Tag / Music

by Greg

The Chapmans

I learned today that earlier this week, singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman‘s 5-year-old adopted daughter was killed in an accident in the family’s driveway.

Somehow, God has made us similar. I am a fan of his music – and something inexplicably deeper than that. There are similarities in my songwriting to his. Also a “big fan” of their family, and the way they are not only adopting, but helping lots of families do the same. We have not adopted – yet – but apparently share a similar love for big families.

And as a dad of little girls… how sad this family must be right now. How sad. We know that we only grieve temporarily when we know Jesus (to know him is eternal life…) but still… how they must hurt.

They set up a page with a little family video they made just a few weeks before she was killed. As well as a place to leave comments. Here’s the link:

http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/

by Greg

Cinderella

A friend of ours can’t stop talking about this song, and I have to agree with her. As with most all of his songs, Steven Curtis Chapman is simply a great word craftsman. We listened to it New Year’s Eve and it had Jen crying while holding Kirstie. (Which I think confused Kirstie, cause you’re not supposed to cry if you’re happy she said…) 🙂

I’m probably not supposed to post these here (and if Steven asks, I’ll take them down…) But for now, just thought I’d share in case you haven’t heard the song. The title below will link to the song at iTunes, so you can buy the album or the song alone if you’d like. It’s really a great song, and so amazing how hearing of or seeing the love of a child for their parent (and vice versa) does melt the heart of a mommy or daddy. It does for me at least. Just about every time. 🙂

Cinderella
Steven Curtis Chapman

Verse 1:
She spins and she sways
To whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I’m sitting here wearing
The weight of the world on my shoulders
It’s been a long day
And there’s still work to do
She’s pulling at me
Saying “Dad I need you!
There’s a ball at the castle
And I’ve been invited
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh please, Daddy, please!”

Chorus:
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

Verse 2:
She says he’s a nice guy and I’d be impressed
She wants to know if I approve of her dress
She says, “Dad the prom is just one week away
And I need to practice my dancin’
Oh please, Daddy, please!”

Chorus:
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

She will be gone

Verse 3:
But she came home today with a ring on her hand
Just glowin’ and tellin’ us all they had planned
She says, “Dad the wedding’s still six months away but I need to practice my dancin’
Oh please, Daddy, please!”

Chorus:
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

by Greg

My Music

More than a dozen years ago now I started writing songs. Sorta out of the blue. (Yes, Mom, I do remember the songs I was writing when I was eight years old, but really… the first real songs I started writing were a bit later in life, and seemed to be “out of the blue”.)

At first these “OOTB” songs were a neat time for me to reflect on God and for me to express my heart to him. But slowly I began to share them with other people. A song here and there “at church”, and then for my college floor-mates (I still remember Brian loving the song What You Say, and predicting it would be “a hit”.) 🙂

Eventually, we formed a band and made a cd. And for a time, that was that.

We went separate ways after college, and I continued to write songs, but used them in public a bit less. Even less when Jen & I were married as she had a strong aversion to them. No worries, it was fun while it lasted…. let’s move on.

But God wanted something different. I could not put them down. I was compelled to use them. For other people. And use them we did. Listening to God in that moment (and watching him lead Jen toward the same thing) led to some six or seven years of full-time music traveling across the entire United States, and recording some five, six or seven albums.

Then in 2005, again at God’s leading, it just stopped. Check out the “past events” at the calendar page on our website. Incredibly sparse over the last two years! (Compare it to 2002-2004!) So it would seem that at least for the time being, God does not have a use for my music.

Or does he?

Two nights ago, as I was saying good night to the girls, I just sat down next to Kirstie’s bed and stayed there. She asked me what I was doing and I said, “I just wanted to stay here a while. I don’t have anywhere to go right now, so I wanted to stay with you.” She smiled a big “I love you” smile, and after a little pause she asked, “Dad, can you sing us a song on your guitar?”

“Not tonight, Kirstie. I don’t have a song tonight.”

“Can you sing the ‘Lay your head on your pillow’ song?” she asked, again with a big “I love you” smile. Now, it took me a second to remember what she was talking about, but it really was a song. A song I had sung once for the girls… about TWO MONTHS AGO. 🙂 I just brought my guitar in the room and made up a song, as I am wont to do for the girls, and the boys.

And she remembered.

At that moment I realized that God is still using my music. But instead of audiences across the country, and indeed the world, the audience is my four beautiful kids.

My little girl is listening, and loves her Daddy’s songs.

Could it be any better?

by Greg

Steven Curtis Chapman

Steven Curtis Chapman VideosSome of you may know that I hold Steven Curtis Champan – and particularly his music – in high regard. More than that, there’s definitely some strange connection I have with him. When I hear his stuff, I just completely identify with it. Those aren’t the right words. I can’t really explain it. It’s almost like we’re song-writing brothers or something. Twins even. When I hear his stuff, I can hear beyond the lyrics and music… I can hear how he wrote it. And, on top of that, nearly every time I hear his stuff, I either feel like writing a song, write a part of a song, or actually write a whole song.

Yes… it’s kinda weird.

Perhaps someday I will meet him, and we will collaborate on some musical project. That seems far-fetched from my current vantage point, but there’s definitely something strange there…

Strange is cool.

Well anyway… I found out that he has a new album coming out soon, and he’s doing a tour to promote that, among other things. A good friend of ours has been to a few (I think) of his shows and is just blown away by them. Not only the music, but just every part of it. What he says, how it’s said, and the music is powerful, too! 🙂

Tonight I was visiting his website and found a pretty fun feature. It’s not unique to him. The internet has brought the “famous people” a lot closer to us “regular folk”. (In fact, some of you reading this right now might think I’m famous… so it has also made us “regular folk” appear “famous”. Fascinating… It is indeed the great equalizer. Well, on his website you can view some amateur-ish videos of him in his home studio, teaching us his songs. 🙂 It was cool to get a preview of the new songs, and just fun to have him teach it to me 🙂 (He even told us the guitar tuning… just for fun.)

So, click the photo or link above and go check it out. And, if you get a chance to see him in person, I hear it’s phenomenal.

And I hope to get his new album, This Moment, as soon as it is available! 🙂

by Greg

Happy Birthday, CAYA!

Come As You AreToday is the 5th anniversary of one of our albums, Come As You Are. CAYA, as it is known around here, is CD that I recommend to people who don’t have any of our CDs. I think the Christmas album is my favorite overall, but this one is the best collection of songs that captures most of our sound. From one instrument and two vocals, to nice acoustic rhythm stuff, to a full-on electrified rock out song (or two). It’s definitely a favorite.

We had a big CD release party on August 29th, 2002, and I think around 200 people came to celebrate with us. If you were there, thanks for coming! If you didn’t yet get your copy of CAYA, you still can!! 🙂 We have some, and you can just order through our site. Or, you can always pick it up at iTunes. Or just a track or two, if you want.

(By the way, I just noticed when getting the iTunes link… there are no reviews there on that page. Anyone who knows the album care to leave one? That’d be swell!) 🙂

So, it’s a fun day in the basic world, and just thought I’d share. Five years is a long time. But actually, the songs on the album are as old as 14 years old now! That’s awesome! 🙂

Happy Birthday, CAYA. 🙂

by Greg

Weekend Visit

I am tired and sunburned, but it was a really good weekend! 🙂

It began Thursday night, actually. My parents got into town (a bit later than they would have liked) and we went out for some ice cream at Chill & Grill. Nice! Actually, they ended up staying at our house and just chatting till after 11pm, which is very odd for my Dad at least… 🙂 That was a nice start to a fun visit.

On Friday we spent the day with them at their KOA campground site. They brought their big Arctic Fox trailer up and we hung out in that, but mostly outside. Yes, you read that right… OUTSIDE. If you know me, and perhaps know what our weather was like on Friday (mid 90s, and overpoweringly humid) then you know that is very out of the ordinary…

But, we weren’t going to let a little heat stop us! 😉

We played miniature golf… a LOT! We swam in the in ground pool… A LOT! We had pizza, Esther Price chocolate, swam, walked, completed and obstacle course, played on a playground, played football, swam, and played some more miniature golf! By the time we had done all that, it was time for a nice dinner at the Wegman’s Market Cafe. Then off to Sharks Custard & Candy for some great homemade ice cream to top off the evening! QUITE a day. Seriously beat at the end of that one!!!

Then on Saturday we moved the party to Palmyra, where Grandpa Tom could work on a few projects around our house. While he put up a gutter outside our back door, and leveled our stove, and scoped out a few future projects, Grammy helped do some deep cleaning in the kitchen, and I made some fantastic home-cooked meals. (Skyline for us, a nice vegetable-rich tomato sauce for Grammy & Grandpa, and a fresh Zucchini medley for lunch, then STEAKS on the grill and homemade mashed potatoes for dinner!) We played LifeStories during nap time, and then headed back to Chill & Grill to finish off the evening with some ice cream!! We were stuffed, to be sure!

Overall it was a full, but somehow relaxing and quite enjoyable visit. Thanks for coming up Mom & Dad! Always fun, and somehow particularly so this time!

To finish off the weekend, we spent most of today (it seemed!) over at our friends’ new home, celebrating their 10-year-old’s birthday! Lots of friends, old and some new… great foot, played some football, and just spent time chatting with friends. We also sang some of our stuff for about 45 minutes as well. It was a nice finish to the weekend. (Oh, we did take a dip in our neighbor’s pool after the party… then put the kids in bed a tad early after such a full weekend!!!)

As you can tell from the time of this post, I had some catching up to do on my blog, and on my Buffalo Bills site… as well as a pretty hefty amount of laundry and some dishes to do! That was the finish to my weekend!

If you have read all of tonight’s posts… you deserve a medal or something. Leave a comment to that effect and I’ll work on something…

For now… time to sleep!

by Greg

Trailer Listing

1999 Express Cargo Trailer 6 x 10
Hey folks! Don’t usually post our eBay or other such sales here, but this one is different. We have (for the first time on CraigsList) listed our awesome little “basic trailer” for immediate sale.

This is both good, and sad.

I spent the last half of July fixing it up again. It has been our musical storage shed for two years now. We haven’t taken it on the road since 2005. So I did everything. Fixed the broken jack, painted just about everything. Cleaned and waxed and shined. We had the electrical wiring completely replaced. The wheel bearings seem to be in great shape, as well as the tires. (Great tread). We even tested the trailer out this week moving some furniture! Still works great!

We just don’t need to use it in the near future. So, someone else could probably use it more!

Do you need one? Do you know anyone who does? Send them the link to this post (link) or send them directly to our listing on CraigsList. (The trailer photo is linked to the page on CraigsList.)

Thanks!

by Greg

Lurkers

You know who you are. You are the ones who read this blog regularly. Perhaps even stopping by daily. You know the ins and outs of life in the Campbell home – and even crazier, life in GregsHead. But even though the link below invites you to comment… you never do.

You… are the Lurker.

So tonight, as a CD Release Party for some friends of ours I met a guy who might fit that category. He recognized me from various things our family were wearing. 🙂 Things I have mentioned here on the blog. Turns out he’s a friend of another friend, and has been reading the blog for a while. But I can’t recall (m)any comments from Shane… 😉

So here’s my invitation to anyone out there who has been reading this blog but not had a reason, urge, or any other compulsion to add their two cents (or even just say hello) to GregsHead.net. If you’ve left a comment before, you’re welcome to here as well, but this post is for anyone and everyone who might fit the Lurker bill. This is your chance to come out of the shadows!

🙂

If you still don’t want to comment… that will be just fine. Glad you’re reading along. 🙂

by Greg

Busy Tonight?

Our Music...
Jen & I will be singing tonight at a new coffee house in Webster, NY. If you live in this area, and happen to stop by the ol’ blog page before 7:30 or so… come out and join us. New place, don’t know what we’ll get, but I just went through the songs we’ll be doing and it’s a lot of fun stuff! (Absence makes the heart grow fonder perhaps…) 🙂

Click the banner above for a link to our latest e-news which has a link to their site, which has directions.

(Clicking is fun!)

Did you even know that we are musicians? 🙂

(It’s hard for me to remember that sometimes these days…)