September 2008


AHQ&Music03 Sep 2008 11:12 pm

AHQ’s last two albums are available for mp3 download at a great new site called Gladsongs.com.

They started a Youtube channel and asked about some promo material from us, so I gave them a video from several years ago when we sang at the Inspirations’ Singing in the Smokies.

 

My buddy Pete’s solo album (which I recorded) is also available there.

This got me thinking about days gone by when I used to was a singer. There is one rule you soon learn as a singer, and that is: “It’s always hot on stage.” Always. My future sister-in-law’s brother got married last Saturday, and my brother-in-law (her fiance) said how ferociously hot it was standing up front. I could have told him that from my seat way in the back.

It’s always smoking hot up front. A singer just has to get used to it. The only time I remember being cold when we sang (and there’s a chance I’m forgetting another time or two), was once at a graveside service in the winter. That’s wasn’t hot, that was freezing, and it was very hard to sing! Of course that wasn’t up on a stage either.

So over the years of traveling and singing, I did get used to it to a certain degree. That didn’t keep me from complaining, of course, but I got to where I could handle it pretty well. As an aside, we sang at a small church in Virginia one time and for the first few songs of the night I could hardly believe it. It was cool and wondrously comfortable on stage! Then I saw the guy go back to the thermostat, and that was the end of that. I talked to him later and he said he was getting complaints about it being so cold. Figures.

Anyway, so at the Singing in the Smokies ’04 (from which the above video was taken), this should have been no big deal, right? Oh my goodness, not a chance. Now this is an outdoor event, and it was so hot that day I couldn’t believe it. Of course we were buttoned up to our earlobes in our singin’ suits, and it was just about more than I could take.

Then we took the stage, and it was ten degrees hotter up there! The stage was lined with bright lights, they may have been heat lamps I’m pretty sure, and I don’t know when I’ve experienced such heat.

So just remember, if you ever become a singer, you have to deal with the heat onstage.

Family01 Sep 2008 06:12 pm

Steven (the Great Archer) and Jenna stayed with us over the weekend not long ago, and we took some pictures of the girls together.

But Mandy wouldn’t cooperate.

Here’s one of the girls and their cousins.

This is what Mandy does when you try to take a picture of her.