The Sower

Warning, for all you skimmers out there...and I am talking directly to two individuals, this is a long one with few photos, lofty quotes and full narration of mundane details.

From Sir Ken Robinson at the Royal Society of the Arts in London: “The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An 'aesthetic experience' is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you’re present in the current moment. When you’re resonating with excitement of this thing that you are experiencing. When you’re fully alive."

To me, there's nothing more exciting that experiencing something completely new for the first time. Especially when it's new music, because you're just completely open to it. You don't know the first thing about it and therefore can't begin to compartmentalize it into categories and prepare emotional responses if it isn't what you expected. That's the beauty, you just don't expect, you just experience. Meet our wonderful friend, and Roland's teacher, Dave:

The Champion and His Burning Flame

Dave, with the 'Does' shirt 2nd from right

A few Saturday nights past, Brian and I stole away for an LP release party for The Sower. An album by our good friend, Dave, and his band, The Champion and His Burning Flame. And by album, I mean the vinyl kind. Gorgeous. (Quick huge thanks to my awesome parents who drove to the UT game, attended the whole thing, drove back and watched the kids for two hours.) The name of their band alone should indicate that they are not in the music business, they are in the business of making music. Actually, that's a generalization, they are artists. Who play about 50 instruments. (And they are on iTunes should you fancy a listen)

The Sower

Backing up, I'm not in good shape waking up that Saturday morning. Apparently, a long week, a non-stop-emotional-Friday, one beer too many (doh), and 5 hours of sleep (thanks Roland) isn't the recipe for bouncing enthusiasm. (Note: I had a wicked good time with Kelley, Michelle and Kristi) Brian saved my life, and humored me through the rough parts. Like when it took an hour to fold laundry. Laying on the floor. :)

Further on in the evening, after an awesome rally thanks to some Publix fried chicken (who knew?) we snuck out the door to Billups art/music gallery in 5-Points for the show. Dave's stunning wife Stephanie greeted each person individually at the door, Dave's running around drinking his 14th or so cup of tea and some dude is doing an awesome cover of the Flaming Lips. Not bad. We spot another friend, Carl, Aria's teacher at Glen Leven, who brews his own beer and he's catering the event with 3 special 'The Champion'-infused brews for sale. And by sale, I mean - on sale. He had a clever sign that read: "Water and beer Free! Cups, $5" But that meant that it was all you could drink beer for $5. Does this happen at other whole-in-the-wall venues? Carl's beer looked great, smelled awesome, but Brian will have to tell you how great it tasted. Me? Loved that water.

Carl, in the blue beer shirt.

Next up was a great local singer-songwriter named Tom Yarbrough. Wonderful set. He was charming, funny and really, really freaking talented. I won't lie, I googled him the next day, and friended him on Facebook. But that is the extent of my stalking.

I can actually see myself, far left, behind the dude in green drinking beer.

A great thing about small venues is they are delightfully intimate and wonderfully efficient. I'll explain. We situated ourselves at the end of the counter/bar. The room is about 800 sq ft. The stage is about 15x14. There's barely enough room to stand let alone play and there's 9 musicians using the space. Everyone on our side of the room has to pass us to get to the water/beer/bathroom - but we've got great views (5 ft) from the stage. Every single person, no matter how many times they had to squeeze past us, said "excuse me" and "thank you" - it was almost comical how nice everyone was. Meanwhile, the different performers transition in less than a minute so the music really never stops. Awesome.

The itty-bitty stage, some water and a mac, what more do you need?

The Champion and His Burning Flame writes from a place of one individual experiencing all the same challenges in life we each face, but not from a particular place in time. And while they've developed this thesis, you don't need to know that to enjoy the music. It's surprising, like discovering a stretch of open road with no speed limit or cars. It's unexpected, like seeing someone you never thought you missed, but are elated to see. Most of all, it's engaging, especially live, because it's anyone's guess what the musicians are going to play next or who'll be up on stage. In short, it's inspiring.

To close, the second part of Sir Ken Robinson's address: "An 'anaesthetic' is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what’s happening. We’re getting children through education by anaesthetizing them. And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn’t be putting them to sleep, we should be waking them up to what they have inside themselves.”

I'm incredibly proud to call Carl and Dave friends, and even more proud that they are influences in our children's lives. On a daily basis I see them working against anaesthetic learning environments for all the children of GLDS and I love it. Almost as much as I love beer and awesome new live music. :) Check out The Champion and His Burning Flame when you get a chance, you don't want to miss out on the experience. Hands down, the best live music I've heard in ten years, maybe of all time.