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| Our journal is a place where we will keep you updated on current happenings and events and will also be a place where we can share our thoughts on things happening behind the scenes. |
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1/6/05 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We're anxiously beginning to book concert dates for the New Year. Several are in the works. For the 3rd week in a row, we're in the #2 spot for most downloaded songs in the Christian Rock section of CNET's DOWNLOAD.COM website. We're excited that our ministry is getting introduced to so many new people. New photos have been posted from a few of the final concerts of 2004. click here.
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12/9/04 - Everyone is all excited because Kerry just went out and purchased his new drums. He finally got the set he's been wanting for years. He purchased brand new set of Custom DW Collector Series Drums, some of the best drums that are made. It's a custom, one-of-a kind drum kit that's lacquered piano black with natural lacquered trim and gold plated hardware. They absolutely beautiful. The next time you see Kerry, you'll know why he's grinning from "ear to ear". We send a special thanks to Rodney Booth at "Rockett's Kick-N-Snare" pro drum shop in Tuscaloosa, AL. If you are needing a professional set of drums, this is the place to go. Give Rodney a call at 1-877-YOU-KICK.
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12/5/04 - We're looking for a few good people to write a review of us at Download.com. They have just opened up a new feature that allows fans to write reviews and have them published online. If you can spare a few minutes, we would love to have you write a review of our band and music. Just click on this link and then click on the REVIEW THIS ARTIST on the upper-right of the screen just above the band's photo. Please honest (but please be nice <grin>) |
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12/1/04 - A little known secret (until now) is that Jason used to perform parodies on the Rick & Bubba radio show many years ago. He, along with former Floodgate member Joey Rich, Jr. were the two sole members of the "Moody Boys" who wrote and performed several parodies on the Rick and Bubba Show, most notably, the SPAM SONG. You can listen to it at this link (RealPlayer must be installed), as well as several others. Don't believe that it's Jason? Here's picture proof. |
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11/10/04 - FREE MUSIC!!! Beginning today, you can now download two complete tracks from the HERO CD. God of Me, the first track on the CD, and Give Him One Reason, the song that reached #1 on the charts at WhiteDove Radio are both available for download at DOWNLOAD.COM, the premiere site for free and legal downloadable music. So please, pay them a visit and get your own copy. |
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11/08/04 - We had an absolutely incredible time at our home church last night. It's been quite a while since we've been able to bring our ministry to our entire church. With well over 500 in attendance, it was a very energetic and touching service that ended in at least 3 decisions made for Christ. WOW!!! We are so blessed to have such a supportive church family and pastor. |
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11/4/04 - We had a great time at the Fall Festival at Crosspoint Church. They underestimated our size and we didn't have enough stage area to support the band so we just setup on the ground. It worked out great and we had a good time. Eowyn opened up our show for us. She is incredibly talented and has a very unique style. I think that you're going to be hearing more about her in the near future on the Christian Rock charts. We head back to our home church this weekend in Pell City, AL for our first church concert there in a few years. Being that it is a Sunday night worship service, we'll be focusing more on the worship music that we do rather than our full "rockin'" concert set. Nonetheless, it's going to be a good night and we are looking forward to sharing our ministry with the people who helped us get it all started.... If you are anywhere near Pell City, Alabama we would love to have you come out and worship with us. Eden Westside Baptist Church, Sunday night, November 7, 7pm. If you are near any Christian bookstores in Alabama, you should pick up your free copy of Christian Happenings. You'll see our latest advertisement with the Indie community. We're rapidly approaching the holidays. For us, it usually means a "slow-down". It's not that we don't want to be busy but most churches, youth groups, etc. are busy doing holiday things and there's not many opportunities for concerts. WE HAVE AVAILABLE DATES IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER. Please visit our booking section if you are interested in bringing the Floodgate ministry to your event. |
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10/13/04 - Kerry had to undergo some pretty serious surgery on his ear called a mastoidectomy. The procedure went very well and he is recovering. The recovery will have him out of action for a couple weeks. He will be back and ready for our concerts at the end of October. We thank everyone who prayed for Kerry and for the hundreds of emails that he received. Although he can't respond to all of them, he says that he has read every single one of them. |
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9/27/04 - Scott and his family, along with Steve and his family headed out to sea on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas within days of Hurricane Jeanne's arrival. Fortunately, they were diverted to Cozumel and dodged the storm and have since returned safely to land. We were quite worried about them for a while. Maybe they will let me post some photos from their vacation on the site. :) |
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9/22/04 - FREE FLOODGATE TRACKS!!! - Did you know that you can download three tracks from our first CD, Are You Ready? for FREE!?!. Just visit our section on Download.com's music site. We've made the three most popular tracks from the first CD available for free download. Over 1600 have been downloaded already!! What are you waiting for???? CLICK HERE |
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9/10/04 - The September Newsletter has been sent out. If you aren't on the mailing list you can read it by clicking here. |
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8/21/04 - Youthquake was a blast. Despite a big rainstorm at the beginning, there was a HUGE crowd of people there. This is two weekends in a row that we've been able to take the stage in front of thousands. We're getting a little spoiled. :) It was really great to have a rather lengthy conversation with Todd Agnew about ministry and the music industry and how he has been able to successfully entwine the two. Todd is very humble and genuine. I've always loved his music but now that I know the person behind the music, I love it even more. We also got to hang out with some of our old friends like Jeff Morris and Someday Heaven plus we made some great new friends in Instructions to Timothy and a new band called Sonday's Own. Hanging out with other Christian artists is probably just as much fun as performing. The crowd was as energetic as ever. If you were there, we thank you for your support and for the love that you showed toward us. It's a blessing and an honor to be a part of such an awesome event. I hope that we get invited back next year. |
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8/20/04 - Floodgate International??? - It came to our attention yesterday that a major Christian website in Sweden (click here and click the MUSIK link) is promoting the "Hero" CD in their Music section. I'm not sure how they found out about us. God works in mysterious ways. If anyone knows how to read Swedish, I'd love to know what their website is all about. :) |
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8/16/04 - Wow, what a great weekend we had in Springville, Alabama at their annual Springfest event. The crowd was amazing. It's very rare the we get to perform in front of a crowd of over 4000 people The support that you showed for us was overwhelming. IT was also a great opportunity to see what our sound equipment could do in a large outdoor environment. We were more than pleased and we now realized that we have enough power to handle most any environment that we encounter. From all indicators, you can expect to see us back at Springfest in 2005.
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8/13/04 - We've been preparing this week for a big outdoor concert in Springville, Alabama. Last years event, we are told, brought almost 3000 people. We hope that it's just as successful this year. We've added something very special for this event. We've went back to our roots and pulled out a "classic tune" and added it just for the live show. It's going to be a blast!!! Unfortunately, we won't reveal it here. You'll have to see a live show over the next few weeks to hear it. |
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8/5/04 - Several of us took the day yesterday to treat some of the Floodgate kids to a day at Six Flags over Georgia. We had a great time and even ran into a few old friends of the band.
On Tuesday, 8/3/04, our song, "Give Him One Reason", ranked NUMBER 1 on the TOP 10 chart at Whitedove Radio. We thank all of you who voted for the song. We are also very thankful to WhiteDove Radio for their support and dedication to Independent Christian artists. The time for our August 14th concert in Springville, Alabama has finally been set. The concert will begin at 5:30pm. |
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07/21/04 - If you live anywhere in Central Alabama, be sure to tune into WDJC 93.7FM at 1pm as we will be in the studio with Ronnie Bruce Show during his "Worship and One" hour. |
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07/20/04 - "Give Him One Reason" broke into the Top 10 at number 7 on WhiteDove Radio, the Internet's largest Independent Christian Radio station. They host a weekly Top 10 radio show every Tuesday night which features the songs that receives the most votes throughout the week. We send a big thanks to all of you who voted. They are also featuring "Hero" in their playlist beginning this week. |
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07/15/04 - The July newsletter has been sent out. If you aren't a subscriber, you can read it by clicking here. |
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07/13/04 - As an update to yesterdays journal entry: Whitedove radio has confirmed that they will be featuring a track from the HERO CD tonight, July 13th, at 8pm during their TOP 10 countdown radio show. TUNE IN!!! Since Scott's columns in the newsletter have become so popular, I decided to create a place where the archives would be available. You can read past articles from Scott by clicking here. |
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07/12/04 - We're right in the middle of our vacation season. The Floodgate family is rather large and we have lots of kids. :) We're using July to take care of family vacations. We will have one concert on July 22nd at Victory Christian Center in Pell City, AL. In the mean time, we're making strides as far as radio goes. It's very possible that you'll begin hearing "Hero" and "Pour out My Heart" at different times on WDJC 93.7FM in Birmingham, AL. WDJC is a great station that covers most of Central Alabama and is ranked among the top 5 listened to stations in that market. White Dove Radio, one of the largest Internet-based Independent Christian Stations, has also selected a couple of tracks from Hero and should be featuring them in their play lists very soon. We consider it a privilege to be chosen by White Dove because of their reputation as a great promoter of Independent Artists and also their reputation for choosing quality music for their station. I'm working to get out the next newsletter. Scott will be featuring another of his insightful and sometimes controversial articles that has become a favorite of our newsletter subscribers. I think that I need to build an archive section so that his previous articles can be read. If you haven't subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at the HOME page. Kerry
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06/23/04 - We had the CD release party last night. It was a blast!! Marc Phillips opened up his studio and allowed us to have the party there. Many of our friends and family showed up as well as some of our friends from the ministry. Several of the guys from WDJC 9.37FM joined us in our celebration. You can see a few photos from the party here. |
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06/13/04 - We had two great concerts at Visionland over the weekend. The heat was almost unbearable while on stage and I think that our performances may have suffered a little because of it. In our Saturday concert, there was a moment where thought that I was about to black out and actually played through the ending of one of the songs, which was quite embarrassing. Nonetheless, it was great time for us on both days and we were very thankful to have the opportunity to perform at such a great event. It was also nice to meet Skillet and the David Crowder Band. I am now a HUGE fan of the David Crowder Band. They are all so incredibly talented and their show was as energetic as any that I've ever seen, plus they were just incredibly nice guys. I gave a copy of the new Hero CD to David Crowder as he was leaving. Who knows, maybe he'll listen to it (or maybe he'll toss it out the window <grin>). We also got to hang out a bit with our friends from Someday Heaven. It's been a while since we've shared a stage. There were also many new artists that we got to meet, as well. It's so much fun being involved with Christian music because you get to make so many new friends at every turn. The new CD's finally arrived in Birmingham early Saturday morning after getting tied up in Memphis. I'm absolutely thrilled with the final product. If you haven't noticed, you can purchase it here on the website now. It would be really nice if EVERYONE who reads this journal would purchase the new CD (hint, hint). It looks as though we'll be in vacation mode for the next several weeks. We'll be doing some activities to promote the release of the new CD but there won't be any concerts until later in July. Hopefully, we can book up the remainder of the summer with concerts. For those of you who may already have the CD, we would love to know what you think about it. Let us know on our Message Boards. Kerry |
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06/09/04 - We've been told that the first shipment of the HERO CD's are en route to us. This means that the "Hero League" members will be getting their copy BEFORE the release date of June 22. Who knows... we may even have some pre-release copies for sale at the Visionland concerts this weekend... We are really fired up about the concerts this weekend. There is going to be a lot of Independent artists there with us, along with the David Crowder Band and Skillet. I hope that we are able to meet everyone. It's always a fun time to hang out with our brothers and sisters that have the same calling as ourselves. Does anyone EVER read these posts in the Journal? I wonder.... If you do, let me know on the message boards. Kerry |
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06/02/04 - Welcome to the new website I've been working for several weeks getting the new website ready. I wanted to do something to coincide with the release of the Hero project. Now, that we know it's about to be released, I decided to get a jump on it and begin promoting the CD's release. There are still some small things that I want to add and change but I'm thrilled that it's gotten this far. I hope that you all take the time to listen and read. Please let me know if you have any ideas of how to make the website better. Keep praying that the CD release will stay on schedule. Kerry |
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05/23/04 - The Great Flood Saturday night was a great night for an outdoor concert at the Lakeside Park in Pell City, Alabama. Despite an early afternoon shower, that interrupted our sound check, the evening was beautiful and we had a blast. It's always fun to play outdoors. Unfortunately, the setting wasn't so beautiful after the concert. We had just started our tear-down process when, out of nowhere, the "Floodgates of Heaven" let loose. In a split second, we were standing in the middle of a torrential downpour and thunderstorm. We were helpless as we watched over $60,000 worth of electronic equipment, instruments, and lighting get drenched in a heavy rain. With lightning and thunder all around, and being in near complete darkness, we frantically rushed to get everything covered with plastic as quick as possible. The rain was so heavy that we couldn't get to everything in time to keep it from getting completely soaked. Fortunately, we did get everything covered, because the storm lasted for at least 30 minutes. By the time the rain subsided, we are all completely drenched. We finished the tear down covered in water and mud and loaded the soaked equipment into our trailer for transport back to "the basement". We spent the remainder of the night and into the wee hours of Sunday morning drying and cleaning every piece of equipment that we had. We had all the cables that we use covered in Mud. The drums had become soaked and had to be dried. Jason's keyboards had water all over them. We'll be praying that all is functional when we put it all back together and plug it in this week. It's very disheartening to see all of our hard work and investments on the brink of being destroyed. We know that God has everything under control and are sure that it will all work out fine. We learned a lesson to be applied in the future: Don't play outdoors without a covered stage..... Please keep us in your prayers, that all is well with all of our equipment. On a positive note, the CD is complete and we head to Nashville on Tuesday to get the final "polishing" put on the project at Masterfonics. |
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04/28/04 - Busy Schedules Wow, it's been a while since we've been so busy as we are right now. Over the past 5 days, we have had two full concerts and spent two days in the recording studio. It's a blessing to have so much going on. We had a blast performing at our "home" church, Eden Westside Baptist, a few days ago. We finished the weekend up with a concert in Jasper, Alabama at the First Baptist Church. We spent the past two days in the studio, laying down the final two tracks for the CD. The good news is that the final two tracks have been recorded and we couldn't be more pleased with them. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful producer like Marc Phillips working with us. Taz still has a little bit of solo work to be added to the final track but other than that, it's a matter of post-production work to get the project complete. We'll begin finalizing artwork over the next few weeks. |
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03/14/04 - Athens, AL We're all quite exhausted after just arriving home from a weekend trip to Athens, Alabama where we spent the weekend with the wonderful youth group at the First Baptist Church of Athens. I don't think that we have ever been more "taken care of" than we were with them. We send a big "THANKS" to everyone involved in the weekends events. Saturday nights concert was a BLAST! We had so much fun! Then, in an rare occasion, we got to lead the morning worship service for the entire congregation (around 1000 people). It's not often that we "turn down" the amps and settle into some very quiet music but we did and it was a wonderful worship service. We also send a special thanks to the Grantham family for graciously hosting us during our stay. We hope that we didn't eat too much of your food. <grin> Thank you, First Baptist of Athens, we hope that we get to return one day... |
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03/12/04 - Havin' Fun It's been a few weeks since we've updated the journal. I guess that it's because we've been so busy with concerts. The past few weeks have been a blast as we've been at different churches with our concerts. It was so great to meet so many wonderful people and to make so many new friends. We have to say "Hello" to our new friends at Meadowbrook Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. You guys made us feel so welcome in your church! Also, to all of the members of the North Alabama Association of the Church of the Nazarene, you all sure know how to have fun!! The concert was a blast! Be sure to to check out the photos on the website. We're still getting used to our new stage lighting system. What did you guys think about the big blue "F"? Wasn't that cool???? We finish up March this weekend in Athens, Alabama at the First Baptist Church of Athens. It's going to be a great weekend with a concert on Saturday night and then Worship for the Sunday morning service. We hear that the Sunday morning service could have near 1000 people there! Wow! That's exciting. Who knows what God will do when you get that many people worshipping at once !!! After this weekend, we'll get a few weekends off. That will be welcomed because several of us have kids who are starting the spring sports (ie. baseball and soccer). We'll use that time off to remind our families that we are still alive <grin> and hopefully finish up the CD. We'll keep you posted? |
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02/19/04 - Still Booking and Recording. If you received our latest newsletter, you know that we are still working on the CD. It's such a long road to travel. We had a good session last week and got more vocal tracks laid down. Justin Brown, one-half of the afternoon team (along with Cari Cates) on WDJC 93.7 FM, stopped by the studio to check out the project. I think that he really liked it (or maybe he's just a good actor and didn't want to hurt our feelings). The bookings have kept pouring in. We were excited to see that we'll get to perform with the David Crowder band at the beginning of the summer and we'll get to perform with Todd Agnew at the end. We also get to travel around and perform with our friends from the Mmagine Music Tour this spring. Those events are always loads of fun. It's just one week before we kick off the Spring concerts. We'll have an all new stage lighting system with us for this years events. We're hoping that the new lights will add a great new look. Please help us pray about the CD project. We initiating the "artwork" phase of the project and it's usually much more difficult than the actual recording itself. We're praying that God will lead us in the right direction and will put the right people in our paths to make the CD packaging as good as it can be. Next event: Birmingham, Alabama - Meadowbrook Baptist Church - February 29th, 6pm. |
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02/19/04 - Still Booking and Recording. If you received our latest newsletter, you know that we are still working on the CD. It's such a long road to travel. We had a good session last week and got more vocal tracks laid down. Justin Brown, one-half of the afternoon team (along with Cari Cates) on WDJC 93.7 FM, stopped by the studio to check out the project. I think that he really liked it (or maybe he's just a good actor and didn't want to hurt our feelings). The bookings have kept pouring in. We were excited to see that we'll get to perform with the David Crowder band at the beginning of the summer and we'll get to perform with Todd Agnew at the end. We also get to travel around and perform with our friends from the Mmagine Music Tour this spring. Those events are always loads of fun. It's just one week before we kick off the Spring concerts. We'll have an all new stage lighting system with us for this years events. We're hoping that the new lights will add a great new look. Please help us pray about the CD project. We initiating the "artwork" phase of the project and it's usually much more difficult than the actual recording itself. We're praying that God will lead us in the right direction and will put the right people in our paths to make the CD packaging as good as it can be. Next event: Birmingham, Alabama - Meadowbrook Baptist Church - February 29th, 6pm. |
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02/04/04 - Booking and Recording It's amazing what God will do when you let Him. (see the 1/20/04 journal entry). The past week has been a whirlwind of booking and recording for us. We spent several late nights in the studio last week. The good news is that 8 Tracks of the project are almost complete, leaving only 2 or 3 more to go. We had an incredible night while recording our latest song entitled, "I AM". Taz wrote the music and Scott wrote the lyrics. Our producer thinks that it's the best song, yet but we will let all of you decide that very soon. :) Bookings have been coming in quicker than we have ever seen them. We've booked seven concerts in the past 3 weeks. We're doing our best to get the CD project completed in February, because after February 27th, things will get very busy for us and will probably stay that way throughout the summer. Speaking of summer, we have some BIG news coming very soon about one of the summer concerts but we can't quite reveal that yet. Stay tuned..... There are still many open dates if you would like to bring Floodgate to your church, youth event, retreat, or other activity. Just visit the booking page and complete a booking application and we'll provide you with all of the details. Check back soon for some very big news about some of the summer concerts..... |
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01/20/04 - Purpose Driven The past week has been very interesting. We began the week with our usual evening rehearsal session but it quickly became extraordinary. For several weeks, we have been having discussions about our purpose, our direction, our goals, and ambitions and while, individually, we have been earnestly seeking God's direction for our lives, as a group we haven't sought God's direction as earnestly as we should have. Scott felt led to begin our rehearsal session with an all-out "no-holds-barred" prayer session, to seek and welcome God's guidance in our ministry. After an hour of earnest, on-the-floor prayer, God cleared our minds of any questions that we might have about our direction. With all of the distractions of a new CD project, record contracts, concert promoters, radio stations, incorporations, equipment expenditures, accountants, tax laws, we had become lost in a pitfall in which many Christian artist find themselves. We had become so focused on our ministry that we had lost sight of THE MINISTRY. What started as an ordinary rehearsal session, quickly turned into a watershed moment in the history of the band. In that one night, we were quickly refocused from all of the distractions back to the true reason that we are involved in Floodgate and that purpose is to share the Gospel of Christ with others, whatever the cost. In that one night, everything was turned over to God. We will do our best not to focus on the things that we cannot control. We cannot worry that our music may not be suitable for a particular radio station. God will take care of that. We cannot worry what a particular record label thinks about our music. God will take care of that. We will not worry whether or not we will make enough money at a particular concert to cover our equipment expenses for that month. God will take care of that. We will not worry about getting the CD out by a particular date. God will take care of that. We will only focus on Christ and the mission to spread His message and to lead His believers in worship. It's an amazing and refreshing feeling when you offload all of your worries and trust God with it all. Within the next two days, we had new booking requests coming in faster than we had seen in a long time. Two days later we entered the studio and had an incredible recording session and we felt better about the CD project than we've felt in months. God is good! As a group, we've decided to embark on the "Purpose Drive Life" study by Rick Warren. We purchased the books and Scott will be guiding us through it as part of our weekly bible study session. We're all very excited about it. The next 40 days will be a great study in understanding God's purpose for us, as individuals, and for the band as a whole. I think that we'll start a "bible study" section on the website where we'll list a lot of the study aids that we are using. Who knows, maybe Scott will want to begin publishing some of his insights on that page. We still have some open dates in February, particularly the weekend of February 21st-22nd and 28th-29th. If you would like to have a Floodgate concert or worship service, give us a call or send us an email God bless, |
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01/12/04 2004 seems to be progressing right along. This week we'll be spending ONE day in the studio touching up the vocals on the 4 tracks that are near completion. We're also spending time in "the basement" putting the final touches on a new song that Scott has written called, "I AM". It's going to be a great addition to the CD. We are still praying for God to give us one or two more songs to include on the CD. We have many ideas, we'll be working on those this week to see if anything materializes. Look for another "Preview Track" to be made available to members of the "Hero League" sometime in the next two weeks. If you are already a member, I hope that you enjoyed listening to the preview of "Hero". We also received our first piece of correspondence from our sponsored child in El Salvador last week. Her name is Lorena. We sponsor her through our partnership with Compassion International. Lorena sent us a nice letter and also drew us a picture. See.....
We are thrilled to be a part of Lorena's life. If you haven't considered sponsoring a child that is much less fortunate than yourself, we encourage you to do so. Visit Compassion's website at http://www.ci.org We're still very busy booking dates for the spring and summer. Unfortunately, there aren't many things happening in February for us. If you know of anyone who would like to host a Floodgate concert, tell them to give us a call or send an email. We would love to fill February up with events. Until next time..... Rock on! Kerry |
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01/05/04 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! I pray that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. We spent last week in Nashville with the Jr. High kids from Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis for their winter youth retreat. Unfortunately for me, the first two days were spent primarily in the confines of my hotel room with a stomach virus and I emerged only long enough to play both days. From what I could tell, the rest of the guys were having a blast hanging out with the kids from Bellevue. I was finally feeling great by the third day and was able to hang out with everyone for a while. This was our second year to do the Bellevue retreat and I think that it was even better than last year. We love doing youth retreats. It's a great opportunity to get to know the kids off-stage so that we can relate to them while we're on-stage. Youth Retreats are our favorite types of events. I hope that we get to do more of them. We're still praying for God to provide us with opportunities to perform this month. We have plenty of work to do with the new CD but we still would like to be able to take the stage somewhere this month. We're praying that God will provide those opportunities. If you think you may have an opportunity then check out the booking page to get the details on how to book us. We already have booking requests coming in for March. We're praying that God will fill our calendar. Work on the CD continues. Members of the "Hero League" have already been able to hear a "rough cut" of "HERO" and they'll get to hear rough cuts of several other tracks as time progresses. If you haven't joined the Hero League yet, click here. That's it for now.... Check back soon for more updates.... Kerry |
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12/15/03 It's been a while since the journal has been updated. Things have definitely slowed down for us over the past few weeks. There's not a lot of opportunities to play at this time of year. Most churches and youth groups are very involved in Christmas activities. This time of the year gives us the opportunity to spend quality time with our families, who sacrificed so much for us during our "busy season". It also gives us time to work on new ideas. Later this week we finally get to head back to the studio. We'll be putting the final touches on several tracks including, "Hero", "Jesus Is His Name", "Give Him One Reason", and "Where are You Now?". We can't wait to hear a rough mix and find out what ideas Marc (our producer) will have to make the songs even better. One thing that you will notice over the next few months is that we are quickly moving away from the "Praise and Worship" genre of music. While P&W music gave us our beginnings, we are quickly learning that God is moving us into a different direction. Of all of the songs that He has given us for the new CD, only one or two could be classified as "Praise and Worship". God has definitely given us an evangelistic direction. The new music will have clear messages that are meant to share the Gospel of Christ with those that aren't Christians and also to encourage our fellow believers to increase their faith. We'll always have those "praise and worship" roots and there will always be "praise and worship" music in our concerts but, for this CD, God has given us a message to share and we intend to share it. Speaking of "praise and worship", we're excited to be heading to Nashville on New Years Eve and New Years Day. We'll be leading the Worship services for the Winter Youth Retreat for Bellevue Baptist Church (Memphis). It will be three days of wonderful worship services with a HUGE group of kids. Keep us in your prayers... Oh.. and thanks to everyone who has preordered a copy of the CD. That really helps us to keep the project financed. :) We promise that you won't be disappointed. Until next time..... Kerry |
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11/17/03 We're all very tired today, only because of a lack of sleep. Even though we're tired, we are extremely energized. We started off the weekend with a "surprise" birthday party for Scott. Since he's turning 30 and seems to be stressing a bit over it, we decided to have a bit of fun with him. We had him convinced that he was coming to the Floodgate Christmas party, but when he arrived, he found about 50 of his family and friends waiting. Many of his family members were there, along with his Floodgate family, co-workers and long, lost high-school friends. Even our Major League friend, Todd Jones showed up to surprise Scott. It was a great night. I'll share some photos in the next day or so. The other reason that we're all tired is because of last night... You see, we had one of the most incredible concerts that we have had in a long time last night. We were at a small church in Manchester, Alabama called Living Waters Tabernacle. Wow! What an incredible congregation of people. The church opened up their sanctuary to us for their Sunday night service. Emceed by WDJC DJ, Cari Cates and with artists like "3-for-1", Paige Muncher, and Jeff Morris, the night was filled with some intense worship. God poured out His spirit among the entire congregation. By the time that Scott got around to sharing his "Hero" testimony, there wasn't a dry eye in the place. We're thankful for a church that will allow us to come in with our "loud" music and open their hearts to God's message. I wish that there were more churches like them. Check back in the next day or so for photos from the weekends events. Kerry |
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11/14/03 It's been a great week. We had the privilege of being in concert with the guys from Seven Places a couple of nights ago. It was a joy to get to know them and learn about their ministry and to also see their hearts. Those guys are 100% sold out to Christ and their live performance ROCKED!. We got to take our new "asphalt-cracking-ten-thousand-watt" sound system for it's first "indoor" blowout. After we gave it a good "warm-up", Seven Places put the system through it's paces. Wow! Did they ever?!?. The event was packed with teenagers and, the last that I heard, a total of 14 people made decisions for Christ. If you haven't purchased your Seven Places CD, it's a "must have" for your collection. Their CD is produced by the same producer who produced Kutless and Jeremy Camp's latest CD. Unfortunately, we got so wrapped up in the concert that we didn't get any photos taken. I'm hoping that maybe someone was there and took some photos and is now reading this. If so, please email them to me :). Last night Scott and I attended the Mark and Mack Revival Tour. Our dear friend and supporter, Todd Jones, was the special guest speaker and many of our fellow artists were performing (like Rachael Mann, Ashla, Jeff Morris, Short-Tee and Kevin Derryberry). We had never attended on of those events and since the tour was in our hometown, we wanted to go out and support everyone. It was a great time and many kids accepted Christ at the end of the event. Wow! That's what it's all about. This weekend is our last performance weekend until New Years Eve. Even though it's a welcome break, we would much rather have December filled with concert dates. Hopefully, we'll use the few weeks away from performing to make up for lost time with our families and also perfect some of many new songs that Scott and Taz have written. Maybe you'll hear them in the 2004 concerts. Check back soon for more updates from our world.......... Kerry |
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11/03/03 We had an incredible time at the UAB vs. Army Football game. Photos will be online in a few days. We got to use our new sound system for the first time... 10,000 Watts WOW!. Although we were all "frazzled" by the time that the show began. We were thrilled to be able to play on such a great sounding system in front of a huge crowd. Even "cooler", was the fact that we were able to BOLDLY AND LOUDLY proclaim the Gospel of Christ in a public venue. If you were there, send us an email or sign the guestbook to let us know what your thoughts. After the concert, several of the band members and friends were treated to a "sky box" at Legion field to watch the game. A big thanks goes out to the folks at UAB and WDJC 93.7FM for treating us so nicely. We also got to spend a day in the studio last week. We got some vocal tracks laid down on several of the tracks. We still have a long ways to go but it's getting closer with each visit to the studio. We're looking forward to the Seven Places concert on November 12th. This will be a great event. I got to hear a majority of their CD this weekend. It will be a great concert. |
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10/28/03 It's an exciting week ahead for us. God has blessed us tremendously. He has given us the opportunity to purchase a "professional-grade" audio system for our concerts. We'll have enough power to play just about any venue that we need to for the next few years. I can't wait to try it out. You'll get to hear it if you attend the UAB vs. Army football game this weekend. We just got booked to open for Seven Places on November 12th. This will be a great event. Seven Places is a great band and it will be nice to meet them and it will be a great opportunity to put the new audio system to the test. We also get back into the studio this week to do more work on the new CD. We'll be finalizing the vocals on "Hero" and several other tracks. We've formed a corporation that will handle the "business" side of the ministry. You'll begin to see taglines about "Offbeat Ministries Inc." on the website. I guess that's enough "Behind the scenes" stuff for this week. All Eyes on Christ! |
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10/20/03 Ah... Monday. We all had an incredible weekend at Godstock. The photos have been put online. Our friend, Andy Tolar, has been traveling with us and helping out with audio and lighting issues. He took some excellent photos for us. Godstock was a great event with great bands and a great message. It was great to be around bands such as "By the Tree", "Everyday Sunday", Alli Rogers, Salvage, and Set Apart. We have two weeks off now. We'll be using the time wisely to prepare for upcoming events, like the big concert at the UAB vs. Army football game on November 1st. We also be back in the studio working on the new CD project on the 30th. We've recently adopted our first child from Compassion International. We're stilll waiting to receive all of our information. I'll update the website with the info as soon as we receive it. |
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10/13/03 Happy Columbus Day!! :) I finally have a few minutes to do some tidying up on the website. If you haven't noticed, it's a bit speedier when navigating the pages. I've added a few graphics here and there and updated some of the content pages. Probably the newest thing is the Band History Page. If you haven't seen it, click "THE BAND" link and then go from there. Scott likes the idea but thinks that my writing is a bit "cheesy". That's probably so..... I can't believe how much we've changed over just a few years. I have tons of photos from when we first started. Maybe I'll make a place to post more of them. This Saturday we're privileged to be a part of God-Stock 2003 in Gadsden, Alabama. It will be a great event with some nationally known artists like "By the Tree", "Everyday Sunday", and Alli Rogers. I hope that we have a great turnout. It will be a blast!!!! We've recently adopted our first child from Compassion International. I'll update the website with that information as soon as we receive all of the information. |
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10/06/03 Where's my coffee? I need something to help recover from this past weekend. We spent Friday night at Asbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham. There are such wonderful people there. Our concert started at 10pm and we had a blast! Their youth worship center was awesome and when it's filled with several hundred teenagers, it's even better. Scott got to share his "Hero" testimony, which has become a major part of our events of late. If you haven't heard it, I pray that you will one day. That testimony will give you a fresh perspective on life. Last night, we visited the Cornerstone Worship Center in Anniston, Alabama. It was a "Rock the Flock" event which meant there we several of our friends there also performing like Ashla, Rachael Mann, New Element, and Frequency 417. The event was hosted by our friend, Rusty Mace. It was an energetic night with lots of worship and great music. Even though, I'm just running on a few hours of sleep, I'm still energized from the event. It's nights like those that make me thankful that God has allowed me be a part of a ministry like Floodgate. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. We get two weeks off before Godstock on October 18th. We plan to use the time wisely to continue working on the new CD. Photos from recent events will be online soon. -- Kerry |
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09/27/03 Wow! What a weekend. I'm writing this as we're driving back from North Carolina. We had a blast at the "Meet Him on the Beach" festival at Lake Lure, NC. What a beautiful setting to have a music festival. Early this morning when we were leaving the hotel, I ran into a few of the guys from "The Swift". You may have heard of them before, they toured with Audio Adrenaline's Go Show this past spring. "The Swift" guys spent a great deal of time with us this morning talking about ministry and the Christian Music industry. It was very encouraging. If you ever get the time to hear "The Swift" live please do so. We spent most of the day at the music festival. After our own performance, we got to sit around and talk with many other independent bands that were at the festival. We made many new friends. We were most impressed with a couple of bands named "Sinzenemy" and "Poor Man's Riches". Both of their shows were incredible and we really enjoyed meeting them and hanging out. Visit their websites and maybe buy a CD or two. :) We also got to meet up with our old friend, Kevin Derryberry. It's been quite a while since we've been able to talk with Kevin. Kevin has a new CD out also. If you can, give his website a visit and let him know that we sent you. All in all it was a great weekend. It sure is a long drive back home. Fortunately, we had some new CD's that we collected over the weekend which have helped to shorten the ride. We're looking forward to the next weekend........ |
