Lavs Blog

Thoughts On Ending

2012-10-17T23:03:00.000-04:00

I picked up my boys from school yesterday right after I got home from the airport. This was the first time I picked them up with no more tours looming on the horizon. It was a moment I hadn't expected or prepared for. They were expecting Mom to pick them up so it was a great surprise that was immediately obvious on both of their faces. I think it was Bram telling me that he missed me that

Yes, this really is what we are doing...

2012-08-25T23:12:00.000-04:00

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Reading Chaim Potok

2012-04-12T02:28:00.000-04:00

I have friends with great taste in literature. Last summer I ventured out to read Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev as recommended by one of these friends. I mentioned it here. I enjoyed it but it was definitely a different style of reading for me and pretty thick with unknown terms (to me) used in the Jewish culture. What I loved about it was that it placed me in an environment and culture

Marc Martel's Queen Audition

2011-09-23T08:39:00.000-04:00

I've been seeing so many questions since all of this has blown up. As of this point the views just passed 1 million. How are you feeling about all of this? Does this mean Downhere is done? What's going to happen to your upcoming tour dates? When Marc sent me the link to this contest I replied with "Tell me you are doing this!" So I am totally supportive of this whole adventure. After

Presenting The Chicken Coop

2011-08-24T15:16:00.008-04:00

Over the past few years I've been reading books about becoming self sufficient like this one by John Seymour. I like the idea of being a better steward of what I have and this book really connected with me. I don't really have the kind of property that's ideal for living the total self sufficient philosophy but there are things that are possible even in a small urban environment. Composting

Books, Books, Books

2011-08-09T20:48:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about travelling so much is the amount of idle time I have waiting at airports, sitting on planes and just travelling in general which enables me to read a lot. And one of the main reasons I set up this blogwas to keep track of what I read and learn so here we go! Ever since I got into reading Stephen Lawhead, my interest in history has definitely increased. Lawhead is

Blog hijacked!

2011-07-12T21:18:00.005-04:00

Here we are! The reason why Glenn doesn’t blog so much anymore! Aren’t we a handsome family and a good reason to live life away from the computer? Yes, Glenn’s wife here. I just spent a good thirty minutes writing this so I’m hoping Glenn will let me keep this posted up on his blog. If not, I suppose I’ll have to put it on mine! Ode to Glenn He is my sunshine and my encourager. He brings

Stagnant? No Way!

2010-11-26T09:40:00.006-05:00

Wow, I really have let this blog die a little bit. Sorry about that to anyone who actually reads it. Since part of why I created this blog was to prevent stagnation I'll give you a quick update on what I've been doing to continue growing. My blog may have stagnated slightly but that may be because I've been so busy trying to prevent personal stagnation.Professionally, there has been much going

The Glorieta Baldy Challenge - Take 2

2010-06-25T15:59:00.005-04:00

About this time last year I wrote this post about a run up a mountain I did. Well we are back in the same location this year in New Mexico and I figured I needed to try and better my time. I've been asking around if there's any place where records are kept of previous runs but it seems hard to find. I did talk to a fellow runner who ran it back in the 70's in about 2:20. So if you've run

Old Downhere Photos

2010-06-08T09:49:00.004-04:00

I must say there are some real gems here. I decided to put my old Washburn 6-string bass up for sale on ebay and during the process I thought it would be fun to see if I could find some old pictures of me playing it. We certainly have come a long way!!!And for good measure and to say goodbye here's a pic of the old bass. I'll miss ya buddy!

Hark The Herons Is Born

2010-03-22T12:12:00.008-04:00

About a year and a half ago I started collaborating with an old friend on some of the songs she had written and on some songs I had written. Our first writing session went so well we decided to get together again. Well that process has repeated itself many times over the past year and eventually turned into recording sessions. We realized we had the makings of a band/group/artist or something

Favorite 2009 Albums

2010-01-11T09:19:00.004-05:00

Time for an update methinks! Plus saying methinks is always a good thing.Methinks some kind of best of 2009 is in order since it's January so I just went through the albums I bought that were new for 2009 and picked out a couple of my favorites from the year.Of course U2's new No Line On The Horizon came out this year. I found I loved it when it first came out. Thought it may be one of their

Chirstmas Tour Time

2009-12-04T17:47:00.000-05:00

Year two for the Bethlehem Skyline Tour has arrived and I am excited! We have such a great team of people working behind the scenes to put all of this together and I have the privilege of showing up and making music with some of my favorite people on the planet for 15 nights. Last year when we started this thing I knew there was some "magic" to it and I was really hoping we'd be able to be out

Been Working

2009-11-19T12:40:00.007-05:00

Whoaaaaaaa. What? July?? Really?I hate doing these kinds of blogs but I think it is necessary seeing as it's what?? November?!?! HOLY CRAP!Well since July . . . August was filled with being on the road driving across Canada. That trip lasted into September. Then September kept me busy with the Hark The Herons side project I've been working on. We planned on starting to record in September

Outliers, The Story Of Success - Malcolm Gladwell

2009-07-14T11:49:00.005-04:00

I've been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while. I've read both "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and really enjoyed them so I figured Outliers would be good too. I saw an interview with him on "The Hour" (a Canadian talk show) and back in January I heard about the 10,000 hour rule he talks about and really wanted to get into this book. The library finally got to

The Glorieta Baldy Challenge

2009-06-27T10:32:00.005-04:00

**If you have run Glorieta Baldy I'd love to keep a tally of the best times here so drop a comment with your time and I'll keep updating the blog with the newest times.**I've spent the last week in Glorieta New Mexico which sits at about 7500 feet above sea level. So for the first few days I was constantly out of breath and needing to drink lots of water. After a couple of days which included

Living Green On The Road

2009-06-16T13:26:00.003-04:00

Road life isn't exactly conducive to reducing, reusing or recycling. My northern friends would be surprised at the lack of recycling options there are down south. We drink a lot of water when we are on the road which means a ton of water bottles that usually just get thrown in the garbage. Plus since we are eating out a lot we often have packaging for our food or Styrofoam plates that all just

Garden Pics, Espaliered Trees, Rain Barrel

2009-05-22T14:32:00.003-04:00

After days of hard work here's how our garden is looking today. For those of you who wanted to know, you'll see our espaliered fruit trees and our rain barrel too. Looking forward to seeing how everything looks when I get back from my next trip!Facebook Photo Album

On The Edge Of The Dark Sea Of Darkness

2009-05-19T13:04:00.002-04:00

An interesting thing about this book is that is was written by one of my label mates, Andrew Peterson. Writing music and books! Wow. Inspiring.I just spent the weekend in Denmark with my band. A weekend overseas means lots of travel time for reading. A sleepless night while in Denmark also allowed for much reading time! So with all that time to read I just finished Andrew's book "On the

Chirstmas Music, Sping and 11 Years of Marriage

2009-05-11T10:36:00.004-04:00

The last few weeks have been quite busy as you can observe by my lack of posts! Fun busy though. We (Downhere) completed recording our first Christmas album. I gotta say it's pretty dang good. It will release in September and is called How Many Kings. We recorded some traditional Christmas songs a few of our own and a few that are just a little wacky. We had fun with it for sure! Marc

Rain Barrel Line Up

2009-04-25T17:37:00.002-04:00

At the crack of 7:30AM I left the house to go get a subsidized rain barrel for my yard. I was hoping to get a couple but didn't organize myself fast enough to enlist the help of neighbours. The deal is you can get one from the region for only $30 but only 1 per family/household. First come first served. Anyway, below is a quick little video of the line up Dad and I had to wait in to pick ours

Free Show in Nashville

2009-04-18T10:15:00.002-04:00

Our label Centricity Music is putting on a free showcase this Monday night in Nashville so if you are anywhere close come on out and enjoy a free night of live music!

DYB & Impact Brass Anniversary

2009-04-13T09:25:00.007-04:00

This past weekend I spent Saturday in what felt somewhat like a time warp. I attended the 25th anniversary of the brass band I played in as a teenager. I was able to participate by playing in the Alumni Band as well as watch and listen to the current band. When I was involved it was called the Ontario South Divisional Youth Band or DYB. Since then the Ontario South Division of the Salvation

Downhere Wins 3rd Juno!

2009-03-29T02:33:00.005-04:00

Wow!! We were pleasantly surprised and honoured to receive our 3rd ever Juno in Vancouver for our album "Ending Is Beginning". Past albums, the self titled "Downhere" and "Wide-Eyed and Mystified" were the other two wins. The Contemporary Christian category has only been getting stronger every year. This year the other great Canadian artists we were with were Starfield, Article One,

Cambridge Songwriting Competition

2009-03-24T11:41:00.005-04:00

This fine city I live in has always seemed lacking in the arts. Or maybe I just don't know where to find the art in Cambridge. My high school had a great music program and there does seem to be a few art type cafe's around but overall it definitely does not have that "creative" feel to it.Instead of complaining about it I thought I needed to get involved to find out more about the scene and