Blogs

Hey urrbody, It's that time again! Time for another blog for your bass-playing brother, Chuffy! Week one of the tour is already over, and it was definitely the best first weekend of any tour we've been on. Tuesday night, we met up at the the church for our first bus call of the tour. Once everything was loaded and everything accounted for, we set out for Kansas City, Missouri. Wednesday was spent rehearsing and settling back into playing music again, at least it was for me. Somehow, after a couple run-thru's of the songs, I remembered how to play them again.

In the mid-afternoon, a couple of my friends from St. Louis came into town to hang out, and we went to a restaurant where we had some of the best barbecue on the planet, Arthur Bryant's!!  Kansas City knows barbecue!  After we stuffed ourselves full, they brought me back to the Sprint Center for rehearsal.  Everything went well, no tech problems, no amp or guitar problems, it was a great time.  Thursday was a busy day, 1st show!!!  I think it's safe to assume that at least on the first night of a tour for Casting Crowns, everyone is a little nervous before the show.

Caleb and Kutless were great!!!  It's such an honor to tour with guys like them.  When Crowns came on the stage, all the nerves just went away and excitement took its' place, NOT!  I was seriously on edge the whole night.  I probably didn't show it, but I certainly felt it.  Despite the nerves, the first show went without any sort of hiccup in the set.  It's always fun to stay after and sign autographs and meet the people.  There's always at least one bass player that comes through the line and it means so much to me to be an inspiration to other bassists.  The next day was Tulsa, home of one of my favorite bands, Pillar!!  I will be reviewing their new cd "Confessions" in my CD of The Week blog.

Come to find out they were on tour with another favorite band of mine, RED.  As they were on their last weekend of the tour, they played in Tulsa the same day as our tour.  I did see some twitpics that Rob from Pillar posted during their show, it looked like it was a great crowd, wish I could've been there.  Anyway, a friend from Atlanta who lives out there now brought me a mocha chiller from my favorite coffee chain, Gloria Jeans.  It was good to see some familiar faces being away from home and I know they had a good time singing to Jesus at the concert.  Our 3rd concert moved down the road just a couple hours to Oklahoma City at Crossroads Baptist Church.  This was our first church venue of this tour, and it has been my favorite concert so far in the first 3 shows.  It was also Will Chapman's 19th birthday on that day and we got him a big card that played a song really loud and a sweet cake.  It's been a great first weekend settling into the groove and getting to know our tour mates this time.  

I look forward to seeing God do some amazing things this week while at home and when we gather together this weekend to head to Bossier City, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; and Tupelo, Mississippi.  I look forward to seeing you there!  God bless!!  <><  Romans 15:4

Chuffy