ANNOUNCING AMAZING CONCERT!!!!

08/01/06

Hi, Folks,

Well, despite my best intentions, it has been over a year since my last update. No excuses, I guess this is just how it will be.

First order of business, I want to let you know how excited I am about this upcoming concert in San Antonio, TX on Oct. 13 and 14th this year (same show, different nights). Frankly, when this concert was booked, I was only mildly enthused, as these type of events rarely turn out to be very successful or of very high quality.
Well, all artists were booked in for a rehearsal in June. This in itself was unprecedented, so I became more curious about the whole thing. Let me tell you, the rehearsal was also unprecedented. The most excellent band had learned every song faithfully, and we were all blown away at the level of musicianship and commitment of the promoters and musicians to make this a top quality event.
The venue, although a church, is better than most secular venues I have ever played. The sound is top quality, and the whole event will be filmed for a DVD to come out later in the year.
In short, if you will ever make an effort to attend a reunion type concert, this will be the one. I don’t think there will ever be a better opportunity to hear so many favorite artists on one excellent show. By the way, ALL the artists sounded great, in top form, and the anointing was still there.

Here’s the list of who’s on the bill:

Chuck Girard
Barry McGuire
Janny Grein
Steve Archer
Mike Warnke
Dony McGuire and Reba Rambo
Don Francisco
David Meece
Dallas Holm

If there’s any way you can make this event, I recommend that you do.

Check this website for details: www.touchingourroots.com

Other business:

Our home studio is finally finished. The vocal booth is ready, computer and software upgrades are completed, and all the files from waiting projects have been imported into the new system and are ready to go. The room is due for a major cleaning from all the construction and other mess, and then the work environment is good to go. This has involved far more time and expense than I originally anticipated, but everything is done right.
First up on the agenda is the worship project, Vol., 2. Waiting in the wings are the repair work on the Australian DVD, then a few days to edit the new version of the worship seminar.

So be praying that now I will have time to work on this stuff. Traveling is brutal, and when I get home for less than a week, all time is spent on catching up on email, bills, etc. then it’s time to go again. Pray for a good block of time to come my way, and for focus. I don’t know why, but focus has been difficult since the move to Nashville. I believe that part of it is the spirit over the town, but days seem to speed by, and the day ends with a feeling that nothing much was accomplished, even when much HAS. Part of it is that I’ve noticed that the older I get, the quicker days seem to pass, but there is definitely something spiritual involved here as well. There is a spirit of apathy and false well-being over this town, and it’s hard to fight. It’s part of the reason that there are so many churches, but so little real spiritual energy and excitement. Maybe I’ll do more of a rant at a later time, but for now, pray for me that I can focus on what’s important.

I’ll try to do better with future updates.

Chuck

11/05/05

Hi, Folks,

Please pray for my Australian tour, starting Nov. 13. Also pray for the fairly involved DVD shoot going on down there, a full concert featuring me with a band, a string quartet, and a Samoan choir! There’s a lot riding on the success of this shoot, and there will be a lot of pressure on me to deliver a spiritually centered concert in the midst of all the technical considerations.

Thanks to all of you who follow my itinerary and pray for my ministry.

I wanted to take a minute to thank the people responsible for the facelift on the web site.
First of all, thanks Don Gillespie of Chocolate Dog for designing the new look! What a gift this is to our ministry.
To Susan Dixon, who’s labored alongside us for years, for managing the web site, the catalog sales and the itinerary. I think she’s done a great job redesigning her specific pages in those areas.
And again, to David Cougle, who was responsible for working out all the problems with Mars Forum.

I'm motivated to be a little more "hands on" with the web site from here on, at least to the extent of more frequent "What's New" pages, so keep checking back.

9/05/05

Hi, Folks,

Man, I am so sorry that I don’t get news out more often. I get inspired when I have no time, and when I do have time, I often don’t find the inspiration. Pray for me!

It has been a year or more since last I posted news. We have settled into Nashville very comfortably. Many things about the attitudes and way of life in the South are still foreign to us, but we are thriving behind the slower pace, and the eased financial burden of living here.

We are involved in a great church. Our pastor is Lindell Cooley, who was the worship leader at the Brownsville AG, Pensacola, FL revival for many years. He is trying to build a church that will let the Holy Spirit breathe, and is an excellent and anointed worship leader. The church has been here a little over one year, and is growing slowly but steadily. We are discussing possibilities for ministering to the music community here in Nashville, and our church is already something of a “musician’s church”. (of course, I guess all churches in Nashville are to a degree).

The worship project is not moving ahead yet, and for that I am remiss and truly sorry. It is waiting on the completion of our home overdub studio, which right now entails the building of a vocal booth, and the acquiring of an updated Mac computer. We are currently dealing with the passing of my wife Karen’s mother, but will probably be able to finish things up in early October. We will then be adding my daughter Alisa’s background vocals, and doing some additional instrumentation before mixing. Mixing will depend on the completion of my son-in-law’s full service studio, which is almost completed, but is still almost a year overdue.

After the completion of the worship project, I am looking forward to doing my first recording in 15 years using live players in the studio at one time. Hopefully we will be starting that in the first half of next year.

That’s about it. The web site will be undergoing a major face lift here very soon, and I am committed to keeping things more up to date. Pray for me that I don’t fold like a house of cards!

God bless you all and thanks as always for your tremendous moral support over the years..

7/31/04
Dear friends and supporters of this ministry.

Well, what a summer it has been so far! A couple of months back, God began to stir the hearts of my wife Karen and I about a huge life style change. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, but many things occurred which literally forced us into moving to …..Nashville! We were very skeptical at first, but as the steps began to fall into place, it became obvious that this was His will for us at this stage of our life.
Let me be clear to those of you who know my feelings about the CCM industry, this move was not about pursuing recording contracts or other opportunities in the industry. Not to say that there won’t be some involvement in the future, but if so, that part of our move has not been revealed to us at this time. As I began to pray about where to move and what to do, God instructed me to articulate my goals for such a move. There were 4 things that loomed prominently in my thinking:

1) A MORE MANAGEABLE FINANCIAL SITUATION. The cost of living in LA had become very burdensome, and I was looking for way to downsize our overhead. Selling our house there, liquidating our burdensome mortgages, and buying one here seemed to make great sense.

2) GREATER EASE IN MAKING RECORDINGS.. A family situation has made the use of a local studio available to me. This, coupled with my own limited studio situation, promised the possibility of making my future recordings at substantial savings.

3) THE POSSIBILITY OF MENTORING YOUNG MUSICIANS. Almost everybody in CCM lives here now, and if I was ever going to impact the younger generation of musicians with whatever wisdom and experience I have to offer, it was not happening in L.A. I feel that the Lord has told me He will be able to realize this potential far more easily here in Nashville.

4) REALIZING A DREAM TO START A WORSHIP EVENT OR MUSICIAN’S FELLOWSHIP OR BOTH. Many years of attempting to get an event off the ground which I called ‘WORSHIP L.A.”, never resulted in anything permanent. There never seemed to be the perfect venue or time or situation to get the event off the ground on a regular basis. I believe that God is going to fulfill this vision here. Here, there is a sense of new beginning, and I believe that with the proliferation of excellent churches in this are, my event will find a home. The same thing might go for a Musician’s Fellowship. This directly impacts the completion of the long awaited Vol. 2 of “Personal Worship”.
The project has remained half done for over a year now. One of the major hang-ups was the participation of my daughter Alisa, who is currently in the popular CCM group ZOEgirl. Her contribution to Vol. 1 was so seminal, that I could not conceive of putting out Vol. 2 without her. However, due to the popularity of ZOEgirl, her schedule never left a breathing moment to make plans to fly her out to L.A. to do her parts. So…the project has come to her. We will be able to facilitate piecemeal recording on her off times, and this will allow for the final steps to be taken in getting the project out. However, recording facilities will not be available until the end of the year. It will require a combination of the services of the above mentioned studio, and our own home studio setup. Our studio will not be able to be made operational until our home becomes available at the end of the year. So there is little chance of completion of the project in 2004. However, once things are in place, we should be able to sail through the remaining steps quite handily, and God willing, may have the project out by middle of next year. I guarantee you, it will be worth waiting for, and we are so excited to get it finished. Following such a special project as “Voice Of The Wind” is a daunting task, but I truly believe that the new one will satisfy everyone. It will be the “same thing, only different”. The main difference is that there is more prelude to this one. VOTW kind of plopped you down in the middle of the throne room on song 1, while this one will take about 20 minutes to get you to that point. But, though fans of an album think they want more of the same, I think what they really want is the same feel and certain elements of the original, but would be disappointed with a carbon copy of the that original.
Technically, this CD will be an improvement. The original live recordings on Vol. 1 were done using my old Yamaha DX-7 keyboard, which has a dated sound by today’s standards. The new live recordings were done at a church in Orange County, CA, which has a beautiful big grand piano, which has been modified to accept midi equipment. This enabled me to get the same string sound I got on the first one, but playing an actual grand piano. Recording quality overall is better than Vol. 1, so if the anointing is just as good, everyone should be more than happy. Please be praying for us as we get acquainted with our new home, and settle in to what is a very different lifestyle for us on so many levels. We have already visited several churches, and the big problem will be choosing where to land, as they are all so wonderful. One of my 4 daughters moved here with us, so 2 out of 4 are here, with the other 2 entertaining the possibility of moving here as well. That means…grandbabies close to us as well as family all in one place. Thank you for how special you all are to us, and how we have sensed your interest and support over the years. I will keep you updated more often now that we are settling in, and have an internet connection again.

Karen and I would like to extend a special thank you not only to all of you who have supported us, but a special acknowledgement to those individuals who have really come along side in making this transition go so smoothly. Starting with Susie Dixon, who is our personal assistant, and always goes above and beyond what we could imagine. Also Randy Dixon, Rod and Deb Reimer, Eric Brown, and Linda Oakland.

Thanks guys,

God bless all of you.

Chuck Girard

(BTW, Mars Hill lives again! The board is finally fixed.