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.

car woes and amazing in-laws

typically at my shows, I'll give away a CD. sometimes i'll have a corny requirement for giving it away - like "the person who got saved most recently" or "the person who was pulled over most recently." so at the greenville show, it was tough to do the "pulled over" deal since i got pulled over on the way to the show.

i've been having bad luck with cars in general lately. what's worse is that they're not my cars - they happen to belong to my parents-in-law who are generous enough to let us use their extra vehicle to run around in every time we visit.

since i got here 6 days ago, i've run over flowers in their new landscaping, i've run over a raccoon (felt much worse about the car than the 'coon), and i've gotten a speeding ticket. still, they let us use it to drive to canton, OH today.

i think they're crazy or something. good-crazy though. the kind of crazy that gives you a glimpse of what real love looks like.

07.30.06 - new castle, PA

thus go-eth day two of thine divine OHPA! 2006 tour: wahba playeth. the people kindly support-eth. a thrice beautiful time was had by all.



shawn shawbroek (I know I butchered the spelling of his last name) played some monster bongos. the folks at the new castle church of god love to do some singin'. love you all!

07.29.06 - greenville, PA

almost one year ago today, I played my first gig at the mustard seed jamhouse in greenville (PA, not NC). today, I had the distinct pleasure of returning for a repeat performance. such a cool little venue. it sits in the basement of a bookstore in downtown greenville.


good vibes all around. great turnout and fun crowd. i introduced my 80's metal ballad medley (they're all in the key of G, so a medley was inevitable).

i also broke the news to my father in law, mid-show, that i was pulled over for speeding in his convertible on the way to the show. he was most gracious and waited till after the show to strangle me (kidding). more on the ticket later.

at the break, the jamhouse crew dared me to partake of some "after death sauce" - a hot sauce beyond all hot sauces. i declined, but then gave in after the show was over. someone took video of the whole ordeal. i was fine for a couple of minutes, then started sweating and hiccuping a lot. ended up downing some Tums later on. i did it all for my adoring fans!

much love, jamhouse. y'all rock.