farewell, dear stratocaster

today, I said goodbye to my strat. I've had it for over 12 years now - my longest guitar relationship. we had good times and bad. we laughed, we cried.

I held on to it because it played so well and had such great hardware on it (locking tuners, a rolling nut, lace sensor pickups). and everyone I talked to that ever owned a stratocaster said they regretted the day they got rid of theirs.

so, I guess I may regret today... someday. but for now, peace out and nice to know ya! hope the dude from craigslist enjoys playing you. your replacement should arrive early next week!

derek webb's album

courtesy of ashdown, derek webb is letting us all download his album for free. click 'em.

I'm totally down with his philosophy. I guess it doesn't mean all that much for me to allow downloading/sharing like this as a measly indie artist. I hope to be a bigger nobody someday - so that when I say people are allowed to download my album, they actually do it!

new guitar!

oh happy day. I just ordered a new guitar. should arrive in the next week or so. i guess to some folks that isn't a big deal. but i get new guitars more seldom than I get new cars - not often enough!

anyhoo, i'm so pumped because i've never owned a fender telecaster before. the tele was the first electric guitar to ever go into mass production. indeed, it was the prototype for all solid-body electric guitars that are used in music today.

i'll be joining the ranks of all these tele players: keith richards (rolling stones), jeff buckley, thom yorke (radiohead), bruce springsteen (couldn't leave out the boss, eh ryan?), george harrison (beatles), andy summers (police), john fogerty (CCR - that's for bill g).... the list is too long.

so now I will have owned/played all three of the major production electric guitars - the Tele, the Strat, and my Les Paul. what's next? maybe a martin acoustic?

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....