Good Times in Michigan

Last night in Holland, MI at Amy's house. Great time playing for lots of Brian's good friends. Some good conversations afterward too about honesty and expectations in relationships. The past few days in Holland have been great in general. We were able to get lots of great visits in with lots of folks. Thanks Marybeth for dinner! And Josh and Kim fed us tonight so well too. Kurt took us out for dinner as well. We toured a cool recording studio thanks to Charles Driscoll (www.bigbinstudios.com)



Sharing the stories with the songs was especially sweet last night. It led to lots of conversations. It's always great to connect and discuss what's going on. Everybody always feels like they're the only ones dealing with the things on their hearts. It's freeing to find that you've got others around you who feel those things too. So good to find you're not alone.



We forgot to take a picture till a good many people had left! So if you're looking up pictures, sorry if you got left out! Thanks to everyone who was there and thanks to Amy and her folks for hosting us... we got a great night's rest that was needed.


Brian hanging out with some of his youth group kids.


One of the highlights of this week was playing for Park Church in Holland. Our friend Kurt set everything up for us to play for his youth group. In addition, most of Brian's old youth group from the past three years showed up. It was so beautiful to see those kids with Brian. They absolutely love him. It was also a unique chance to speak some good ole Gospel Love into listening ears. And it was just great fun, so fun I almost ate a bean bag.


In Midland, MI we stopped through at Brian's Parent's house. It was a special weekend since all of Brian's siblings and their children came home to see Brian and attend the concert (and to meet the newest member of the Mulder clan- little Luke Mulder- Brian's older brother Dave's latest child). The Mulder Fam was beautiful! I felt right at home, we ate big family meals like so many other places we've stayed, played games (Guess Who?, and I watched them play Euchre) Brian's younger brother Rob is a singer as well and he joined us on one of Brian's tunes at the house show. Good job Rob.


The Midland show was a blast! Lots of Brian's church family showed up, our hosts had a great room for us to play in, and Brian got to share many of his songs and stories with his family for the first time. We had a great time. And I found out that the guy who built my guitar lived only about 20 minutes away in Bay City. So I got in touch with him and he and he wife showed up for the house concert! The next morning we went to visit them at their home, toured the guitar building workshop, and just had a nice visit. Such good folks. Their kids have a band together and are just finishing a CD. His name is Bill Wise and makes Charis Guitars www.charisacoustic.com

Now we're heading to Columbia, MO to see some old Service Over Self Camp friends from Memphis who've been in India for a couple of years, the Pinkstaffs. We'll see Arvel Wilson and Eric Papp hopefully and who knows who else. That will be a good way to end up our traveling.

Then we'll head back to Oxford on Saturday and on Sunday morning I'll see good friends in church again at home. Actually, there are still a few more concerts, one in South Bend, IN with Abbye and Jeff Pates (dear friends, great music makers) and a couple more near Jackson, MS. We're about done. I am certainly done with this post, I need to get some sleep.

Goodnight friends, matthew

ps. Adam and Jenna Weiler hosted us one night too... they are running an amazing art and youth mentoring collective in Holland called "Ambrose". We got to see them in action today making screen prints with youth from around town. Part of Ambrose is a full graphic design and screen printing facility. They made my tour T-shirts. Check them out, support them... www.joyandrevolution.com

Thanks Kevan!

Kevan Chandler put together a video montage from various video clips from the road this month and put it to one of the songs on the new CD called "The End is Near". Thanks Kevan, this is awesome! Kevan and his family hosted us in Winston Salem and Kevan set up a few other shows around there for us as well. Great time with the Chandlers.

making. contact.

I know that I will be processing what I'm learning and thinking about from this month for a long time. Firstly, because I'm a slow processor anyway and need lots of time and space to behold anything. I'll need to be still and look back. Secondly, because more is going on than I think I even can be aware of or know right now. But it's good. I like it.

At the moment though, It's coming into focus for me that there is a big difference between making these songs and performing them for people. The making aspect I can do largely alone. I can sit in my room with my guitar and big black sketchbook, or in the sanctuary down the road at the piano late at night for hours and hours and write. I can disappear into it. Then I can pull out some microphones, turn some knobs, push a mouse around a desktop for a few months and end up with a UPS guy delivering a box of CDs to my front step. I could do all of that without anyone ever even knowing that it had happened. That's fine. I need that space, I like that process. It's a bit like prayer.

But this past nearly-month, it's been a beautiful distinction to take the things I've held close to me and personally deliver them to real live breathing, tangible people, in real living rooms. I've loved the visits and the stories. Most simply, I'm just realizing that I love to make things, but I love as much or more the movement of those things from my proximity out and into other's proximity. It helps me see that Jesus is calling for wholeness and integration. It always comes back to people making honest contact (and no one can make contact without honesty).

I can't stand back very far to look at all this right now... so it may be vague. But it is feeling very near to me and tangible - all the beds, dinner tables, attentive eyes and ears, walks, bowls of cereal, stories, embraces, and homes that have been shared constitute what I'm feeling. And by the way, I don't just mean that physical homes have been lent to us for a day or a few days. I mean that everywhere we've stayed we've been made to feel at home. We've been folded in. Met with warmth. Sustained by peace and rest. Being on the road, I'd have gone crazy by now without the deep hospitality of all those who've made a place for us over these few weeks.

I miss folks back home, I miss folks from just days ago.

My prayer for some time has been simply that God would make a place for me in his work. I just want to be joined to Jesus, his own heart, his life and story, his work. My main fear is that I'll be left stranded and empty. All the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, homes and fields that I've found myself near this month and over the past few years always prove my fears wrong and the faithful heart of God right and steady. I am amazed at how God invites us to participate with these burning hearts of ours, how he remembers us and incorporates us into himself. I'm amazed how frightened I am to let that happen and I'm amazed at how much peace and joy I have when it does happen. It makes for real alive-ness to communicate between us and our Lord and among us, Our Father and others.

That should do for now... glad to have this month to share, glad for you, my friends, my family to share with.

much love, matthew

At the Carters' in Hamilton, OH. A joyful night...
Matthew's good friend Oliver Box, who's the pastor at Liberty UMC where we played (and by the way Oliver, I WILL be training hard for when our cereal eating competition happens. Beware. -Brian)

Our friends from the D.C. concert at Liberty UMC. Thanks for the epic potluck beforehand, and for just being so good to us that night...


Our beautiful friends at the Philly house concert. Thanks for hosting, Libby (and for the tour the next day too)...

Our friends Chris Lucas and Laura Ann Singh who joined us in performing for the evening (and were absolutely phenomenal...)
Our crew from the Singh house concert in Richmond, VA

Update Video

Week Three Update from Brian Mulder on Vimeo.

Hey Everybody, we're in Midland, MI at Brian's family's house. We just met Brian's week old new nephew after a 6 hour drive and a two plates of home made spaghetti. We also watched a great white shark leap out of the water in super slo-mo and eat a seal on the Planet Earth DVD. We're all safe though.

Spent some good time in Philly for a house concert with the DeBoer's. The girl who hosted the concert itself is also a tour guide in Philly and she was so generous to give us a free tour the morning after we played. We took a long walk, ran up the "Rocky Steps", ate some great cheese steaks, coconut gelato, and saw some great art. We also played the "Lying game". The Lying Game is a new game that Brian and I made up and have been spreading around as we travel. Here's how it works... you catch someone in a lie (a joke or exaggeration) by holding up one finger. Then they must say ten untrue things as fast as possible. It's a lot of fun to see what silly lies people come up with. Our favorite is to launch into a big ridiculous story. It's fun. You should try it. Abraham Lincoln loves it.

After Philly, we drove down to Alexandria, VA and met up with my friends Oliver and Kate Box. Oliver is one of my best friends from college back in Oxford, MS. It was a blast to hang out with them. We watched "Earnest scared stupid". The only thing that is difficult about that movie the uncontrollable sobbing that inevitably ensues by the last scene when Earnest's dog has been turned into a piece of wood by the evil troll. You know how it is- when Earnest loses it emotionally, so do I.

Oliver is a pastor at a church in the area. They hosted a great pot-luck dinner and then we had a concert in the Sanctuary afterward. Mostly older folks but they were so open-hearted and generous toward us! Not that older folks aren't open hearted or generous. But we had a great time sharing songs and stories with them. At the end, I sang "We have all the time in the world for Love" by Louis Armstrong from James Bond as a special song for Oliver and Kate's six month marriage celebration. It was great to see my good friends.

Sarah Russo was there as well and she shared one of her songs that evening. I'm a fan already. And once everyone had gone home Oliver, Kate, Sarah, Brian and I stuck around and recorded silly improve comedy shows on my laptop for a few hours. It was a blast!

Last night we played in Hamilton, OH for a living room crowd. It was a very interactive group. They asked questions about lyrics and the stories. Several times they even shared their thoughts about certain songs. You just can't do that anywhere else but a house concert. It wouldn't fit. I keep getting more and more attached to this particular way of playing music. It's so human. It was beautiful to be in that room and have folks get into it with us. We stayed for quite a while just visiting afterward. Wonderful time!

Brian's folks have a hot tub. I think it may be hot tub time. That means this update is over. I'm enjoying the road so much though, and having a great friend like Brian along makes everything easier. Stay tuned, we'll keep updating. And please leave a comment at the end of our posts. That helps us feel connected to folks.

yours, matthew

Quick-o-matic update from DC.

I wont be able to give an adequate update but we've been having a hard time finding time and internet lately to post anything to the blog. But things have been wonderful. So later we'll hope to post a fuller update but for now...

We had a great time in Chester, VA near Richmond. We stayed with Sarah Russo and her parents. They took great care of us, showed us so much kindness and made us feel so at home. It was really beautiful. By the way, Sarah is a singer/songwriter herself and on Friday night she hosted us in her home for a house concert and we split the show. So we got to listen to her sing her stuff. We also got to play a long a bit. We really enjoyed that so much... and we recorded it so once we get back I'll sort through some of that and see how the recording turned out.

But the main thing was how great it was to be with the Russo's. We even got to have a few real sit down family meals with them. I think being on the road would be too much except that we have felt so at home along the way because of the good folks who've taken care of us. I could go on, but this is supposed to be a "quick" update before we get over to the church for this evening's concert.

Saturday we hung out with Sarah and our friend Chris Lucas who plays guitar and writes songs beautifully. He's so encouraging to me, a kindred spirit. But we went to watch 'Where the Wild Things Are' Saturday afternoon which was a lot of fun. Good Movie, maybe we'll review it later. Then after dinner with the Russo's Chris came over and we just shared songs for a good while. What a sweet time! Chris's playing is enchanting in itself, but his heart is even better. His songwriting and Scripture settings were wonderful to listen to. I can't wait till his present CD project is done.

I'll stop there I'm about out of time... things are going so well. So thankful to the Jesus for the way he's taking care of us as we go. We do miss our friends and family back home.

Thanks Abbye for the beautiful email.
Thanks Sarah for even thinking to come visit.
Thanks Donald for writing a book that is encouraging and challenging us.

We'll be back with pictures and more updates soon... much love friends, matthew

I can't wait to meet Virginia

Lees House Concert- High Point NC

We had a really enjoyable house concert at the Lee's place in High Point, NC tonight. Our friend Kevan knows this family and set up a house concert for us there (and he came to watch/listen as well- he's seen us 3 consecutive nights and somehow seems to really enjoy it each time... fantastic). Our hosts tonight were really kind and we enjoyed talking to them and hanging out before and after we played (they even fed us a delightful feast afterward- peppers filled with rice and tomato and such, and some homemade brownies and ice cream for dessert). 2 of the guys- Thomas (whose place we were at)and Justin- opened for us and played 5 of their songs, and it was nice to be able to just sit and listen to someone else play for a while.
After playing 7 shows now, we're getting pretty comfortable with the songs we've been playing, and it's really fun to be able to improvise and spice things up a bit.

-Brian

ps. from matthew...
I'm adding a little bit here too. I was reading "Jayber Crow" by Wendell Berry earlier while Brian was posting pics. What a great book. It will break your heart but it is so beautiful. Brian is on his way to sleep at the moment and the rest of the house is quiet except for the calm water swaying sounds and faint hum of the dishwasher- a sound I like especially late at night. Wow it's nearly 2am!

Something sort of funny occurred to me tonight at the house concert. Previously, I've felt sort of disappointed if too few people showed up, but tonight we had a small crowd and I didn't even think about it. In fact, I felt a lot of joy tonight while we played. I particularly enjoyed the smallness of the evening. This is a running theme in my life that pops up every once in a while. (there's even a song along these lines on the new CD) Anyway, I find myself repeatedly disappointed with all the bigness that I thought I wanted and repeatedly surprised and comforted in the smallness I end up with. House concerts are becoming very dear to me.

Another great consequence of playing in homes and staying with people is, well, people. You really get to be around people. I'm loving visits with friends, new friends, hosts. Brian and I both commented on the beauty of walking into a stranger's house tonight and then walking out several hours later feeling so grateful for the lovely people we now felt so glad to have met. This keeps happening.

And being on the road hasn't been as wearying as I expected. I think because the concerts haven't felt so much like performances as they have felt like visits. I can't express it all right now... I just feel so grateful for the sweetness and the loveliness that comes from slipping under the radar of the big, fast, loud world and looking into someone's face and listening to their voice, sharing a song or a story, not being in a hurry or worried about money or efficiency or 'making it' with success, but instead making stories with friends.

That's the Good Way. I think that's a Kingdom Way. Mark Heard said, "Love is never everything, but it's the best thing" There's always something else begging for attention and allegiance. I don't want everything. I just want the best thing - though I play the fool to get it. Jesus believed in the value of the foolishness of God.
Everything changes because of that, thank God.

Better sleep! Love, matthew

Corn, Feet, and House Concerts at Jimmy Cornfoot's