American Fork Events

Link: http://joshuacreekmusic.com

Joshua Creek

writes music about faith, love and family with a decidedly country feel. They are tight performers with a show that is a nice blend of their original music with a friendly, humorous discourse with the audience. Some of the three-part vocal harmonies could have used some tightening up, but other than that it was an excellent concert and the audience was obviously having a blast.

The set included music from their first two albums:

• Life’s Like That - a catchy celebration of the random bad and good events that just seem to crop up in life. I’ve heard this before on the radio.
• A sentimental song about a quilt patched together from the silk of a wedding dress, the denim from grandpas dungarees, etc.
• Honey Do List - a humorous, good-natured look at all the things our wives would like us to do after hours.
• Mary You Again - probably one of the most poignant love ballads ever written for married people. I’ve heard this on the radio and in the bookstore and I can’t help but get emotional when I listen to it.
• She’s my Everything - another song I’ve heard before, nice up-beat love song.
• What Kind of Car - I find it amazing that a group of LDSs from Utah could have a number one song on southern country Christian radio for 2 months, but this is that song. Very funny, but also has a kind of undeniable logic to it, concluding that Jesus would choose a pick up truck.
• Chart a Course/Set me Free - strong folk rock inspirational tune.
• I Love You Son - this song has been around for quite a while, I heard it years ago at an LDS musicians fest. It is a great song that you just have to listen to in order to feel the poignancy in it. I won’t try to describe it here.
• Encore : Sand Lot Stadium - fun.
• . . . and more.

Dixie and I had a great time. Check them out at their website to see where they’re playing next.

More pictures:

People gathering at the American Fork amphitheater for the concert.

Mayor Thopson introduces Joshua Creek.

Joshua Creek

Grandpa air guitar contest.

Link: http://defuddler.com/

As you can see, Mr. Felt got the kids up and singing with him from the very beginning of his part of the show. From the front, no this was not the best singing and the songs are super simple in their design, but that was all part of the charm. Simple songs that teach basic educational principles. I know a lot of teachers would like to have these as tools for the classroom.

A friend of mine in the city who was sitting next to me, and who like me has a fairly classical bias, made a comment about ‘counter-culture’ but I personally feel there is room for the simple in teaching the young (and for pressure-free enjoyment among adults as well). The Kodaly method (a widely respected music education approach) uses many simple folk songs to teach children the basics of singing and sight reading. I think Felt’s tuneful little songs, in a variety of styles, hold up against the educational value of "rain, rain, go away" and other old tunes that form the rudimentary basis of Kodaly. Besides their melodic value, they help teach some of the concepts in the core curriculum that teachers are always trying to find engaging ways to reinforce. There were songs about:

• The Scientific Method
• Reading
• Writing
• Synonyms
• Stories
• Sentances
• Behavior

Also, the kids really seemed to be enjoying getting together and sing. I know many of them were from Mr. Felts own classes at school, but any time you can get kids singing is a good thing, period. I don’t recommend this type of material for a replacement of methodical music education (which we need more of at a younger age in this area), but it is a nice supplement.

To learn more about Joseph Felt visit http://defuddler.com/ 

Link: http://www.chriswoodsmusic.com/

Personally, I always prefer to get the bad news over with first. So, here goes: as a fairly round guy myself, Chris Woods’ "Fat Guy" comedy song detailing the stories of two big fellows that reached national attention some years ago, was extremely painful to listen to. It was obviously meant to be funny, but very few people seemed to be laughing (except for one chuckle I heard, most people I observed were stonily silent).

Personally, the song was an unwelcome reflection on all the prejudices I’ve met with since I was a small child, and for three minutes I was a captive of school-bully-born sterotypes in song. It wasn’t appreciated and if I hadn’t taken notes, I would have instantly forgotten all the positive things I had to say about the previous songs in the set. I found it telling that he felt he had to apologize and defend the song at the same time, mentioning that his wife would never forgive him for it, but because he had written it that he was ‘proud’ of it. What a poor excuse to be proud of something. Is it worth completely alienating a few people in your audience for one chuckle?

Skinny folks, like Chris, have no idea the kind of pain that fat people, like myself, endure in a society that obsesses over personal appearance. Do these people think we don’t already know that there is something wrong with us? We’re given the message every day. Food, unlike other addictions, cannot be quit cold turkey. It is a daily struggle. You have to eat to survive. Personally, I exercise and try to watch what I eat. I have struggled with it for my entire life. If people think making fun of fat people is going to help them change, they’re sadly mistaken. That kind of alienation only leads to further feelings of guilt and helplessness and, unfortunately, a food addict is more likely to turn to food for a cure to these feelings. I could really go on about this for a couple more pages, but I’ll stop myself here.

Anyway, I should mention that I had been feeling pretty good about the performance up to the point when I was clobbered with the ‘fat guy’ song.

• The guitar driven ‘gravity’ was a nice bit of pop with clever lyrics.
• The Spanish influenced ‘forever with her’ had some fun, and quite realistic sounding, lip-trumpet solos.
• ‘I’m just me’ was cute. I think it would be great on a children’s album.
• ‘How long has it been’ is a tender, sentimental love song written to his wife.
• A song that purposefully incorporated many cliches was cute.
• ‘No habla Espanol’ was entertaining, poking fun that because he was brown people assumed that he could speak Spanish (it’s a very different thing to poke fun at yourself than another group of people you obviously know nothing about).
• He did a couple of covers on the uke that reminded me of the famous Hawaiian cover of ‘over the rainbow’ though his choices were ‘I wanna hold your hand’ and ‘I can’t help falling in love with you’.

All in all it was a pretty good set, though I feel the lyrics could have been tightened up at points. The singing and guitar playing were fine, but did not wow me. He did have a good stage presence and a personality that allowed him to speak easily with audience, which I always enjoy.

If you’re interested in hearing samples of Woods’ music, visit the link to his website above.