roblog - a blog by rob harris: Australia Day 8

Today is the day we play at Phil’s favorite coffee shop, Gloria Jean’s. He’s a frequent customer there. If he meets with someone from church or the community, chances are he’ll meet them there. It’s his “Cheers”.

Lara and I fixed biscuits, sausage and gravy again for breakfast. The band met at church for rehearsal from 10:00 – 12:30 for tonight. Pete hung out with us during rehearsal.

Lara and Donna helped Sharon fix lunch for everyone. After the entire team had lunch at the Eagling’s, it was back to church for another hour of rehearsal. We really want to be well-prepared for tonight. Phil says that in the five years he’s been here, this is the first time Gloria Jean’s has ever had live music. He prepared fliers to put on all the tables advertising another concert we’ll be doing at the church on Saturday night.

The church was kind enough to let us to take their sound system to Gloria Jean’s so, after rehearsal, we packed everything up and loaded it into Phil and Stan’s cars. By the time we loaded the cars, it was pouring rain. It took two trips to get everything to the coffee shop. Poor Stan was so soaked he had to go home to take a shower and change his shirt.

4:30 pm – Arrival at Gloria Jean’s, set up and sound check. Ward did an amazing job of putting the sound system together and mixing everything. Since it’s a coffee shop, we wanted to make sure that people could still have a conversation and that the customers could still hear the barista’s call out their orders. Ward kept our volume in check. We played for an hour – a mix of Christmas songs, some classic country songs and a few originals. Phil Eagling sang two songs with us – “O, Come Let Us Adore Him” and “Silent Night”. He did an awesome job!

Here’s the set list from tonight:

Jingle Bells
Joy to the World
Angels We Have Heard On High
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
It Wasn’t His Child - Tonja
Baby, I Was Wrong - Tonja
Grandpa - Tonja
Christmas Eve – Rob
Angels From the Realms of Glory
The Bicycle - Tonja
I’m Not the Only One - Rob
Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Deck the Halls (Instrumental)
Away In a Manger
O, Holy Night
O, Come Let Us Adore Him – PHIL
Silent Night – PHIL

Most of the church members turned out for tonight’s event. They have been incredibly supportive. After we played, Gloria Jean’s gave us an drink or coffee we wanted on the house! James and Jon especially appreciated that!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will head into Sydney for the day.

Here’s a random observation: Instead of mayonnaise or mustard, most folks here put butter or margarine on their sandwiches.

We have discovered one of Chipper’s hidden talents: he does one killer…and I mean killer Hank Hill impersonation. He uses it sparingly because he says he likes to delver quality material. But when he does, it wipes me out!