Getting ready for thanksgiving eve is a blessing and a burden...

One of the things I've learned over the years is that pulling off our local Thanksgiving Eve music benefit is always a blessing and a burden.  It is a ton of fun - working with some of the finest people AND great musicians - is a deep honor and joy.  AND there is an enormous amount of work behind the scenes that goes into making the music beautiful - and today I'm beat.  After worship, it took four hours to get the sound system and monitors set for the 25+ musicians who were scheduled to practice at 4 pm.

And, as always, there are still some glitches to resolve re: mix and balance.  And our new stage lay-out didn't work re: intimacy so that has to be reworked, too. We return to the drawing board tomorrow at 6 pm in the hopes we have some of the tonight's problems resolved; but sure as the sun will rise there will be unexpected new ones to sort out.  That just goes with the territory:  both blessings and burdens.

Here's a clip from last year's show that puts it all in perspective - and is the fundamental reason I keep on keeping on.  First Dianne and Jon nail a lovely Over the Rhine tune.  And then Hal get mystical when he and the horn guys take things to a totally different and blessed level.  If you are in town on the this coming Wednesday, please stop by for a real treat @ 7:30 pm.