Inside Out Soul Fest 2005

Well, I'm back and blogging and its time to tell you about Soul Fest. I drove up to Gilford, NH last Thursday morning and stayed there until Sunday night when I arrived back into Quincy. Some may say, "what the heck is Soul Fest?" Inside Out Soul Fest is a five day "musical festival" of contemporary christian music. Basically, anybody and everybody who is big or is an up and coming act in CCM plays at Soul Fest. I personally like to equate Soul Fest to the "modern day Christian Woodstock." Most people camp in tents, there are lots of port-a-potties, and everyone pretty much stinks for five days :-) Lucky enough, I didn't have to camp this year, but instead stayed with some people in a cottage in nearby Weirs Beach. It was nice.

The pictures above are of some of my favorite concerts I went to at Soul Fest this year. The first one is of my favorite band, Jars of Clay. Jars played on Friday night and were pretty amazing. After their "main concert" I went to a special "encore performance" to benefit Blood Water Mission (a non-profit organization they started to help bring clean water to Africa) I'm going to blog about this pretty soon ;-) But anyways, they were really great. I ended up in the third row at the encore performance, so I was pleased!

The next picture is of Ginny Owens. She is pretty much a one woman act on the piano, which of course I love. You wouldn't believe by listening to her music that she was blind, but she is. She shared a lot during her concert and I really enjoyed hearing her play. After the concert I heard she was signing so I went and bought one of her albums, "Beautiful, and got her to sign it. She's a great artist and I highly recommend her. If you are a fan of Norah Jones or Sarah McLachlan, I'd encourage you to get some of her music.


Next down the "picture line" is Michael W. Smith. He played on Thursday night and as always was great. I've seen and heard him several times in concert and he's always good. He's pretty much the "father of contemporary christian music" and has been around a very long time. It was good to hear some of his old songs and some of the new ones he just came out with on his album, "Healing Rain."

The last picture is of Steven Curtis Chapman. He closed Soul Fest on Sunday afternoon and did a really good job. I had never actually seen him in concert, so this was a good first for me. Its weird to like someone's music who has been "on the scene" since the year I was born (1986) but its all good. He's got a Christmas CD coming out pretty soon that is getting big reviews. He has also started a new non-profit called Shaohannah's Hope, which helps families who can't afford adoptions. He has three adopted children including Shaohannah (Shaoey) who is from China. Its some pretty cool stuff that he's doing.

So, as you can see, I had a pretty great time this year at Soul Fest. It was a good way to "wrap up" the high school youth group experience. Apparently there is a photo contest sponsored by the people that put on Soul Fest. They are looking for pictures from this year's Soul Fest and winners will get free passes to Soul Fest 2006! I'll keep you posted on what develops...