Two more great ones this week from Matthew West… (not hidden gems… 2 of his more popular ones)
Broken Things 🎶 Hello, My Name Is
Both are among my favorites of his.
I saw this comment on YouTube and thought it was pretty cool…
“Imagine you have two ceramic pots. One is cracked and missing pieces. The other is perfect. Now put a candle inside both and place a lid on them. Which pot do you see more light coming through? The broken one. That’s what God does. Sometimes you have to be broken to let God’s light shine through.”
Hope you enjoy. 🎧
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2 Corinthians 5:17 🎵 Therefore… if anyone is in Christ… he is a new creation. The old has passed away… behold… the new has come.
Hey yall… I’m trying to get back in the swing of things… so I’m sticking with Fuel this week… and probably the next one too… then I’ll move on down the road to something super special.
Today I have two more hidden gems for you…
Die Like This… Natural Selection 2oo3 🎶
Won’t Back Down… Natural Selection 2oo3 🎶
Also… “Won’t Back Down” was written by Carl Bell specifically for the 2oo3 superhero movie Daredevil… starring Ben Affleck… most songs on movie soundtracks are borrowed after the fact… not this one… so that’s pretty neat…
Also Fuel songs have ended up all over movie/game culture…
“Won’t Back Down” → Daredevil
“Walk the Sky” → Godzilla (also written specifically)
Hey yall… hope everyone is doing good… I’ve been away for a minute… just out here lifing it up… going through some things… no big deal right? We are tough… you and me… we got this… bring on the rain right? Then I can break out my guitar… and we can sing “I’m Still Standing”… make Elton John and Jesus proud of us…
But honestly… sometimes I’m not strong enough…
Still… I find my strength in Him… not Elton… the other One.
Today I have two more Matthew West songs for you…
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Strong Enough… The Story of Your Life 2o1O 🎶
Oh Me Of Little Faith… Live Forever 2o15 🎶
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Also I added two bonus videos…
One is Matthew at a children’s hospital visiting his friend Brooke… he wrote a song for her…
The other is Matthew giving a guitar tutorial for his song Strong Enough 🎸
Hopefully… things in my life have calmed down enough for me to get back to blogging…
Hope yall have a blessed Sunday …t…
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sadly Brooke Mulford passed away on June 12, 2017 after a long battle with neuroblastoma cancer. Matthew wrote and performed the song “Never Ever Give Up” for her during her final months in the hospital.
The Lord is my strength and my shield… in Him… my heart trusts… and I am helped. — Psalm 28:7 (ESV) ♩ ♪ ♫
Over the past 40 years ¡ have been to many concerts and music festivals… both Christian and secular… also ¡’ve performed in some… but two really stick out…
The first was Lollapalooza 1993 Atlanta…
Alice in Chains… Tool… Primus… Rage Against the Machine… and others…
It was insane…
An outdoor concert… bottles and other debris flying through the air constantly… the air was thick with it… and you were always gettin hit with somethin…
People were getting launched into the air on tarps… like some kind of human slingshot trampoline deal… mosh pits everywhere… honestly… it was probably the most dangerous listening experience of my life…
But man… ¡ got to see Layne Staley… and ¡’ll never forget that… RIP my brother…
And here’s the funny part…
¡ didn’t normally smoke weed back then… because honestly… ¡ just can’t handle it…
But that day… my friends talked me into it…
By the time we got to the concert… ¡ was so unbelievably stoned… ¡ couldn’t even move…
So my friends left me in the car… pinned my ticket to my shirt… and went on without me…
About 30 minutes later… ¡ started sobering up a little… ¡ could hear music thunderin in the distance… so ¡ just followed the sound down the street to the outside venue…
Eventually ¡ found the gates… then somehow found my friends… and from there… it was pure chaos and adrenaline the rest of the day…
At one point ¡ remember thinkin…
¡ survived the parking lot… now ¡ have to try and not die during the concert.
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So the second was a really cool thing for me…
Back around 94 or 95… ¡ had a special invite to a private bass clinic put on by Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey…
There were only maybe 25 or 30 of us there… all musicians…
¡ was given two tickets… and you couldn’t buy these things… you had to know somebody…
It was at a secret location… ¡ could tell you… but then ¡’d have to kill you…
But seriously… it was super intimate and awesome… everybody hanging out… talking… asking questions… real relaxed atmosphere… almost like a classroom setting…
And if you’re unfamiliar with Victor and Steve… they are considered among the best bass players in the world… Victor is thought by many to be the very best… Número Uno.
Victor has played with Dave Matthews… Béla Fleck… Stanley Clarke… Chick Corea… Bootsy Collins… Prince… Gov’t Mule… and many more…
Steve was famous for his 6-string fretless bass… and he held a chair at Berklee College of Music… not sure if he still does…
But he also toured and played with… Dizzy Gillespie… Willie Nelson… Jethro Tull… just to name a few…
It was a super badass evening…
They both taught… spoke… answered questions… and played…
My friend Ray Cicola invited me… he’s a phenomenal guitarist and teacher… and his band played a few songs in between everything…
One of em was a really rocked out version of… The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band…
After it was all over… everybody just stood around hanging out and talking…
¡ remember standing there face to face with both Victor and Steve… just talking music…
Victor had a VHS instructional tape with him… and he gave it to me…
Then he stopped… asked for it back… grabbed a Sharpie… and both he and Steve signed it… then handed it back to me…
Years later… ¡ gifted it to a friend who was a huge Victor fan…
But man… what a night…
It’s the only music clinic like that ¡’ve ever been to.
So… it’s 3am… here at my spot on earth… and I’ve been listening to Fuel for the past hour… figuring out which songs I want to use…
I decided on the album “Angels & Devils” from 2oO7… it’s the first album featuring lead singer Toryn Green… instead of Brett Scallions… and honestly… it’s a great one… loaded with badass songs…
I chose two for you…
🎶 “I Should Have Told You” 🎶 “Angels Take a Soul”
Former Godsmack drummer Tommy Stewart was announced as the band’s new drummer… but was unable to perform on the album due to other commitments… so Josh Freese and Tommy Lee performed drums in his place.
Also it’s cool how Toryn joined the band… there’s a bonus video about it below… check it out…
Also I have a famous friend who’s friends with Tommy Lee… well… he used to be my friend… we don’t talk anymore… story for another time…
Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 