KTB on Hiatus

Indefinitely...

Join me over on the Knoxville Gospel Blog or Tug's Life. I will be concentrating more on those sites for a while.

Knoxville Gospel Blogging lately

I'm still around, just been busy behind the scenes at the 21st Grand Ole Gospel Reunion for the past couple of days. I've been blogging about it over on my Knoxville Gospel Blog. Come on over and check it out.

Music? Knoxville's gotcha covered this weekend!

Chattanooga's got nothing on us. Whether you are into Gospel, Americana, R&B, Blues, Metal, or '60's Rock & Roll, Knoxville can fill the need this weekend.

Gospel: The 21st Annual, Grand Ole Gospel Reunion, kicked off today at the downtown Marriott in Knoxville. It will continue with concerts, Friday-Saturday, Aug. 15-16, at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. - I attended GOGR last year and had a great time. Of course any time I can be around Southern Gospel music, I'm gonna have a great time. Big time groups such as the Dove Brothers, Inspirations, Melody Boys Qt., Dixie Echoes, and of course the most excellent, Chuck Wagon Gang, will be singing! If you are a Southern Gospel music lover, you won't want to miss this one!

Kirk Talley fans will want to be sure and visit New Beverly Baptist this Sunday, August 17th. Kirk will be singing during their 6:00 PM worship services. For more info visit the Church website, or visit Kirk Talley's official site.

Americana: If you are more into Americana music, then you will want to be sure and check out the Blue Plate Special at WDVX tomorrow. The band, Tangleweed, will be performing live. Here is some info about the band: "Tangleweed is a band of five forward-looking musical reactionaries from Chicago, Illinois. They play acoustic Americana music. Their brand-new record, Where You Been So Long?, has received airplay in 21 countries on four continents. Their first album, Just a Spoonful, received glowing reviews and earned widespread ariplay as well." -source: Tangleweed.org. Also on the menu are, the Courduroy Road band, and the Grit Pixies.

Blues and R&B: More into Blues and R&B? Never fear, Knoxville's Museum of Art is here! The Accidentals and Groove Therapy will entertain during Alive After Five 5:30-9:30 p.m. at the Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Drive. Jenna Jefferson, of Jenna and the Joneses fame, also sings for The Accidentals, offering a smooth approach to classic soul, R & B and traditional blues. The group also includes Sevan Takvoryan on guitar, Dave Slack on bass, Kenneth Brown on drums and Keith Brown on keyboards. - Source: Knoxnews.com Admission is $8 in general, $4 for museum members and students. For information, call 865-525-6101.

Heavy Metal: Head Bangers Alert! Knoxville based metal band, Whitechapel, has released a new CD titled, 'Escape From Exile.' "Knoxville, Tenn.-based Whitechapel (Wade, vocalist Phil Bozeman, guitarists Ben Savage and Zach Householder, bassist Gabe Crisp and drummer Kevin Lane) are quickly becoming heavy metal heroes. The band's thunderous breakdowns, hyperactive guitar riffs and New York hardcore-inspired chant-along choruses successfully broach all extreme music barriers. By tearing down these sub-generic walls, This Is Exile is spreading like a cancer to appreciative metal-heads, hardcore kids and others across North America. - For this album, we set out with a professional mind set," says Wade. "We wanted to put out a professional metal album." -source: Chartattack.com

1960's Rock & Roll: A band that Rolling Stone Magazine declared, "the number one Beatles tribute show on earth," "1964"...The Tribute, a Beatles tribute band will be playing Saturday, Aug. 16th, at the historic Tennessee Theatre, at 8:00 PM. "While touring nationwide they were voted "Best Major Concert Act" and "Best Contemporary Act" by the readers of Campus Activities Today Magazine." - Source: TennesseeTheatre.com

How many Knoxvillians can we get in space?

A few months ago a Knoxville Trivia Blog reader sent me an email informing me of a neat program from NASA that would put my name in space. The deadline was June 27, 2008 and luckily I got in before it ended. It didn't cost a thing and I was even able to print out a cool certificate. This was all part of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.

One Million Names to the Moon

"Did you say one million? That’s how many names have been submitted to blast off on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft. Since May 1, NASA has invited the public to join the excitement of the first mission in NASA's exploration program to return humans to the moon by 2020. LRO, which is scheduled to launch later this year, will map the lunar surface in extraordinary detail and help future human missions to the moon locate safe landing sites and vital resources on the moon. There is still time to be part of the adventure and send your name on a mission to the moon. Participants can submit their names at the LRO web site and print a certificate. The names will be placed on a microchip that will be installed on the LRO spacecraft and travel to the moon. The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008."

If you missed the deadline, never fear! Tonight I discovered another mission that allows you to send your name to space. This time it is part of NASA's Kepler Mission:

Send Your Name into Space with the Kepler Mission

"Kepler is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. The spacecraft is planned to be launched from Kennedy Space Center in February 2009. The spacecraft will be launched into orbit around the Sun, not the Earth, with an orbital period of 372 days. The spacecraft will slowly drift away from the Earth, such that in about 25 years it will be half an Earth orbit away, 300 million kilometers distant from the Earth, passing behind the Sun as viewed from Earth.

When you submit your name, you may also chose to provide a message of 500 words or less of why you think the mission is important. A copy of the DVD with all of the names and messages will be given to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum."

Lets see how many Knoxvillians we can get in space! Go to the Kepler website and add your name to the project. The deadline is November 1, 2008.

A Great Time With HisVoice!

I had been looking forward to hearing the Southern Gospel trio, HisVoice, for some time. I have been enjoying their MySpace page and the songs on it plus one of their CD's from a few years back. But, I had never seen the group in person. I had only spoken with the group's manager/baritone, Allen Davenport, a few times via e-mail. You never know what to expect when you invite a group out to sing. Will they be Spiritual? Will they follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit? Or will they be self-centered and all about themselves? Well, tonight I found out...read on.

We arrived at the church about 30 minutes before starting time. One of the deacons had let the group in at 4:00 to set up their equipment. No one else was present yet besides my family and the members of HisVoice. They were wrapping things up with their setup and doing some final mic checks. I introduced myself to Allen and then went out front to greet folks as they arrived. Everyone seemed really excited to hear the group sing and lots of fellowship and laughter could be heard as folks slowly started filtering in.

We opened up the service with a couple of congregational hymns and welcomed everyone to the church. I quickly got out of the way in order to let HisVoice minister and worship with us. They walked up to their mics and immediately began belting out a hand-clapping rendition of "I Kept On Searching." I knew from the get-go that we were in for a real treat. It’s no wonder that this group was just signed to a major recording contract with the Eddie Crook Company in Nashville. The trio has a tight sound with very strong vocal harmonies. They use pre-recorded tracks that their sound guy, Sonny Hinkle, expertly delivers on queue.

Next they dove into an old Mcruder's hit, "I'm Going Home With Jesus." Then my very favorite song of the entire night, "Stacking Some Stones Up." This one was lead by Alto, Kristen Kitts. I was crying like a baby before she even got through the first verse. The song talks of the children of Israel after they crossed the Jordan River and had built an altar of stone to make sacrifice and to remind them of what God had brought them through. This is a very touching song and there wasn't a dry eye in the entire house. I was so happy that they decided to sing the entire song again. Kristen has a very beautiful and strong alto voice, I could listen to her sing all day long.

The next song on their list was "Mission Not Impossible." I had never heard this one before but it was a very catchy tune and Soprano, Alysia Haluska, did an outstanding job working the crowd and singing praises. She had a huge smile on her face the entire time she was on stage and you couldn’t help but smile back when you looked at her. It was very contagious! Up next was a song that said, "You Picked the Right Time to Leave the Wrong Thing Behind." Followed up with Allen leading out on, "The Story Untold."

“He Chose this Valley For Me,” was my second favorite song of the night. Of course it was another that I cried through the entire time. I wasn’t the only one though. I looked over at our pastor and could see that he wasn’t able to contain himself either, as he was crying his eyes out and lifting his hands toward Heaven in praise. “Grace Abounds,” was the next song. Alysia did another spectacular job on this one.

After a heart-wrenching story by Allen, the group jumped into the Talley Trio’s, “Broken Ones.” My kids have loved this song ever since they first heard Lauren Talley sing it a few months ago. If this song doesn’t touch you, then you can’t be touched. It’s not only touching but the words are so true. Immediately following, they made an altar call with the beautiful, “He Can’t Pick Up What You Won’t Lay Down.” As folks were praying around the altar, the group broke into, “There Is A Remedy,” followed up with “Amazing Love.”

As they say, all good things must end, and so did our time with HisVoice. They ended things with the upbeat, “I’m Free.” After a few words from our Pastor and a final altar call, we reluctantly dismissed and made our way back home. It was truly a wonderful night of Southern Gospel music and worship with HisVoice. You might want to book this group at your church while you still can because I am predicting big things for them and I’m sure their schedule is going to fill up quickly!

My Pennington Predictions

No hanging Chad's in Miami this time! I'm sure you have heard the news by now, Chad Pennington is a Miami Dolphin!

"One day after his release from New York, he found what looks to be a starting job with the Miami Dolphins. Pennington, 32, agreed Friday night to a two-year, $11.5 million contract that pretty well locks him into starting, according to a source. Contacted by six teams on Thursday, Pennington wasted no time reuniting with the person who brought him into the NFL as a first-round pick of the Jets, Bill Parcells." -Source: ESPN

I say good. Our Knoxville born football star is destined for greatness. I am going on record right now by saying that this is the beginning of big things for Chad. He is a great player and great person and he deserves it. I say he is going to lead the Dolphins to a championship and will have an outstanding first season and career in Miami.

Chad has a good head on his shoulders and a strong work ethic. Both of those show in this interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel last month.

Maybe he will start getting a little more hometown recognition now that he's going to be down here in the South. Hopefully we will hear more about Chad than we do about this guy. I'll bet that Dolphin fans will love him even more than these folks did. Can't wait to see more headlines like this in the future.

Just a drugged up fat guy on the couch

No, this is not another Knoxville "Couch" post...

Haven't blogged much lately. Just haven't been in the mood. Lots of stuff going on but I can't seem to find the time or the energy to devote to it.

The trip to Greenville went OK except for the drive back to Knoxville. What normally only takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, took me 5 hours, thanks to the N.C.D.O.T. They had one lane of I-40 shutdown about 15 miles before the Tennessee state line. I sat in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour and only moved 10 miles. I decided to take a side exit, loop back around and head back in the opposite direction and come home through Maggie Valley/Cherokee/Gatlinburg. Going down all of those hills really got the brakes on our Xterra heated up and I had a few scary moments trying to stop. My boss was riding along with me and we stopped off at Calhoun's in Gatlinburg for a late dinner....big mistake. That was the single worst meal that I have ate in a long, long time. I have eaten at Calhoun's plenty of times and have always enjoyed it but the food was so bad at the one in Gatlinburg that I couldn't even eat half of it. I ordered the steak Calhoun's to be cooked medium. It arrived well done. It was so dry and tasteless that even drowning it in Calhoun's sauce didn't help. I also had fries and spinach Maria on the side. The fries were way too salty and the spinach Maria was just bland. My stomach was cramping before I even finished half of my plate. A trip to the men's restroom was an adventure in pee land, as the floor was so wet and slippery that I could barely stand up. Calhoun's in Gatlinburg..."Clean it up!"

Also this week, I had to start driving back to the office every day to work. I have been working from home for nearly a year and things were going just fine. But, like they say, all good things must end, or one bad apple spoils a whole bunch, or because of the actions of one idiot everyone has to suffer etc... So it's 45-minutes to an hour both ways from Corryton to Farragut and back to the office every day. Not to mention $60.00 in gas every week. Add that on top of the dadgum $240 electric bill we just received from KUB today and I feel like I'm not even breaking even.

Had to go to the doctor yesterday too. No good news there either. Seems that I have Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Syndrome. In other words, my left upper thigh is numb, tingling, stinging, itching, burning, and hurting because I'm getting too fat. Been putting up with it for almost a year and finally decided to tell the doctor about it. So, now I'm getting high every night on muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory medicine. One of the pills is also used for dogs that have arthritis. My dad tells me that I'll probably start barking soon. ;) So far I haven't gotten any relief, only feel drowsy and doped up all the time. Oh, the doctor also demanded that I drop 15-lbs by December the 9th so I reckon I'm gonna have to get serious about dieting and exercise so I can feel my upper thigh again.

I wanted to go out and take some nice pictures this evening. The sky was so blue and clear and I had all of these visions of photographic perfection, however, I ended up sitting on the couch watching a movie with the kids and drinking coffee.

I don't know what tomorrow will hold. I am hoping to get up early, sit on my bench and watch the sunrise. Hopefully I'll be able to do some photography work as well.

So, perhaps I'll muster up some Knoxville Trivia work soon, but, I'm not making any promises. Sorry to sound like Debbie Downer.

42 and feeling it

I'm back in K-town (for a few hours). We had a wonderful time at the beach and really hated to come home this time. This was the first vacation that I have ever taken that I wasn't ready to leave after a couple of days. It took me over an hour to get all of the sand out of our SUV.

I turned 42-years old yesterday. Nearly 200 people showed up for my birthday party, well, actually it was our church homecoming but I considered it my party. Most folks only get a single cake on their bday but I had my choice of at least 20 different cakes, pies, and other goodies. Of course it wasn't the sweets that captivated me, no, it was the chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, ham, and dozens of casseroles!

We had a great time of singing and fellowship for our 66th annual homecoming. It was so great to see a lot of former members and hear the many conversations going on with them. A lot of Baptist churches in our area have changed their formats and worship styles over the past few years, but, not us! We still hold fast to the traditional way of doing things. Folks know what to expect when they show up at one of our Homecomings. They don't have to worry that something weird will be going on. They know that they will be treated to a warm welcome, sing the good old 4-part hymns from the red back church hymnal (not the mind numbing 7-11 songs flashed on a wall). They will still hear an old fashioned preacher stand and deliver the Gospel message from the KJV. They will still stand in a long line anxiously awaiting some delicious home-cooked food. They will still gather back together after lunch for a time of wonderful singing. Yep, just like it was 10, 20, 30, 40, years ago.

Today I am returning to South Carolina. Unfortunately it's not to kick it back on the beach. Instead, I am visiting with some customers in Greenville. I really enjoyed my last visit to that area and was really impressed with their downtown.

I should get back to some actual Knoxville trivia later on this week.

KTB still hyper just not local

Just in case you were wondering why the KTB hasn't been updated this week. Well, I'm kicking it back at the beach. I'll be a little more local next week. Cheers!

The Best Neighborhood In Knoxville

A recent post over on Knoxville Talks has been on my mind lately. The following questions were raised:

"-What do you like and dislike about your own Knoxville neighborhood? If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about your ‘hood, what would it be?
-If you were to move to a different Knoxville neighborhood - and you could choose any one - which one would it be and why?
-What neighborhood in Knoxville would you find LEAST attractive as a place to call home. Why?" -source: knoxvilletalks.com

As of this writing, there are 8 comments that have been left. I can only assume from reading them that most of the commenter's are city slickers, as they pine for "neighborhoods, sidewalks, and houses." I am the only one that commented about country living. Here are my comments:

Byron said, July 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
I live in Corryton, which is out in East Knox Co (not to be confused with East Knoxville). I love the farmland, the view of House Mountain, the creeks, ponds, railroad tracks, barns, silos, and churches. Neighbors are kind and peaceful.
If I could change anything it would be the minds of all of the city folks that keep moving into my neck of the woods and destroying all of the above mentioned things. Subdivisions are starting to ruin our area.
If I had to move to any other area and still stay within the confines of Knox large, my choice would be somewhere on the outer edge of Mascot, as close to the Grainger Co. line as I could get.
One place I would not want to live is anywhere in the Magnolia Ave. area.
----------------------
I was thinking about all of this today while my son and I was out riding around in our neighborhood. As we pulled out of our driveway we waved at the cows in the field across from our house. House Mountain was standing tall in the background. As we stopped at the end of our road, before pulling onto Washington Pike, there were horses running in the field that lies across the road. A glance to the right revealed a heavy fog partially hiding Clinch Mountain.

We made our way down the road toward my parent's house, passing open fields, cows, barns, silos, and farmlands. Approaching the railroad tracks at the end of Maloneyville Road, we had to pause and wait for a train to pass by. I had my camera hung around my neck so I snapped off a few pictures as it went by. I decided to travel the length of Maloneyville and beat the train to the next crossing. I pulled my Pathfinder off to the side of the road and we got out and ran to the crossing where the train was approaching. I was able to capture some shots as it bared down on the crossing and zoomed passed us.

We left the train crossing and pulled into my parent's driveway. Dad's garden was green and lush. Morning Glory's were still in full bloom and the dew was dripping from their petals. I ceased the opportunity to take a few macro shots. I circled around the tall asparagus and discovered some beautiful blue Chicory flowers. We went into my parent's house where my sister Jennifer and her son, Luke, were visiting from Arkansas. I tried to get some shots of Luke drinking diet Coke from the bottle but his little legs ran lickety split, diaper and all, down the hallway in hiding. We only stayed a few moments to chat. We are busy getting ready to leave for vacation in the morning. We will be going to the Isle of Palms, where I know it is pretty, but I'm sure I'll miss my beautiful little neighborhood something fierce.

UPDATE: There is some more Knoxville neighborhood talk going on over on Knoxify.

You can check out some more of the beautiful scenery in my town of Corryton, in my photo galleries. See links below. (the one with barns was taken before I got a real camera so they aren't as crisp):

Around Corryton

A Day at the Railroad Tracks

Barns

When an old friend lets you down

I've been putting off blogging about this because I didn't want to come off as being mean spirited or hateful. However; at the urging of a KTB reader, I decided to go ahead.

I'm sure by now you have heard/read about the changes coming to WBIR-10 News. If not, just go here: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/23/wbir-cancels-style/ I would suggest not reading the comments (180 right now) most are just rude, hateful, and stupid.

So, since you asked, here is my take on the whole thing...

Have you ever had an old friend that you thought was the greatest in the world and all of a sudden from out of nowhere they do something totally unexplainable? What's worse is, when that friend does this, they pretend like nothing ever happened yet continues to repeat the same actions. Well, that is the way I feel about WBIR-10 News. I have always been a big fan of that station and I've blogged about that many, many times over the past 2 years. I was even once accused of being a "WBIR puppet." I'll admit that I pretty much danced to their tune. They always had the best human interest stories, news anchors, and seemed to connect with me on many levels. I'm sad to say that I feel like that connection has been severed. This didn't just happen overnight, no, it's been in the works for a few years.

I suppose it all started when WBIR cut out the Mull's Singing Convention. Of course I don't know the details of why this happened, the only thing I know is that the Mull's were no longer on WBIR. The Mull's represent the kind of people that make up the majority of East Tennesseans; honest, hard working, and Christian. When they were booted off, it was like someone opening your KJV Bible to Romans 10:9 and spitting in it...offensive! Luckily they were picked up by WVLT and Mrs. Mull and Charlotte are still there today.

Next, for me, was the departure of Abby Ham. Yeah, I know, it was all out of WBIR's hands, orders from headquarters blah, blah, blah... I haven't warmed up to Abby's replacement. She seems so disconnected and out of place to me. It's kind of like Celine Dion singing at the Grand Ole Opry, they just don't go together. I think Brittany Bailey or Yvette Martinez would have fit in rather nicely in that position. Also, Russ Biven is stretched out way too thin. I used to be a pretty big fan of his but he's way over exposed now. It's sort of like that song that you love so much but then you hear it a hundred times a day and you finally just get sick of it. IMHO his report with Beth Haynes is much better than with Cornwell.

Then there was the loss of Dan Farkas. Okay, so Dan left all on his own to pursue greater interests...did they have to replace him with a female sports announcer? Go ahead, start with the hate mail and comments. I'm not saying that Kris doesn't do a fine job as a sports announcer, despite this big hoopla. I'm just saying that it doesn't work for me (and nearly everyone that I have spoken with on the subject.)

Then there was the email I received last month from a very reliable source, telling me about upcoming changes to the stations internal staffing. Word has it that this fall WBIR is going to cut out their graphics dept. and outsource it all to Denver, and next year they are going to cut out their in-house master control and outsource it to Florida or somewhere. What's next??? How about outsourcing the whole dadgum thing and just use a satellite to zoom Beth Haynes into my living room (providing she still has a job)?

It appears that the dropping of Style is pretty much a business decision. They were getting beat in that time slot by WVLT and they had to try and stop the blood letting. I don't think it's necessarily because people are demanding news at that time slot, it's just that Style had run it's course, and wasn't connecting with the folks that used to watch it. I'm not so sure about their plan to have news at 5:00, isn't that when everyone is sitting on I-640 trying to get around SmartFix-40?

Those are just a few of my thoughts on the WBIR thing. I guess only time will tell if the new changes will pay off for them. Of course you can take all of this with a grain of salt. I don't work in the news business or know anything about how it all works. I just know what I like and don't like. Right now I'm not liking much of anything over there. In fact, I warned about this over a year ago, and I am pretty much a WVLT kind of guy these days. I wish channel 8 had a station like 10-News2 though because I prefer to watch on my own time schedule and that's usually late in the middle of the night.

Oh, I didn't mention WATE in any of the above. I very rarely watch that station anymore. I sometimes catch them at the 10:00 news slot, they seem to have a pretty good group of young, new reporters. I especially enjoyed Ann Keil reporting from the field. I still don't like their in your face, "you heard it here first" approach...just puts me off.

UPDATE: Frank Murphy weighs in, as well as Terry Morrow, and Walker Johnson.

If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Confession: I found a new love today. One that makes me do things that I normally wouldn't do. My new love is small, hot, and to die for. Yes, it's KFC's new Hot Wings! I had been seeing the commercials for the past 2 weeks and it's all I could think about. Every day my wife asks me what I would like to have for supper tonight and my answer has been "those new hot wings from KFC." But, I never did get the supper that I asked for. "How about meatloaf instead?" Grrrr.

Well, today I couldn't stand it any longer. On my lunch break I jumped in the Nissan and headed to the KFC at East Towne. I anxiously waited my turn in line. Visions of hot, juicy, crispy chicken wings danced in my head. Finally I rolled up to the drive through ordering speaker and said, "uh, yeah, I'll have a 20-piece of them there new hot wings." 10-bucks and some change later and I'm driving down Washington Pike on my way back home. The smell wafting from that box of wings was tempting me like I've never been tempted before. Those hot wings were whispering from inside the box, "Heck, traffic is light, come on Tug, try us out, you know you want to!" After being heckled by those wings for about, um, lets see...10-seconds, I ripped the top open and dove in.

I now have an idea what a crack addict feels like. I nearly gnawed my fingers off trying to get every drop of deliciousness off of the bone. I ate nearly half of the box before I made it back home. I'm eating the rest of them while I'm typing this post. If I had 10 more bucks to spare and an extra lunch break, I would go back and get another 20-piece. "KFC hot wings, if loving you is wrong, I won't want to be right." Oh my gosh, this can't be good.

Why Don't You Give this CD a Try?

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, when I was growing up here in good old East, TN, my family spent many hours sitting around the living room picking and singing gospel music. We would pull out the old maroon Church Hymnal and sing until our throats gave away. Those old songs always had a way of lifting you up when you were sad, or giving hope in times of trouble. I’m happy to say that the tradition lives on.

Being a Baptist music minister, a purveyor of music, and bluegrass aficionado, I can say with complete authority that the CD that I’m holding in my grubby hand, ‘Why Don’t You Give Jesus A Try,’ is the best Bluegrass/Gospel CD that I have listened to in years. I had the pleasure of listening to Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road perform most of the songs from this Blue Cirlce Record's project earlier this year. So, I already knew I was in for a treat before I even took possession of it. Jerry Butler finally had a free moment from his busy touring schedule and invited me to drop by and pick up my copy.

I couldn’t even make it home without tearing the shrink-wrap off and popping the CD into the disc player of my vehicle. Normally, my kids are sitting in the backseat with their I-pods stuffed in their ears, but tonight they were singing along with Carolina Road! Many of the songs they were already familiar with, as we frequently sing them during church services. Titles such as ‘Just A Little Talk With Jesus,’ ‘I Like the Old Time Way,’ and my youngest daughter’s favorite, ‘In the Sweet Forever,’ made this an instant hit. There are 12 cuts on this CD and not a stinker in the bunch. There are even two Lorraine Jordan penned songs, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Track 1 of the CD kicks off with Butler’s rich voice belting out the catchy, ‘I Like the Old Time Way,’ complimented with a nice 4-part harmony courtesy of the other Carolina Road members.

Track 2 is another catchy tune, which was penned by group founder, Lorraine Jordan, called ‘The Judgment Day.’ All 4 vocal parts are also showcased on this one.

Track 3, ‘Harp With Golden Strings,’ was an audience favorite when I heard them perform it at Boxcar Pinion Festival this past May. The song’s lyrics have Butler pining for the day he’ll “trade in his old guitar for a harp with golden strings.” However, if you have ever witnessed the way he cherishes his Mike Long guitar, you would be hard pressed to believe that anyone could ever pry it out of his fingers, even for a golden harp!

Track 4 is another Jordan written song called, ‘Smiling Faces.’ According to the liner notes in the CD, Lorraine wrote the words after visiting an orphanage in Russia and witnessed that even among the sadness she saw the smiling faces of the children.

Track 5, ‘It’s Time to Give Jesus A Try,’ was written by Tom T. and Dixie Hall, and is also the title cut. It talks of how after you’ve tried everything in the world and discovered that nothing can cure your troubles, you just need to turn to Jesus and give Him a try.

Track 6, features the high tenor voice of Josh Goforth, as he leads the gospel standard, ‘Just A Little Talk With Jesus.’ If you were brought up in an old fashioned kind of church, you will quickly recognize this as being page 92 in the Church Hymnal. Coincidentally, a fellow Tennessean, Rev. Lister Cleavant Derricks, wrote this song. Derricks once lived in Knoxville where his two famous actor twin sons, Cleavant and Clinton, were born.

Track 7, is another old-time gospel tune, ‘Just Over In the Glory land.’

Track 8, ‘Let the Church Roll On,’ is a refreshing song with a sense of humor. “Well there’s a deacon in the church (oh my Lord) and he won’t do right (oh my Lord) what shall we do? Turn him out and kick him out and let the church roll on!” Read all of the lyrics here.

Track 9, ‘I Saw the Light from Heaven,’ is an old traditional gospel folk song. In it’s entirety the song tells 5 different Bible stories all packed into a neat 2 minutes and 30 seconds, Josh Goforth, arrangement.

Track 10, ‘In the Sweet Forever,’ as I’ve already mentioned is my youngest daughter’s favorite. We sing this song quite frequently at church. Our Alto section really shines on it. In fact, we just sang it this past Sunday. Carolina Road does a wonderful job on this one as well.

One song that I have taken particular liking to is track 11, ‘You Gotta Believe,’ written by Tony Rackley and Pat Terry. I had never heard this one before. It is reminiscent of an old George Jones song with a catchy upbeat tempo likening to a Ricky Skaggs or Michael Martin Murphy hit. I believe it would be instant radio success. The first verse of the song tells the story of a church congregation that loses their church to a fire. The second verse tells the story of an alcoholic finding the strength to give up his drink, and how his loving wife stood beside him through it all. Both stories are followed with the chorus; “You gotta believe through the darkest hour, put your faith in a higher power, find the strength to start again, you can’t give up and you can’t give in, hold on with all your might, let love be your guiding light, everything will turn out right, you gotta believe.” Beautiful song beautifully performed.

Last but certainly not least, track 12, an instrumental of, ‘Tell It To Jesus Alone,’ really showcases the musical talents of this fine bluegrass group. It’s just the kind of tune you would expect to hear at the end of a Carolina Road performance, just before the audience is standing and yelling for an encore.

If you are a bluegrass or a gospel music lover, you will not be disappointed with this new Carolina Road project. So come on, why don't you give this CD a try? You know you want to!

Listen to samples and buy a copy from the official Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road Website.

Corryton Teen Wins National Cycling Championship!

Congratulations to 15-year old, Emily Parker, of Corryton, TN. She cycled her way into first place in the Super D - Junior -18 and under, USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships that were held this past weekend at Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, VT.

With a time of 10:15.64, Emily beat out all other junior women and was the fastest non-pro in the entire event! Photos of Emily wearing her Championship jersey and sporting her new medal, can be viewed at Vantaggio/Specialized Professional Women's Cycling Team Blog.

Steal My Sunshine

I sat all day staring out the window at the beautiful sunshine. The kids were living it up in the swimming pool. I was tied down to the desk helping losers from various sandwich shops, hair salons, and computer centers, troubleshoot their technical issues. Of course I was also counting down the days to freedom...6 more.

After assisting 25 different folks on the phone and the Internet, I decided that I had done more than my fair share of the workload today. The other 2 techs that were working had only logged in 12 calls each. Pretty typical... and I thought enough is enough! I logged out of the system about 15 minutes early and headed out the back door to grab my swimming trunks off of the line. Much to my dismay, the sky was turning black and the wind was howling through the woods behind my house. "Dadgum it!" I yelled. I clinched my fist, looked up in the sky and said, "just give me a break!" Then I headed into the house, grabbed the Rebel and went back out to try and capture some lightning strikes. Zilch on the lightning, but I snapped about 200 angry cloud pictures. I ended up only keeping 3 of them. Man, I tell ya, somebody or something is always trying to steal my sunshine!

The Lord works through Bluegrass music...who knew?

I'm still counting down the days until we take our vacation...only 9 more! Work is about to stress me out to no end right now. It is causing me to be a very unhappy dude. When I'm an unhappy dude, my whole family suffers. I'm difficult to live with. There have been times lately that I've just wanted to crawl into a cave somewhere and not come out until this time next year, or the next. But just when things were looking their worst and I had lost all hope for my fellow man, the good Lord sent 3 different individuals into my life to cheer me up. Read on...

First my buddy, Jerry Butler, called to let me know that his band, Carolina Road, released their new Gospel CD, "Why Don't You Give Jesus A Try?," and has a copy for me. I've not had the chance to take him up on that yet because of our conflicting schedules. Jerry is a busy guy, singing with the band and also singing with some guys up in Pigeon Forge, and I have been too tied down with work. I'm really excited about it though and I know it's gonna be killer. I had the pleasure of hearing Carolina Road perform most of the songs when I went on the road with them this past Spring. You can listen to some of the cuts from their new album on-line at their website.

Bright spot number 2 came after I complained last week about the Del McCoury CD that I had bought. One of my email/online buddies, who just happens to deejay for one of the most popular Bluegrass stations in the U.S., hooked me up with some excellent McCoury music! He also threw in some other great stuff; Dan Tyminski, and a new artist to me, Bradley Walker. If you aren't familiar with Walker, you should go visit his website and check him out. This guy is good. His voice kind of reminds me of Brad Paisley. He was last year's IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year and his debut CD, Highway of Dreams, was up for Album of the Year. What you would never know from just listening to his awesome voice is that he was born with Muscular Dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair his entire life. Read his biography here.

Bright spot number 3 also came via an online buddy and fellow blogger, who also is a radio station deejay, emailed to let me know about the lineup for WTNQ Bluegrass Day at the Tennessee Valley Fair. It is coming up on September 7th. This year Blue Highway and Lone Mountain Station are slated to be there. My son will be glad to hear about Lone Mountain Station, as he was starry eyed over their lead singer. You may recall that I blogged about last year's event, after my family I attended courtesy of the good folks at WTNQ. I'm really excited about going again this year!

I'll tell you what, there are a lot of good people out there that are willing to go out of their way to bring a little ray of sunshine to others. I count myself blessed that 3 of those folks thought about me this week. I appreciate it guys, more than you'll ever know.

Dog days of blackberry summer

You never know what you'll find in my parent's backyard. We stopped by there on the way home from Church tonight and I snapped a few pics.

I know dad is looking forward to eating these blackberries when they get ripe. They remind me of my 8-Second Ride.

Mom sure is proud of her flowers on the back porch. My son says that this picture doesn't even look real.

I like the angle of this picture. It's nice to mix things up a bit.

Patches was kind enough to pose for this shot. Immediately following, he jumped up and tried to take a bite out of my hind-end. He's a fiesty little feller.

Tag You're It!

I was out early this morning, enjoying the great outdoors and taking a few pictures. I walked down the fence row to say good morning to the cows. A few of the calves were chasing each other through the field and it took my mind back to the carefree days of my childhood when my sisters and I so often played together.

When I was a young'un we didn't have Playstation to occupy our every waking moment. During the summer months we were either playing or working. You could guarantee that in the late evening hours after the corn had been shucked and the taters had been hilled, us kids would be chasing each other around the yard. We played games like Freeze Tag, Hide-n-Seek, Ghost in the Graveyard, Red-Light-Green-Light, and others. All of these involved someone being "It" and the others either hiding or running trying to keep from being tagged. I delighted in those kinds of games. Darting behind trees, cowering in a ditch, flattening against the chicken house, you just never knew where I would spring out. I can still hear my sisters screaming and running through the yard in reckless abandonment trying not to get tagged. Of course I was always faster than they were and could easily catch them. But, I would have mercy and