Vlog Day 28 - St. Augustine

The title today refers not to the saint who penned the well-read 'Confessions', but rather to the oldest city in the US (which happens to bear his name). St Augustine (just south of Jacksonville, FL) was founded by Spain to protect its interests in the West Indies, and their fort, San Marcos, was never taken by force, only by treaty. We drove there today from Micanopy (the second city in Florida) on a gorgeous spring day. Spring has truly arrived here in Florida, though some would say it never leaves.
St. Augustine is also the home of Flagler College, which remembers Henry Flagler, a magnate of the early 1900s who (like his contemporaries the Rockefellers) built a lot of buildings and bequeathed a lot of money for the benefit of posterity. The college is a small liberal arts college that has a strong deaf education major.
On the way back to Ormond Beach, along A1A, we took a detour through the Tacoma swamp to visit the oldest Live Oak tree in Florida. This tree is huge and is over 2,000 year old! It's a pretty amazing sight.

Vlog Day 27 - Micanopy Fellowship

It rained a bunch last night, which folks around here say is needed - they've been waiting for rain a long time. Woke up to damp surroundings, but with the sun up it was a gorgeous day. I went to church with Warren, Mike and co. at Micanopy Fellowship - today was sharing Sunday, so I shared a couple of my songs (The Problem and I Am Not a Thief) and was blessed by other people's testimonies. Particularly Lenora's - she has an incredible story of how God brought her out of abuse and drugs, and is now working with Teen Challenge in Lakeland, helping others find hope and joy in Christ. Other people's stories were also powerful, with one family in the church having lost two children in a recent car accident, their third is now in the hospital slowly recovering.
We then shared lunch together - potluck and conversation, and afterwards Warren and I visited Hunter in the hospital. I was able to sing one of my parents scripture songs to encourage Hunter and her family, sans guitar. We went back to Mike's and rested, and then set up at the fellowship in the evening for the concert. You can see/hear Chasing Shadows in the video below. People were really responsive and encouraging, and as they prayed for me afterwards I could sense the Spirit of God in this place, among these people.

Vlog Day 26 - Micanopy and Wedding

Today was a bit of a sabbath for me - just rested and hung out at Mike's house near Micanopy. It was a beautiful day and Warren spent most of it re-connecting with folks by phone. I took a nap and did some computer stuff. Then we went off to McIntosh, where the daughter of some friends of Warren got married in the Presbyterian church. So here's some short video of my day.

Vlog Day 25 - Micanopy

Uncle Warren and I woke up early this morning to meet with some men in a bible study in Daytona beach @ 6am. Really great guys seeking to grow closer to God. I miss this kind of regular study, and it was great to be invited to join fellow believers. I was pretty tired though - too little sleep in the last few days - on the trip over to Micanopy I was nodding off and had to munch on a few Jolly Ranchers (thanks Trip Beans!) to stay awake.
Warren took me on a mini tour of the Micanopy area when we got there. This is a part of Florida I had never seen - far from the hectic pace of Orlando, in farm country, the roads are hemmed in by tall trees covered in hanging spanish moss. Peaceful, with cool breezes, shady and relaxing. We stopped by Evinston to visit the Post Office - which combines mail with fresh vegetables and a country store. It's a one-of-a-kind place. I sorted through their record collection and picked up a few childrens records for my friend Phil as well as a couple jazz LPs that I look forward to listening too. They are a bit scratched up, but shouldn't affect the playability.
We then stopped by Mosswood Farms - down a dirt road to visit some friends of Warren who own a horse training farm. They use the natural horse training method, in which horse and rider develop a relationship based on the way horses behave in the wild. I first came across this when I spent a semester in Tanzania and took a horsemanship class with a British lady. It seems like a really good method - horse whisperer style.
I'm looking forward to resting the next couple days. I play music on Sunday, but that's all I have scheduled for a while. We're staying with Mike and his wife - friends of Warren and parents of Matt, who was with me in Norway (you can look back at last May/June's blog entries to meet Matt).

Vlog Day 24 - Florida

Today was full of driving - the longest drive of my tour yet. I drove 7 hours from Greenville, SC to Ormond Beach, FL where my 'Uncle' Warren lives. I'm spending the night and then driving him to Micanopy for the weekend, where I'll play a concert at a church. It was good to see him again - the last time I saw him was in Norway this past spring.
The trip itself was uneventful. Here's some video of the trip - me arriving at the welcome center in Florida and observing local wildlife, driving under the bridges in Jacksonville, and driving over the inland waterway to the ocean.

Vlog Day 23 - Art and Music

I slept in rather late today, partly due to the fact that I had a couple cups of Leopard Forest's excellent coffee and as a result stayed up the rest of last night. So I took my time getting up and ventured out into a cold and rainy day around 2pm to visit the local Andrew Wyeth display at the art museum here in town. Who knew that Greenville has one of the largest collections of AW's work? He really did some amazing paintings. Also on display were paintings from early North and South Carolina painters that were quite stunning.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading in the library next door to the gallery. I picked up a 200-page book by a favorite author at 4pm and was done by 7.40 or so. I think I'm slipping. The time was when I could finish a book like that in 3 hours or less. I was pretty tired though.
Open mics were next in line - I played at Coffee Underground's Acoustic Seen (where I met up with Jeremy and Julie from college who also happen to know my brother from JBU) and then went with some friends to Smiley's Acoustic Cafe, where the fries are amazing. Good times, great food, good music! Thanks Greenville!

Vlog Day 22 - Greenville and Leopard Forest

Michele took me to Blue Ridge Brewing for lunch because of the ketchup. She was not joking either - the ketchup is AMAzing, as the first video demonstrates. We talked about the recent album review for 'Breathe Deep' (HERE) and how hard it is to strike the balance between being culturally relevant and maintaining excellence without giving in to the culture around you. She then showed me around some of the rest of Greenville, most notably the park that was recently renovated and the Warehouse Theater where she is part of an improv troupe and today was auditioning for a Shakespeare play. Michele said that only recently has competition between the theaters here become less cutthroat and more friendly - it's good to hear that community is being built instead of animosity.

Michele had arranged for me to go to an open mic in the evening at Leopard Forest Coffee in the town of Travelers Rest, so after a nap I headed over there. Jacob Johnson, who runs the open mic, turned out to be a great guy and a gifted musician, and I had a lot of fun listening as well as playing. I played 4 songs, the last of which, 'One Girl for Me' is on the video below, and people were really into the music. Leopard Forest Coffee itself is a really neat place - they get all their coffee from a single farm in Zimbabwe where it is specially grown (relatives of the owner), and have won numerous awards. The coffee is amazing, the atmosphere was welcoming and gracious.

Vlog Day 21 - to Greenville, SC

Today I traveled from Waxhaw to Greenville, through Lancaster County, SC. One of the fascinating things I re-learned about early settlement is that Lancaster, PA (near where the conestoga wagons were made) was the frontier for quite a long time, and the last stop before people headed down the Indian trail to settle the south and eventually the west. This is why you see the recurrence of place names - people naming where they settled after places where they grew up in Europe and places they stopped in the US. What really interests me is why some place names are re-used more often than others? Hard to know.
I met up with my friend Michele who I was in ASG (a small group) with in Lancaster while I was in college. She graduated from Bob Jones University here in Greenville and is an actor and works here now for a theater, Center Stage. She also does improv with a troupe at the Warehouse theater. For a small town, Greenville has lots of theaters - 5 in the downtown area alone.
Michele then put me in touch with her friends Scott and Jess, who are hosting me for a couple nights while I find places around here to play. She also gave me a mini-tour of the area, so I might do some more focused sight-seeing tomorrow.

Vlog Day 20 - Church and Josh Garrels

It was truly a sabbath today - I slept in a bit, attended Waxhaw Bible Church with my friends (where I said hi to a bunch of the kids from the JAARS youth group) and then relaxed the rest of the day. I read up on the book my friend Joshua in Harrisonburg gave me, called "Three Cups of Tea" about Greg Mortensen, a TCK from Tanzania who became a climber and then built schools all over the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. Quite a good read.
Around 4pm I called Josh Garrels' house, since he lives in the area. Josh is a soft-spoken singer-songwriter who has played at Cornerstone a few times and has a decently large following for an independent musician. I met him when he played up in Lancaster, PA with my friend Katie Becker and know him as a solid believer. He invited me over, and our subsequent conversation confirmed my perceptions.
I rode my bike over and had coffee with Josh and his wife while their little daughter climbed around - Josh's wife grew up as a Wycliffe MK as well, and it turns out that I share a birthday with both her mom and Josh's mom. I wanted to hear the story of Josh's musical journey, and he obliged - telling me about his start and what his journey has been like. It was super-encouraging to hear about his path and his passion for the Gospel to extend from his songs. It turned into a great conversation about purpose and vocation, dreams and aspirations, and ultimately submitting to God's will and holding all of life with an open hand.
Afterwards Josh showed me his studio and guest room which was built into the top of the garage, in a separate building from the house. JG spent last week recording an EP for his friend Josh Rosen, and so they sequestered themselves in this space to get it done. I didn't do a great job with the camera work - it's kind of hard to see everything, but partly because I was so busy drinking it all in myself. The picture of Jerusalem on his desktop sparked a conversation about missions and I mentioned that I have the opportunity to help engineer a worship album for musicians in Spain in May-June. It turns out Josh knows a friend of mine from Indiana who is an MK from Spain but was with me in Tanzania with a Houghton College program. The world is a small place.

Vlog Day 19 - Museum and Studio

This afternoon, after helping uncle Bruno pile wood in the woodshed, we went to the Waxhaw museum, which has an interesting display all about the early days of Waxhaw, which was originally settled by Native Americans and then by Scotch-Irish and Germans who came from Europe by way of Philadelphia and Lancaster, PA. Andrew Jackson was born around here somewhere along the border of NC and SC, and some of the revolutionary war battles were fought around here. Pretty interesting stuff.
Then we went into town, crossed the railroad bridge and visited a shop where Josh Burch makes furniture and musical instruments, among other things. I sat and played music with him, chatted and recorded some video. He is also a singer-songwriter - you can hear his music HERE. Then back to the house to finish clearing the wood. A good day, all-in-all.

Vlog Day 18 - Wood Splitter

In which I split wood at the Keller's house. I dressed as a lumberjack for it as well. Unfortunately I pulled a back muscle halfway through, but the reason you don't notice is that I stretched it out and took some ibuprofen. It was a gorgeous day in Waxhaw today. You can watch this video and laugh as I explain ExAcTly HOW to split wood.

Vlog Day 17 - JAARS

Today I visited JAARS (Jungle Aviation And Radio Service), which is the technical arm of Wycliffe, serving translators with air, maintenance, IT and other kinds of necessary support. My family has come through here several times when we were on furlough from Ghana, but I had never taken the tour before, so I figured I should probably do that. It was a really interesting tour. In the first video, you can hear a bit about how Wycliffe (and thus JAARS) was founded by Uncle Cam Townsend.

We then moved on to the Cabinet and Maintenance department, where we received an animated lecture on the subject of cabinetry and maintenance. Then on to the hangar where I felt almost like I had returned to the National Air and Space Museum - except that this is an active training facility, where pilots are trained to handle planes and helicopters as if they were in a remote area where even the military don't venture. Here we got to see the first new Kodiak airplane that JAARS/Wycliffe has purchased for missions use from the manufacturer, Quest. It's bigger and more efficient than the Helio Courier it will be replacing (JAARS has its own machine shop where parts for the HC have been made since the 70's when it went out of production), but does need a slightly longer runway. You can read more about it HERE. The next stop, after lunch, was the Alphabet Museum which I do remember visiting as a kid. It has since been expanded and is a fascinating look at the history of alphabet making and written language.

In the evening I played music for the JAARS youth group, which is made up mostly of MKs, TCKs, and the kids on the JAARS center. It was cool to be able to play for a group that I didn't have to explain the cross-cultural stuff to. Most of them had grown up just like me, and could relate to a lot of the things I had to say. I captured a bunch of their faces, and of course Uncle Bruno.

Vlog Day 16 - Waxhaw

I left Charlotte today and traveled to Waxhaw, home of the JAARS center (Jungle Aviation And Radio Service) and my friends the Kellers. On thursday I'm playing a concert for the youth group there - mostly MKs and others whose parents work at JAARS. My family used to come through Waxhaw quite a bit on furlough, particularly to visit the IT support department for various computer-related issues.
Here's some video of the day - uneventful and relaxing. The Kellers were missionaries in Ghana and our families knew each other pretty well, being on the field at the same time. Great folks!

Vlog Day 15 - St Patty's Day!

Happy Birthday to ME! yup, i'm a st. Patty's day baby - and proud of it! =) So today on my birthday was surprisingly uneventful, just how I like it. I slept in until 11, then got up and proceeded to play on the computer (Twitter) while fielding tons of happy birthday phone calls and texts. And hundreds of well-wishers on Facebook. Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday - you made my day!
Later on I hung out with my friend Aimee for dinner. She grew up in Taiwan as an MK, so we have that connection. It was a lot of fun to spend time with her and hear about life from her perspective. We also happened to go to a killer Chinese restaurant right across the street from where she lives and I packed it away. Then visited Doug and Jacqueline in their apartment down from the Evening Muse.
So here's the latest video installment - short and sweet. You can watch me handle the camera as I shift (manual transmission) and you can tell how addled my brain is from too much sleep - I say Charlottesville instead of Charlotte. What's funny about this video is that just after I turned off the camera I went over a hill and saw Charlotte's skyline, which is a really cool sight. Not as cool as NYC, but still impressive. My friends didn't tell me about that...

Vlog Day 14 - Charlotte

So moving right along, I left Charlie Jones and the Peculiar People in Greensboro and set off for Charlotte. An uneventful drive, and along the way I stopped to visit my friend Doug, who is a project manager (IT/website) at a packaging solutions company.
Doug was a project manager for Samaritan's Purse in Afghanistan when I interned with them in the summer of 2004. He was responsible for the drenching welcome I received when I arrived (buckets of water from the roof now greet all new arrivals to the Afghanistan office). He worked with SP for a few years after that in Indonesia, Uganda, and now is married and lives in Charlotte. A really cool guy that I haven't seen in a few years. It was good to see him.
Doug put me in touch with his sister, and she and her husband Tom had an extra room I could spend the night in. So I hung out with them for the afternoon (great conversations about the work their church is doing in Sierra Leone and internet marketing techniques), and then took off to the open mic night at the Evening Muse here in Charlotte.
My goal for playing at the Evening Muse was to meet some of the local musicians and share some of my music. You can see bits and pieces of the evening below. I gave out some cards, made some cool connections, and generally enjoyed myself. A couple cool bands/groups I discovered/met in the folk/rock (softer) genres: The New Familiars and Elonzo. If you live in Charlotte or near where they'll be playing, you should definitely check them out.

Vlog Day 13 - Greensboro

This morning it was still raining. We went to City Church and connected with the group of folks that meet in a theater downtown. A really neat service - Charlie preached and I played 'I Am Not a Thief'. We went out for Vietnamese food and then home for naps. I made a few phone calls and then went off to my next appointment.
Harvey Robinson is a really talented videographer in Greensboro. He does with video what I try to do with songs - tell stories. His framing and techniques are really good, and when I saw his work on monkeywhale.com I knew I wanted to be part of his latest (ongoing) project 'Harvey's Kitchen'.
What is Harvey's Kitchen? Exactly what it sounds like - he films (among other things) musicians playing music in his kitchen. So I brought my guitar, sat down in a chair in the middle of his kitchen, he set up his equipment and filmed as I played a song. It was really cool to meet him and Carolyn, and I can't wait to see what they do with the film!
For dinner I met up with Philip and Miriam - their family was with us in Ghana, and they both happen to be attending UNC Greensboro, so we had dinner and then they showed me around the campus. Tomorrow I head out to Charlotte.

Vlog Day 12 - Rainy Day

Today was a rainy day here in Greensboro, so I just hung out, wrote emails and took care of business (paying bills online, etc...) and had leftovers of last night's meal for lunch. It's still good the next day!
I also recorded this cover of a song by John Mayer that some of you have heard me do live. It's a great tune that uses gravity as a metaphor for something... not sure exactly where Mr. Mayer is coming from, but I really like the song. I remember thinking when it came out, and the new Switchfoot album 'Oh, Gravity' came out at the same time that it was kind of weird they touched on the same theme. Seems to happen once in awhile that artists work on the same theme. anyway, here's my acoustic take:

Vlog Day 11 - Greensboro Grub

If you come to Greensboro, get in touch with Charlie Jones of Peculiar People. You will not regret it, particularly if you can manage to time your visit with his and his wife Ruth's regular 'family meal' for 50+ people. I call it a meal - it's more like a feast!
Like any feast, it takes a lot of preparation. Charlie and Ruth spend quite a bit of time thinking through recipes and making food selections. Every 'Grub' has its own theme, and this time the theme was St. Patrick's Day (which also happens to be my birthday) - so Irish food reigned supreme.

Charlie starts cooking the day before, and when I got up in the morning I jumped into the fray, hardly stopping until guests arrive at 6:30pm. Charlie never stops hosting, nor does he sit down to taste the meal. His meal is the event itself.

After a scrumptious meal and dessert, entertainment begins. Everyone has the opportunity to share their creativity, to read or recite something that has touched them, or simply to sit and watch and listen. What a wonderful mixture it is! In the video below is just a sampling of the gifts expressed - jokes, a bluegrass band, and poetry by one Josephus.

And last but not least, my song about Spring - 'Breathe Deep'.

Vlog Day 10 - Harrisonburg to Greensboro, NC

I spent the night with my friends Joshua, Emily and their daughter Miriam (thus the cute face to open the video) after my show at EMU's Common Grounds. It was really great to hang out with them, learn more about what they're doing and where they hope to go, and their couch and shower were a great blessing as well. We have a lot in common, and it'll be cool to connect with them down the road.
Hitting the road, I decided to take a couple detours from my direct route to Greensboro, NC. I visited Lexington, VA (home of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee for some years) but didn't have much time there, moving on to the Natural Bridge surveyed originally by a young George Washington, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. As at the National Mall, I wish I had more time to spend in these places - I can understand why tourism is such a big pastime: there's just so much great stuff to see!!
In Greensboro, I'm staying with Charlie and Ruth Jones. They're actors who run Peculiar People, and on Friday I'll be helping them host their newest gift, Greensboro Grub. It is a really cool thing where they host a dinner for 60 people in their home - people from all walks of life and backgrounds who live mostly in Greensboro and are creative. After dinner, we all gather to share our creativity or something special to us. I am SO excited to be part of this! Check out the video below for a tour of the apartment, and stay tuned for tomorrow's installment (s)!

Vlog Day 9 - Harrisonburg

Today was spent in Harrisonburg - drove early from Charlottesville and arrived at EMU in time for Chapel, where I shared a couple songs. Below is 'I'm On a Journey'. I hung out there the rest of the day and worked on getting videos uploaded. It took a long time, since apparently the network seriously slows down your upload/download speeds. That was pretty annoying. What could have taken an hour ended up taking 5.
Then I went and visited with my friends Steve and AnnaMaria and their kids - it was great to see them, since I haven't seen them since we were part of the same small group at Houghton College. We had a really tasty meal together and caught up on life. AnnaMaria came back with me to EMU, where I played at the coffeeshop - a really good turnout. I meant to record some of the show, but totally spaced, partly because I was talking to people. So the video below, of chapel, is all I was able to get. Kind of sad, since it was such a good show - great venue, great audience, good sound. Pretty much ideal.

Vlog Day 8 - Charlottesville, VA

I woke up at 5 am this morning and left the Kucks house, driving the 2.5 hours or so south to Charlottesville. I arrived there in time to help Timothy Shea and his brother Chris set up for Timothy's dissertation. It was really interesting - you can watch a bit of his explanation of the topic on the video. I filmed the whole presentation, but decided not to upload the whole talk. I'll leave that up to Timothy.
He passed with flying colors (of course) and can now be officially called 'Dr. Shea'. Then Chris and I got the tour of the campus and Charlottesville's downtown. The office where John Grisham writes, the bar where Dave Matthews was bartender before 'making it', the theater and open-air concert pavilion, various coffeeshops and places where Timothy frequented while studying here. Charlottesville's a pretty cool place.
.We went out to eat with Timothy's advisor, Jane Hansen, at a great little Mediterranean restaurant, and then headed off for naps. I tried to make a deposit via ATM and discovered that you can't deposit into a PNC bank account from anywhere south of DC. Go figure. Maybe I'll switch to Wachovia.
In the evening I went to Para Coffee and connected with Eric Kelley, the owner, who also is a photographer and just got back the night before from Nicaragua. A really cool guy, as is Vaden Cox, who I played with. Check out their websites. John, a regular at Para Coffee, shot some excellent video of the show - check it out below!

Vlog Day 7 - Bear's Den

I woke up to a gorgeous spring day, windy but mostly in the 70s, took care of some business, and then drove to Bear's Den overlook with Julie. Here's what we found, high above the Shenandoah Valley...

Vlog Day 6 - Leesburg, VA

Another wonderful day today - church with the Kucks, then lunch, a nap, and the concert in Leesburg. On the way to the concert we visited Fireworks Pizza in Leesburg, which makes some excellent pizza in wood-fired ovens. And I have some of the coolest friends.
The youth group I played for were really into the music, and we had a lot of fun. Especially afterwards - they were trying to teach me some line-dancing steps, and you can see me trying to do the moves in the video below. I was cracking up while editing - so much fun making a fool of yourself among friends! =)

Vlog Day 5 - Virginia

I spent the night with my friends Mike and Tegan last night in Alexandria - it was great to catch up with them and hear what's going on in their lives. I played a mini-concert for them and their friend Leah, and then we went to Rita's for 50 cent custard. Good stuff, though not quite as good as the custard I had near Letchworth State Park up by Houghton in upstate NY.
Taking my leave after custard, I drove the hour or so to the Kucks' house near Purcellville (pronounced closer to 'purcival') up in the hills of northern Virginia. The drive to their house, once I got off the highway, was really pretty, rolling past fields and horse farms. I had dinner with Mr. Kucks and then took off to Patrick Henry College to play a concert.
The concert was lots of fun - students were really enjoying it, and the staff that were there seemed to enjoy it as well. I always enjoy playing, and the atmosphere was really relaxed but attentive. The rest of the Kucks clan met me at the concert (they had been up visiting Lancaster for the homeschool musical production of the Music Man) - it was the first some of them had heard me play.
Here's some video of the day. I'm getting it up a bit late, but it's been great to hang out here with the Kucks.

Vlog Day 4 - National Mall, Museums, and Ebenezers Coffeehouse

Breakfast at the Anderson's house was wonderful. You can see the scrumptiousness in the first video below. There are a bunch of videos today because it was such a full day. I slept in, then had breakfast (as mentioned earlier) with some great conversation - great people! Then drove down to the National Mall in DC and wandered around the Washington Monument, the carousel at the mall, the Air and Space Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. You can hear my stories about riding the carousel and getting lost in the Air and Space museum in the two videos. One more thing you didn't know that you wanted to know about Hiram. =) Such a gorgeous day to visit DC, and totally avoided the crowds by coming this early in spring (because Spring is here in DC).

I then drove to Ebenezers Coffeehouse with the great help of my GPS, dropped off some stuff and hung out there for a bit using their wi-fi. I met up with my friend Bryan and his fiancee Heidi for a quick dinner at Johnny Rockets in Union Station and then went back to move my car, soundcheck after Tim Be Told (who are pretty good, btw - you should check out their music online) and play a 30 minute set. The place filled up really quickly, and though I think I would have preferred people to have chairs, I think it was a great show! Some friends from Houghton (Bel and Katie) came out and it was really good to see them. Tonight I'm spending the night with other friends from Houghton, and then off tomorrow to Purcelville - moving right along!

Vlog Day 3 - Chillin'

I traveled back to the Olney area today by way of Burger King and the Friends Meeting House in Sandy Spring. Took the time to relax and chill out in preparation for a big day and evening tomorrow. I'm going to try to get into DC to visit the mall area and all the museums. But I'm spending the night with my friends the Andersons, and since they've suggested I sleep in... I might take them up on that.

Vlog Day 2 - Washington Christian Academy and Severna Park

Here's some video from my second day of tour - it was a pretty full day, but lots of fun. I started out by playing at Washington Christian Academy where my friend Christy is a teacher. The kids really enjoyed it, and I was told some of the girls came up to her afterwards and said "I think I'm in LOVE!" =) Does that make it a success? I submit that it does. In this video you can watch some of my performance of 'Go From Here'. I apologize for the less-than-ideal sound. I also got to interact with some of the kids, which was a lot of fun. From the classroom to sliding down the hill on cafeteria trays. I won't give out any names for their own protection.. =)

The next bit of video is from Severna Park, where I played at Trip Beans' youth coffeehouse event. I was originally supposed to play there on Sunday, but bad weather canceled the event, and so Trip scrambled to set it up for Wednesday, which I really appreciate. Trip and his family were such a blast to meet, and it was a ton of fun to hang out with them and the youth group at the Evangelical Prsebyterian Church.

Vlog Day 1

Officially, the Breathe Deep Tour Vlog begins as I (Hiram) complete some necessary tasks around Lancaster, give everyone a tour of my car (1985 Toyota Tercel with 90,000 original miles) and hit the road to Olney, MD where I'm staying with the Lewis family.
I also stopped by Guitar Center to visit my friend Tony Guyer, who recorded my EP Go From Here. He's a great guy to know. I dropped off CDs/posters at Dogstar Books and Berean Christian Bookstore, but the video didn't turn out great, so I didn't include that footage. I'll get better at handling this camera, I'm sure. Tomorrow things get busy - stay tuned!

Video Blog Installment 7 (pre-tour)

In this installment, I discover myself snowed in on Monday, sleep in, cook pancakes (you don't see me cook the pancakes, just mention having done so), visit the Post Office, and sing a song that I wrote a LOOOOng time ago. I head out tomorrow on tour... officially, for real.

Video Blog Installment 6 (pre-tour)

Today I helped lead worship at Wheatland PCA here in Lancaster, where I'm a member. It was pretty rockin' the second service if I do say so myself. As a musician of course I'm always picky, but second service was pretty tight. I only got 5 hours of sleep last night (packing for the trip), so I have to admit that first service was a bit rough (one of the tunes I couldn't remember how it went, so getting started was difficult - luckily other people remembered). Such is life, I guess. But here's some video from the second service, leading the congregation in "Come Thou Fount".

I was planning on taking off for the first leg of my tour today at 2pm, but around 1pm I got a call from Trip Beans at Severna Park EPC in MD, where I was going to play tonight, letting me know that the weather down there is pretty rough and so they canceled the event. He made some calls though, and we rescheduled for Wednesday night, which I think is going to work out better all around - God is really good!