A New Song: "Fogelberg"

I've talked about the Fogelberg Weekend on Facebook, but not here at the blog. It's a pretty amazing thing that's fallen in my lap in the past month.

The last weekend of August, the City of Peoria, Illinois will dedicate a memorial to Dan Fogelberg along the riverside there. You can read about it here.

The weekend will feature the dedication of the memorial, followed by a Saturday night tribute concert, with some local Illinois musicians offering their tribute to Dan. But, about three weeks ago, I got a call from Deb Jelinek, who works with Jean Fogelberg. The call was to invite Rusty and me, as members of Connections, to perform at a "welcome party" on Friday night, hosted by Jean and Deb.

The night will feature musicians from all over the country who have done tributes to Fogelberg, along with several members of Dan's band: Jim Photoglo (who I've met at Kerrville and SWRFA) and Michael Hanna.

Wow.

We're both still a little speechless about it all. It's an incredible offer and gift to be asked to be a part of this. Just amazing.

So, of course we're going. Right now, we're trying to figure out which of Dan's songs we ought to offer to do. Deb's asked us to put together a list of five.

So, for all you Connections' fans who have seen our Fogelberg tribute, let us know:

What songs do you think we should do? Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think.

When I got back from Kerrville, I had a song rattling around in my head...a tune, really. It dawned on me about ten days ago that it was a tribute song for Dan. I've titled it "Fogelberg."
There's a demo below, for your enjoyment.

As a tribute song, this one is dripping with Fogelberg references. The music and production are blunt homage. And so are the lyrics! This song contains twelve distinct references to twelve different Dan Fogelberg songs in the lyrics. I kid you not. Some references involve clear and direct "borrowing. Others are allusions or song titles.


I won't give them all away here, but I'd love for you to take your best shot at guessing them. (Hint: none of them repeat, and none of them are in the bridge) Some are obvious. Others may take some work. I'll post the lyrics below to help you out.

Not quite sure what I'll do with this one, still working out the kinks.

So, let me know what you think, and take your best shot at guessing those lyric-references.



"Fogelberg"
words and music by Eric Folkerth

At home high on the mountain
Or sailing on the sea
A poet from a river town
Who set his spirit free.

A troubadour, a gambler
With his place in the world
And every time he sang his songs
Our lives are what we heard

You once thanked your father,
For giving songs to you
And we're forever grateful
That you shared your gift too
So may we ever be…
Your living legacy.

A soundtrack for each passing year
Through all the joy and pain
Days that seemed part of the plan
Nights snow turned to rain

Along the road, you gave to us
A wisdom spelled out plain --
Like it's always gonna to be a day
And that love is not so strange

You once thanked your father,
For giving songs to you
And we're forever grateful
That you shared your gift too
So may we ever be…
Your living legacy.

But you left us far to soon
Cold tears in our eyes
Wondering 'bout the missing years and
Full of questions why

But maybe in your leaving
You helped us all to see
That death just keeps us honest
And reminds us we are free.

When the weary journey's ended
And all our days are gone
Time will still our singing
But songs live ever on.
And they will ever be…
They will ever be…
They will ever be...
Your living legacy.

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Fifty Years

An awfully momentous event went relatively unnoticed over the weekend. My folks celebrated their 50-year wedding anniversary.

The "relatively unnoticed" part is that the big celebration is going to happen in early August. That week, all of us kids, all of our kids and spouses, Mom and Dad, are headed up to Estes Park to a couple of cabins at the YMCA of the Rockies.

 It's a place we spent lots of summers when it was just three kids, them, and a station wagon. Now, the trip will involve four families coming from three cities....12 people, several cars and probably a couple of plane flights.

Check out these pics, from very early in their marriage...

Man, were they young and stylin'

I have no real way to quantify what fifty years means, except to note that these days it seems an extraordinary achievement. It's also a bit strange to imagine that I've been around for most of that journey with them. I'm trying not to think too deeply about that so as to avoid associating my personhood with the word "50" for as long as possible.

One thing I love about watching my parents these days is how clearly they enjoy spending time with each other. They keep busy with a great many things, between their own interests, the lakehouse, and kids/grandkids in three different cities. But, first and foremost, they love being with each other, and it's really wonderful to see.

 

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.

Love, Eric

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Goodbye, Paul (or, "Infrastructure is Grace")

This week, we're saying final goodbye's to Paul Escamilla. For some of us, the goodbyes have been going on for a while now. Paul, as many of you will know, has been a minister here in North Texas for well over 20 years now. He's also one of the founding members of Connections.

After our North Texas Annual Conference ends tomorrow, Paul and Elizabeth will end a week of nomad-existence, and sojourn to Austin, where he'll become the senior pastor of St. John's UMC. (Memo to my many Austin friends: It'd be worth checking out. Just sayin')

For reasons not worth repeating here, Paul's been out of local church ministry for a couple of years now, having been working on the staff of Perkins School of Theology most recently. But, truthfully, Paul was built to be a pastor. It's just in his DNA. In fact, to a person, when somebody I knew heard the news that Paul would be going to St. John's, they said, "YES! Paul needs to be in the local church."

Everybody who knows him thinks so.

Paul is a gifted pastor, preacher, and the author of many books. He's got a passion for leading/planning worship unrivaled among my peers. He's also a sensitive and caring soul, and has a caring spirit about him.

He has a certain eloquence that can sometime be an acquired taste. Sometimes, while he's in the midst of a metaphor or analogy, you wonder exactly where he's going. But the metaphors almost always end up in a very deep place that leaves you thinking "Ah…"

Most of the time, that is. There are times when you still end up scratching your head and thinking "Huh?"

In those moment Paul can remind me vaguely of the Phil Dunphy character on "Modern Family." (Can I get a witness?)

A few weeks back, Rusty King and me paused to note that Connections probably would have never become what it is today without Paul. What we meant by this is that besides all us "founding members" who banded together to set the vision, we needed an actual "home" for the band…a place to rehearse…a place to try out new shows.

Paul was the one who provided that place when he came to Spring Valley and offered it as a home base. He didn't have to. It was, no doubt, a risky thing at first. I am sure there were naysayers wondering why Paul offered the space to a group that was not just Spring Valley's alone. But credit Paul for supporting the band in this way. Without it, we could not have become what we are today. It represents the kind of "connectional" spirit many of us could stand to learn.

BTW, it was Paul who pushed us to use the name "Connections;" which was a name I initially hated, favoring another I won't even mention here. But Paul was persistent: the name symbolized what the band was about, he said.

And he was absolutely and completely right. (And I have never been more pleased to have been wrong…)

Two weeks ago, we had a "farewell" party with our Connections band members over at our house. Ostensibly, it was to say goodbye; but unbeknownst to Paul, it was also to present him with this guitar...

As you can see, each member of our band signed it, and Michael Shehan took pics of each us pointing to our own signatures. He then created this marvelous composite poster that you see above.

We wrote another message on the back too.

Paul was genuinely surprised, which pleased us all. It was a good night of goodbyes.
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While Paul is known for many goofy, Phil Dunphy-like expressions from the stage --sometimes leaving the rest of us in the band not quite sure what to say next-- there is one that really stands out in everybody's memory.

One night, in-between songs, Paul said,

"Well, you know what they say: 'Infrastructure is Grace.'"

The comment fell like a thud. The rest of us looked at each other, blankly.

"Um…yeah….wonder who 'they" is?" we thought. "Cause I've never heard that in my life."

We all rolled our eyes and giggled.

"That's just Paul…" we thought.

Finally, maybe months later, Paul explained himself at dinner before another show. He explained that things like Connections could never happens without a certain amount of infrastructure…churches to host the shows…volunteers to set the rooms and bring the desserts…a place to rehearse…a system to collected the funds we raise and disburse them with ease (through the North Texas Conference)

All of this, Paul said, was "infrastructure." And in many great and small ways, this kind of mundane infrastructure could become a "means of grace" for all of us.

Dang it if he wasn't completely right. It wasn't goofy at all.

It was brilliant.

Infrastructure *is* grace.
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I missed the last goodbye party for Paul over Memorial Day Weekend, since I was at the yearly tribal gathering of the Kerrville nation. And so I thought I'd missed Paul for good. Not that we'll never see each other again. But I know how these things work. It's not my first rodeo.

Turns out, though, he was here this week at Annual Conference. And, even more poignantly, he and I were the two "sponsoring elders" Rodney Whitfield chose to have stand with him as he was ordained tonight.

And so it was that, one last time, Paul and I got to sit right next to each other, during the ordination service that ended about an hour ago now. It was a great service, btw. Paul and I both agree that Bill Lawrence's sermon might well be the single best ordination sermon we've ever heard.

And it was special to get to stand with Rodney. (Who is a fine young minister with a bright future, if I do say so myself).

But what happened during the service is that we were asked at the last minute to serve communion to the folks in the "overflow" room. Turns out, they hadn't quite thought through who would do this, and needed some folks to go over to the fellowship hall, where a video feed was being beamed in live.

Of course, we said "yes," and so as dozens of communion servers fanned out across the cavernous sanctuary, we literally headed out the doors, rushing out through a bunch of winding hallways, and even outdoors for a moment, before emerging into the fellowship hall. There, we found several HUNDRED people, seemingly grateful to see us.

It was definitely more than we expected to see. We figured on a few dozen. But people just kept coming and coming. And so Paul, me, Joe and Kay kept serving and serving.

I thought of what a great metaphor that was. It was kind of like what we've tried to do with Connections….ie, get outside of the walls of the traditional church, and find the people where they are; and, hopefully, offer a little grace. Really, it's what we should be doing all the time, in a completely non-metaphorical way. But, I digress...

And then, after everybody else had been served, Paul and I served each other communion one last time. Which was a moment we couldn't have planned in a million years, of course.

So, now, I'm back at the hotel, writing this down, and giving thanks to God for that moment and for my friend.

And while I definitely cannot say that it's true all of the time, it is true now and then.

Now and then, infrastructure is grace.

Thanks, Paul.

We'll miss you.

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