March 19th...Great Time!
Hi All:
The March 19th show was OUTSTANDING! Man! The agenda lined up with Emily Ratliff, VISION (featuring Jeremy Dotson), Harold Kinder, and an encore comedy presentation by Jeff Arwood. It was awesome! We again ran around 100 people...God is truly blessing us to be able to create a fun place for the community!
The Higher Ground House Band took the stage at around 7:30, with emcee Justin Rodda taking the reigns of the show right away (way to go Justin...great job!). Justin did a super job with handling the mic for the night. Ren Harman (we found some drums, eh?), Terry Harrison, and BR played the Higher Ground theme song.
Emily Ratliff's set started at about 7:45. She did several songs including "Redeemer, Savior, Friend," FFH's "One of these Days," and an original entitled "Perfect Plan." Em graciously invited me to the stage to help out with an acoustic version of "God will Move" which was a load of fun...the crowd was standing and jamming along to a pretty hot acoustic version....REALLY COOL. GREAT job Em!!! Visit Emily's web site at www.emilyratliff.com.
Following Emily's set, a brief break, while Marci Watson brought a word about Easter and its special meaning for all Christians (and sinners too!). This precipitated the handing out of Easter eggs to everyone in the place - each of which had a number - periodically the emcee called out a few numbers and the number holders had to visit the stage. The funny part came when the person either got a prize (like a Higher Ground T-shirt, car wash, gift certificate, or something else) OR they had to "join the Higher Gorund entertainment team ;) ...of course this was hilarious. Losing numbers were required to do a number of things including "sing like Elvis," "do a guitar solo," "sing the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies," and more! MANY THANKS TO EVERY PERSON WHO SO WILLINGLY PARTICIPATED! You made the show a lot of fun!
Jeff Arwood did an encore comedy set with his "friend" JJ. JJ is a dummy --- well, so is Jeff, but JJ is LITERALLY a dummy ;) In actuality, Jeff is a talented Christian comedian and the laughs were delirious. Really FUNNY! By the way, Jeff and JJ - the crack at me - HMMMM...I am thinking of ways to get even :)
VISION started at around 8:30 and absolutely blew everyone away! They were AWESOME! Their music was outstanding with excellent musicianship and wonderful vocals. VISION rocked the house with several hyper-praise songs including "Lord you are Good (All the Time," Jeremy's guitar work was phenomenal and closely emulated by Tim Short (bass player extraordinaire) and their drummer and vocalists were fantastic. We hope to get VISION back soon and perhaps Jeremy will become a regular at Higher Ground.
Harold Kinder performed "Lay It Down" from his new CD as well as "Brand New Start" by Big Daddy Weave and "The Anchor Holds," which was particularly powerful. Lay It Down was killer! Great performance! Harold's new CD will be out by mid-May.
We wound up the show with Jamia Harman leading the vocals for the house band on two songs...Jaima did a great job and the songs were fun. We hope to have Jamia perform some time soon.
As with every show at Higher Ground - we MUST thank our volunteers! We sincerely appreciate everyone who helped get the night going and kept things moving. There is a lot of hard work that goes into every show at Higher Ground. Kitchen - Missi Ratliff, Linda Harman (Linda was a god send, getting there early and staying late), Wanda Kinder, Marci Watson, Ted Watson (Ted's Finest Tea - it really is the FINEST!!!), Tina Lester, Lindsey Bandy (and Mark - YEAH! Thanks, Mark), and everyone else. These folks make some of the very best food available ANYWHERE! We probably get more compliments on the food than on the entertainment ;) ...it is seriously some good stuff!
Special thanks to Rita Keen for taking photos all night long! Tab Keen for running lights, Jacob Robinson for training on sound; Joy Vandyke, Donna Mullins, and everyone who helped with the children downstairs. Hodge Chambers and Harold Kinder - we want to especially express our appreciation to you for working tirelessly to solve the electrical challenges we experienced previously -- THANKS SO MUCH! Special thanks to our pastors, Trula Harman, and Jerry Harman.
I will try to get some actual pictures posted at the Higher Ground web site www.geocities.com/ofghigherground.
Next show is April 2nd! Keep it here for more on the schedule. By the way, if you have comments about the show, send them to me via e-mail at brad@swvaol.com and I will get them posted ASAP.
Godspeed my brothers and sisters! BR
The March 19th show was OUTSTANDING! Man! The agenda lined up with Emily Ratliff, VISION (featuring Jeremy Dotson), Harold Kinder, and an encore comedy presentation by Jeff Arwood. It was awesome! We again ran around 100 people...God is truly blessing us to be able to create a fun place for the community!
The Higher Ground House Band took the stage at around 7:30, with emcee Justin Rodda taking the reigns of the show right away (way to go Justin...great job!). Justin did a super job with handling the mic for the night. Ren Harman (we found some drums, eh?), Terry Harrison, and BR played the Higher Ground theme song.
Emily Ratliff's set started at about 7:45. She did several songs including "Redeemer, Savior, Friend," FFH's "One of these Days," and an original entitled "Perfect Plan." Em graciously invited me to the stage to help out with an acoustic version of "God will Move" which was a load of fun...the crowd was standing and jamming along to a pretty hot acoustic version....REALLY COOL. GREAT job Em!!! Visit Emily's web site at www.emilyratliff.com.
Following Emily's set, a brief break, while Marci Watson brought a word about Easter and its special meaning for all Christians (and sinners too!). This precipitated the handing out of Easter eggs to everyone in the place - each of which had a number - periodically the emcee called out a few numbers and the number holders had to visit the stage. The funny part came when the person either got a prize (like a Higher Ground T-shirt, car wash, gift certificate, or something else) OR they had to "join the Higher Gorund entertainment team ;) ...of course this was hilarious. Losing numbers were required to do a number of things including "sing like Elvis," "do a guitar solo," "sing the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies," and more! MANY THANKS TO EVERY PERSON WHO SO WILLINGLY PARTICIPATED! You made the show a lot of fun!
Jeff Arwood did an encore comedy set with his "friend" JJ. JJ is a dummy --- well, so is Jeff, but JJ is LITERALLY a dummy ;) In actuality, Jeff is a talented Christian comedian and the laughs were delirious. Really FUNNY! By the way, Jeff and JJ - the crack at me - HMMMM...I am thinking of ways to get even :)
VISION started at around 8:30 and absolutely blew everyone away! They were AWESOME! Their music was outstanding with excellent musicianship and wonderful vocals. VISION rocked the house with several hyper-praise songs including "Lord you are Good (All the Time," Jeremy's guitar work was phenomenal and closely emulated by Tim Short (bass player extraordinaire) and their drummer and vocalists were fantastic. We hope to get VISION back soon and perhaps Jeremy will become a regular at Higher Ground.
Harold Kinder performed "Lay It Down" from his new CD as well as "Brand New Start" by Big Daddy Weave and "The Anchor Holds," which was particularly powerful. Lay It Down was killer! Great performance! Harold's new CD will be out by mid-May.
We wound up the show with Jamia Harman leading the vocals for the house band on two songs...Jaima did a great job and the songs were fun. We hope to have Jamia perform some time soon.
As with every show at Higher Ground - we MUST thank our volunteers! We sincerely appreciate everyone who helped get the night going and kept things moving. There is a lot of hard work that goes into every show at Higher Ground. Kitchen - Missi Ratliff, Linda Harman (Linda was a god send, getting there early and staying late), Wanda Kinder, Marci Watson, Ted Watson (Ted's Finest Tea - it really is the FINEST!!!), Tina Lester, Lindsey Bandy (and Mark - YEAH! Thanks, Mark), and everyone else. These folks make some of the very best food available ANYWHERE! We probably get more compliments on the food than on the entertainment ;) ...it is seriously some good stuff!
Special thanks to Rita Keen for taking photos all night long! Tab Keen for running lights, Jacob Robinson for training on sound; Joy Vandyke, Donna Mullins, and everyone who helped with the children downstairs. Hodge Chambers and Harold Kinder - we want to especially express our appreciation to you for working tirelessly to solve the electrical challenges we experienced previously -- THANKS SO MUCH! Special thanks to our pastors, Trula Harman, and Jerry Harman.
I will try to get some actual pictures posted at the Higher Ground web site www.geocities.com/ofghigherground.
Next show is April 2nd! Keep it here for more on the schedule. By the way, if you have comments about the show, send them to me via e-mail at brad@swvaol.com and I will get them posted ASAP.
Godspeed my brothers and sisters! BR
posted by Higher Ground Christian Coffee House @ 10:11 AM
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