Soul Carving

       Free concerts are music to my ears - even more so when they are designed with families in mind! I was lucky enough to discover one such concert advertised on BYU's website last year. Even though admission was free, online registration was still required. I scored 7 tickets for the whole family (no ticket required for baby!) to enjoy a Saturday morning of Jazz music.        The concert hall was crowded with families. We encourage respectful and quiet attention from our children during performances like this, but it was a big stress-reliever, knowing that should any of the little ones grow restless, we'd have a more sympathetic audience this time! Usher's handed out booster seats so we each had a comfortable view of the band. And one added bonus which I love about attending BYU performances, was the opening prayer. I love that it helps my children recognize the source of all our blessings in...

       For a while now, I've been wanting to introduce you to some of the songs and artists that I feel play such an integral part of my life. A surprise birthday gift gave me the perfect opportunity to do this. Richard shocked me with tickets to a Mat Kearney concert! Let me tell you a little bit about why we're such big fans.         Kearney (pronounced CARN-nee) hails from Eugene, Oregon. His latest album, "Just Kids" is perhaps his most autobiographical so far. You can hear a little bit about his inspiration for it in this brief interview. Kearney is a gifted storyteller. Often the setting plays a major role in these stories and is identified in great detail. It transports the listener right into the shoes of the singer, seeing what he sees, smelling the same smells and hearing the same sounds, sharing the same feelings. Consider these lines from a track on his first album : "I can still hear the trains ou...