Joel’s Blog

Lincoln Brewster “Today is the Day” Tour Blog #1

Posted by: joelauge on: October 6, 2008

Well, we’ve got one date to go on the “Today Is The Day” Lincoln Brewster tour and I wanted to give y’all a well-overdue update. My wife isn’t here. ‘Nuff said. Forgot my guitar in Sacramento – this happens when your wife isn’t around. Wives are good. So I’ve got one more show with Lincoln’s McPherson before I can get my Baden back which was graciously lent to me by T.J. Baden. Here’s a link to the website. Go check’em out! http://www.badenguitars.com. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write. We’ve been working our butts off. It’s tremendous to see the way God has used every event to impact people’s hearts. There’s always a challenge, when pointing people to Jesus, in making sure that we don’t point to the religion of doing church, rather than just Jesus. I think we’ve been able, albeit in a musical fashion, to point people to Him. 

I’d like to think I’m also leaving this tour a better guitarist. I won’t ever be a Lincoln Brewster shredder… but I’m okay with that :) He’s a tremendous talent and I’ve learned a whole lot from him and everyone on the tour. Thanks for the laughs Lincoln. These gents have done a tremendous job of pulling this tour together. I look forward to coming back to Cali and spending some time with them. A few shout-outs are in order… Jon Bryant, you’re crazy… and I love it. Your video vigilance varies very vastly. Mark Johnston, dude… thanks for the eye-opening live performance info ;) Mike Johns & Will Weisman – can’t wait to demo our new song! All the best on Breko. Steve & Norm – You guys are a serious inspiration. I look forward to hanging again at the S4W events. C.J. Alverado, you’re loved by these guys. You’re such an obvious leader and it’s awesome to see how much you love these guys. Adam Duncan – you are a sound phenom. Tremendous job my friend. Thanks for all your organizational prowess as well. Dave Carr – please never mention we met… thanks ;) Richard Aaronson – Thanks for the continued prayer and amazing heart. And thanks for the difficult job of following the bus in a box-truck :)

This has been a tremendous experience and one I will never forget. Quite a blast. I’m looking forward to the last date of the tour in Yuba City, and to seeing my lovely wife back home – but I’m going to miss these boys. It’s amazing how a bus and some highway miles can bring people together. Take a roadtrip with someone you love… It’s awesome. 

Joel

Israel Houghton, Paul Baloche

Posted by: joelauge on: September 11, 2008

One of the coolest parts about participating in this crazy musical journey (getting signed, releasing albums, participating in events) is that I get to meet tremendously gifted individuals.

Israel Houghton: It’s hard to believe that I would be on the same label as someone as incredibly gifted as Israel. This multi-instrumentalist and vocalist (not to mention grammy award winner) was hosting “A Deeper Level” conference in Houston Texas. I was invited to sing a few songs and hang out for the weekend. Andrae Crouch surprised everyone by making an appearance and the New Breed folks absolutely brought the house down for 3 nights of recordings for a “Deeper Level” live project. From what I can tell, it’s going to be tremendous. And I highly recommend the conference to anyone who’s leading worship or is in a worship team. 

Paul Baloche: It sounds crazy as I type it, but Paul Baloche and I are now friends. This man who I’ve admired for over 10 years as one of the greatest encouragers through music for the Church, is now my friend. I was privileged to join him in the studio for an upcoming french worship album and to sing at his church, as he and Rita opened up their home to me in that most expansive of states, Texas. There are numerous reasons why I think we get along so well. Chief among them are the facts that we both have a rich french canadian heritage, share a love for entrepreneurialism and marketing, and have wives who are smarter than their respective husband. I know for some people it’s hard to imagine “the difficulties of travel” and the “burden of music”. The fact of the matter is that when you’re in constant flux, it’s hard to find time to invest in real relationship like you do at home. That’s why when you find people you can relate to and connect with out and about on this sphere we call Earth, it’s nice to know that God has knit some of us together in a special way. Thanks Paul for your tremendous songwriting abilities, and tell Rita thanks again for the corn-bread muffins… oh my… so good. I’m a fan of this man’s career and of his existence. It’s truly amazing to see God working through him. Keep it up Paul!

 

Note: Book i’m reading on the flights to and from stuff right now – God & The New Physics > Paul Davies

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The East

Posted by: joelauge on: August 22, 2008

If I were to ask you to conjure up in your imagination your version of “the east” I might get a different response depending on who you are. Some of my chinese friends might speak of their origins in the “far east”. My baltic friends might mention the eastern block. To me, the first thing that pops to the front of my thoughts is Canada’s east coast. 

Ahhh, the maritimes. There’s nothing like the salt air and constant breeze of the east coast. If you’ve never been to any of the maritime provinces in Canada, you owe it to yourself to make the trip. There’s a tangible difference in the way people interact here. The speediness of city life gives way to a much broader stroke of the brush. In this particular instant, Halifax Nova-Scotia is our stop – and we’ll be here a few extra days to take in the sights and sounds of the ocean with close friends who have moved here recently.

I have a fondness for the east as this is where I decided life could not be done well if attempted alone, and asked Jesus to lead me on. (I was actually in St. John’s Newfoundland, but that’s also “east” and maritime). I can recall in my very early days as a believer, going to the rock beaches along the east coast alone and thinking, “in this vastness Oh Lord, You still found me? Amazing.”  The ocean is a great reminder of how something so seamless and wide can bring people together in amazing ways. 

Michelle and I are blessed. It’s amazing that we get these opportunities to travel. We don’t take it for granted. And one day, when we’ve moved on from this place to travel to wherever God takes us when we go, I have a sneaky suspicion that there’ll be something vast and fruitful to bring us together like the oceans, waiting for us there.

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New York City…

Posted by: joelauge on: August 14, 2008

Michelle (my wife) and I were recently in New York City working with Leslie and Brad Taylor of Big Machine Media on a press day with several different websites/services/outlets. One thing that blew me away was the openness of mainstream media to communicate so openly with me about my journey with Jesus. It’s pretty amazing. I didn’t need to be defensive. I didn’t have to hide what I believe. I didn’t have to put my guard up. I just spoke about my walk and how Jesus is impacting me and my art. I talked about how natural it is to have someone you’re committed to, who’s part of your daily life, affect the way you write and think and love. Isn’t it amazing to think that we have a part to play in the lives of those around us who may or may not know Jesus, and that we’d be his light in their lives? It blows me away. Michelle and I had a blast, (although we’re tired), and are looking forward to a long and winding road.

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Writing songs with an audience…

Posted by: joelauge on: June 25, 2008

 

I was recently at the Alive 08 festival in Canal Fulton, Ohio. I tried something… I probably won’t do it again – at least not as the first song.  What I did was open the set by trying to get the audience to throw me some lyrics/thoughts/ideas which I then used to create an improv song on stage. Here are the names of the song contributors… Oh… uh… I left their names in my white bin in Buffalo. There are four of you… I’ll get your names here next week. My apologies! 

It’s happened before where in the midst of singing songs to God, I’ve had some really cool inspiration – right on the spot. Being aware of that moment, and cultivating it, isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s rarely easy. When it happens though, man it’s cool! And not only is it cool, but it’s a great place to get people to put their hearts on the table. We all have this part of us that longs to create. Participating in creating something with others can be a very rewarding experience. To that end, I wanted to allow as many people who wanted that opportunity, to join me. It’s always fun. It’s always scary. It doesn’t always produce great results – but in the off-chance that it does, I’ll keep trying :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZme9FevnI

J. 

 

Kevin Max is coming.

Posted by: joelauge on: June 6, 2008

This weekend Michelle and I are hosting Kevin Max. Some of you will remember him from his dcTalk days. He’s the guy with the superb vibrato that always shone through. I got to hang with him a month or two ago in Nashville and we really quickly hit it off. He had some lyrics and I put some music to it and VOILA – an hour later we had a song… and in my opinion a real keeper.

So we’re doing it again. We’re going to go spend some time at A.D.S. Media in Hannon Ontario (Just outside of Hamilton) and spill out some rock. I don’t know Kevin really well yet (we only got to hang out for 2 hours or so) but I could tell immediately that we’d have a blast. The songwriting arena is such a tenuous place to meet someone. It can be really challenging. The cool thing is, when you meet someone and you’re able to break down barriers really quickly and ideas start flowing, there’s nothing like it. It’s a very rewarding process. So here’s to you Kevin. Let’s make something memorable.

iTunes’ is giving out my music for free!

Posted by: joelauge on: June 5, 2008

iTunes picked \It’s crazy to think that this song started out drowning. Written in 2004, it barely made it through its first week of life. Let’s just say that not everyone was on board with it’s falsetto. In fact, it was the first song I’d ever really attempted to mold melody up in the falsetto range of my voice. I think it works…

The reactions on iTunes are amazing. There’s one dude who makes a comment about how I sound like a man-child. O, to have the heart of a child… and just have a care-free life. (Pretty sure that’s not what he meant, but it seems like everything ever written down is open to interpretation, so I’m taking some creative license here.) Wanna get the song for free?

Get it here: 

iTunes Free Song Discovery Download

 

 

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A Quiet Revolt…

Posted by: joelauge on: May 30, 2008

And in this corner...

My manager David and I are both having issues with the power supplies for our macbooks. I’ve decided I should do something about it… so I’ve written a brief synopsis for a book. Whaddayathink?

*in dramatic movie score mode*
No one knew what hit them. Suddenly, mac computers worldwide stopped accepting the juice we were giving them. Were the machines trying to tell us something? Perhaps they knew just how valuable this “power” we had really was. And rather than sit idly by, in a quiet revolt against the decay of the electric infrastructure, they sacrificed themselves.

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  • None
  • joelauge: Hi Steve, The song is called "Power of Your Name"... and wow... what a song. Probably my favorite from the new album. J.
  • sjbrown58: I heard an interview with Lincoln this week and one of the songs on his latest CD starts out with a peculiar pumping sound. It's actually a recording
  • Grant: So glad to hear the you had a great time at the conference, my friend!

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