Next Acappella Album and JHouse's dream

Keith is pumping out new songs left and right. We've learned parts of 3 or 4 new songs (all written by Keith) and laid down the basic vocals - in the Nashville studio - for 2 of the songs. Melissa Lancaster is doing a wonderful job engineering the project. I think we'd like to have this album out by Tulsa... we'll see. My guess is that this album will be less R&B than Heaven & Earth, just because the guys in this group aren't as plugged in to R&B as Nic and Sean were. That's not a good or a bad thing, just a style thing. It's gonna be a good album... as usual.

 

JHouse wants to do a concert in Antarctica someday. Does anyone know of someone who might be taking a ship there during tourist season? Also, does anyone know how we could round up all 0 indigenous residents? Okay, so there are no people from Antarctica, but there are 4000 researchers there in the summer and 1000 there in the winter (remember, Antarctica is 1.5 times the size of the United States). JHouse..."I like dreamin'..."

 

 

Acappella in Guyana, South America

We have become quite the international travelers lately. Nearly every time we do an international date, it’s a new exciting adventure. And by “exciting”, I mean two things, 1) an AWESOME visit, a lot of fun, and God working in ways we wouldn’t have ever imagined, and 2) it’s so hard to get ourselves, our bags, and our equipment there that I’ve decided it would be easier to walk/swim with the equipment strapped to our backs. Robin did not fly with us from Nashville to Miami to Georgetown, Guyana. Why? We’re not exactly sure, but we know that the American Airlines’ lady simply could not get him checked in. We arrived 1 hour and 30 min. before our flight took off and she still couldn’t get Robin checked in for some strange reason. After spending all of Thursday in an airport, Robin was routed to New York to spend the night. He finally arrived in Guyana on Friday about 2 hours before the concert. God provided a way, like He always does. For more details, you can read Rhonda’s side of the adventure at http://rhondacoleson.blogspot.com.


We were picked up from the airport by some wonderful Guyanese people from the church. We got to know them quickly when we crammed all 13 of us in a 13 passenger mini-van with the sound equipment taking up 3 seats… that’s 13 people in 10 seats; we had a good time. The top half of the picture is the back of the van, the bottom half is the front of the van. After we arrived in Georgetown, overwhelmed with tiredness, we immediately checked-in to the beautiful Le Meridien Pegasus hotel and called it a day. The next morning we arose and shone about 6:30 AM for a TV appearance and radio interview. After the interviews, we got to visit Roy Geddes’ Steel Pan Museum, which was incredible.

The picture to the right is us with Mr. Geddes. He makes the steel drums, tunes them, plays them, and teaches others how to play them. He was phenomenal on those things! Oh by the way, Zac George’s bag was checked under Robin Brannon and it didn’t make it to Guyana. So Zac had no clean clothes or toiletries for the entire trip. Chris, the Guyanese promoter, bought him some concert clothes for that night. His bag is still lost…argh! We sang in the National Cultural Centre, a nice, big auditorium in Georgetown. The Guyanese people were so grateful we were able to come. They really enjoyed the music, and I know they were blessed by God’s message that night. I think we took a picture with all 700 people – one at a time - who attended the concert. (I don’t actually have any idea how many people were there). Thanks guys! We had a superb time!

Acappella TV air dates

Some of you have asked when the TV appearance Acappella recently finished will air. Here’s what the Inspiration Network told us. “The airdates for the Inspiration Today Christmas Shows are as follows:

Dec 12-16 (Acappella on the 13th and 16th) and it will re-air again on
Dec 19-23 (Acappella on the 21st and 23rd)

This airs at 8:30 am and 9 pm EST. Please note it is EST.

A different artist will air each day, as you will see I have indicated the day they will be on. However, on Friday 16th and Friday 21st the compellation show will air-which will be one song from each group. So they will be on Dec 13th and 16th and then those same shows will re-air Dec. 21st and 23rd.”

This is us in front of the beautiful rainbow (before we claimed our pot 'o gold). JHouse, what's your hand doing?

It might not look like it but this is the dangerous spot where some huge waves came up and almost swept us in to the raging sea. There are huge crags all out in that water. We're just "having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have."

The concert in Jamaica was incredible! 

Acappella in Jamaica, 2005

Well, another successful trip to Jamaica, mon! God brought over 3000 wild, screaming Acappella fans to the concert at NCU (a university) in Mandivlle, Jamaica. It totally rocked! Dwayne and Lewin and the entire CAE (Christian Arts & Entertainment) entourage did a fantastic job promoting the concert and making sure everything ran smoothly. As usual, they treated us like we were Bob Marley himself…okay maybe like kings anyway. Marshae – who was with us the whole time - kept us in line and made sure no one took advantage of us (especially not the security guard at Devon House). Thanks Marshae! A lot of crazy things happened this trip, which is normal for Jamaica, but also for Acappella trips in general. It took us the usual 2 hours or more to get through Customs with our sound equipment, and ourselves. We rode around in a van driven by Mr. Murray (call me Wayne, he said). Sometimes he evaded pot holes by driving the van like it was a Yamaha R1 sport bike (no, not everything in my world is about sport bikes…almost everything). After the airport, we went to a press conference at The Jamaican Observer (a huge Jamaica newspaper) and convened around what seemed like the worlds largest boardroom table. Okay, who has ever heard of this: they gave each of us our own cell phone, with our own number to use while in Jamaica! We had too much fun with those. Thanks MiPhone! That night we showed up for a radio interview and recorded a few jingles for the station. The next day, we were able to visit a children’s home with kids who are physically and mentally handicap (the same one we visited on our last Jamaican trip). It was filled with children that you might only see in a Medical book of human diseases. Singing for them was a joy! Later, we took a picture of a complete rainbow (actually there were 2 complete rainbows), where the end of it was a couple hundred yards from us. I had never seen the end of the rainbow before…yes there was a pot of gold and yes we are all rich now ;-). That night we had Chinese food and had the concert. The concert was so much fun to say the least, and God worked in His ways, as He always does. Nice sound D-Money (Darren, our cool soundman) Jordan had to fly back to the US after the concert, so he’s not in some of the pictures. The next day, we went to the beach and swam for hours. We went on an “adventure”, which means we hiked out over hundreds of yards of crag coral that would cut your feet, almost got swept into the raging sea, both of Zac G’s sandals broke, and he had to tackle the razor sharp coral barefooted… but we managed it all without too many injuries, and we had a BLAST in the process. That night we had to get I-scream (ice-cream) from the Devon House, which was the bomb! I climbed a flag pole, fell, and ripped my shorts and my leg (that’s all normal too). The next day, before our flight departed, we took a trip to buy “crafts” (souvenirs). We all got some good authentic Jamaican stuff. Then we went to visit Port Royal, where pirates used to live. Then we headed to the airport, flew through Customs with no problem, and missed our flight. Yes, we missed our flight. So as I type this we are still in Jamaica. It’s rough being stuck on a Caribbean Island in a nice hotel with good food and good people. We’ll return to the US tomorrow. Thank you Dwayne, Lewin, Marshae, Wayne Murray, and all of CAE! Let’s do it again!

Acappella with Grammy award-winning artists, Mary Mary. They rocked! (Jordan was dead to the world, out in the trailer).

Inspiration Netowork taping

"Dave and Barb", the stars of the Inspiration Network in Charlotte, NC. We had such a wonderful time recording the Christmas special with them and the other artists there.