a solid foundation and always holds its value. That's his house."  Eric Church's song are solid well built homes made to stand the test of time.

     I want to write songs like his. Songs with meaning that are different than the crowd. Songs that tell a story, where you can see the details of the song and smell the bacon cooking on the stove. I love a great song and the work that goes into it. Eric is one of my favorites. 

     

     I went to Winfield, KS to the Walnut Valley Bluegrass festival last week on vacation. I drove down from Topeka on Thursday and stayed through Saturday. Have I ever mentioned that I do not like to camp? Some people think that camping is fun. I was not in that camp. I had the brilliant idea that camping would be better if I slept in the back of my SUV instead of sleeping on the ground in a tent. Let me assure you that quality sleep and camping do not go together.  I know that some people will disagree with me. The campers  that disagree with me are sleeping in nice comfy RV's. I bet I could sleep good in a climate controlled RV with a comfy bed but I do not consider that camping. Some of those RV's are nicer than my home. The only difference between a nice RV and a home is that the RV is smaller and it has wheels.

      I played my song Linwood Café on Thursday at 4:30 pm on Stage 11. Stage eleven is the Songwriter Stage in the campground area of the festival. It is really a white 14'X14' shade tent for shade with microphones, speakers, lighting, etc. On Thursday night I got to play two songs on the stage. I played Big Hit and Picker's Paradise. Picker's Paradise is a song I wrote a few years back about Winfield. Big Hit is a song about being a songwriter and there were many songwriter's in the audience. I was trying to play to my crowd.

      Friday morning I had my first radio interview. All of the winners in the songwriting contest were granted an interview on  KC Café Radio.com. The website is www,kccaferadio.com .  Yes, it is internet radio and not AM or FM radio. Maybe next year I can get on AM or FM radio. (Another dream.)  They also made a video of the interview and of me playing my song Linwood Café. I will share it on this website when they send me a copy. 

      Friday night was Songwriter New Song night. Any songwriter could sign up to play there song but it had to be written in the last thirty days. I had one song that fit this category. My song is called More Jesus. I would call this song a praise song. Praise songs are different than a standard gospel song or a hymn. A praise song is a simple song where you only sing the chorus but you have many different versions of the chorus. The crowd didn't sing along to my tune like they sang along to Big Hit. It was still fun to get to play my latest song. (without a cheat sheet). Some songwriters had copies of their lyrics on music stands. The only reason I didn't was because I had played More Jesus last Sunday at church for the Night of Worship program.

     I had a good time at the festival and made some new friends. I got to play some songs on stage. I wrote a song with my friend James Sperman called, "Almost Cinderella". I also came home and took a three hour nap in my own bed. I slept like a rock. Well, maybe I didn't sleep like a rock because rocks don't snore. It was a good time.