Top 10 Christian Guitar Riffs
I tweeted about this yesterday, and I realized that 10 songs might be a little ambitious, but I wanted to give it a shot. In case you missed it, I tweeted that I wanted someone to put together a list of the top ten most recognizable guitar riffs in Christian music. We probably all have different opinions on a lot of them, but some are without a doubt going to make the list. Here goes.
DC Talk – “Jesus Freak”
Newsboys – “Shine”
Audio Adrenaline – “Big House”
Third Day – “Call My Name”
Delirious – “Deeper”
Steven Curtis Chapman – “Great Adventure”
Jars Of Clay – “Flood”
Switchfoot – “Meant To Live
Okay…. maybe I start with the top eight…. What did I miss? Any you disagree with? I know that Third Day one is pretty new, but come on, that’s a pretty recognizable riff. Let’s hear what we need to add to the list.
Google’s Christian Music
Yesterday I was doing some Google-ing to read what people were saying about “Christian Music”. While most of it was embarrassingly bad websites and animated gifs, there were a couple things that popped out to me and I found some great conversations going on. But that’s not what this post is about.
See up there? That Google search? I searched the words ‘Christian Music’ under the “Blogs” section of Google. Seems like a pretty broad search right? I mean, about 3,500,000 results came back. And here’s the thing. See that third thing to pop up? ChristianMusicFan.com. Seems like if I were a Christian Music Fan and decided to Google “Christian Music” and saw a link to ChristianMusicFan.com I’d be inclined to visit there. I’d assume the folks at that link would have their act together and there’s probably some great content there. I mean, you don’t search something that broad and end up at the top of Google for nothing right?
So, as a Christian Music Fan searching far and wide to connect with others just like me, I’ve searched “Christian Music” and I’ve noticed there’s a link right there at the top calling out to me, the Christian Music Fan. Then I’d click the link.
Then I’d read about how b5Media has downsized and “eliminated some of the smaller niche blogs in the network”. Third on Google’s Blog Search for “Christian Music” and it’s just not something we need to keep around. Interesting. Now, I don’t know the people over at b5Media but it seems like they’ve sort of missed the point here. And I don’t know how much traffic ChristianMusicFan.com brought in, but what I do know is that there are companies/labels/artists out there that would kill for that type of placement on Google. And b5Media decided it just wasn’t worth keeping around.
And maybe that’s the problem with the amount of content being produced online. Most of the link that I clicked searching such general subjects were sites that have either been abandoned or are so archaic that they should be re-designed or abandoned.
I guess my point in all of this, and it’s not an original idea by any means, is stressing how important it is for companies or blogs to be aware of their place on the internet. And before you go the route of b5Media and “downsize” a massive resource you have, maybe do some checking around to see the potential you’re sitting on.
Let’s do a little test. Search Google’s Blogs for your favorite hobby. If it’s fishing, camping, playing Wii, dancing, you name it. Check out what the first couple sites are that come up and see if they are doing it right. Then come back here and let us know what you come up with.
Weekend Recap
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
I’m not sure really what that means, but I know that today while I am home with the boys I will make sure to wear something green or pinch them if they aren’t wearing something green.
I didn’t post anything yesterday because I was running around like crazy from about six in the morning until midnight. Starting with playing guitar at church for two services and then meeting up with MercyMe and others at Winter Jam.
For those of you that missed it, Blue and I went up to the arena early and set up a way for MercyMe’s set to be streaming live on their blog. We started setting it up one way and them MercyMe’s amazing crew helped me figure out a way better way to do it. In the end we had streaming video from a professional camera and the audio going into it was directly from the sound board. Not bad for not even knowing if the place had internet earlier in the day. For those of you that watched it, I hope you liked it. Hopefully we can do that more in the future.
Nashville shows are fun if you aren’t working because everyone that’s in town comes out and it’s a big get-together. And even though I was “working” I was able to spend time with a bunch of my friends. I was able to hang out with this guy for a while after the show. Very cool guy and amazing photographer. He was there to take pictures at the show, so it will be cool to see those. I was also able to catch up with this guy and talk about how we never hang out. This guy was there hanging out, and so was this guy. Like I said… a big get-together.
Anyway… it was a late night and the boys are waking up. Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day.
Winter Jam Tour Photo (It’s dark, I know)
Blue Playing Guitar Hero with Mike.
Third Day Says Goodbye To Brad
I’m not sure if any of you have heard, but Third Day as a band and their guitarist Brad Avery have decided to part ways.
Third Days site reads:
Third Day and Brad Avery have made the very difficult decision to part ways.
We appreciate Brad’s many contributions to the band’s career to date, including his work on our forthcoming album, but the time has come for us to follow our separate paths.
He has been an important part of Third Day for the last 13 years as we’ve traveled the world together and performed over 1,000 concerts. We will miss him as a band member but he will always remain our brother and our friend. Brad is a wonderful person, gifted songwriter and talented musician. We trust that God has amazing plans for his future.
Brad is a great guy and an amazing guitar player. We we able to hang out quite a bit a few years ago when I was out with them. Hopefully this means that he will be doing some solo stuff in the future. Best of luck to both him and the band as they are going through this change.
This One Was A Fun One
It’s been pretty fun building blogs for these different artists. It’s been fun to open their eyes to a new way to connect with the people that want to know them better, and get their music even further out there, but I’m really excited about this next one. Phil and I have become good friends over the years and it’s awesome to work with someone so talented and genuine.
A few weeks ago I was able to sit down with Phil and talk through an entire new website idea where everything was pretty accessible and easily updated. We also talked about a brand new blog connected to his site that sort of became the site rather than keeping it looking like something you have already seen a million times. Phil was open to the idea, we talked about look and feel, and came up with this.
So here it is. Randy has worked crazy hard on getting this thing to look and act the way we want it to, and we are really excited about seeing what happens with it.So head over to Phil’s new site, say hello, then spread this thing like crazy.
