Big Schedule Changes

We have made a major overhaul on our appearance schedule please see the list to the right for the new dates. X-alt! seems to be becoming a more wanted commodity and Our schedule is starting to show it - Ain't GOD Good!

A Hot Night At TBG

X-ALT! had another great night at TBG coffee House in Ashland City TN. Saturday night. A good crowd of old and new friends gathered and if I say so myself X-ALT! put on one of our best shows so far. There was really a spirit in the band despite distractions, I hated my bass sound that night and it bugged me all night long,
Mr. Pierce had car key problems and Katy's chronic neck and back problems were flaring up, but in spite of that we went on, sang out and played our fingers off.
A dear old friend of mine who had come to see us for the first time hugged me after the show and said "Y'all are doing God's will, spreading joy and helping people find something have lost along the way". I can't tell you how that made me feel! she then told me to let her know next time we are at TBG and they will do their best to fill the place up. I say bring it on!
We found out Saturday night that we will be part of a fundraising classic car show and concert to be held at the Ashland City Assembly of God Church on Saturday April 21st, we don't know what time we will be playing yet but keep checking back and I'll let you know as soon as I do.
This just in from the "Salem's Lot" blog...

"Rocking the joy in Ashland City, or, I’m seeing a lot less of Slartibartfast these days..
Jump to Comments
Friends, let me testify. Those scales that Slarti keeps showing on his blog are accurate. The man is disappearing before our very blog-eyes. He really is nearly at fighting weight. If his thick hair keeps growing it may soon outweigh his torso!

We saw ‘his’ band last night. Little group of about 73 people (uh, actually there were nine, but they sound BIG). The band is called ‘X-Alt‘, which is a pretty clever despite the fact that maybe one of the ‘kids’ in the band is from Generation X (not that everyone else on stage is dino-saur-ish!) and they really don’t play alternative music, but what they do is exalt, with some Memphis-style horns, a couple of keyboards, some stinging guitar, and a ton of good vocalists.

This is the third time I’ve heard these guys. I’m not a big Christian music kinda guy. I grew up in an era where a lot of schlock was passed off as music and labelled Christian or praise, and it was somehow OK, because of the ‘brand’. I know the industry has grown up quite a bit since those days (yeah, probably a lot more than I’ve grown up), but my prejudice still is woven neatly into my sleeve.

These guys play great music. If the music blows, the message suffers. I know the message is really the true medium for X-Alt, but they know better than me, if the songs aren’t popping, the ‘go ye into all the world’ bit isn’t going to make it out of the driveway.

Our diminishing buddy Slarti got more vocals last night than the previous times I’ve heard the band. Slarti’s voice has a little more grit and growl than anybody else up there. He’s the one that can do the upbeat Stax-rumble and make it work along with those punctuating horns behind him. He especially shines on his own tune, ‘Piggyback Ride’ (uh, Slarti, your passion is showing).

My wife pointed out to me last night that the reason the song ‘Oh Happy Days’ works so well for these guys is that they don’t play it dirge-speed. They actually SOUND happy. Yeah, they do a lot of standards from the 60s, either leaving them alone lyrically to convey the message: Lean on Me, He ain’t Heavy, Put a Little Love in Your Heart*, or twisting the lyrics a bit to make sure we know WHERE the love’s coming from, e.g. Slarti’s take on the Sam and Dave ‘Soothe Me‘. The soothing here is heart-ward, and a little more to the ‘north’ than perhaps the original.

I don’t want to denigrate or neglect the rest of the band, especially the vocals. They truly have more lead singers on one stage than Van Halen and The Band put together. But, I”ve just gotta say that last night, Katy Seale was ON. She sings right on the edge of Americana, blues and torch just enough to make you realize you’d drive all the way to Ashland City for her featured songs alone. Throw in the amazing harmonies, the tight horns, the stinging guitar, and an occasional poignant flute, and you have good times, even if you doubt the Source of their inspiration.

And, oh yeah, Slarti threw in a little go-go dancing last night that almost cleaned out my nasal passages with espresso. Somewhere, someone needs to get that on ‘YouTube’.

*my one piece of advice is to drop ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart’ and pick up another Memphis style song like some Dusty Springfield or the Isaac Haye’s chestnut: “If something is wrong with my baby…”. Too many good vocal chops in that band to not serve up some more grit. "

You can find a link to this blog in our links section.
Well that's it for now, hopefully tomorrow I'll have some video from the show to share with you, and hey if you ain't doing nothing next Monday come on up to Tater Day in Benton KY. X-ALT! will be there for a 2:00pm performance at the gospel singing.
Hope to see you there
V

Bits and Pieces

First off a big Happy Birthday to Jessica Reel the now 16 year old daughter of our own Susie Reel. The family and I were thrilled to be a part of the celebration last night, Over the last few years we've seen Jessica bloom into a beautiful and talented young lady and we are all very proud of her.

A sad note, the music world lost one of it best last week with passing of "BOSTON" lead vocalist Brad Delp, from all reports he was a great person without many of the ego problems that so many "Famous" people seem to develop. I personally thought of BOSTON's song "Long Time" as a theme song for my youth and still can't resist trying to hit that high not in the chorus every time I hear it - I've never made it. RIP Brad Delp.

X-ALT! will be a TBG in Ashland City on Saturday March 24, so come on out a hang with us a while. It'll be a Party!

Speaking of parties our friend Lawrence Baily and his band "The Jones" will be appearing at "The Rutledge" this Saturday, March 17th. Cover is $5 and worth every penny. "The Jones" are Nashvilles definitive Funk Force and put on a show that will blow you mind.

Just added a new link to the links section, this is from our old singing partner Jennifer Coomer. The girl is crazy. She is also a great friend that we don't get to see enough of. We miss you Jennifer, come back and sing with us again, SOON!

That's it for now, but keep checking in you never know when something new will pop up.
V

Getting Ready

Just a short note... We had a great rehearsal last night as we started getting ready for the service this Sunday at New Beginnings, for our return to TBG in Ashland City later in the month and for "TATER DAY" in Benton Ky on April 2nd. We were joined by our old buddy Jason Oliver who was filling in on Drums for Eddie who has the Flu. Jason will be playing with us Sunday so Eddie can fully recover and he will also be with us on "TATER DAY". Jason is one great drummer and took to our material like he had been with us forever. Mark Mills, Brooke and I have known Jason since he was just a kid (He's still a kid compared to the rest of us old fogies!) He's played with us before, almost two years ago now, at St. John's UMC at one of the first
X-ALT! Services after we left our old church gig. If you search back far enough in this blog you will see a couple of songs from that morning. Anyway it's great to have Jason back with us and wish him the best in all that he has going on in his life. Also we are asking for prayers for Eddie, that he gets better and is ready to return to the drums at TBG.
Service is at 11:00 am Sunday morning at New Beginnings. SO get up and come on out!
See you then,
V

Riverbend Prison

We had another great service with the men at Riverbend last night, I don't know what it is about taking the word to the men at Riverbend but it is such a soul strengthening experience that it is really hard to put into words.

Mark Pierce nailed it in an e-mail I received this morning...

"No doubt that playing in the Riverbend facility is a humbling experience. It is somewhat funny, but upon leaving I didn't seem to have ANY problems!"

I think that says it all. We, "On The Outside" - I think take our freedom for granted. But when you come face to face with a group of men who have lost that freedom and everything else, and have decided to turn their lives over to God, it creates and incredible worship experience.

I look back over the last year or so and see how much fighting and arguing has gone on at my church in the name of "creating" a worship service, the meetings, planing sessions, re-arranging of leadership, new banners, new video display and the list goes on and on, and then I think about the service at Riverbend, and I realise how down right foolish we all are. I mean who are we worshiping here? All God has asked is that we bring our lives to Him. That's it! I hate to say it but I think the rest is for us. Sure it helps "Create" a more worshipful atmosphere, but is it worth it?
At Riverbend all that is left outside the gate. Worship is "Created" by God from nothing, It happens because a group of people have come together for no other reason but to worship. Now having said that, do I want to go to prison in order to have a true worship experience? No. But our experiences at Riverbend has opened my eyes some and I am going to be rethinking what worship means to me.

Sorry - I kinda went off on a tangent there.

The following are two posts from Tommy's "Shoot The Moose" blog about our recent trips to prison...

First from March 2nd

I don’t know if I’ll be able to accurately express what I want to say. I’ll give it a shot, though.

No matter what I do the rest of my life, no matter how much money I make or what heights I rise to in computing, music, or writing, I know that I will look back on the first day I went to prison as one of the absolute pinnacles of my life experience. Last year, members of X-Alt traveled to Riverbend Maximum security prison in Nashville, to lead worship services there. What happened there had such a profound effect on me, I am drawn to return as soon as possible.

It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. No doubt, we were going behind inpenetrable walls to be amongst some very scary people - men who had done horrible things to get in the position they were. Here we were, whitebread, middle aged men and women from Belle Meade, Bellevue, and West Meade, going with eyes wide open into the one prison in the state of Tennessee where the worst of the worst of criminals was housed. But we felt called, and we had made a promise, so we went.

When entering Riverbend, you are searched vigorously. The musical equipment has to come in separately, inventoried down to the smallest wire. You are not allowed to bring ANYTHING in with you but your driver’s license, and a single key to your car. You are told not to ask the men about what they’ve done, and you are told that under no circumstances are you to give any personal information to them. Then you go through a gate. Then another. You walk a bit, then go through another. With each automated gate closing, you feel you’re being drawn deeper away from the word you knew.

We walked across the yard, accompanied by a lone female guard. As we walked, a large group of men were crossing the yard on the other side, probably going to dinner. I’ll be honest, they were quite scary looking. We had females among us, and, being a male myself, I understood perfectly the looks they were giving us. We finally got to the chapel, if you can call it that. It’s just a bare room with a few pews. No decorations, no adornments. Just a bare room.

Our equipment was already there, and some of the inmates had already started setting up for us! Our first instinct was to yell, “Hey! Get away from that stuff!” But we remained quiet. It became obvious after a few minutes, that these men were just very eager to get the worship service started.

Once set up, the strangest thing happened. A couple of men left the room and came back with Styrofoam cups of water for us. To be “served”, in a Christian way, by these men who were in the direst of conditions was quite humbling. It moves me still, just thinking of it. We started playing, and immediately you could tell that these men were there to worship. Not to see or be seen, not to gossip, not to socialize. They hungered for the Living God. We played our set, feeling that we had done pretty well in those circumstances. The minister preached a bit, and then they called a few of the inmates up to sing.

They called themselves “God’s Soul Children”. Five of them had worked up an acapela version of “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye (To Yesterday)”, changing the word “hard” to easy, and inserting their own verses singing God’s Glory. I can’t tell you how moving this song was. Many of us had tears in our eyes. Later, I thought to myself, they must have been ridiculed endlessly when they were working up this song in “the yard”. Yet, they sang anyway. God was glorified, I can tell you.

Then, we got up to close the service. We did an encore or “Lean on Me”, then we called up God’s Soul Children to sing Amazing grace with us. The only way I can describe that moment is the same way that Handel described the moment “Messiah” was written:

“I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God Himself.”

I have never experienced anything like it before, or since. We weren’t a bunch of west-side white folks and a group of hardened criminals thrown together in a room. We were brothers and sisters, singing a song for our Father, and the Spirit let us know that the Father was well pleased. Singing words like wretch, lost,blind, saved take on a whole new meaning in such a setting. It was such a glorious experience, I feel my words are failing to express it properly.

We are going back to Riverbend Prison this Sunday. I don’t know what we’ll find there - usually the second time you experience something, there’s a letdown. But if the worship service is only half the one we experienced last time, we’ll be talking about it for years to come.

When I went through that third gate into the yard, half scared out of my mind, who would have thought I would hunger, no, ache to get back in there again. God is funny like that.

Then from today...

Yesterday evening, not being the first time going to prison and all, went a lot for efficiently. That’s a weird word to use for something so profound as a prison ministry, but there’s not doubt we got in and out much more quickly than last time. That was good, because it left more time for “church”.

It went beautifully, as expected. There is a man who calls himself “Happy Jack”, who was there last time as well, who may be the best singer I’ve ever heard. Anyway, it was a wonderful service, and it went over a little because nobody wanted to leave. A couple of guards positioned themselves in front of the chapel where we could see them in an unspoken summons for us to wrap it up.

But even they got into our version of Amazing Grace

Back to my tangent for a second - Isn't that what we all want in a worship service? As Tommy put it "who would have thought I would hunger, no, ache to get back in there again" that's what I'm talking about, when my church service ends I want to hunger and ache to return. Isn't that what God wants from us, to hunger and ache to be with him?
I'm going to have to keep thinking on this one.
What do you think?
V