Recording in the studio has for the most part been a solitary experience for me. I don’t mind and I do enjoy the process of layering and adding multiple instruments, but… my best instrument is the guitar which means I am not that great on other instruments. None the less I get by!

Thankfully through the years I have had the blessing of working with folks like Brent Parker, Doug Wollman as well as others. I hope to continue to have the opportunity to work & record with my dear friends again! I am confident that will happen…

On that front…

I’m excited… my good friend Mike Morgan is moving back to town! Mike and I go way back… playing together in many different Christian groups throughout the 80’s. Our band Legacy opened for Guardian in the early 90’s!

Mike is a gifted musician and last night we took some time to work on a track here in my studio. Mike added his bass to a song called “Into My Day” which is a tune that will be featured on my next/upcoming vocal CD release. He did an amazing job and I started to feel pretty pumped at the prospect of working with Mike again.

Stay tuned for updates as we plan to continue to record in coming months ahead!

This morning I am waking up to rain! Of course that is a GOOD thing… we can always use the moisture here in western South Dakota. It’s a blessing and I am thankful!It’s also a good thing I decided to mow the lawn yesterday… *whew*.

My focus for today is to schedule my ministry dates for July… praying for God’s blessing.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. - Colossians 4:5-6 (New King James Version)

I like having a clean looking lawn. Do I achieve that all the time… I don’t think so, but that’s what I prefer.

Today I need to head out and mow the lawn… front and back. Along with that I need to patch up the front lawn as well with new grass seeds. I know this kinda thing is simple for some, but for me… sometimes I fail. I’m laughing as I note that! I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that I am lame in the ‘green thumb’ department!

None the less… I enjoy the process of planting, nursing, and watching things grow. So… to that end, I keep trying!

As many of you know… I travel and minister in many churches throughout the nation.  One of the consistent things I’ve heard from Worship Leaders and Teams is that today’s worship music is getting too wordy & complicated.  This may surprise you… but I’ve been hearing this for years!

In 1997 I released a CD called “Renew Me - Songs of Intimate Worship, Vol. 1.”  It was made specifically for those that wanted to learn and play easy worship songs for their church or small group.  At the time it did fairly well and thinking back… I am severely humbled that many used these songs for their expression of worship!

During my spring tour this year I was confronted by an old friend asking why I had abandoned the idea of writing and sharing simple guitar based worship songs for the church?  He, a worship leader himself used many of the songs on “Renew Me” and has been patiently waiting for a legitimate version of Vol. 2 of this worship series.  I have to admit… with all that road time of traveling throughout the midwest… I had much to consider in regard to that challenge.

I decided to patiently work through this idea of recording a new CD with simple songs of worship.  Being an artist, I have my head in the clouds… dreaming of ideas and concepts for recording projects that never see the light of day. SO… it’s with measured steps that I proceed, waiting on God and not forcing the issue.  Letting the songs naturally come and this last week-end, a simple song of worship was born through my personal time of worship.  It’s noted below… hope to share music soon, stay tuned…

We Sing

With all my heart
I choose to sing
Praises to the Father
In everything

Glory to the Holy One
We lift our hands and sing

Glory
Glory
Glory to the King of kings
(we sing)

Words & Music: Ken Verheecke
Copyright © 2008 Heartcall Music
May 3rd, 2008

Once again winter storm has blown through our area and this time it was a massive storm. I think it was a record setting storm as well. On the right hand side you can see a picture of Beau yesterday morning coming back into the house during the storm!

Through the night during the early morning hours of Friday, our power kept going off and coming back on. Finally around 4 a.m. the power went off and it didn’t come back on until a little after 8 a.m. At that point I was extremely grateful to feel the warmth of my heater blowing warm air. It was starting to feel pretty chilly in the house!

This week-end I was scheduled to share in Leavenworth, KS. As I rose to wind and blowing snow, and not knowing what to truly expect in terms of the weather. I emailed Pastor Howard of Living Fortress of Faith and we re-scheduled my concert event… which again, was to be this week-end to June 1st.

I am sincerely grateful for the moisture… western South Dakota can always use moisture, but I hope this was Winter’s last blast for the Spring. Canceling concert dates severely impacts our ministry budget!

If you feel led to help in regard to our ministry budget loss this week-end, you may visit my site at: www.kvmusic.net and on the right hand on the page you’ll find a ‘donation’ link that you may “click” to leave a tax-deductible donation for our ministry. For those that choose to assist with a donation this week-end I want to express my heart and appreciation for your support! May God bless you abundantly!!!

Now it’s time to dig out the driveway…

This morning as I rise, I am awakened by news of a possible winter storm hitting our area!  Goodness… the last time this happened during a week-end I had to cancel my ministry events in Iowa.  This week-end I am scheduled to be in Leavenworth, KS.

I am praying for clear roads tomorrow…

This sort of weather is normal for western South Dakota during this time of year… so, no complaints… I’m just ready for warmer weather.  However… this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice in it!

Since 1978 I’ve been a HUGE fan of Phil Keaggy… below is a rare YouTube video of Phil playing live in 1980. The song is called “Time.” Phil is one of the main reasons I play guitar…

Last Saturday I had the blessed privilege of sharing and leading worship at an event called Reign Down on the Capitol steps of South Dakota. My good friend Cody Aldridge had organized the gathering for our state and this event was being held Nationwide as well.

Everything went ok… although it was horribly windy and cold. The two worship leaders for this prayer event was myself and Cody. He and I gave it our best… but in the end, both us could only muster about an hour or so playing time for the worship segment of the event. They ended up using canned music… which worked great. The prayer event went from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm so there was a lot of hang out time.

I was ill-prepared for such weather… I was freezing out there! Thankfully some folks had extra hats and jackets and that helped greatly. Of course I had a jacket with me for the trip… but it was a light one and it could not withstand the cold wind. Oddly it was 50 degrees out there… but the wind just made it unbearable.

I started to walk around the grounds in attempt to stay warm. There was no way I was I going to leave. Cody is a dear friend and so is Merlin Hilmoe (soundman)… both invested deeply into this event and had to brave the cold. I was going to as well! Attendance wasn’t all that great because of the weather… but something amazing took place!

I am SOOOO glad that I committed to stay because I met 2 folks walking by the event. Anyway… long story short, I had the amazing privilege of leading both Waylon and Cherokee to Christ!!! They both randomly stopped by and asked… “what’s going on here.” Of course I was more than happy to explain what we were doing and before long… both prayed the prayer of salvation with me.

As I consider this again… I am amazed at what happened and I am praying that God would continue to minister His goodness, mercy & grace into their lives! What an honor it was to share Christ with Waylon & Cherokee!

Maybe it’s me, but have you noticed that many of worship songs written today are getting higher and higher?

It wasn’t that long ago that I had an opportunity to travel and participate in a special worship service that featured many of the current songs being sung in churches today.  As I listened to many of the songs I noticed that some of them featured an amazing vocal range.  As the worship leader for this event I began to work through these songs, chosen by others as well as myself there were some that were just TOO high to sing!  I was so disappointed and I started to feel as though something was wrong with me!  Why wasn’t I able to HIT those high notes?  These were passionate songs that demanded a higher range and I was finding out real fast that I would not be able to deliver those notes.

We ended up having to use some of the other singers from the worship team… filling the worship leader position and I felt as though I was letting the team down.  None the less… we made it through and many were blessed.  But I still felt that many of the songs were just too high for congregational singing.  Yes, higher notes make you sing more passionately… but, not everyone can sing in those atmospheric keys!

This morning I started to catch up on some the ‘blogs’ I read and “Worship Matters” is one of my faves, written by Bob Kaufflin.  In his most recent post he talks briefly about the ideal vocal range for congregational singing.  Here’s what he had to say: The ideal congregational vocal range (at least when it’s mostly men) is about from an A to a D.
When I was preparing for the conference, I noticed that a number of the hymns were pitched in keys that were higher than I normally use. Melodies frequently got up around E and F. So I raised the keys of many of the songs. The first night we sang All Hail the Power in the key of G, which put the high note at a sustained E. After straining my voice and hearing a lot of guys drop to the lower octave, I went back to my original keys. Higher notes do make you sing with more passion, but when they’re too high, it’s just painful.

Viewing that post has helped me to put some things to rest.  There’s nothing wrong with my ability to sing and lead worship… it’s just that there are too many songs being written in keys that many can’t sing.  Granted there are some truly amazing worship songs being written today… but, maybe they are meant to enhance our personal times of worship as oppose to being congregational worship songs?

In this day and age… you can’t be too careful about protecting your Mac.  ClamAV is a free anti-virus software made specifically for Mac computers.

Here’s some info listed on their site: Back in the days before OS X, the number of viruses which attacked Macintosh users totaled somewhere between about 60 and 80. Today, the number of viruses actively attacking OS X users is…NONE! However, this doesn’t mean we should get complacent about checking incoming email attachments or web downloads, for two reasons. Firstly, there’s no guarantee that we Mac users will continue to enjoy the status quo, but more importantly, the majority of the computing world use machines running MS Windows, for which an enormous quantity of viruses exist, so we must be vigilant in checking the files we pass on to our friends and colleagues etc. For example, if you’re a wise person and you’ve turned MS Office’s macro support off then you’re not going to notice that virus which is hiding inside this month’s edition of Extreme Ironing.doc which your friend sent you. If you then forward that document to a less wise person who has not turned off the macro support, then you have most likely just sent him a shiny new Pandora’s Box with a sign saying “Open this end”!

Flippancy aside, I’m sure you get the idea: check the file before opening and/or sending it on to someone else. This gives you the opportunity to avoid the file altogether or at least copy and paste any vital information into a new document and send that instead.

I downloaded a copy and installed it onto my MacBook and ran a scan… no virius, but… again, one can’t be too careful… right?

Click here to download!