Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (from the AMK Show)

As you may have heard, Monday's show for Ann Michele King was an amazing outpouring of music, love and community. More than 1,100 people packed the sanctuary of FUMC, Richardson for this special show, benefiting Ann Michele and the King family.

Here's the amazing view we had from stage:

It was just an amazing night. Most amazing of all was the outpouring of support. At this point, we're estimating at least $27,000 dollars raised to help with medical expenses for Ann Michele, as she continues her seven year battle against cancer.

One of my favorite songs to do in our shows has been Elton John's "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." I get to sing it, and I LOVE singing it. And the entire band plays. It's just one of those "big" numbers in our shows. And, as has happened several times before, it got a standing ovation Monday. It's just a great effort by the whole band. You can hear it here:





What a great privilege to be able to be a part of this special show. What a crowd. What support for an incredible family, and incredible woman. I'm privileged to know Ann Michele and completely inspired by her faith and her courage facing her challenges. I know everybody feels the same way.

Of course, we all love Rusty too, and a part of why we did this show was to be there for our band-brother, and musical director.

We love you Rusty.

This one was for you too.

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A Connections Concert for Ann Michele

As many of you know, our band, Connections has done some incredible shows for some incredible causes over the past five years. We've played for thousands of people, and raised more than $135, 000 for the two worthy causes of "Imagine No Malaria"(a) and UMCOR. In ways that defy our wildest imaginations, we've been successful beyond anything we could have predicted.

This Monday, we'll do a show unlike any other, but for an equally good and special cause.

As some of you may or may not know, Ann Michele King, the daughter of our band's musical director, Rusty, has been fighting hard against a very persistent cancer for now almost seven years.

Monday night, Connections will be doing a show to benefit Ann Michele and the King Family.

Seven years of treatments --at multiple hospitals and states-- have really taken a toll on the family's finances. And there are more major expenses on the way. And so, we're breaking what has been our hard-and-fast rule to do shows that only benefit those two causes. We've been asked numerous times to benefit other causes in the past, and we've always turned those down (and probably still would...). We even considered doing a show for Ann Michele in the past. But the timing didn't seem right.

But this time, the other founding members of Connections said "yes" without hesitation, and so did the rest of the band.
And so, here goes….

"The Best of Connections"
Benefiting Ann Michele King
Monday, June 27 7:00 pm

First UMC, Richardson
503 North Central Expwy
Richardson, Texas



Click here for the official show poster.

For those on Facebook, you can find an event page here.

Rusty will be playing with us (can you imagine him not?!). We'll do songs from:

Chicago
Bill Joel
Stevie Wonder
Doobie Brothers
Dan Fogelberg
James Taylor
Carole King
Bad Company
Steve Miller
Fleetwood Mac
Elton John
Earth Wind and Fire
And many others...

We've taken the best songs you've heard us do in other shows, and put them together in this one show for this one special night. You won't want to miss it.

Even if you don't know Ann Michele, even if you've never seen Connections before,  it would be a wonderful thing to have you with us, to help us support Rusty, and the whole family. We all love Rusty like a brother, and the whole family means the world to us. We would do anything for them. One thing we can do is sing.

And, it will be a great night of music, featuring songs you'll want to sing along with.

Much thanks to Mark Vowell, and all the great folks at Spring Valley...to Clayton Oliphant and all the great folks at FUMCR...and to Todd Harris and all the great folks at Allen. Many many people are coming together to make this show a reality, and it's lovely to see.

Hope to see you there.


(a)our first few years, the beneficiary was "Nothing But Nets," but both are companions in the same cause to eliminate malaria from Africa...

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Prayer Vigil in Opposition to Senate Bill 9

I was honored to be a part of a prayer vigil today, outside the offices of State Representative Solomon, in Carrollton. The reason was the possible reemergence of anti-immigrant legislation at the state level.

It was a great honor to be with Owen Ross and approximately 40 persons, including six United Methodist ministers from around North Texas.

Our colleague, Rev. David McKay writes a great blog called "Jitterbugging for Jesus." I'm not going to write a long blog about today's vigil, because:

a) I've blogged about the issue a lot already, and you can search through those entries here, and
b) Paul has done a very good job and says just about everything that's also been on my mind the past few weeks.

You can read it here.

And while I'm not gonna write anything new, I've got lots of old posts that I've now tagged with "Because You Were An Alien." You can find them here.

Many thanks to all who came, for Rev. Owen Ross, and to Representative Solomon's office for speaking with five of us privately to hear our concerns personally.

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Father's Day

Today is "Father's Day," and as with most days songs come to mind.

A few songs that remind me of Father's Day. First, perhaps the tough stuff. Because we must admit that being a Dad is not always a fond memory for anyone. This is perhaps not only one of the great songs of fatherhood, but just plain one of the best story-songs every written:

We do this song as a band, and I have the high honor of singing it. Full string section behind the core band...it's awesome. And I sometimes play this live too, just in solo settings. I have never played this song where a man in the audience did not cry. Just saying.

Then, on the positive side of the ledger, perhaps the best-known song of my favorite singersongwriter, Dan Fogelberg:

As you may remember, last summer I was deeply honored to be a part of the "Fogelberg Weekend" in Peoria, Ill, where we got to honor Dan's memory by playing music for his biggest fans, his childhood friends and even his mother and family. Saturday night's show of that weekend featured a concert by Peoria All-Stars, playing Dan's music in a great concert venue in the city there. But everyone wondered who would play "Leader of the Band." When the time came, it clear: none of us would. Dan did. They showed a video of Dan doing the song that he wrote for his father, the Peoria High School band leader, who had given him so much.

What an incredible tribute to the love of a father.

But then, finally, there's not just what we think about being a father --good, bad or ugly-- there's being one in the world today. And the best song about fatherhood, and manhood, that I've heard in years and years is Andy Gullahorn's "More of a Man."

I found all sorts of versions that weren't very easy to hear, so please go here and click the "More of a Man" link.

Isn't that an amazing song?

Happy Father's Day, everybody.

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What Must Be Done

Lunch with Paul Porter reminded me of all the Kerrville gear still in the garage.

It only took a minute of working with it to have sand in my teeth.

Much more fun to pack than unpack, huh?

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And It's Not Even The "Hot" Part of Summer Yet

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Incredible Moment

So, now I can post blogs directly from email?
Dangerous.

So, how about this picture from last night?


This was my first ride on my road bike this year. Possibly in more than a year. I've been riding my other bike quite a bit. But I was really tired. Then, near the end of the ride, David Wilcox's song "Deeper Still" came on. ("You will always have what you gave to love.")

And then I saw this, literally right as the song ended.
It was a moment.

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