Nifty Noodles/Photo Shoot
Nashville 4/22/08
We were able to use GMA week for a chance to get the Nehosoul band together for a very quick Photo shoot. Seven a.m. ! not the best time for takin pictures either… So I got up at Five cause it takes my face that long to remember who it is! Half the band was playin GMA with another artist this week.. I did not sing at all.

We met at a studio on Cannery Row with shooter Stephen Boatright who is doin the pic’s and the packaging. He kept talking about “photoshop”… maybe suggesting that we’d never look good by ourselves! 8)…we played the unmixed versions of the music this photo will be representing. Took individual shots first and then about fifty minutes of band shots simply standing behind a white backdrop… the scene will be added…that’s a surprise. I never saw any proofs as we went… livin by faith… I left with a pretty good version of my hair for a change.. we were all in suitcoats …. Dressy casual was the “go for”.

Phil Curry won “hipster of the shoot”…. With an all black suit and sunglasses and a beret!. Finch didn’t bring his “porkpie”… to the photo shoot of all things… I’m suspicious he doesn’t really like the hat that much. I went monochromatic with a silk blue shirt, same color as the jacket, and light blue levi’s.

I spent some time explaining the obvious perhaps to Steve Boatright about how our lack of funds for marketing means that the cover needs to “pop as a postage stamp”… it’ll end up being on a page in magazine with fifty other projects released around the same time I imagine. So the pic has to be eye catchin from a small space! Boatright has a good eye for that I think… and we’re letting him take his liberty.

During the photo shoot I discovered that nobody seems to know where the first four lead vocals are for the mix… so this week I’m waiting to see if I’m gonna have to replace them. We have four weeks to meet the deadline to get this project out this year with our new distribution company. Red Road and NehoSoul Band have signed with Central South out of Tennessee. They have open doors to the black gospel community where we hope to be something of an anomaly. 8)

I spent the rest of the day and evening promoting Heather Powers new project “undone”… released in September of last year. So there I was playin “record company dude”. The true last definition I would think of about myself. In one day I felt as tired as I used to when I spent all week at GMA.

There was a clear humility around Nashville this year. The record industry is feeling the effects of radical changes in the way things are sold, marketed and presented. I’m still on that learning curve. But owning your own… and direct marketing seem to be our only hope obewan.

o.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/New Road
4/19/08 Corona, CA
I met with Skip Williams a few days before Friday’s experiment. Skip is the Recovery leader at Crossroads Church in Corona. “my hope is to bring my new songs of redemption to the main congregation at church… to present why we all need recovery on a daily basis” I told him.

I handed him a rough draft of a new layout of songs with scriptures and definitions of why these songs resonate with recovery. Everyone is struggling with something always! And here’s a chance to present new insights to those who feel that recovery is only for mainlining drug users and alcoholics. We all have a “drug of choice” I believe. The thing we run to before running to God. Even preachers and teachers are broken somewhere.. be it pride or arrogance.. or control.. or personal validation. That’s where dependencies meet denial. And the behaviors are sure to follow!

The simple draft opens with the song Chains come in every shape and size…and a scripture from Psalms… “the suffering you sent was good for me… they caused me to consider your principles. But then it includes dialog between myself and the local leader of recovery or ministry.

It’s followed by a song I did for the first time yesterday “Only For Good”… which is tied to the scripture in Jeremiah 29:11 .. with commentary about where God’s Children were when he spoke of his plans… captivity!. And God determined that it was in their best interest to stay there for over 70 years!.... hence… God lets you experience the consequences of your own free will to show you why you should follow his principles.

The set continues with dialog and scripture for an hour presentation… it also included “You Keep Me Coming Back”… “I love you with my life”…” I love you so” and “I’m still dancing”… and last night it went over very well. The Lyrics were on the screens on stage too with some nice imagery. Everyone seemed drawn in, in a new way to what was actually being presented. Yea it still needs some work and there are so many other songs I’d love to present as well… but this was an acknowledgement that I need to change the way I present my songs… away from just being “as good as heathen music”… or “ showing how ‘professional we can bring things”…

I’m learning still that the scripture lasts forever and songs mostly fade away replaced by new songs from new people. I’ve made a choice away from entertaining people only and letting them pick up the subtlety of my spirituality on their own. I’ve made a choice to acknowledging that people are hungry for a little more than a good jam session and a couple of smiles about broader truth. That’s all great but it is mostly the case with those who are simply looking to “escape”… The club scene will never get who I am perhaps because I cannot be about “escaping”…I know now that is why Christian music is rarely received no matter how good it is… if there is an embracing of the truth its gonna come with a little pain in the realization that there is something not quite right with any of us separate from a true relationship to God.

O.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/Frontline Warriors
Sunday 4/14/08
There’s a new wave of Biker oriented churches springing up in Southern California. Sunday was the grand opening for a new assembly called “Warrior Center” in Orange, Ca. It was a surprising turn out for a first service, some two hundred Frontline Warriors and a smattering of Black Sheep locals from Riverside and Hemet. “B-Lok” is the pastor.. (short for “bobby loco”). Now a believer and founder of Frontline Warriors, a local motorcycle ministry in Orange County, B-lok is starting a church.

He’s not the only one either. “Fred Z” president and founder of Biker’s For Christ, and Rushing Wind Ministries has a biker church that started in his Oceanside, Ca. motorcycle garage several years ago. And now in Colton, Ca., Rushing Wind is starting a second location church with Biker’s For Christ Chapter president, Denver Cooley. His vision is a western saloon style church complete with the swingin doors! 8) there are some thirty bikes in the parking lot at their Tuesday night bible study now.

I had this Sunday available and I was looking to contribute to a new slant on outreach. I volunteered to bring a few songs. I left home around six thirty a.m. on Jezebel to ride to a morning service in San Juan Capistrano first. By seven a.m. it was 70 degrees on this weekend in April, perfect bikin weather. I met Peter Caye, publisher of Wheels of Grace magazine, to attend Ocean Hills Church. Peter is making local contacts and looking for a base point for his “UNITY RIDE” event. Bringing hundreds of bike ministries and a local churches together.

Found a few of my old friends from the “Jesus movement” days, working at Ocean Hills as musicians and pastors. The pastor there too is a biker with a heavy Scottish accent. After a quick stop for a burger we hit the road for Orange County for a one oclock celebration. ”Warrior Center” is an afternoon church for now, borrowing another church facility. I would call most of these folks “reverent Pentecostals” Frontline Warriors membership accounted for the majority in attendance. The church was a sea of black and blue! Those are the Frontline Warrior patch colors.

I brought a newly assembled “worship music set” of my own songs… short and … well loud, but singable numbers. It included “It Gets Better” , “Clap your Hands”, “You keep me coming back”… and I closed with “Chains”… just cause it’s cool… and there’s only one word in the Chorus. Concerts for biker events have been something I’ve hoped to participate in. So Far that has not been much of an option. They’re still playin mostly the old ZZ TOP rock and roll sound. It seems to be the theme music for motorcycle world. “Get yer motor runnin….head out on the highway” kinda stuff…. But the bike church music theme seems un- invented. They’re usin the usual worship tunes from their local church assemblies.

I would hope that I can put some “Soul” into the mix in the future and bring a story of “Redemption” long term. No ministry can rely on Coffee Bars or motorcycles of course.. or any other shared enthusiasm apart from Christ and a personal need for his direction. I’ve been asking him for that as of late. Looking for a renewed passion in what I’ve been doing for over thirty years. Yea… it’s a “Niche” world but it ties in with other things I’m resonating with, like recovery programs!

O.k. so there’s that… Bryan D

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