The Morgan Valley Social Club

Thought I'd take a moment to update since I have a few weeks off from speaking due to our impending baby. . .

Brouther-in-law Kyle and I have teamed up after our recent success with the Valentine's Day shows. We're now calling ourselves The Morgan Valley Social Club and offering ourselves up for entertainment to all sorts of groups. (Morgan Valley is the old coal mining town where a lot of my mother's family is from. Although the town is now defunct I guess, and the coal mines are gone, the area down around Runnells is still often referred to as Morgan Valley.)

We've had a very promising first few weeks as several offers have rolled in. Several churchs and banquets have called already. I kind of wish speaking events would come in this quickly.

What's the show? It's basically me reading poems, stories and cracking jokes while Kyle fills in with all kinds of classic country music or whatever tickles his fancy for the night. It's very midwestern, and definitely geared for the 35+ crowd. But the shows are fantastic fun. In fact, I really hope more of them pour in because they're such a blast to do. Aw, well, if wishes were fishes, right?

I also heard that Van and Bonnie on WHO radio read one of my poems a few weeks back, although I wasn't aware of it until after the fact. I was in Omaha performing with the improv guys and gals when one of my cousins called to tell me they'd heard it. I took it as a great compliment that they deemed it worthy of air time, although I was told they changed the name of the person in the poem and messed with with ryhme scheme a bit. Oh well, any publicity is good publicity, right?

Till next time,

Jason

Jason Taylor - Wedding Singer

Kyle and I did two more Valentine's Supper shows last night for the 1st Reformed Church in Pella, IA. There was a supper at 5pm and another one at 6:30pm and we performed for both.

It was a bit different from the Runnells shows as we didn't perform after the crowd ate, but rather while they ate. This can be interesting as most of the time during the first show they would have their mouths full of food while we were trying to make them laugh.

So for the second show, we did about three minutes up front, and then waited till dessert was served to finish off with about twenty minutes that went very, very well.

Kyle worked in Johnny Paycheck, Sam Cooke, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash all in one show. You can't tell me that's not a show you'd pay two bits to see. C'mon, that's a good show.

And on top of that, I once again accompanied Kyle on Johnny Cash's version of Rose of My Heart with my Grandpa Kain's old accordian. Afterwards, Andrea's sister Aleisha asked if we'd play it at her wedding to future brother-in-law Troy Elscott.

Now let me tell you how big of a deal this is for me. I'm no musician - not even close. I've tried many times - piano, guitar, banjo and now accordian. I'm occasionally good enough to use an instrument in a comedy bit. Some easy, short song that I can come up with. But I would never consider doing anything even semi-serious in front of people.

I've performed some comedy with music at several weddings now, but it was always for the reception. But Aleisha - Aleisha has asked me, if I understand her right, to actually perform at her wedding ceremony - and on the accordian no less!

So I'm pretty excited about that. We'll have to see how that turns out.

What else is new? Hmm. Baby's due in a week. Andrea shows no signs of labor yet which leads me to believe it may be awhile. Everyone keeps coming up and assuming she's just miserable, but she says she's not really - other than a bad cold. So if this miserable feeling precedes childbirth, we could be in for the long haul.

Heading to Minny Soda for a day next month, and then Florida - both trips with Troy and Dawn. I think I mentioned that in the last post, so I'll just wrap up now.

Till next time,

Jason

The Runnells, IA Crowd

Did a poetry show over the weekend. It was the Valentine's Supper for the Runnells Christian Church in Runnell's, IA. For those astute readers of the blog, you might remember I did this show two years ago and it went fantastic.

Well, this year, I brought along my brother-in-law Kyle for the show to play some music, and it went even better. Kyle is a great guitar player and singer and we did an hour show of poetry and music. I even joined in on the last song with my Grandpa's old accordian.

The food was great, the crowd was great (probably 50% of them were relatives in one way or another), and the show couldn't have gone better. Many laughs were had, we got to listen to Kyle dissect a Johnny Paycheck love song while he was playing it (Andrea said my dad was rolling with laughter during this part), Andrea came up to sing back up on Sam Cooke's You Send Me, and we got rid of lots of my new poetry book, Farm Dog, and Other Poems.

It was, quite honestly, the most fun I've had with a show in a long time. One of those times where the material and the audience just really seemed to click. It makes me really want to set up lots more shows just like that one. I think with a little polishing, we may be onto something here.

Kyle and I are doing two more shows this week for the First Reformed Church in Pella, IA. They'll be back to back shows for their Valentine's Night Supper, and I'm really excited to make a few touch ups on the show and see what happens.

Other than those shows, I've kind of taken about a month off from speaking until the baby comes. The due date is February 23rd, but Andrea has been feeling so well that I'm afraid the baby may come a little late. But that's okay, because we'll both be around for the next few weeks.

Next month I'll be heading up to Minny Soda to speak for a spiritual renewal day for a high school, and then the last week of the month Troy, Dawn, and I head down to Florida for a Happy the Dog Ministry trip on a SERVE project in Bradenton.

I'll try to update after the Wednesday shows with Kyle.

Till next time,

Jason