My Little Girl is Growing up Too Fast....

Here's a picture of my little girl, Noelle, at about two months old. This is one of my favorite pictures of her and I....




Notice the back wall. This is the same "now famous" green wall we used for the cover of my "Overcome" CD. :)


But my, look how she's grown! Here's a photo from my recent California tour which included a trip back (the long way around) through Arizona, Utah and Idaho. This was taken at Zion National Park. She's almost four here...




And here she is again, being her fun self a day later!





This picture just totally captures Noelle's personality. She's fun, feisty, and always colorful! Would you guess she's a morning person?


The photo was picture taken at our favorite place to eat on the entire tour, the Bryce Canyon Resort Restaurant. Incredible service and amazing food! Here's a picture of it...





The place was really unassuming. It's about a mile down the road from the "main" resort that everyone goes to just before you enter Bryce Canyon in Utah. If you ever go to Bryce Canyon, you'll drive right past this place and almost not see it because you're so focused on the larger, "more attractive," tourist spots up the road. But don't pass it by. It's a hidden treasure.

David

Got a New Baby..... Grand!

I have a new instrument in my home. Well, new to me. It's actually used, but when it comes to buying a piano, I prefer to buy a used one (already broken in) than a new one.

I've been playing a Young Chang 4'11'' baby grand for about 8 years. I always dreamed of someday owning a Yamaha grand piano - and now I do!

This last week, I was offered a private showing at a piano sale here in town. I was invited to go down and check out the pianos before the sale was open to the public. The sale was offered by a Steinway dealer. I walked in and, sure enough, they had one solitary Yamaha piano there - a used Yamaha C-3, which is a 6'1" grand piano.

It was the first piano I sat down and played and after checking out many other pianos in my price range, I kept going back to it and finally decided to buy it. It was a really great deal, and I couldn't pass it up.

They delivered it on Sunday, and in doing so, took away my trade-in, my old Young Chang. I have to admit, I teared up a bit watching "my little girl" being packed away and carried off. I mean, I wrote a LOT of my music on that piano! It was really hard to see it go.

But then I sat down at my new piano and started playing and well, I'm over it now! It's got a really nice action, "like butter" as my wife said after sitting down and playing it for the first time.

The new piano was long overdue. The Young Chang I had was a great piano, but it has seen better days. It was a very inexpensive, entry-level grand piano, and really not made to be played two hours a day for ten years. I really put the miles on it.

Anyway, it's nice to have a new instrument with some life in it. I am so blessed!

David Nevue

Adoration - The Very First Review...

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I decided to release the premix of my upcoming new CD, "Adoration," to a few choice people to get some feedback on it. For more details on the reasons behind that, read yesterday's blog. The long and the short of it is, I feel a lot of pressure about the release of this new album, and I'm not sure what I have in it. Is it a good album? Is it bad? Is it just "okay?" I can't be objective as I'm much too close to the music.

I want the album to be "Amazing." It has to be, as it's an album of Hymn arrangements telling a story of devotion to God. The music has to be worthy of the subject matter. I can't release a "worship" album that's just "okay." It's either worthy or it's not.

So I put it in the hands of others for feedback, others who can be more objective than I.

The first person to hear the new album, other than my wife, was Michael McDonald, who mastered my last CD, "Overcome." Now Michael is someone who doesn't give out praise lightly. Like me, he hears so much music in his profession that really, it all rather blends together. It takes quite an album to grab our attention.

I asked Michael to give me his honest opinion on it. How does it sound? Does anything about it bug you? Is the mix OK? How does it come across? Is it worthy of release as is?

After having the premix in his hands for two days, here's what he emailed me... this is the first "review" of the album.

"The album is stunning! I thought I'd put it on yesterday morning while I went over some paperwork with my coffee. I sometimes pick up on things better if I'm not completely focused on listening for details. After about 5 minutes I stopped the paper work and got taken away by the music. That doesn't happen often with me. I really like this album! Love the mix and reverb. It's a gorgeous sound and performance. It's a wonderful album and needs to be heard. Something about this body of work seems very blessed."

I read his comments with tears of relief. Seriously. I feel so much pressure about the release of this album - what a delight to hear those words of encouragement. I mean, he wasn't just polite, he was really and truly touched by it. What a gushing review!

If this album touches many people this way, I will be so blessed.

I continually stand amazed that God would use such an imperfect man as me to reach into people's lives with this music. After all, I'm just a piano player.

But what a joyous honor it is to be a piano player in God's kingdom.

David Nevue
http://www.davidnevue.com/

In Anticipation of Adoration...

It's been 18 months since the release of my last CD, Overcome, and you know, never has there been so much pre-released excitement about a new "David Nevue" album as there has been about my next one, my CD of Hymn Arrangements called "Adoration."

Whenever I run into someone familiar with my music, they inevitably ask me, "When's the new Hymns CD coming out? I can't wait for it! It's going to be SO GREAT!"

Seriously, I get asked that question at least once a week. I don't remember any album of mine ever being so eagerly awaited for.

It's a bit daunting.

What if the album turns out to be just "okay." What if it's not "Amazing?"

I felt a lot of pressure going into the studio for this CD. I booked an entire week near the end of this last March. I wanted to take the time to make sure the album was perfect. I wanted to knock the ball out of the ballpark. I wanted to sit down at the piano, feel the Spirit move on me, and play these Hymn arrangements like I had never played them before.

At least, that's how I pictured it before I went into the studio.

It didn't turn out that way. It was the most difficult recording session of my career. On top of the "human" pressure, the pressure of knowing people expect me to put out a GREAT album, was the pressure of wanting to honor God with this music. I mean, Adoration is an album of songs that have been devoted to God for generations. These songs speak of life and hope and faith in God, the Eternal One, the Everlasting One. The Alpha and the Omega. The First and the Last. The Beginning and the End.

What do I do if the album is not "Amazing?"

After I finished recording the album, I couldn't listen to it for a month. Even now, almost two months later, I still can't listen to the album as "music." I'm hearing this thing in the mix, that thing, the other thing - stuff that bugs me in the recording.

And I keep thinking, what if it's not just absolutely "Amazing?" I can't release this if it's not worthy. It must be worthy.

Finally, I burned a few copies of the pre-mastered CD to hand out to a few people to get their initial response. And now I wait for the feedback.

And yet, even if they say they LIKE it, how will I know they really like it? How do I know they won't just tell me what they know I want to hear... that it's "Amazing," when maybe it's just "okay."

Alas, this is the torment I go through as an artist. With every album I release, I become more obsessive - my brain focuses in so hard on every little detail. I can't hear the musicality of what I've recorded because I'm zooming in on overtones, harmonics, imperfections in the instrument, mechanical noises - you name it.

I can't hear the music through all the noise.

And then I think back on my previous album, "Overcome."

I had the same problem with that one. For the longest time, I wasn't sure I wanted to release it. And then I did, it became a hit, and won an award for "best instrumental album of 2005."

It turned out to be "Amazing," despite all my fears.

And now I look back at Overcome and I see it as a defining album. One of the best of my career, even as good as The Vigil, which I have always considered a personal favorite.

And so, what of Adoration? How will I feel about it five years from now? Will I look back and think.... "that was Amazing!"

Let's hope so.

More on Adoration next time.

David Nevue
http://www.davidnevue.com/

Day Seven: The Boise / Oregon Ghost Town Tour...

Finally, here we are on Day Seven - the final day of the tour! This is the day we travelled home, but FIRST there was a little more adventure to be had!

One of the highlights of the eastern Oregon high desert country is the John Day Fossil Beds. The entire area covers 14,000 acres, but there are four primary areas you can stop at and explore. On this day, we stopped at two of them. The first stop was was at the Clarno Palisades, which is about 20 miles west of the town of Fossil. You drive a VERY windy road to get here!

But there's some fun hiking in and around the area. And as you can see from the photos, we had a beautiful, HOT day to enjoy the trails. Here are a couple of photos from our hike....

and a close up of the rocks...

After our hike, we drove about two hours south to the town of Mitchell, Oregon where we stopped for a treat.

Now, Mitchell is a little tiny town in the middle of the desert with a population of less than 200. But for a tiny town, we had a lot of fun.

We pulled over at the local (and only) grocery store.

Note the wording across the front of the store...

"Antiques and Needful Things..." Needful things? Isn't that a Stephen King book? Yes, indeed. I this this is the first time I've seen that phrase used outside of fiction. Perhaps it's a generational thing.

Anyway, inside we found a delightful selection of ice cream to cool off with. My son, Nathan, decided to try something a bit different...

I have no idea what flavor that is....

But this is my kid - he loves to try different things. Just the other night, we went out and he had tarter sauce for the first time. He's like, "I've never had tarter sauce - I'll try it."

What a great kid, you never have to ask him to try something new. He's always up for a new taste and new experience!

Then we stumbled across this old relic of technology. Nathan tried to figure out how to use it...

"Papa, what's this?"

"It's a phone booth."

"What's a phone booth?"

"It's a public telephone."

"Why do people need these when we have cell phones?"

"Well, son, there was a time when there weren't cell phones."

"Really?"

Pretty soon he'll be asking me what a Compact Disc is and why people ever owned them.

So we headed out of Mitchell, and on to our next stop, The Painted Hills. This is a really beautiful area of the John Day Fossil beds just a few miles west of Mitchell. If you're EVER in this area, it is definitely worth the stop. I feared I might be disappointed - I mean, how "painted" could the painted hills really be?

Well, pretty painted!

It was a very colorful hike through the hills...

It was a lovely, memorable day. A nice way to finish the tour. A few hours later, we were home, and had to return our Ford Explorer "rental car." Leaving that and switching back to our old Honda Civic was a bit like seeing our ride turn back into a pumpkin. You really get used to being in that big ol' thing.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour. I enjoyed sharing the pictures.

Next time I'll give you a little preview of the results from our church location photoshoot - and a glipse at the new CD cover.

Chow for Now,

David Nevue
http://www.davidnevue.com/

Day Six: The Boise / Oregon Ghost Town Tour...

Day Six of the tour was a day I was really looking forward to - the day I'd finally be able to track down some of the more secluded churches in Eastern Oregon that I thought might work for a photo shoot.

To recap, one of the objectives of this "tour" was to scope out possible locations for a photo shoot for my next album - an album of traditional hymn arrangements. I wanted to find a church that was secluded, run down and lonely - something that spoke of a bygone church era.

As the day began, we headed south on Hwy 19 from Arlington, Oregon. The first stop we made was at a road marking for the Oregon trail - the highway crossed the *actual* Oregon trail. So we got out of the car with kids in tow and walked on it for a bit. It was kind of surreal to know you were walking in the steps of the pioneers. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to talk to my son Nathan about Oregon's history. To the right is a shot of me carrying my daughter Noelle on the Oregon Trail.

And here is a *gorgeous* picture my wife Julie took of the landscape...

What a nice start to the morning!

We got back in the car and took a very exciting journey to our first "Ghost Town," the city of Lone Rock, Oregon. Lone Rock is so secluded that you can only get there by gravel road. You drive down, down, down into a lonely valley and then.... there it is.

For a small, hidden-away town, it has a beautiful welcome sign...

The sign is three-dimensional. Someone put a lot of care into crafting it. One very interesting little factoid - on all the "official" Oregon maps, charts, and government documents I found, the city of Lone Rock is spelled "Lonerock" - one word. But the citizens of the city itself obviously prefer two words - the more proper spelling. It makes you wonder if some government official mistyped it on a document long in the past and now the poor little town is forever a typo!

The population of Lone Rock was "24" according to the 2000 census.

The big draw of the town is the church, which is reason we went there. If you go here, you'll see an old picture of the Lone Rock church from 1963.

But here's mine...

and here's my favorite picture of the day, taken looking up at the bell tower...

Pretty cool, huh? I didn't even notice the weird cloud formations when I took the shot. When I looked through the photos later, I was startled by it. It looks very ghostly for being high noon!

The church was very close to the building style of what I was looking for for the photo shoot, but believe it or not, it's not quite secluded enough. There are lots of power lines around, plus just too buildings nearby.

Still, Lone Rock was a wonderful stop on our trip. And here's something I just had to show you. This "vehicle" was parked in front of a home in Lone Rock. Now THIS is how you mow a lawn... note the front bike "wheel."

That's not something you see every day!

From Lone Rock we headed northwest back out of the valley on Hwy 206 toward Wasco. The next church to visit on our trip was one I was very excited to see. I new it had potential based on the one single image of it I found online. The church is located in Locust Grove, Oregon, which isn't even really a town. Try finding it on Google Maps! Good luck, it's not there! It was tough to track down this "non-existent" place, but I did finally find it.

Here are some photos of the Locust Grove church we took that afternoon...

Now this, folks, is exactly what I was looking for! At this particular time of day (about 3 pm) the sun wasn't in the right position so the lighting on the structure is a bit shadowed, BUT I think you get the idea.

Aside from the trees, this church is all by itself - there's no other building for a block away. It's PERFECT! The main issue we'll have with the shoot is dealing with the trees and how NOT to get them in the shot too much. I kind of like the angle below as with this shot, the trees all appear behind the church. In the fall, once the leaves fall off the trees, this will make a nice location for a morning shoot, I think.

The Locust Grove church was built in 1895 and last used for a funeral in 1914. So it was only used for 19 years! That's rather sad, really, as it's a magnificent structure which so perfectly hails back to a past era.

The only potential problem with this location was that the church is on private property behind a barbed-wire fence! So I headed to the closest house, found out from that neighbor who owned the property and then tracked down the owner! I shared with the family what I was hoping to do with the photo shoot for the album cover and they agreed to let us shoot there! I'm hoping to do that in the next few weeks. If we get some good material, I'll post it here.

Our next stop was in Grass Valley, OR, just south of Locust Grove on Hwy. 97. Here's a picture of that church...

Notice how the trees there have totally overgrown the building. The front entrance of the church is completely immersed in trees! Here's the "entrance" side....

This was a really interesting building, but the exterior wasn't exactly the style I was looking for. However, the INTERIOR is wonderful. Take a look at this shot - this photo is taken using just the room's natural lighting - the sun coming in through the broken out windows....

I'm planning on doing a photo shoot here as well. I think this spot would make a wonderful interior and/or back cover location for the album.

The rest of the day, we continued south on Hwy 97 to a town called Shaniko, which bills itself as Oregon's "living" Ghost Town. It was a real disappointment as far as "ghost towns" go. It's a tourist stop, with ghostliness "hammed up" for kicks. While certainly it's a very old town, what they've done there in terms of design and decor comes across as very inauthentic. Kind of like spray painting your lawn white and calling it snow.

Finally, we headed back north and west to a little town called Maupin, which is basically river-rafting central. We stayed the night there, ready to head to John Day fossil beds the next day!

So all in all, Day Six was a successful, fun-filled day. I found the locations I wanted for the album cover photo shoot. It's hard to say what will come of those, but hopefully we'll get what I'm looking for. The potential is there.

Next up, the VERY LAST DAY of our trip!

David

Day Five: The Boise / Oregon Ghost Town Tour...

On Day Five we headed east from LaGrande, Oregon into the area some refer to as the "Alps of Oregon." If you take a look at this map you can actually see the very route we took, from LaGrande, through Wallowa, Enterprise, Joseph and finally Wallowa Lake.

It was a WONDERFUL, beautiful day of traveling and for this blog entry, I will let the pictures tell the story.

The first gorgeous site along the way (in Imbler, I believe) are the sunflower fields...

And then you get your first glimpse of the "Alps of Oregon" - The Wallowa Mountains in the distance...

In the city of Wallowa, there was this old church for sale....

The church had been converted to a residence. It was a mere $150,000 and a small part of my brain was thinking just how cool it might be to buy it. Not that I could actually *do* it, mind you, but still, it's fun to imagine.

Next, we stopped in Lostine, Oregon at this really cool coffee shack... The Blue Banana - and yes, that's an airplane going through the roof and a VW Bug through the wall. By the way, that VW bug is actually a "seat" inside the coffee shop.

and behind it is, well, "The Coffee Pot," where the family, um, took a little break. It's hard to tell in this shot, but that's a boat going through the roof.

Next, we drove through both Enterprise and Joseph, Oregon. Both were neat towns in their own right, but Joseph was really spectacular. Strangely, I didn't get any real great photos of the town, but you can go to the official Joseph, Oregon web site and get a good feel for it. You simply MUST check out the panoramas on the Joseph web site.

Finally, we arrived at the lovely Wallowa Lake... It is here that I got my favorite shot of the day of my son Nathan just chillin' out on the dock...

I just love the colors in that photo. And here's what he's looking at behind him...

Take a deep breath...

After some down time, we stopped and had some family fun!

That's a water pistol my little girl is holding and she took great joy in squirting mama and brother with her purple pistol! Nothing made me more happy this day than to see my entire family full of smiles and laughter.

It was a day of fun, relaxation, and simply enjoying life. After the above shot we took a two hour drive into the Willowa Mountains, and then headed back toward LaGrande. We ended the night (very late I might add) eating dinner at Shari's Restaurant and staying at the Best Western Inn in Hermiston, OR. That drive from LaGrande to Hermiston seemed very LONG after such a full day.

Well, Day Six brings more exploring as we hunt down some more old churches for a possible album cover photo shoot in Eastern Oregon!

Stay Tuned!

David

Day Four: The Boise / Oregon Ghost Town Tour...

Day Four of the "tour" was the day we entered my favorite part of the trip... the day we REALLY got to start exploring Eastern Oregon.

As I'd mentioned in the prelude to this blog series, one of the objectives of this week long excursion was to scout out possible locations for a photo shoot for my next album. As the CD will be an album of traditional hymn arrangements, I wanted to find a very old church - something that spoke to me of a bygone era of the church.

There were several "pioneer" style churches that I wanted to hunt down in Oregon and this day was the day we began the hunt. It was also a day of very long travel. We traveled north of Boise and came into Oregon via Hells Canyon. Here's a map showing both where we INTENDED to go, and where we actually got to.

We came back into Oregon via Oxbow and intended to go through Hell's Canyon all the way to the city of Joseph, Oregon on the other side. Unfortunately, a lot of the mountain country was on fire (imagine that - Hell's Canyon on fire!) so the road from HWY. 86 through Hell's Canyon to Joseph was closed.

We decided then to take the long way around - go through Baker City, up to LaGrande, spend the night there, and then head to Joseph the next day.

This made for a very LONG road trip, as is evidenced by this picture of my son, Nathan. What is he doing here? He is trying to tune out his three year old sister Noelle. You see, Noelle at this age talks and talks and talks - and never stops. After ten hours in the car, we ALL feel this way... I saw Nathan doing this and had to get a shot of it. It's cute.

Despite the long journey in the car, we still had some fun. One of my favorite stops this day was a little town called Halfway, Oregon. Halfway is sort of famous (or rather infamous) for changing it's official town name to half.com during the dot.com boom of the 90's. It was rather a failed attempt as the city doesn't even own the domain anymore! How sad is that? This is the closest thing the town has to a web site now. I should move there just to give them a decent web site! There is this cool little sculpture there in Half.com - a bicycle in the shape of the state of Oregon...

OK, I'm getting off the track here! This day was mostly traveling but we did make it to Cove, Oregon where stands Ascension Chapel, built in 1869.

Here are a couple photos of it...

a straight on shot from the front (that my daughter Noelle exiting the building)...

and from the side...

The inside was very nice - with beautiful stained glass and an air-pedal powered organ that I played a bit. It had two pedals side by side at the foot of the organ - you pushed them down one after another (kinda like pedaling a bicycle) you could get enough air power going to play the organ which sounded very much like a miniature pipe organ.

Here are some of my other favorite shots from the Ascension Chapel... the view as you entered the front door...

the rafters and stained glass (I really like this one)

and a stained glass close up...

A delightful church indeed!

In terms of the photo shoot, however, the Ascension Chapel doesn't fit what I'm looking for. I wanted to find a more classic "steeple" look, plus the front of the building is nearly totally obscured by trees. It doesn't quite have the isolated, lonely look I'm looking for.

We ended the day in LaGrande, OR. We had a WONDERFUL pizza dinner at Pizza Hut (it was truly delicious!).

We also achieved a dream of Nathan's - staying at the Best Western motel! Don't ask why, but my son has been obsessed with wanting staying at a Best Western ever since he saw a television commercial about it. So, we got a room there. As it so happened, the first room they gave us smelled like someone just changed a diaper - eewww! - so the management gave us a suite instead! So Nathan's first experience at a Best Western hotel was staying in the suite - and he is now forever a fan of the hotel chain. The room lived up to his expectations. :)

Thus ended Day Four. On Day Five we venture on to Joseph, OR and the very beautiful Wallowa Lake.

More to come!

David

Day Three: The Boise / Oregon Ghost Town Tour...

We arrived in Boise, ID late on Saturday night and got up early for my performance at Cathedral of the Rockies, First United Methodist Church.

My family and I stayed in Boise with pianist Christian Housel and his family. It was Christian, actually, who invited me to come and play for his church there in Boise. Very nice of him! Christian and I had played a Whisperings piano concert together only a month before, and here we were, together again! if you like my music, check out Christian's as well. You'll like it!

For the morning church service, I played three songs. I opened with "Be Thou My Vision" (played as a prelude to the service) and then I played "The Vigil" as special music. Finally, I played "Eden Again" for the postlude.

One of the reasons I played the morning service was to give folks a "preview" of the evening concert and to encourage them to come.

So, after spending a fun afternoon with the Housel's, we returned to the church for the concert that night. It was a really nice setting, on a beautiful 7' Steinway piano. We had about 80 people in attendance.

The concert wasn't just myself, but Christian also. We took turns. Christian opened with three songs, and then I played three. Then he played three more and I played three.

At the end, we got a standing ovation, so we each played one more. Then he and I did some improvisation together, finishing up with a four-hand version of Pachelbel's "Canon in D." It was great fun!

To the right is a photo from the concert. It gives you some idea of the setting. It was a nice, mellow evening. :)

For the concert I played....

The Gift
Sweet Dreams & Starlight
Big Snow in Salzburg

As the Deer
No More Tears
It is Well With My Soul

Overcome

That pretty much sums up day three. Most of the day surrounded events at the church, going back and forth, and then spending some time with the Housel family just hanging out.

Coming soon... Day Four!