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A good friend and musician once told me that great music can transfer to any instrumentation and still hold its own.  The first time I heard Tuck Andress play Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror, I knew what he was talking about.  Since then, I’ve heard many more MJ tunes arranged for solo guitar, and they invariably hold their own.  Here are a few fingerstyle arrangements of MJ songs I really enjoy (save one, Pete Huttlinger’s arrangement of I Want You Back, which I can’t find on YouTube).

Rest in peace, MJ.

• Darts!
• Windows XP Shutdown (you’ll never forget it)
• Keeping Applebees open
• Dave’s funk jam at the end of Hear Our Praises
• Rich — “What key does Lifesong start in?”
• “That’s not a club!”
• “Hey Tom, how do those lyrics to Days of Elijah go?”
• “…all 3 of ‘em.” (don’t ask)
• “If you keep folding it, it keeps breaking.” (and a million other Spinal Tap and Stonehenge references)
• At the Cave of the Winds: “OK, um…how many people do you have again?”
• While flashing a dollar bill: “I’d like you to meet my friend, General Washington…”
• “STAR WARS, Nothin’ but Star Waaarrrrs”
• “Like a (hard) Rock.” (referring to the burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe)
• “Tim Horton’s!”  They were everywhere.
• Wheezing speakers at Elfinwild
• Yellow-light “Krotchko!”
• “SQUIRREL!”
• “I see dead people”
• In line for the hotel check-in, “So, what name are you giving them this time?”
• TAMMY the tour-guide! (if you look to your right you’ll see some trees)
• We ARE That Kind of Choir!

late additions:

• “Are you looking for some men?”
• “Give ‘em a 9 for efficiency”

Come help us closeout an amazing year & tour with Joyful Noise tonight at our homecoming concert.  It’s free!

Friday, June 26 at 7pm
Oakdale Emory United Methodist Church (map)
Olney, Maryland

Here are a few pictures from the band’s journey home, and some Hard Rock memorabilia of Elvis and Spinal Tap.  On the way home, we saw a controlled brush fire, a truck spilled over (driver appeared to be OK), and a couple of horse-drawn carriages (Amish folks, but I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture).

My next JN Tour post will be the Top Things Overheard on the 2009 Tour.

We left Grand Island this morning.  The kids went back to Darien Lake amusement park for a few hours, while the band and tech crew got on the road.  We met up at 1st United Methodist Church of Williamsport. It is a beautiful town, and a beautiful church.  The concert tonight was alot of fun.  Every night we play, we setup in a different way, because each church is laid out differently.  Tonight the soloists were actually elevated behind part of the band, so we had some fun with that.  It was a great show, very high energy.  Probably the best one yet.  I was impressed at the size of the crowd.

Tomorrow we head home.  The kids are going to Hershey Park, but I’m not so I won’t have pictures of that.

Today was our first totally free day of the tour, and it was mostly spent around Niagara Falls; first on the US side, then on the Canada side.  The falls are breathtaking.  I took some short video from 3 vantage points to try to capture it: from the top observation deck, from the bottom deck, and from the Maid of the Mist boat.  Each one is under a minute long. As you’ll see from #2 and 3, we got pretty wet despite the rain ponchos. Following the videos, there are several pictures of our adventures.

Today a few of us decided to take advantage of a spare hour this morning and dip our toes in Lake Erie at Presque Isle.  We also checked out the lighthouse while we were there.  The kids got to visit this place yesterday.  Today, the kids went to an amusement park while we setup at Trinity UMC and checked into our hotel.  The pictures of the motorboat and windsurfer are from the balcony of our hotel room in Grand Island (see map).  Not a bad upgrade from previous hotels on the tour…especially Pittsburgh.

The concert tonight was really good.  There was a nice crowd for a Monday night, and they, the band and choir were into it.  It was hot again, but a great show.  A new child was sponsored with Compassion tonight.

Tomorrow there is no concert, and we will be exploring Niagara Falls.  I’ll send another blog update tomorrow night. Falling asleep while I type this…

The first 3 photos below are the view off of our hotel balcony on Grand Island.  The last 6 are from Presque Isle (near Erie).  The others are in and around Trinity church.

Today we sang Breathe and Sound of the Round for worship at Elfinwild, before heading up to Erie to the Church of the Cross for a concert there.  The kids also visited Presque Isle during the day.  Church of the Cross is a beautiful church.  Unfortunately, the AC was broken, so even though the night started out cool, we were cookin by intermission.  It was a good size crowd, and they really enjoyed the show.  More pictures follow.  Thanks again to Tracey for capturing the stuff I can’t.  As usual, click on a thumnail to see it bigger.

Below are some pictures from the first day of the tour.  Click the thumbnail to see a bigger version.  Special thanks to Tracey for contributing pictures of the kids at the waterpark and pictures of the performance.

Elfinwild Presbyterian is being renovated, but right now it has no AC, and it got HOT!  Still, it was a great crowd, and we enjoyed performing for them.  There were a few technical glitches, and we were all a little road-weary, but all in all it was a good first night.  Tomorrow, we return to do 2 songs at their worship service before packing up and heading to Church of the Cross in Fairview, PA.

It’s hard to believe that we’re only a couple of days away from our 2009 tour!  It will take us through Pennsylvania and New York into Canada at Niagra Falls.  I’ll be blogging the tour here and on twitter as well.

Here’s some of the of the stuff the kids will doing:

• Sandcastles Water Park in Pittsburgh, PA
• Concert at Elfinwild Presbyterian Church (Glenshaw, PA)
• Presque Isle (Erie, PA)
• Concert at Church of the Cross (Fairview, PA)
• Darien Lake Amusement Park (Darien Center, NY)
• Concert at Trinity UMC (Grand Island, NY)
• Niagara Falls (Ontario, CA)
• Skylon Tower (Niagara Falls)
• Hard Rock Cafe (Niagara Falls)
  
• Concert at First UMC of Williamsport (Williamsport, PA)
• Hershey Park (Hershey, PA)

Joyful Noise! is a 100-voice youth choir based in Olney, Maryland. I play guitar in the 8-piece adult band that backs them.  We play everything from Brooklyn Tab arrangements to rock to reggae.  Every year we take the show on the road for one action-packed week of concerts and fun, supporting the ministry of Compassion International along the way.  Last year was Colorado; this year we’ll be visiting Pennsylvania, New York and Canada.

I’m sorry to hear of Bob Bogle’s passing.  Bob was a founding member of The Ventures.  He was 75 years old.  Their first hit, Walk Don’t Run, launched the ’surf guitar’ movement.  Their ballsy instrumentals opened up whole new avenues for guitarists and inspired countless players among whom I count myself.

Thank you, Bob.  Rest in peace.