The long-awaited CD written nearly entirely by Joe Laughlin has reached its finish line.  The various players and singers have come to Tesco Producitons, or in the case of the keyboardist who dropped his parts off on DVD, over a period of 3 1/2 years – making this project kind of a cross-country run of sorts but all the endurance and patience has paid off.  Tesco Productions (along with the assistance of Allyn Noradki) mastered the mixes and gave Joe his long-awaited prize for the final listen.  I happened to miss his return phone call a short while later but his message, along with other exclamations of joy and excitement, included the word “WOW!”.

I think you will have the same response when you get the opportunity to hear this musical treat.  All the songs exalt his Redeemer as they reflect Joe’s spiritual journey.  There are 14 songs providing over 50 minutes of style twists and turns which are often quite unexpected.  The only constant in all the songs is Joe’s acoustic guitar and vocal, but I wouldn’t describe the CD as being “acoustic”.  There are a few songs which primarily would have that feel, but the styles vary greatly.

Joe is planning a CD release concert at the church he pastors on Sunday evening December 11 at 6pm.  Victory Church is located at 6330 N. 56th St. (56th & Sorensen Prkwy) in Omaha.

Ricky Zapata has a special day in his memory.. 11-11-11.  This was the day he headlined a special hip-hop/rap concert at the Guaca Maya Mexican Restuarant in Omaha.  Several individual artists and combos performed an evening which was a blend of Spanish and English lyrics.  Ricky and his collaborator, Kyle were the last to perform.  Tesco Productions had compiled a special presentation opening for his portion of the evening and the songs performed were from his 4-song demo released this summer and included the introduction of a couple of new ones as well.

Ricky was on stage most of the evening supporting the other artists.  This was all done against quite a backdrop personally.  The apartment building he lived in at the time had caught on fire that day leaving his life greatly altered very suddenly.  He performed very well and was able to remain focused on the evening for everyone involved.

The preceding day the El Perico featured Ricky Zapata showcasing the upcoming party and giving details of his life and music – all skillfully presented by author Marina Rosado.