Christmas In Our Hearts was presented again this month – held this year at the Salvation Army Kroc Center.  I have had the opportunity of providing sound for this collection of Christmas songs and readings for quite a few years.  This program is made available to residents of nursing homes and extended care facilities.  Paul Falkowski, Director of Community 360 (Formerly Desert Ministries) looks forward each year to this event, which for some who attend is all the “Christmas” they’re going to get.  Community 360 recruits and trains volunteers to visit those who are often out of sight, out of touch and out of mind with nearly everyone.  There’s lots of smiles and hopefully some sustaining memories as the travel vans return the residents to their “homes” for another holiday season.

My friend Allyn was there to help out again, and since he was more familiar with the house console than I was to begin with, I relied on him to set up the digital console for this event and teach me some ropes before we were up and running.  Thanks again to all the musicians, volunteers, care facilities personnel, and the KROC Center staff for making this event a memorable highlight.

Last month I let you know that Justin Nordstrom was working on one of his own songs on the heels of recording the Overcomers’ new theme song. Well we had a few more sessions to add additional bass and percussion parts, and then the final remixes. The piece turned out quite nicely and Justin had it replicated. This song was born out of some personal trials and hard times, and he’s giving it out as a thank you to folks and an encouragement to keep our “Eyes On You“. The song can be heard in our audio gallery. It seemed the nearest category was Gospel, so that’s where you can check it out.

This past Friday Calvin Duhachek came to Tesco Productions to begin recording his piano artistry.  Calvin has performed at venues such as the National Traditional Country Music Association festival in Le Mars, IA and there received encouragement to record his playing.  Several tunes from Elvis Presley, John Denver, Patsy Cline and others were heard over the span of around two hours.  Some toe-tappin’ ragtime is “on tap” for the next session so we may need to anchor the piano down or at least some feet so we don’t all get carried away.  Calvin, you’re off to a good start and we look forward to recording more so you can share your skill and fun with many appreciative listeners.