Believe...

...it or not, the Vocal Majority's new Christmas CD is out!!! We just got them on Tuesday, and as of now they're not even listed on the VM website. They should be available online and in Barnes & Nobles soon -- at least Dallas-area stores, maybe more.



I may be a bit biased, but this is one awesome Christmas CD! It has a great mix of songs, lots of different styles. It's a mix of secular and spiritual carols, some a capella, one with full orchestra, one with just acoustic guitar. A couple of the tracks feature the two champion quartets that have come out of the chorus (Max Q and Acoustix). And one song is sung in the Yoruba dialect of west Africa! Hopefully there'll be some cuts from the CD available for listening on our website soon.

And yes, I am on it! I qualified in time to make the last recording session. Again, sorry for patting myself on the back like this, but seeing this is almost as good for me as having my name up in lights on Broadway. I'm probably enjoying this way too much, but this is just too cool -- my name is in the liner notes!



It's been less than ten months since I first even attended a VM rehearsal. In that time I have sung over 65 songs (needless to say, each of them was new to me, if not the song itself then the arrangement!); I've performed with the chorus in ten different appearances (in two states); and now I'm on a VM album! I may eventually become ho-hum about being in the group, but -- wow! -- not yet! It still seems like a dream.

So... buy the CD and prove to me it's not a dream. :-)

Huey Lewis needs your help!

There comes a time in any man's life when he needs to stand up for justice, to right the social wrongs, to take on a cause greater than himself.

This is not one of those times.

But hey, I loved me some Huey Lewis & the News back in the day, and his music still brings back a lot of good memories. As far as good causes go, this will not make a great deal of difference to the world, or help liberate the oppressed. Our sights are set a bit lower: getting Huey more airplay on classic rock radio stations. If we can hear him more often, than our efforts are not wasted.

Do you like your bands in business suits? Did you thrill to point out Mr. Lewis's "sorry but you're too darn loud" cameo in Back to the Future? Were you made vaguely uncomfortable leading a drug-free existence only to find yourself singing along to "I Want a New Drug"?

If so, then we need your help! Please click on the picture for the details (and a glimpse into a very funny blog, Mattress Police)!

The Wombat Book Club

I'm not Oprah, so I don't expect this endorsement to sell millions of copies (sorry, Janey!), but I highly recommend Jane Hampton Cook's newest release Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War. The author is a friend, the wife of a former college roommate (and best man at my wedding)... but don't let that stop you from getting this book -- it is very worthwhile.

Battlefields & Blessings is a fascination collection of devotionals framed around the Revolutionary war and the devout faith of the early patriots who founded our nation. It is structured for a full year of daily readings, organized into a weekly pattern: Sunday's devotional draws from a sermon of the era, the weekday studies revolve around the life of one of the many interesting participants in the conflict, and the Saturday reading provides a modern application.

I suppose I should add a disclaimer, lawyerly type that I am... I did contribute in a small way to the book. One of my earliest entries on this very weblog (here) was adapted on one of the modern application days.

But don't let that keep you away either. :-)