Singalong - Phil Wickham

Phil Wickham is giving away his latest CD, Singalong, for free on his web site. I'm admittedly not a huge fan of "contemporary christian" music, but this doesn't come close to the lame category I put most of the stuff you hear on K-Love.

Here's what he has to say about it...

This record has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time and finally on May 9th this year, I was able to do a show in Portland, Oregon with just me and a guitar and record it. The album artwork is simply the faces that were sent in to my blog from people that either attended the show or watched the show as it was broadcast on my blog.

I encourage you all to go download the album. It's free. What do you have to lose?

If you attend Visio Dei, I think you will really enjoy the album (assuming you enjoy the music there). The band there sings several of Senor Wickham's songs.

If you download the album, come back and let us know what you think.

North Carolina Hip-Hop

On July 4, my brother-in-law and two of his cohorts released a hip-hop album. Their self titled album, 154, is an EP with six tracks. It is currently available in the iTunes Store, on Amazon.com and in a few independent music outlets. You can check out their myspace page to hear a few tracks and to see the list of stores selling the album.

In the past few weeks since their album dropped, they have been getting some air play on WKNC 88.1. DJ Nominal even had them in the studio for an on-air interview during his time slot. He podcasts his shows. So, you can check it out here.

I asked Joel, aka JP Flowz, for an exclusive quote for my blog, but he was being modest. He's still working on his PR skills. I did get this out of him, "We've got some old school, some new school, and some tracks that will make you bob your head." Personally, I like North Cak and Work It Out does make me bob my head.

So everyone go check him out and show him some love. If you end up buying a track or the entire album, he has asked me to ask you to leave a review.

Do any of you even listen to hip-hop?

Daniel Renstrom

A few weeks ago, Jason invited everyone at the Visio Dei service to join him the following Friday night at a CD release party for his friend's latest CD. I didn't think much about it because, one, I have a kid and CD release parties don't sound kid friendly and, two, I had never heard of this guy, Daniel Renstrom. Later that week I saw something about this guy's new CD on a friend's blog, and on that Friday, Jason invited Kim and I to join him and Diana for dinner and the CD release party.

It turns out that Jason's friend, Daniel Renstrom, is the worship leader for the college ministry at Providence Baptist. It also turns out that my idea of what this CD release "party" would entail was incorrect. The CD release party consisted of coffee, desserts, and a concert where Daniel played all the songs on his new CD1 and gave a little background on each song before playing it. It was not what I think of when I think "party". It was more like an hour of praise and worship.

I was very impressed with the music. Daniel has a very unique voice. Kim loved it. She likes to listen to praise and worship in the car and this CD has become a staple over the past few weeks. I'd encourage you all to check out this CD. You can hear some of it on Daniel's myspace page.

1. back Pat Downing, who is part of the Visio Dei worship team, played guitar.

Interesting Video...

...and a decent song.

In other music news...

Do you have a Facebook account? Do you like free music? If yes, and yes, then I have a deal for you.

If you join the Ticketmaster Facebook group (See this blog post.), you get five free songs from the iTunes music store. Better yet, you get to pick your five free songs. Previous Facebook promotions have given you songs that they choose, but not this one. Now, you get to choose.

For all the latest free stuff from the iTunes music store, subscribe to the Free iTunes Songs blog.

Enjoy.

Journey

I was born in February of the year of our lord nineteen hundred eighty. I am a child of the 80's. However, I have never considered myself an 80's music fan. During the 80's, I was outside. I was busy riding bikes, running through the woods, and playing sports. I was not listening to the radio.

I can't remember what we listened to in the car. The only song I can remember my parents listening to in the 80's is Mountain Music from Alabama.

In the nineties, I listened to just about everything other than 80's music. The names that come to mind are Vanilla Ice1, MC Hammer, Poison, and Garth Brooks.

I listen to my headphones nearly the entire day at work. Usually, I am either listening to one of the many podcasts I download, or to music on shuffle. Today, the shuffle hit a Journey song, and I did something unheard of. I turned off shuffle and listened to an entire album.

Journey's Greatest Hits has just moved way up on my all time list of best albums. Maybe I should check out some more 80's music.

Does anyone have any favorites?

1. back To the Extreme was the first CD I ever owned.