The Slight Chance the Chicken Was On Its Way to a Gig

I am an impulse buyer. I personally find this comical as I am such a tightwad that I refuse to buy breakfast cereal because it costs to much to buy cereal AND milk.  But today my impulse buys included strawberry popsicles, ciabatta bread, 50 matchboxes (it was only $1.29!) and a ticket to the Rejoice show at BYU for Education Week.

I am the youngest person in sight in the crowd, with the exception of that one boy in T-shirts and jeans reading a novel.  Just yesterday I was setting off fumes accrewed from four days of not showereing.  I am now showered, wearing a pale- yellow skirt and blue top. And earrings.  It is important to dress up for dates.

The day before, backpacking in the Uintahs

Date Night (with myself)

Work it!

(Just for the record, wrote in my notebook at the concert, came home and took these pictures when I was typing up my notes...just in case anyone is confused with the odd use of tenses.)

The stage looks great with flickering candles and an abstract sheet placed at the back of the stage for projecting movies.  Most of the audience is taking off glasses or putting them on to read the program.

I bought my ticket online at 5:12pm for the show that started at 7:00pm and it's fun to compare my knowledge of which seats were available then to who now sits next to me now.

The pianist has papers infront of him, but not sheet music.  Words.  I can't tell exactly what, but I'm guessing it is the set list. I can't tell from here

The violinist,  April Moriarty, comes out to start.  Her wardrobe reminds me of the woman in relief society who lives an "the other side of the canal" life.  Her top and skirt are sparkly like she is trying to off-set her forming wrinkles around her eyes, smile, and hands.  People walk by carrying purses large enough to carry as much as my book bag   The violinist steps to the microphone and explains that the title of this concert is Rejoice. "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world"

She, the violinist, and the pianist are clearly married and clearly not married to each other. I've always wondered how it is for married people to work together in such a secluded and intimate setting such as a performer/pianist relationship.

Some of this is like watching Celine Dion do Karaoke: good, but you feel a little insulted and taken advantage of, like you're not really getting the true experience you paid for.  That bald man sang that song from Walk to Remember (which is Nicholas Dee Perucca's favorite chick flick) and he sounded fantastic, but he sang along with a track and I kept thinking, "Really?  I did not just pay $12 to see some bald man sing with a CD player."  A girl with a truly lovely voice and a red summer dress and heels sang "Keeper of the Flame".  Wow. I know this song from Girls Camp.  But this Jessie Funk lady did a much better job than any conglomeration of hyper girls campers I've ever heard.

After spending the day looking at others' facebook pictures and wishing I were skinnier or more talented or more involved or more adventurous or more photogenic or more able to afford playing hard to get, I needed this. I needed to just pause and appreciate the beauty around me instead of comparing myself or wishing that I were "there" instead of "here".  I needed to indulge in a night of selfless music: music by musicians who point it all to El Senor.  I needed to be surrounded by cute old people who have wrinkles and bills and have had their share of problem-children and deaths yet can still be smiling at a concert.  I needed to be reminded that nothing is permanent and everything is beautiful.

This girl, Cherie Call, sang this song called "Photographs".  She explained that her grandmother just died last month and she would have been 95 on September 1st.  She had 14 children, 96 grand-children, 206 great grandchildren (woah!) and already 40 great-great-grandchildren.  She played this song while having a slide show (which I managed to steal off of YouTube and place it below).  Her grandmother was never rich, but she had what all rich people hope for: to be surrounded by people who adore you.

• Traveling preacher
• Living off the land
• Just take a picture and hold your place in time
• Her card was full but she still gave him a chance
• The rest of the world could fade away, but they smile for the camera anyway
• Memories look best in black and white

This song was worth $12.  Admittedly it choked me a bit, mostly out of guilt and fear of my grandparents passing away without me getting to know them and their stories.  Maybe I'll write a song for my grandparents about my grandparents.

Taylor would have been impressed with the sound quality here.
April Meservy took the piano and gave the short explanation of her song Marks of My Path: "It's really exciting when God speaks to us through nature." Having spent four summers living underneath pine trees and aspens, I understand this.  All the way home I was singing "I want to be soft like leaves"  with strong piano chords playing in my head.

Sam Payne "Love Love"
Francis Thompson wrote a poem called "The Hound of Heaven" in which the hound is Christ and the man keeps running from this hound his whole life, but in the last few lines it reads:

All which I took from thee I did but take,

          Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.

          All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:

          Rise, clasp My hand, and come!'

It is a song about coming to Christ.  Sam sounds a lot like Elton John with a soul swayin' and it makes you feel American and Christian.

Banjo Jokes
Q: What's the difference between a dead chicken in the road and a dead banjo player?
A:  The slight chance the chicken was on its way to a gig.


Taliban has 100 banjo players held hostage will be releasing one every hour until their demands are met. Hahahaha

Sam Payne sang a song about Jacob and Esau, twins who left on bad terms.  But Jacob came back decades later to visit his brother and was so worried that he sent servants and gifts a head of him and then hid his favorite wife in a safe place...he other three right in front, and went to visit his brother.  But for some reason not explained Esau dropped it all and Isaac was able to meet his grandkids before he died.


Give said the little stream= best EVER

The banjo player, Ryan Tilby, took the stage and sat on his chair.  He put his banjo down, picked up a guitar and said, "In a world of gigs, this one is (paused to find the right word)  weird. It's a good kind of weird because we're all LDS artists but here we get to share the music that means the most with the people that understand it best. And I'm going to share that in the voice I have come, which comes in a case."

He then played THE most astounding instrumental version of "I Stand All Amazed" and even without the words it means something to me because I know the words and I understand the words. You know, I enjoy camp,  I enjoy working with the people at camp, But there is a substantial part of me that is cut off from them, that part that means the most because they don't understand it.  It is so nice to be here with the people who understand it the most.  It's nice to be back in Provo where I can talk about that great talk in Sacrament Meeting or how funny fresh RMs are or what happened while I was praying the other day.



There are the readers of this blog who will understand and appreciate this song.  There are the readers who will click play and think, "That was nice." And there are those who will see the pictures of Christ, assume this to be one of THOSE religious songs that are cheesy and thus proceed to roll their eyes and find another blog to stalk. But the beauty of it is that whether you believe it or not, whether you care or not, whether your a sinner or a saint or a Nun or a Muslim, Christ cared for you enough to die for you. And that is
wonderful
 to
me.