Thoughts on a Proverb

The men’s group that I meet with at church has been studying and memorizing scripture lately.  The verse that we are working on for this week is Proverbs 15:22.  I had a few thoughts so I’m sharing them here:

Proverbs 15:22 – Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.

I’m assuming that there’s an implied notion that those you seek advice from are worthy of giving it;  meaning that if we seek the advice of fools, we can only expect foolish advice.  It seems simple enough, but what if you seek the advice of someone who is very wise and has a negative disposition?  How, then, will that affect the advice they give?

I think that ALL advice has it’s place in the plans we make; be it from fools, or the wise, or even a child.  ESPECIALLY children.  They are considered as “the least of these” and seem to have an unobstructed view of God.  They think simply and answer directly when asked a question.  Some of their answers may be way off base, but sometimes, they hit the nail right on the head.

A few months ago my car broke down on a very busy street, right in front of the Chick-fil-A.  The car had accelerated enough to get me turned from the cross street on to the main road and then just died.  I was pressing the gas, but nothing was happening.  This was a Saturday morning at about 11am and traffic was thick!  Immediately, I tried using my cell phone to call for help.  As I was calling, cars were flying by, honking repeatedly and screaming words of the four-letter persuasion.  I was scared that if Grayson and I didn’t get out of the car immediately, then our lives could be in danger.  After my  first phone call, Grayson stopped me and asked “Daddy, what are you doing?” I told him that I was trying to get some help so we could get the car off the road.  He immediately looked at me and said “Daddy, we need to pray for God to help us!”

A THREE YEAR OLD SAID THIS!!!

I realized he was right, and we prayed, right there in the middle of the highway, that God would help us to get the car off the road.  IMMEDIATELY, three different cars stopped around me, and three guys jumped out and helped me push the car up the hill and into a parking lot!

In this situation, it only took one adviser to bring success.  Who would have thought that one adviser would be a three year old boy?  It just goes to show that I don’t think we can discount advice based on who is giving it.  I think that we take the advice in, and present that advice to the Lord in prayer.  He will tell us which advice is legit and which isn’t.

Thoughts for June 7th, 2009

• I am humbled and blessed by the opportunity to step up and lead a congregation through worship.
• I could not have done one ounce of what I did today without God’s abundant grace.
• I also could not have done any part of today without the hearts of so many others who have committed their time to helping Cross Timbers run so smoothly.
• Toby’s message was spot on today — thank you Lord that you are using your servant, Toby, to share your truth and touch the lives of so many!
• God is NOT like us.
• God’s timing is not my timing.
• God spends more time waiting on us than we do on him.
• John 15:4-5 couldn’t be any more truthful.  This Jesus fella was on to something!

PowerFM Share-a-thon!

Those of you in DFW probably spend a fair amount of time in your car since we seem to be spread out so danged far these days.  If you do spend time in your car, odds are you’re listening to the radio.  Now, I don’t know what you listen to, but usually, I’m listening to The Ticket (104.1FM) or PowerFM (89.7).  Most everyone out there has heard of “The Ticket”, but not all of you know about PowerFM.  They are dubbed “The Christian Rock Station,” and have done an amazing job of being commerical free, independently owned, and on the air for almost 10 years now.  They have managed to do this through funding and donations by good people who love music, Jesus, and radio like you, me, and that guy over there with the funny hat and purple shoes. 

If you think about it today, stop on over to www.kvrk.com and become a PowerCore member of the PowerFM team.  And, if you haven’t listened before, tune in this afternoon and listen to Drue Mitchell as he rocks out to some amazing bands.  Remember, that’s 89.7 on the FM dial!

Much love to you all,

Chadwick

Spin 180: Live in the Spin Lounge

Last night’s show was greatness!  It’s been a while since I shared the stage with a full band, so that was a real treat for me.  It was also an amazing treat to get to share the stage with the likes of Jose Aponte on drums; Wayne Schmidt on bass; Ronny Redd on keys; and Gary Brown on lead guitar.  These guys were off the charts good!!!  Thanks fellas, for your time and efforts!

The setlist, while short, was packed full of tasty melodies.  We started with All This Time.  This song is just fun, and Ronny brought an element to it that I’d never heard before.  Second we did Superhero.  This one seemed to get the most crowd response and really got everyone keyed up!  Next I played High.  I love the tenderness this song has.  It’s so sweet and passionate, and I just love sharing it.  I thought, since I had such an amazing recruitment of musicians, that Feel should be on the setlist too, so we played it next.  The crowd seemed to enjoy listening to everyone jam, and I just loved letting everyone cut loose on it.  We played Take it All after Feel.  I just love sharing this song.  It’s gone in such a different direction from my initial writing and to present this song to God is pure worship for me.  Finally, I played All These Things (Roscoe’s Song).  Ronny opened it up with keys and it was just beautiful.  The song just builds and builds and is so sincere and intense.  Roscoe, I hope that it made you proud, my friend!  We certainly miss you!

All in all, it was a great show.  Drue from PowerFM seemed to like it and invited me up to the station to do an interview, so I should be doing that in the next week or so.  I should find out then whether or not you, the people, will be able to call in and request Superhero or Take It All to be played on Sunday nights during the Spin 180 airing. 

Thanks to everyone who made it out; I truly appreciate your support.  I’ll try to get some pictures posted up here and on Facebook and around the Interweb as soon as I can.

Love to you all,

Chadwick

Fun with Stickers!

So the company I order my stickers from is now working on a campaign called Bikes for Ghana as a part of The Village Bicycle Project.  I believe that this is an incredible campaign that would allow for transportation in Ghana and throughout Africa.  Sticker Giant is offering up $1 donations for every photo that is submitted with their logo in an “interesting” place.  Check out the details here.  

This is a silly adventure, but the reward is that you’ve got an opportunity to offer help across the world without spending a dime.  How cool is that!?!?  

So, check it out… print it out… take it out… and photo photo photo!  Send those photos in to Sticker Giant, and let’s help make the world a better place.

~Chadwick

Nashville Part II

Here it is, the long awaited follow-up to my Nashville adventure:

When we last left our hero (that’s me), he was working on connecting with contacts in Nashville the day after the big showcase.  I know it’s been a while since that time, but I thought I’d try to get everyone caught up. 

So, after the showcase, I got to spend about 36 hours in Nashville just working on connections and trying to find out about Music City.  My new friends, Branden and Chris gave me a lot to think about when we had dinner the night before as we discussed the music business over a few Fat Tires and a couple of tasty pizzas.  We, from the get-go, realized that our musical styles and desires were very much in line with each other.  We all want to glorify God and share Christ with others through the music that we create, so why not start working together on sharing ideas and helping each other with song creation and whatnot.  So, that’s what we’ve been doing.  Branden, the President of Hallel Music, and I have been working on gameplans and strategizing about how to increase awareness about our ministries and generate some income to keep them going.  So far, things are moving along, and I’m very excited to see God working in that relationship. 

As for the showcase, I got an email from the A&R representative that had contacted me about the showcase, and we began conversations about my future as an artist.  I was offered and Artist Development Deal by Indevo Records!  Immediately I started inquiring about what a deal like this would do for me, what it would cost, how it would play out, etc.  The long and the short of it is that an artist development deal is where the artist fronts money to go into a recording studio in Nashville to work on – what is basically- a demo.  The record label assists by making sure that the demo is of the highest quality possible.  All in all, that’s pretty much it.  It sounds great until you start to factor in the cost of the recordings (I was quoted $1000 per song), the cost of getting to and from Nashville, the cost of musicians, and the cost of any other incidental expenses that might come up during such an endeavor.  When it came down to it, I just couldn’t see God wanting me to take on such a risky endeavor that would incur so much debt.  Proverbs 22:7 says that “The rich rule over the poor, and a borrower becomes a slave to the lender.”  I don’t want to live that way.  I’ve been in that boat before, and I refuse to go back.  So, I declined the deal.

I know it sounds a little disappointing to decline something like that, but I had some sound folks review with me what was being offered and strongly recommend that I find other avenues to explore.  Fortunately, I had been praying heavily about the direction God wanted me to go with regards to my music.  In all of my prayers, I kept hearing the same thing over and over again: share!  I didn’t know exactly what to do with that, so I went to my Bible to find some answers.  I ended up reading Hebrews 11, which talks about faith and gives examples of a bunch of guys in the Bible who were more than blessed by the faith they have in the Lord.  It made me realized that “share” is a word that is so in-line with what I’ve wanted to do all along that I have faithfully accepted the challenge that God has given me and I’ve been sharing as much as possible.  I’ve been booking gigs, recording and writing new songs, trying to get more involved with church and just reaching out to the community with my music.  I am in continued prayer that God will bless my ministry and allow for it to continue to flourish. 

Again, I must emphasize that my ministry, the music I make, the words that I write, the shows that I play, are all attributed to the love and support that everyone of my fans have given.  God has given me the gifts, but you, my fans, have given me a way to share it.  Thank you for your love and support!

I love you all!

Brian Keith Roscoe

So many fond memories with this bunch!

Roscoe, this is just some of what many of us with one last opportunity to talk to you would have said:

All These Things (Roscoe’s Song)
by Chadwick Hailey
(C)2009 Post Tokyo Music

My heart it is breaking
To see you like this
You toed the line so many times
Now everthing has changed 
to feel your arms around me
Is all that I need
But no goodbyes no goodbyes
Are what you hear from me
I need some time
To talk it out

All these things and more
I’ve held it all in
Its time to let go of
All these things and more 
I’m letting them go 
I need you to hear me
All these things I’ve never said before

I’ve taken for granted
What you need from me
I locked the door some time ago
And threw away the key
The future uncertain
The way is unclear
But its on my mind 
to share with you
What got me here
You were a light in this dark life
You were a light

All these things and more
I’ve held it all in
Its time to let go of
All these things and more 
I’m letting them go 
I need you to hear me
All these things I’ve never said before

I love you
I love you
You’re everything 
I hoped you’d be
Without you 
without you
Life will never be the same

Where there’s a will?

I am in a constant state of wonder about the alignment of my will with the will of God.  I see people all around me repositioning themselves and realigning their wants and desires to (what appear to be) things outside their gifting.  Can anyone tell me why  this is?  Why, if God has given us a gift and passion to do or be something, are we in a constant battle with him to do something differently?  I bare witness to this phenomenon more often than I’d like to admit, and it continuously plants seeds of frustration in my heart.  It plants questions in my heart and mind about my own calling and God’s plans for me.  Does he really want me to sit at a desk and do IT work for half of my awake life?  If so, why?  How can I serve God with a network printer problem?  I’m sure there’s a scheme in it somewhere; and my job is to submit myself to the Lord fully, completely, faithfully, in hope that he will grant me the desires of my heart. 

I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think about, when you think about God’s will for your life?  What do you suppose he has called you to do?  Are you doing it?

Nashville Part I

Here is the story of my purpose for coming to Nashville:

Kenalea and I left the place we’d been staying around 10am. Knowing that we needed to be downtown at 11 and it only took about 15 minutes to get down there was just working to our advantage. Especially after waking up at 5am on Saturday morning only to miss our 7:20 flight. So, we make it to Downtown Nashville and Kenalea gets a hankerin for some Starbucks. Those of you from DFW know that we can find a Starbucks on just about every street corner… but Nashville’s a little different. We did manage to track on down that was in the downtown area, but it was inside a hotel. Well, Kenalea ran in and got herself a Cinnamon Dolce (which is definitely a ‘must try’ if you haven’t had one yet). She came back to the car and off to Rocketown we went. It took us about four minutes to get down there, so there we were…

at 10:50 am…

…running early…

In our five years of marriage, I think this might be the first time (at least since Grayson has been born) that we’ve been EARLY to anything. GOD IS SO AWESOME!!! WOO HOO!!! (BTW, a huge thank you to Ms. Carol Allen who taught me that to be early is to be on time; to be on time is to be late; and to be late is to be forgotten)

So we arrive, and actually waited in the car for just a moment. Kenalea was ready to get out and go in, but we were told by the promoter not to arrive before 11am because nobody would be there to let us in. So we waited in the car for just a few minutes. As luck would have it, a person who appeared to be homeless came wandering up just as we were getting out of the car. He asked if we had any $ that we could spare. I started to pull out a couple of coins I had in my pocket (literally, I had a nickel and a penny) when Kenalea offered her very cherished cup of Cinnamon Dolce. He quickly accepted (which could easily spawn an entirely new note, but it won’t right now), and he took a sip. I wish that I could describe his face when he tasted the coffee. For a split second, he looked like a child, happily enjoying an ice cream cone on a warm summer day with his parents. His face lit up and he looked back at Kenalea and I and said “Damn, that’s good coffee!!!” All Kenalea and I could do was laugh, because it just seemed to be the most fitting thing to say after tasting that coffee for the first time ourselves (only our speech was a little more refined ). I was thinking about him a bit later as I was waiting to perform and I hoped that, even if only for a moment, we loved on him just enough for him to experience an ounce of love from our Savior, Christ Jesus. 

So, we headed for the entrance and met two guys, Chris and Branden, who had driven in from New Jersey. We all talked and made jokes about the fact that we were asked not to arrive before 11am, and we were all chomping at the bit at 10:57. So, in we went. The venue that we played was a stage located in the lower level of Rocketown. Now the entire venue was created for the purpose of ministering to a more teenage oriented crowd. Lot’s of punk band material all over the walls, graffiti everywhere, skate park in the back, and small stages everywhere for bands to perform on. The vibe was pretty cool. Chris, Branden, Kenalea and I all made it over to the A&R representative and introduced ourselves. He told us the lineup would be a first come, first served setup, so I figured that I would be one of the first few acts to perform. 

The first group came up, and they were kind of a cross between John Legend and Linkin Park if you can believe that. They were pretty unique and had good musical abilities, but their music was missing a hook. As soon as they were off the stage, I couldn’t remember their songs. That seemed to be the case for most of the artists. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have that great of a memory anyway, but a good melody sticks with you whether you’ve heard it once or a thousand times. Don’t believe me? Quick, what’s the name of this song: Alright, stop! Collaborate and listen……… Now, not only did you probably shout the name of the song out, but you’re singing the rest of it. More than likely, you’ll be singing it for the rest of the day; maybe even the rest of the week. You’re welcome!

The songs that I heard and the bands that I listened to were not ‘A’ caliber bands. That was very unfortunate, because I expected to hear some amazing talent. None the less, my turn came along. I got up there, plugged my guitar in and did the line check and mic check. Once everything was go, I started singing. ‘Which songs?’ you’re asking yourself right now. Well, I started with Superhero. If you haven’t heard it yet, check out www.myspace.com/chadwickhailey to give it a listen. The second song I played was ‘High’. This is the first song I ever finished, and it was back in 2004 when that happened. Crazy considering I’ve been doing this music stuff for so long that it wasn’t until after I gave my life to Christ that I was flooded with lyrics to share. So, the third song I played was ‘Holiday’ which is the song I wrote for my amazing and perfect bride Kenalea. 

Once I was finished, I got off the stage and started packing up my guitar. I was approached by several people who wanted to get a demo from me, and fortunately, I had just finished burning about 25 copies the night before while the Oscars were on. So I handed out demos and I went and checked the video camera out that I had set up to record my showing. 

Well….

When I initially set it up, I didn’t pay close enough attention to WHERE it was pointing, so I got great footage of the microphone next to me! Actually, you can see me way over on the left of the screen, but not the entire time. YAY ME! GOOD JOB CHAD!

None the less, I told my new friends Chris and Branden that I would film them as well, so I taped them. They were very good, and if you get a chance, check out www.chrisdickson.com He’s well worth listening to!

That’s pretty much it! Once Chris and Branden finished, we listened to Fred Kenney, Jr. who was very good as well. After he finished, we had to leave pretty quickly so that we could get Kenalea back to the airport to catch her flight home. Once we got her off, I came back to the place where we are staying and made several phone calls trying to get some contacts working. After my calls, I decided to take a little catnap. When I woke up, I headed out to a restaurant called Cabana and met Chris and Branden for some dinner and conversation. 

Today I’m back on the streets and working some connections. I’ve already met with one contact today and am going to meet at least one more before the day is out. Please continue praying. I truly feel that God did not bring me here for the showcase. While it was a great experience, it is not the reason for my trip. I will continue to move forward and talk to all who will listen. 

Thank you all for your love and support. I couldn’t do this without you!

I love you all!

Chad

Is it really better left unsaid?

So I recently went through another one of those birthdays that people go through.  You know, the ones where all of the sudden you’re older.  I hate that I have to keep adding numbers to my age.  So, despite my appearance, I (to the world) am 25 years old!

I’m off track already…

I worked from home on my birthday; not because I wanted to aviod the whoopdy-doo at work, but because I was trying to get work done.   I had been receiving messages throughout the day spouting things like: I hope you have a great day; Happy Birthday; Try not to choke on something; Merry Christmas; you know, the usual birthday wishes.  Most of them came in the form of Facebook messages, a few came by SMS text messages, but only one came by phone.   Weird how communication continues to change, huh?

So, one of the messages was from my dad.  I would venture to say that about 99% of the people who live in my world would never, for a moment, think that my dad and I had anything less than a great relationship.  Well, I’m sure for the most part, that’s true – we get along well, we play golf together, we’ve talked about life a couple of times.  But, there’s always been a missing piece to the puzzle in my relationship with my dad.  I won’t go into details that should be saved for a blog the size of War and Peace, but it seems to me that we don’t really communicate on a level that goes deeper than, say, a fishbowl. 

So, he sent me a text that said:  Happy Birthday to my oldest son — I’m proud of the man you have grown to be!!!  I love you!  -Dad

Somehow, this is everything I’ve ever wanted to hear from my dad.  I’ve always wanted confirmation that he accepts me as I am and thinks that I do a decent job as a human.  He’s never really said that to me.  I guess that using SMS gave him just enough comfort to say that to me.  Or maybe, it was just time to let me know.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that it made me realize that some things are not always better left unsaid.