A New Beginning

I've been blogging for about 2 years now. I started with a blog for my family and friends. It's a great way to communicate with your friends from around the world that you rarely get to see.

Then last year I decided to begin a blog on our new arts forum, ImpactArts.net.

The only problem was, to be successful in blogging you have to do it regularly. You also have to have some nice tools to make it happen easily and quickly when you come across a nice song or an interesting web page. Our forum has none of that. And that makes it difficult to blog regularly. So this is my new attempt. Consider it a test.

When all is running smoothly, you can look here for my reviews of our worship services, for upcoming announcements, and for music and technology reviews. I get a lot of questions about what mp3 player to buy or who are the new recording artists or movies that others should know about. I do in fact have to listen to a lot of music on my job. I'm a big fan of Amazon.com, so I'll often include a link of some of the stuff I'm doing reviews for.

So here's the first. I heard this album today for the first time.



Jesse Daniels is only 18 years old. She started off doing some acting at the age of 8 and began writing the songs for her first album just a year ago.

I got turned on to her music because of a song she has called "What I Hear" that I'm planning on us doing during the upcoming "Why" series. But after I listened to the album, I was impressed. She's a Christian Kelly Clarkson. Part of it is that she uses a lot of the same harmony structures in the vocals, but it's also the style of the music. The guitars are a little more tame than those on Kelly's last album, but they still have the same feel. Listen to one or two of her songs and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I am constantly searching for new female vocalists who do our style of music. There aren't many in the Christian genre that tackle the rock sound. There was SuperChick and Barlow Girl, but beyond those two bands the Christian music market holds slim pickings for anybody who isn't looking for a classic CCM sound. But Jesse's the real deal. You can expect to hear several of her tunes at our church.