Tristan (world’s greatest drummer) recently went in to the recording studio with his friend, Sean Blancherd, and some other guys and here is what I know from the website:
The Thought Process:
Sean Blanchard – Bass
Tristan Kelley – Drums
Brer Rabbit – Vox
Special Guest:
Jon Wirtz – Keys
The Thought Process started as just that, a thought that bassist Sean Blanchard has had over the past few years while playing and touring with some other amazing artists. “What would it sound like if certain styles of music were mixed over the bass grooves that were filling up my computer?” The two styles that kept coming into play, hip hop and jazz. Thus, The Thought Process was born.
Groove oriented story telling, melodies, in the pocket drum and bass, with an intellectual vocal vibe.credits
released 25 October 2011
Available for immediate download today.
I am so {obviously} not the hip-hop demographic, but I wholly love good lyric and jazz just folds me in, melts me a little.
Plus? So proud of Tristan!
In other music and the arts news…
Dave and Tara have a single or two coming out soon, as well! We have been waaaaaaaaiting for this!
One of my all-time favorite songs, ”A Million Stars” is going to be such a blessing to you!! It is to me.
And – my best friend and full-time lover [Dave Rhoades, of course], is debuting in Prairie Playhouses’ “Is He Dead?” A New Mark Twain Comedy.
I love the arts. I love my {talented} family and God has surrounded me with light and color and melody and song. The hills are alive with the sound of music….
Congratulations on the very awesome release today, Tristan!
I tend toward the sentimental with Christmas music. And I’m a little bit {more} country. At Christmas. For some odd reason.
But certain sings must have certain singers.
“Happy Holiday”s has to be Andy Williams.
“Winter Wonderland” belongs to Johnny Mathis.
“Drummer Boy” has to go to Bing, but Bing gets bunches of them (including “White Christmas” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”) because I love him. he is Mr Christmas!
Ellie invited me to do a Christmas music swap, my favorites for hers and I decided, though on different days I am in love with different moods and melodies of Christmas, to put together 12 songs that represented our family from 1981 to the present. They include Bing, and there is Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but I included Whitney Houston (“Joy to the World”) and Mariah Carey (“O Holy Night”). Kenny Rogers got 2 selections (“Kids” and “Christmas is My Favorite Time of Year”) because his was the first cassette Christmas music tape we bought as a new family. I did include Casting Crown’s updated version of “I heard the Bells” because Dave really likes it and of course, the collection would not be complete with the Charlie Brown Christmas song, “Christmas Time is Here.”
I didn’t get ot include a lot of songs I love by Dolly Parton, Karen Carpenter or Elvis, Alabama, Amy Grant or the Partridge Family. I just really love Christmas music and I have lots and lots of it representing the 1940s to the present. They made thousands of recordings in the 50s, it seems and each year, a new song or two is added to my list Christmas songs I love…
And I am kinda in love with this duet, which is more about winter than Christmas, but don’t you just love Willie and Norah? I do! CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN*
It WAS actually cold yesterday for about 17.238 minutes and we actually got at least 6.798 minutes of some sleety, snow-ish, rainy/gray/sky something or another before blue skies busted back out just before sundown. I had inserted the word “finally” above the word “cold” but alas this morning, another sunny, temperate day and they are saying no snow for Christmas. But I am sure we’ll have some for May Day. Grrrrr…….
What are you singing these days?
*Willie Nelson & Norah Jones – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Did I tell you about my early birthday present? It is this turntable-thing-machine that will digiitize my old vinyls and cassette tapes! Oh yes! That will be my project for the next 17 years or so…
January 15, Letterman. January 16, The Early Show on CBS. January 19, Ellen Degeneres.
Set your DVR and Tivo!
My son-in-law, Dave’s brother, Jon Powers is going to be on Letterman tonight. He is the drum player for Matt Morris and they went to New York on the media blitz for Matt’s new album, “When Everything Breaks Open.” Then on to California for the Ellen DeGeneres Show, among others.
The Longmont Times-Call recently ran this article about Jon and another guy we know, Sean Blanchard being in the band. You can read it here.
So Jon is DP’s brother and is super good friends with my other s-i-l, Tristan, and they used to be in a band with Rocky (and Heath Hardesty: Eveningtide….it was truly a “band of brothers). Jon is family. And we are just so proud of him! Keep up with Jon here: http://www.myspace.com/jpdrumming
Pictured, l-r: Rocky, Tris and Jon catching up, Oct ’09; Jon at work.
Matt Morris:
Learn more about Matt Morris’s tour, new CD and the band here.
I love this song. I have loved it forever and the “fire fall down” part is a major life-song for all my grandbabies. They sing their lungs out on it! Rocky and my kiddos led it again this morning and, wow – the words…
FIRE FALL DOWN
Cause I know… that you’re alive
You came to fix… my broken life
And I’ll sing… to glorify
Your Holy Name… Jesus Christ
You bought my life With the blood that you shed on the cross when you died
For the sins of men and you let out a cry
Crucified now alive… in me
These hands are yours
Teach them to serve as you please and I’ll reach out
Desperate to see all the greatness of God
May my soul rest assured… in you
I’ll never be the same
No I’ll never be the same
Cause I know… that you’re alive
You came to fix… my broken life
And I’ll sing… to glorify
Your Holy Name… Jesus Christ
You changed it all
You broke down the wall when I spoke and confessed In you I am blessed
Now I walk in the light In victorious sight… of you
Fire, fall down! Fire, fall down on us we pray, as we seek You…
Show me Your heart
Show me Your ways
Show me Your glory!
This is the song I am singing today!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF:These hands are Yours, teach them to serve as You please…
We thought every song was about us and our love for the first, oh, 26 or 27 years (we’ll celebrate 28 years of marriage this summer)…Below are a few of the early ones that ignite some memories.
Endless Love Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie 1981. This was a huge hit the summer of our getting together and my sister, Tami, wanted us to sing it to each other at our wedding. We didn’t, but there is some early-marriage video of us lip-syncing to it very late one night.
Eddie Rabbit Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places (meaning before we got together )
“Some people are made for each other. Some people can love one another for life, how ’bout us?”How ‘Bout Us? by Champagne 1981
Cliff and Olivia Suddenly…the wheels are in motion, and I am ready to sail any ocean…
Reminds me of youth group trips: Careless Whisper by George Michael 1984
Up Where We Belong 1984 “The road is long, and there are mountains in our way…” Jennifer Warren and Joe Cocker from the great movie, An Officer and a Gentleman. Dave and I actually sang a “Christian” rendition of it which was quite well-liked. Hokey, yes, but Bebe and Cece did it first.
1984 Tina Turner What’s Love Got to Do with it? Got to do with it?!
Whitney Houston 1985 “No other man’s gonna do ~ so I’m saving all my love for you…” Saving All My Lovewhew!
1984 I Just Called to Say I love You, Stevie Wonder, naturally
We lived near the fairgrounds and our first night at home as newly marrieds, we listened to Air Supply singing at the fair, but through our windows So Lost in Love 1981
Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley
Dave and I have sang this song at many many weddings, Always by Atlantic Starr “Boy, I love you so, can’t find enough ways to let you know. But you can be sure I’m yours for always…We both know that our love will grow…”
Patti Labelle and James Ingram “Baby, come to me. Let me put my arms around you this was meant to be…” Baby, Come to Me
Little Jeanie Elton
“Once in your life you find her..” Arthur’s Theme: The Best that You can Do, Christopher Cross
I Love a Rainy Night Another Eddie Rabbit from 1981
“My friends wonder why I call you all the time, what can I say?…Because your kiss is on my list of the best things in life…” Kiss on My List Darryl Hall and John Oates
My baby takes the Morning Train, 9-5 Sheena Easton
Olivia Newton-John 1981 Physical I wanna get physical, physical…let me hear your body talk…
Rapture 1981 by Blondie, the first “rap” song I had ever heard. And she was blond and white.
“Please remember my life is in your hands” Woman by John Lennon
The Boy from New York City
1981 Slow Hand The Pointer Sisters
Ronnie Milsap Smoky Mountain Rain “keeps on fallin’…”
IOULee Greenwood, the song of our first anniversary in 1982. We danced to it.
Survivor Eye of the Tiger We actually used to work out to this song.
Another Ronnie Milsap: I Wouldn’t Have Missed It
Michael Jackson just hitting his stride Billie Jean 1983 Didyou see the Motown 25th Anniversary Special? It was historic!
Islands in the Stream Dolly & Kenny channeling the sounds of the Bee Gees
Sweet Dreams are Made of This Eurythmics
Making Love ot of Nothing at All Air Supply
The Girl is Mine “the doggone girl is mine…” Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
Laying out in the backyard getting a good tan just after Tre was born in 1983 listening to Taco Puttin on the Ritz
“Just you and I sharing our love together. And I know in time we’ll build the dreams we treasure. We’ll be alright…” Just You and I Crystal Gayle and Eddie Rabbit
Take a Look at Me Now(Against All Odds) Phil Collins 1984
Kenny Loggins Footloose
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Wham
“I’m addicted to you, baby. You’re a hard habit to break.” Hard Habit to Break
Everytime You Go Away“you take a piece of my with you…”
You’re the Inspirationyou still are, honey!
Amy Grant and Peter Cetera (he had just left Chicago and she was stepping out ino secular music The Next Time I Fall in Love I’ll know better what to do…
Sorry, but yes, Barry Manilow Wouldn’t it be nice being Lonely Together(we listened to this on our first date! haha!)
It’s Sad to Belong to Some One Else when the right one comes along
Dave sang to me at our wedding, a Carpenter’s hit I Won’t Last a Day without You
That’s the Way, a contemporary Christian wedding song was another one he sang to me in our ceremony
So romantic Wonderful Tonight.
But old songs are ours, too God Only KnowsThe Beach Boys
I’ll be Seeing You, we love the old love songs of the WWII era
Once on a walk in Dallas (around our 2nd anniversary, I sang the entire Gladys Knight rendition of Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me to Dave, because he is.
I had to delete a bunch of “our songs”. Too many. But last night on American Idol, I heard yet another song about Dave and me by Brad Paisley, Then. It is a song of memory, looking back to the first kiss and having babies days. It recalls all the love of those days, but then goes on:
Now you’re my whole life
Now you’re my whole world
I just can’t believe the way I feel about you
Like a river meets the sea
Stronger than its ever been
We’ve come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then
I can just see you
When you’re hair is turning gray
What I can’t see
is how I’m gonna love you more
But I’ve said that before
Now you’re my whole life
Now you’re my whole world
We’ll look back someday at this moment that we’re in
And I’ll look at you and say
And I thought I loved you then
And I thought I loved you then…
Keep singing to me, babe and I’ll keep singing to you!…Jeanie
Audrey has bequeathed upon me the Christmas Spirit Award. I am suppose to tell 5 things I love about Christmas and bestow the award upon 5 other people for them to do the same.
Five Things I Love About Christmas:
1. The Christ of Christmas. I am a Jesus follower, lover and worshiper. Everything, and I mean everything is because of Him, about Him, to honor Him. The reason I live is to worship You, Lord…
2. Dave’s joy. Dave IS Mr. Christmas. Dave loves everything about it. He comes alive in the shortest days and longest nights of the year and makes my life merry and bright.
3. The five kids God gave me so I would understand the sheer JOY of giving them what they need to live (and get why He loves it so, too) and watching them, as they marry and have children, experience the same!
4. The five grandkids, of course. I did not know I could or would become one of those grandmas, but I guess I am. And I LOVE doing Christmasy things with these amazing, wonderful, sweet, funny, charming, talented, and loving children. They are beyond words for me, really. They renew my Christmas spirit regularly!
5. The symbols, the lights, the music and sounds, the smells, the meanings, the good wishes, the cookies, the friends, the laughter, the gifts I get to give, the Gift God gave to me, I love it all! All this and more…
Five People Who Also Get the Christmas Spirit Award
Because it is Christmas, I am keeping this a secret and not giving my 5-selected-blogger-friends the award – so that they may get their shopping and baking and all else Christmas done. Really, I am not just trying to keep the award for myself!…
May YOUR days be merry and bright…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: All this focus on Chrismas…am I forgetting other stuff??? Oh well, who cares?
Thanks to Amy Grant for my favorite new Christmas song this year. I DO need one! How about you?
I’ve made the same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic, Christmas rush
It breaks me till I push and shove
Children are crying while mothers are trying
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buying and standing forever in line
What can I say?
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
December comes then disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace
Or was the world a different place?
Where people stayed home wishing for snow
Watching three channels on their TV
Look at us now rushing around
Trying to buy Christmas peace
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
What was it like back there in Bethlehem
With peace on earth, good will toward men?
Every shepherd’s out in the field
Keeping watch over their clock by night
And the glory of the Lord shone around them
And they were so afraid
And the angels said fear not for behold
I bring you good news of a great joy that shall be for all people
For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
To end this crazy day with a silent night
I pulled out that classic Christmas album, “A Partridge Family Christmas Card” featuring the vocal stylings of David Cassidy.
Yeah, that’s right, baby! I am a child of the 70′s. So – I still like to hear The Partridge Family singing Christmas carols once or twice each Christmas season. I try not to go public with that fact very often, but there it is.
But I am really wondering about their version of “Frosty the Snowman,” and what David Cassidy was thinking when he recorded it?
If you have never heard it, and I really recommend you go immediately to your local Salvation Army or Goodwill store and seek to purchase your own copy, imagine this well-loved and much-sang song, slowed down…slowed waaaaaaay down. Imagine a white guy (David Cassidy a.k.a. Keith Partridge) singing as “soulfully” as he can. Imagine his eyes closed as he sings it with deep feeling. Imagine this song sounding so gospel, so deeply pleading, that it would sound appropriate at a Billy Graham Crusade altar invitation time. Imagine singing “Frosty the Snowman,” with so much feeling that you must stop and focus on said snowman -right now!?
The other day I was listening to the same song by different, more upbeat performers and the words did give me pause (check it out here), but now I am wondering if David Cassidy knew way before I pondered the possibility – that Frosty IS, indeed, a Christ-figure?
Don’t worry. The season is just getting started. Lots more thoughts where these came from!…Jeanie
http://www.prairieplayhouse.com/productions/ishedead Hope to see you there (The Brighton Armory).
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