birthday tribute

jodi is easily my favorite person in the world. in honor of jodi's __th birthday, here are some of my favorite jodi-quotes.

"how old am I?"

police officer after jodi's car breaks down again: "we'll call and get a wrecker out here soon."
jodi: "we don't need a wrecker, we just need a tow truck."
officer: "that's what a wrecker is, a tow truck."
jodi: "oh"

"so here's my plan...."

(pointing left) "turn right here."

and my personal favorite: "i'm not high maintenance, i'm high product. there's a difference."

happy birthday boss....

re: Love

holy crap, was this show amazing!

i'm talking jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, sensory overload - this was a SHOW. from gravity-defying acrobatics to incense, amazing props/set, lighting, and the best part - it was set to all Beatles songs. if you're ever in Vegas, GO!

off to sin city

jodi and i discovered a few days off in both of our schedules. we've decided to take a last hoorah! trip before the baby arrives and we're off to Vegas, baby!

i'm so excited - we're going to see love - Cirque du Soleil's show with all Beatles songs. and tomorrow we're gonna see Blue Man Group.

wish us well. stories and pics to come....

08.25.06 - brandon and FFH

had a smokin' good time playing lead guitar last night with brandon for the FFH show. soundcheck was rough and brandon's guitar had some serious feedback problems.

but the good vibes and energy made up for our technical woes. not a bad deal for our first gig together as a band. scroll down for pics and a list of all the mistakes I made!

our fearless leader.

me and Bruce, the keyboard wizard. holy crap can this dude play.

andy robbins, founder of christian metal band, holy soldier, and nominee for nicest-guy-in-the-whole-stinkin-world.

tim "t-money" ernst. former drummer of Reign Kings, and drummer on about half of the beautiful effect.
nicole and jeremiah, representin' for the wahba constuency.

regretably, and ironically, there are no pictures of josh here - who played some mean percussion last night and who played drums on the other half of the beautiful effect.

so here it is, the list of all the mistakes wahba made:

1. i played/sang an extra chorus in "i don't think so" - the whole band, including the lead singer had to follow me on the spot.
2. at the end of "misfit" andy and I are supposed to swell into a D chord - I swelled into a G.
3. i forgot to take my setlist on stage and was forced to look across the whole stage at andy's setlist - which I later found out was in the wrong order.
4. as a direct result of #3, I removed my electric guitar too early, expecting to be handed my acoustic so we could play "blameless life." someone in the band informed me that we weren't playing "blameless life" yet. I turned around and put my electric guitar back on. this happened after THREE songs in a row, until "blameless life" finally came around. i'm so smooth.

acoustic guitar tapping guy

this is mind-blowing - courtesy of my buddy kurt.

he reminds me of michael hedges a little bit. except he's even more emotional and melodic - not just technical. crazy.

OHPA! tour 2006 - odds & ends

here are some more random pics from our tour. let's start with the trailer (at kurt's request).

luxurious, no?

kosta, tina (my sista) and us.

here's jonathan winning a Coke at the ring toss. he actually hit two Cokes, but only got to keep one. he wanted to drink the Coke so badly, that he agreed to run down to the lake and back before he drank it. you go, boy!

and here's luke, winning a punching ballon at the ring toss - he hit that dolphin with all 3 rings in the same turn.

this is my boy, right here. little jackson at 10 weeks old.

here's a pic of shannon and jackson. shannon started smiling once she got over her wahba-phobia.

08.13.06 - new springfield, OH

our second gig in the same day (and our last gig of the OHPA! 2006 tour) was with the new springfield church in ohio.

crazy how God connects people. the youth pastors at this church are john & jennifer davis. jennifer's dad was the pastor who baptized me at the church i went to in pittsburgh when i was 13 years old. and john davis was one of my counselors at youth camp when i was a kid. the two of them each know jodi through different people. they met at whitehall and so did we.

we had much to talk about.

they've got a good thing going over in new springfield. ever since i started this worship thing, i've made an observation: people don't tend to support us (buy CDs, give a love offering, show up in large numbers) when we simply put on an event. putting out flyers and making it 'sound big' doesn't draw support for artists like me... community does.

every place we go that has a strong sense of community ends up being a place where: people show up; people participate in worship; and people contribute to our ministry to help keep it going.

new springfield church of god is such a place. thanks for a great tour, y'all. more pics coming soon....

08.13.06 - grove city, PA

the gang at the grove city church of god were so cool!

pastor Gene and his wife, Amy were shocked because they had never seen me "in anything besides shorts and flip-flops." I think they both wore sandals so I wouldn't feel uncomfortable - how nice is that! but then, I ended up wearing actual khakis and black dress shoes - you know how it is - gotta keep 'em on their (ahem...) toes.

here's a pic of us with jodi's parents at the grove city church....

08.11.06 - whitehall camp - emlenton, PA

camp was such a blast. it went by so quickly. i realized camp is a lot better when you have your own A/C, in your own trailer. we got to rest. we got loved on. we got our grub on.

i played bass on the worship team all week in the tabernacle. pastor david boots, our worship leader for the week, rocked us pretty steady on a good mix of country-style hymns, and contemporary stuff.

friday night, the youth (which had been meeting in a separate service all week), joined us in the tabernacle. the place was packed with like 2000 people. and I was asked to do a song during the service! this is me (with orion and brad) playing "giver" up at whitehall camp.

more pics from camp coming soon....

08.06.06 - cambridge springs, PA

we were so blessed to lead worship with the cambridge springs church of god. steve smacked away at the djembe so sweet - he gave us all a glimpse of heaven.

my nephews, jonathan and luke were the "merch boys." I'll put up a pic soon with the two of them sporting their wahba tees. they did such a great job selling. here was jonathan's sales pitch:

man, to jonathan: "and where are you from?"
jonathan (all in one breath): "columbus-ohio-ya-wanna-buy-a-CD?"

too funny.

I also made a major ding-move and took us on a 20-minute detour on the way to the church. I thought we had missed our exit, when I was really just reading the map wrong. we ended up being about 10 minutes late for sound check.

08.05.06 - meadville, PA

had a blast worshipping/playing at the meadville first church of god saturday evening. the crowd at meadville are always among our most supportive every time we tour this area.

as I was playing "lead us to you", I realized that for the first time in a long while, I was playing it well. not missing any chords. nailing the rhythms and lyrics. my pitch was almost dead-on too. almost perfect.

but then, as luck would have it, my guitar cut out. seems that I was getting 'into it' so much that as I stomped my foot, I accidentally hit my tuner - which mutes my guitar signal output. I searched frantically to find the tuner again with my foot. but the damage was done. I was humbled yet again.

the night of the show, we also christened our trailer - sleeping in it for the first time ever. steve and beth helped us break in the fold-out couch too.

08.04.06 - cleveland, OH

tonight, we played seekers, just outside of cleveland. such a great place to play. i mean, a true music venue - not just a christian coffee shop with a musician in the corner. great news too - they're looking to open more seekers franchises in columbus, and in north carolina! seekers tour, here we come.


and to top it off, I was reunited with my long lost craigslist pal, steve mokris. this dude can whack a djembe 50 different ways and get a different sound out of it every time. he hasn't played with me in about a year, and he nailed our 2 hour set with only a short practice.

08.03.06 - childrens' hospital

today, i played what has easily been the best gig thus far on our little tour. we went to childrens' hospital in pittsburgh to sing/worship with our close friend, Taylor, who's undergoing chemo right now. smiles and hugs all around....



an extra smile came when we got to have lunch at the O in oakland (which is closing soon - boooo! it's been there since 1960).

from the road...

if you're just catching up with us. we've finally updated the blog. i've been documenting every exciting moment - but i've had some serious internet issues. so please scroll down and check out pics and stories from our tour so far.

here are some pics of our beautiful fans donning their smashing wahba shirts....

little shannon in the one-of-a-kind pink wahba tee.

and our littlest fan. jackson at 6 weeks sporting his wahba onesie.