andrew dodson

I’m happy to recommend a new blog by a somewhat new friend - John Martin (not to be confused with Josh, and no relation).  John and I go back to February of 2006 when I was considering buying an electronic drum set.  My boss recommended I speak with a guy who used to rent a house from him.  So, I called and met up with John at Memorial Baptist Church and he sold me on the Yamaha DTXpress III Special.  Since then, I’ve had occasional contact with him through CLS and church activities.  Recently, he joined us (some guys from The Point and me) on a trip to Seattle, so I’ve gotten to know him better in the last few months.  I learned about his blog earlier this week, but I’m just getting around to linking to it.

John is a great guy in this order - He loves the Lord, he loves his family, is a great husband and father, he faithfully serves his church as a pastor, and he is a great drummer & musician.  Go read his blog.

I normally like to get the bad news first, but in this case, I’ll give you the good news.  Here’s a wrap up of the latest from the Josh Martin Band.

Good News

Josh and Christy Martin are going to have a baby!  Josh had told me a few months ago that they were trying, and it has finally happened.  So, congrats to them.  Keep them in your prayers that Christy’s pregnancy will go well, and that they’ll be blessed with a healthy, happy baby.  She is due in December, which is also the month of Josh’s birthday.  And my mom.  And Jesus.  So, some pretty cool people were born in December.

The JMB is also working on new material.  Still no plans to record anytime soon, as we’re still working on making the songs sound like songs.  So far, we’ve just sort of hammered through chord progressions on a few new songs.  The next step is coming up with interesting parts to make them sound unique.  It’s a cool process, because it’s the first time we’ve actually written the music to the songs as a band.  They definitely have a different feel than our previous songs.

Bad News

We have, like, zero gigs lined up for this year.  If anyone out there would like us to come and play, let us know!

The really bad news is that we’re losing a member.  Bert Lace has decided to leave the band.  We’re going to miss him!  His family has decided to adopt from a foreign country, and that is one of the reasons for him leaving the band.  He also stays very busy with Cedarmore and Crossings.  Considering his reasons for leaving the band are to glorify God through his family and occupation, I can only be happy for him and wish him the best

Not really a music specific post today, but more of a gear post.

Over the last few years, I’ve used several audio interfaces with my computer.  When at home, I mainly need a good, solid interface that will let me mix anywhere from two to thirty-two channels without any hassle.  To be specific, an interface that worked well with my Mac mini and Tracktion.  I don’t do a lot of recording at home, so having multiple inputs (XLR, MIDI, etc.) isn’t an issue.

I’ve settled on a Behringer FCA202 FireWire interface.  Yes, a Behringer product.  A lot of people bash them, but when it comes to bang-for-your-buck, there’s no better.  I’ve owned several of their products and never had any real complaints.  The FCA202 is a very simple firewire device - two 1/4″ inputs, two 1/4″ outputs, a headphone jack and two firewire ports.  That’s it.  A negative of this interface is no XLR or MIDI inputs.  But, if you want to upgrade your computer’s sound card (using a factory sound card for pro audio applications is not recommended) for a cheap price ($80), I highly recommend this card.  It’s also extremely compact, making it a great, portable unit.  I often throw this in my laptop bag to work on audio projects on the go.

The main issue I ran into using other units dealt with audio dropouts, pops, clicks, and more noises.  For some reason, a couple of units would only briefly work with my setup before the audio would drop out.  But, I would expect more from $200-600 units, so this was disappointing.  The FCA202 performs much better with my setup.  The units that didn’t perform as well included an Edirol FA-101, Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire, and a PreSonus Inspire.  They all resulted in glitches while I tried mixing a project.

I can’t verify if this product would work well with a PC, or another Mac setup that differs from mine.  It does work great with my iBook G4, though.  If you have a 6-pin FireWire port on your computer, the device can be bus-powered (no power adapter needed).  Looking through reviews on Musician’s Friend shows there are issues if you try to use it with Vista (but, what else is new?  The surprise would be if it WORKED with Vista!).

If you’re in the market for a great little (affordable) audio interface, and if you don’t need XLR or MIDI inputs, I highly recommend this unit.  Combine this with GarageBand on a Mac and you’ve spent $80 to start recording your ideas and more.

It’s that time of week… time to randomly blog:

• CLS has picked up steam over the last couple of weeks.  I’m going to try my best to keep up with blogging, but I am prepared to be working some overtime over the next several weeks.  Along with other projects, the blog might get forgotten about some days!
• NCAA Final Four this weekend - my pick in North Carolina, as much as I don’t like that.  I just think they’re too powerful.  With the way they’ve beaten people in the tourney so far, they remind me a lot of another extremely talented team that won it all by pounding teams in the tournament - the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.
• Baseball season is now in full swing.  UK got off to an amazing start, but they’re now into SEC play, and have lost a handful of games over the last couple of weeks.  The Reds kicked off their season yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.  The staff gave up three homers, and the Reds only mustered three hits.  Fortunately, they have 161 games left to turn things around.
• Seriously - the Drop Trio is good.  Check them out.  The Leap album is a completely improvised album, which I’d normally love, but judging from some 30-second sound clips, it’s not as groove oriented as their other two releases.
• I’m enjoying Wordpress 2.5 so far.  If you haven’t upgraded yet, you should!

Sorry for the lack of a theology related post yesterday!  To be honest, I had writer’s block.  I didn’t have a subject in mind.  I’ll try to do better next week!

For a music related post today, I wanted to get the word out about another jazz group I’ve discovered.  The Drop Trio is way cool.  You can read about them on Magnatune here (and stream their albums!).  Their official website is here.  If you have an eMusic subscription, they’re available for download there.  You can also find them on iTunes, as usual.  Go check them out!

Instead of a YouTube video this weekend, I’m posting an interactive tour of Sweetwater’s new facility. They are a musical instrument and audio equipment dealer, based out of Fort Wayne, IN. I actually applied for a graphic design position with this company a long time ago, but didn’t get it. Part of me is glad because I’m not sure I would’ve liked moving to northern Indiana. But, after seeing this facility, it might be worth it!

> Tour the new Sweetwater facility

(p.s. - this is my first post using Wordpress 2.5 - I really like it!)

Here’s some links for you:

• This site has a rather in depth review of the new ESV Personal Size Reference Bible.  They seem to like the TruTone edition, which is what I picked up a couple of weeks ago.  It is now my “go to church” and/or “on the go” Bible.
• The Percussion Table.  Will someone buy this for me, please? (YouTube demonstration included)
• Some new Greek New Testament texts have been found.  Hooray for evidence of truth!

There’s some good stuff happening in the world of music…

• The Dave Matthews Band released the eleventh installment of its Live Trax series today.  I haven’t picked it up yet, but plan to soon.  From a set list standpoint, there’s nothing spectacular about the show.  But, I’ve read that there are some very solid performances of several songs.  They’re great about making a song sound different each time they play it, so I’m looking forward to hearing it.
• The Counting Crows released their latest album today.  Judging from the 30-second clips on iTunes, it’s good to hear them rocking out a bit more.  August and Everything After is one of my all-time favorite albums, and I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything else they’ve released.  I’m looking forward to picking this up too.
• Starfield also released their latest album today.
• For those that are wondering… The Josh Martin Band still exists.  We rehearsed last night and worked on two new songs.  To date, we have six new songs in the mix for our next album.  Josh has several more ideas that he’s still finishing up, but we’re in good shape for having enough new material for our next studio album.  I’m hoping we can start recording later this spring or this summer.

Seemingly, the real drums at The Point are both a hit and not even noticeable to some! That apparently means I held back pretty well on Sunday morning. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to start playing louder. I still want to give our sound guys some control in the house. But, it’s good to get nothing but positive feedback so far.

Just to be on the safe side, I’m going to switch to a lighter stick. My stick-of-choice in the last few months has been a Pro-Mark 747. Last week, on the real drums, I used a Pro-Mark 5A. This week, I’m trying out a Zildjian 7A. It should help with keep the volume down. I’ve never really been comfortable using a light stick, so I’m hoping to get used to it at lower volume playing levels.

It does feel better to be back on real drums, and the recording sounds much better!

It dawned on me last week that I had never posted the story of how I became a Christian.  I’ve decided to break it up into a two-part series.  Today, you get the first part, and you’ll have to check back next week for the conclusion.

Romans 10:9-17 (Listen)

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Part One: Pre-Conversion

I was born into a Christian home.  In a sense, my conversion came easy.  I don’t have the testimony of a former drug addict or prostitute that came to know Christ.  Brace yourselves.  I have a boring testimony, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My parents are both Christians.  Nearly every Sunday for the first 18 years of my life, I was in church.  Mostly, Nazarene churches.  I’ve always been a fan of music, and some of my earliest memories of music are Kids Praise and Carmen.  I was a big fan of both.  I wore out the song “Radically Saved!”  My other musical memories are of suffering through car rides listening to southern gospel!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  My parents were big fans of Gold City, The Cathedrals and more.

I knew of God and believe He was real, but I never placed my faith in him.  My mom was the strongest example of Christianity during my childhood.  I would often see her with a Bible open on her lap, or praying.  She would play hymns on the piano and sing.  My dad always seemed to know a lot about Christianity and the Bible, and was a great father and provider, but he wasn’t as strong of an example as my mother.

During high school, I started to lose any desire I had to go to church.  Up to that point, I at least enjoyed it because of friends at church and occasional youth activities.  I never experienced a church with a strong youth program, though.  In high school, I was envious of other kids my age who went to churches with strong youth groups.  I lost my desire to go.  Mom would successfully drag me out of bed each week to go, however.

Once I got to college, I was free!  Not having mom to wake me up each week was quite nice.  Sleeping in on Sundays was a new and enjoyable thing.  Despite going to a fine Baptist institution (at the time), having plenty of opportunities to be involved with campus ministry groups, and churches in town that catered to the college crowd, I passed up getting some Jesus in my life.  I avoided it pretty strongly, in fact.

Not long after I graduated from college, God started to work on me.  I was asked by my high school band director to play drums occasionally at Evergreen Baptist.  Sadly, I mainly did it because it paid.  But, God knows my weaknesses!

It was during this time that I went with a group from Evergreen to see Michael W. Smith and Third Day at Rupp Arena.  We had second row seats, and I was center stage.  In fact, at one point in the concert, I was front and center on the big screen.  I was amazed that I actually enjoyed the concert.  I enjoyed Christian music!  How could this be?

After playing at Evergreen on-and-off for about a year, my friend Jeremy started telling me about Crestwood.  He told me about how it was different, and how this Rick Long guy was a really good preacher.  They had a good band that played good, upbeat music and there were a lot of young people.  I decided to go on the Sundays I didn’t play at Evergreen.  I liked it!  After about a month of visiting, their drummer announced he was leaving the church.  God had opened a door for me.

(Tune in next week for Part Two!)