songwriter sessions

Our first evening at the church was beautiful. The home groups of the church called Open Arms Community Church came together for an evening of several sets of music with time to chat and enjoy "tea and biscuits" (that's hot tea and cookies for the American southerners reading this!)

Jason Howell did a great job opening the evening. That was a "God thing" since Friday Jason could literally not speak a word because of laryngitis. Of course Tony and George had never heard Jason in person. As he was finishing his set, Tony leaned over to me and said, "well, I'm glad I'm not the one that has to follow his performance." That job was mine.

It was really fun to sing to an Irish audience again. I was able to use songs I'd written while living here to get close to the audience. They were a great bunch and even joined in on a couple of them.

Then George and Tony ended the evening by taking their breath away. Tony's huge voice moved the walls back a few inches as they started the night with an unbelievable rendition of Love Came to Town and ended with Amazing Grace.

The folks were great, and it was obvious that by the end of the night, there'd really been something for everyone there. I believe we'll have some folks from last night inviting guests these next couple of days for the big event on Friday night.

Keep us in your prayers as we play at a music restaurant this afternoon for the general public. We can only say so much but we're helping the church become a visible "good neighbor" in the community, dispelling the rumors here that the church was some kind of cult or sect simply because it wasn't mainline Catholic or Anglican.

More to come.

Durand