Mary be the one, unplug…

XMAS ’06 is nearing completion, with Scott’s sax added now to “O Come Thou Dayspring.”  I hope to get it out this weekend, and what happens tomorrow has a lot to do with that.  I also discovered a track recorded last year and saved, which I’d forgotten, called “What’s My Baby Want’n?”  So the new tracks will be:

5. O Come Thou Dayspring – howie&scott
6. What’s My Baby Want’n? – Tape/echoes
7. Jingle Bells – DJ Josh-O
8. Silent Night – Tape/echoes

Then, Sally Ride in another week or two.  Ack – Do you get sick of constant updates to the schedule?  Or is it cool to know where we’re at?

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The best non-pumpkin-pie part of the Thanksgiving holiday was drumming with Ben (and Scott, and others who lent a hand: Nick, Kay, Mom…).  We circled up in the evenings in my living room with traditional Ewe drums, and just started in.  Sometimes Ben assigned rhythm parts to a few people, others times we just jammed.  Scottie got the sax out and did some improv, which was a big hit – I’m guessing Ben (my music teacher and choir-leader friend from Ghana, West Africa) had never heard anything quite like it.  We sang a couple traditional songs that I know/learned.

We also sang some hymns, some with drums and some without.  When the German Bremen missionaries first visited Ben’s area of Ghana in the 1800’s, they brought their hymn book and translated over 200 hymns into Ewe language.  Having grown up in churches, and being currently empolyed by one, many of the tunes are familiar to me.

You’ll be able to hear a little bit of all (traditional African music, new stuff inspired by traditional sounds, and hymns) on Sunday, January 21 when Ben is our guest artist for the morning at SPUCC in KC MO.