25 Songs That Changed The Way We Worship : Integrity Music 25th Anniversary

What a surprise and a blessing it was to see that "Ancient of Days" was included in this list of worship songs, released this week on CD from Integrity Music. I am honored that after 20 years, the song has risen to this place in history.

I never have recorded the song on any personal projects until I included it as an instrumental on my new project coming out in a week or so.

Our prayers go out to all in Colorado Springs, CO--where coincidentally, Integrity Music is now based as a subsidiary of David C. Cook--who are battling fires that are threatening homes, communities, churches and livelihoods.

Thanks again, Integrity Music, for blessing the Harvills beyond imagination, and for affecting the way the Church worships God over the past quarter century! I pray "Ancient of Days" is included on the 50th anniversary collection one day!

Check out this promotional video about the release. I believe "Ancient of Days" is number five in the lineup.

Finish What You Start

Today's a new day! Yesterday's worship services went well, but as a former pastor often said during our Monday planning meetings: "The problem with church is that it happens every week!" Without fail, Monday comes and a new set of challenges face us, even though we want to take a bit of a rest. Frankly, I like these type of challenges because I am motivated to complete a task.

Completing something--running over the finish line--is satisfying. Now just because I finish something, it doesn't mean I came in first place. It does mean, though, that I chose to do something, planned, prepared and pursued it to completion. There is a satisfaction in finishing something, and it can be rejuvenating, too.

When I decided to pursue the instrumental project I've been writing about recently, it was in the midst of a personal trial. I made some necessary life changes last spring and was faced with several uncertainties--one of which was financial in nature. Leaving a position that brought provision to my family for 8 years was a tough call, but necessary. I needed, among several other things, to sow into something that stirred my creative imagination. There were several things that I could not control at the time, so I put energies into something I could control.

 I love to walk in my neighborhood, listen to music on my headphones and write new melodies for new songs. After several days of walking around the block last summer (not concurrently!), I started hearing melodies without words--melodies that brought up certain emotions. I heard my guitar playing those melodies and soon hatched a plan to record a new project with my guitar as the centerpiece. I also had songs--instrumentals--on the workbench for years, and this was the opportunity to bring them to light.

Yesterday I lined up the finished recordings and created a master disc, ready for replication. It is satisfying to have that dream realized and to hold it in my hand as a completed project. I am ready to move on to another adventure, but first I want to soak in the bliss of finishing what I started!

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Here's one more sample of the instrumental record. This song is called "River Road," written for a highway that rolls out of Columbus, Ohio called Olentangy River Road, Hwy 315--a beautiful drive that has stayed in my memory since I first drove it over 30 years ago. The song is one of the mellow tunes from the record, in the style of one of my heroes--Earl Klugh--and in the spirit of  one of his greatest records ever: "Heartstring."

I hope you enjoy it

   River Road by jamieharvill

Another Instrumental Project Song- "Texas Toast"

Here's another selection from my upcoming instrumental project entitled "Songs Without Words." I have been influenced by so many guitarists that it's difficult to limit the styles I wanted to add to the record. I guess some of the songs just dictated how they wanted to be presented--and of course my own style always comes through.

I am going to see ZZ Top tonight in concert, so it's appropriate that I post a song inspired by the band. I have been a huge fan of Bill Gibbons from the start. In fact, fifteen years ago I had the pleasure of working in the same studio in which much of their classic record "Tres Hombres" was recorded; I imagined Billy's unmistakable guitar tones still floating in the air there. Also, I can't help but think of the gigantic Mexican food spread on the inside cover of "Tres Hombres" (Tex Mex food of those proportions are usually found exclusively in Texas and California!). I call this song "Texas Toast," because of it's gritty textures and it's Texas inspiration.

Again, I will have my full project available in July. I hope you enjoy the song... Texas Toast by jamieharvill

Instrumental Project: Emerald City

I've been busy this year completing an instrumental guitar project. I am excited to share a song here today that will be a part of the collection called "Songs Without Words." The following song is entitled "Emerald City;" an ode to heaven, as I imagine it to be even more visually breathtaking than the Land of Oz. I guess the Irish styling helped inspire the name, too.

The songs on the record cover many styles, including rock, light jazz and acoustic. I had a blast recording the project and I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did working on it. I will post another song later this week. The project should be available for download by the first week of July.
  Emerald City by jamieharvill

My Disneyland Bucket List Adventure

Bucket lists are popular these days, probably due to the recent movie of the same name. Everyone has a list of things to do before they die. My list, for the most part, is being steadily filled. I'm a blessed guy!

Blue Bayou, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland

It seems silly to mention, but I have a bucket list item that has been hanging-on in my sub conscience since I was about seven-years-old. It started when I first stood in line for the then brand-new "Pirates Of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland (we lived about four miles away, as the crow flies, in Fullerton, so we visited as often as possible). As the line formed and guests were strung-up along the long, wooden fence that corals the queue, there was (and still is) a clear and deliberate sight-line to the restaurant in the middle of the attraction called "The Blue Bayou."

As a kid, looking at those folks eating in the candle-lit restaurant was like a peak over a neighbor's fence in the summer time, watching them enjoy a swim in their pool, and longing to join them. A special treat like eating at the "Bayou," or having our own family pool was beyond my family's financial reach. I dreamed one day I'd find a way to get my own pool and maybe even a long- shot chance to dine at the Pirates Of the Caribbean and The Blue Bayou.

I got my pool in 2000 and, although I loved it, learned what a challenge it was to keep the water crystal-clear. I still flirt with the idea of a pool where we live now, but I could take it or leave it at this stage in my life.

Brenda and Jamie at the Blue Bayou restaurant, Disneyland

I traveled with my bride--along with both kids and their spouses--to southern California this past week and made our way again to Disneyland. Like me, my son-in-law, Adam, was intrigued with the idea of eating at the "Bayou." He made a quick phone call the night before our Disney trip and, to my surprise, snagged a reservation.

After a long day at the park, we scurried up to the check-in at the restaurant just before 9PM (a terrible time to eat a full meal, but the only slot they had open) and were soon seated. I ordered short ribs and--as we waited for our meal, munching on hot, fresh bread and enjoying a respite form the long day of combing the park--I gazed toward the area where the line for Pirates winds back and forth, across from the fake swamp and the pretend fireflies. There they were-- the folks in line, peeking over at us as we were seated in the restaurant, just like I did for forty-five years!

At that moment I realized: the forty-five-year dream of getting there was much more fun than the experience itself. As I scanned the bill for Brenda and I, totaling just under $100 dollars, I surrendered, then and there, to the fact that when wishes come true, even in Disneyland, they aren't always as fulfilling as hoped. Still, it was a bucket list item I could finally check off.

My thirst is quenched; I don't ever need to return to the "Bayou" again. But that doesn't mean you won't find me standing in line for Pirates Of the Caribbean again and again like a seven-year-old! Another bucket list item I have is a chance to get off the "doom buggy" at the Haunted Mansion and walk around...but I think that wish list item will most likely stay unchecked.

Blessed!!

It's great to be back home in my native Orange County! This time I'm accompanied by Brenda, Josh, Betsy and their spouses. We are celebrating the wedding of my cousin's son, and I'm officiating!

It's always great to be amongst family; it's with them that I realize how blessed I am. When a bummer day tries to force me to feel like giving in to a down-trodden spirit, I remember that I'm so fortunate and I quickly change moods for the better.

Growing up in a loving family where your place at the table is remembered even when you are away is comforting. I've always felt the sense of belonging, and that security can be traced to my wonderful OC upbringing.

There is so much to do here with so little time to do it. We will have to be very selective with our activities and visits, but a requisite trip to Disneyland is on the books, for sure.

Sunday I'll be leading worship at Worship Life Calvary in San Clemente. My buddy, Holland Davis, is pastor there and I am pumped to share some new music as well as hear some great preaching.

The summer is shaping up! There's a ZZ Top concert later this month, where I'll take my rock and roll bride. Blessed, I say!

Marty Stuart: Keeper Of the Twang

My love for country music started with the Bakersfield Sound--led by Buck Owens--a steadfastly independent offshoot of mainstream Nashville, also known as West Coast Country. As a kid in the late 60s and early 70s in Southern California, I had a little AM radio and often tuned into a local station that played all of the West Coast greats, as well as the popular fare coming out of Nashville. As I grew into my teens, I enjoyed the country rock sounds that were brewing through groups like the Eagles and psychedelic crazies like Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

That twang--that pure "Fender Telecaster into a Fender amp" sound isn't dead...by a long shot. It still lives through the efforts of my favorite country artists today, including Marty Stuart. Marty offers the down-home warmth and every-man songs that attract non-musicians as fans, along with wicked chops on guitar and mandolin, and a killer team of top-notch band mates that attract musicians like myself to his music.

I came across the following article by Peter Cooper in the Tennessean Sunday about Marty Stuart. Check out the sentiment that rings true not only with me, but with a host of others who follow Marty, his music, his Saturday night TV show, and his relentless passion to keep the twang alive.


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Remember Marty Stuart?

CMA big-stage popularity may elude him, but excellence doesn'’t
country singer Marty Stuart was a major label star in the 1990s.
But the poor guy hasn'’t had a Top 40 country hit in 15 years.

Fifteen years was seven albums ago. It was 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computer and Princess Diana died, and Rebecca Black of “Friday” You-Tube fame was born (OMG!!!) and Sony Records released music from newly signed band The Dixie Chicks. Fifteen years ago is, as Darrell Scott later wrote for those same Dixie Chicks, “a long time gone.” And so Marty Stuart won’t be playing the big LP Field stage at this week’s CMA Music Festival, where the hot contemporary country stars frolic and wave. And Marty Stuart is signed to independent record label Sugar Hill, not a major. And his television show airs on RFD-TV, a channel some people don’t get and the ones who do get it may never find it. (We’re here to help: Comcast Channel 136, Dish Network Channel 231 and Channel 345 for DirectTV’ers.) The weird thing is, Marty Stuart is on a roll. He has spent the past decade not so much reinventing himself as whittling away at excess and artifice until he emerged at his sharpest and truest, most creative and, somehow, most successful. Check this out:

» He fronts the Fabulous Superlatives, a band that rivals or bests any other for virtuosity, immediacy, adaptability and entertainment value.

» His work as a producer has revived popular and critical interest in country legends Porter Wagoner and Connie Smith, the former of whom is his wife. Wait, make that the latter, not the former. I always get those confused. (Porter and Connie, I mean. Not latter and former. I know those like the back of my hand.)

» Though stuck way up in the triple digits of television receivers, Stuart’s RFD-TV show draws guests including Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Dierks Bentley, Ray Price, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris.

It’s also a rollicking showcase for Stuart, the Fabulous Superlatives, Smith, Leroy Troy and other regulars. “Musicians of every genre watch us, and it’s become one of the favorite shows to watch on rock ’n’ roll tour buses,” Stuart says. “We’'ve got hay bales and rhinestones, but I knew this could be a profound, Smithsonian-level document.”

» Stuart’s more than 20,000-item collection of country music memorabilia features Hank Williams’ boots, Jimmie Rodgers’ railroad lantern, the guitar on which Johnny Cash played “I Walk The Line” and thousands of other treasures.

» Stuart’s making the finest, most traditional music of his career, the latest evidence of which is the tremendous Nashville, Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down. “When I reconnected with traditional country music I found myself, my calling,” he writes in the album’s liner notes. “The job seemed to be to champion it, love it, protect it, care for its people, attempt to write a new chapter for it and to make sure that everybody understands that it’s alive and well in the 21st century.” Done, done, done, done, done and done.

» While not a part of CMA Music Festival proper, beginning in 2002 Stuart has headed the festival’s decidedly unofficial kickoff, Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam at the Ryman Auditorium. “It’s the pirate ship of the week, and it was kind of a necessity,” he says. “When I started this, I knew that the big stage comes and goes, and I knew I didn'’t want to play a lesser stage. So I thought, ‘Let’s start our own show. And let’s try to offer the fan an alternative to everything else they’re going to see, and set it up as something different.’ And along with buying the ticket came the contractual handshake with the ticket buyer: You have to trust me.” The Jam has featured a dizzying roster of artists, many of whom haven’t appeared during the official CMA Fest.

Stuart has had Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Duane Eddy on stage with up-and-coming western swing the Quebe Sisters Band. He’s hosted Earl Scruggs and Shooter Jennings, Old Crow Medicine Show and The SteelDrivers, Cowboy Jack Clement and the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band.

This year’s jam includes Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Connie Smith & The Sundowners, Wynonna, Roger McGuinn (yep, same Roger McGuinn that led The Byrds), the Oak Ridge Boys, Grand Ole Opry star Stonewall Jackson and grass roots gospel quartet The Chuck Wagon Gang.

Will it be any good?

We’ll just have to trust the poor guy. 

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From the Tennessean's Peter Cooper, Sunday, June 3, 2012

My Digital Tennessean Newspaper

Newspapers throughout the world are failing, one by one. In an age where information can be had by the click of a mouse, daily newspapers have taken a major hit. If it were not for the quality and the special local features offered by our paper here in the Nashville area--The Tennessean--we would probably opt out of having a newspaper delivered to our driveway altogether.

The Tennessean now offers a finely constructed e-version of the paper, available on PC and Mac computers, and  iPads and Apple/ Android phones. In an attempt to stay relevant in this digital age, the 200-year-old paper (through numerous acquisitions and mergers in it's history) took a bold step: The middle-Tennessee newspaper publisher is offering this souped-up digital version in addition to it's print version, as a part of the monthly subscription price, recently raised to accommodate the new offerings . Many cities have already taken this big step toward the future--and survival--but unlike many other markets, big and small, the Tennessean has decided to forgo offering the e-version of the paper through outlets such as the Apple Sore and Amazon.com. Instead, they are going at it in an independent fashion: through their own website. The cool thing is, we can send a complimentary e-subscription to a limited number of non-newspaper subscriber friends and family; a great way to market this new digital platform to potential customers.

I appreciate the journalistic concept of a local paper. It is still important to document culture, the life of the community--it's special interest stories of folks who make a difference in our little world--apart from the national news that, many times, can overshadow the local market. Fifty years from now, because of the journalist's efforts here in middle-Tennessee, we will be able to search the archives for stories of the the lives, the little happenings, the joys, sorrows and achievements of the local folks we hold dear.

Because of the e-version of the paper, when I go to California in a few weeks, I'll still have The Tennessean at my fingertips when I wake up in the morning, via my iPad. Let's continue to support our local papers, lest they fade into oblivion.