Eric & Polly Rapp: News

Yes, it was a long day, but a fun one! We left Fort Wayne just before 9:00, had lunch with my sister and folks in the Detroit area, left our daughter with them and headed up to Rochester to play for the Greater Rochester Heritage Days festival. What with some navigational challenges, chat time, set-up, and needing to be ready to clear out at 6:00, we played about three hours altogether. What a treat!

We got to see a bunch of old friends and meet new ones--some we'd only "met" online up to then. We might even get invited back next year! Thanks to everyone for coming out and supporting us--it was great to see you.

After the festival, we drove on north for a couple lakeside days with my folks, who'd taken Lauren with them. All in all, over six hours' driving and several more sitting around playing music--well worth the drive!

Today in his blog Cranach: The Blog of Veith Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Jr., mentioned our song "More than Enough" in his post Songs about Vocation. Dr. Veith is the author of 18 books about Christianity and culture, a college professor and provost, and a repeat guest on the radio show Issues, Etc. We are delighted and flattered that he liked our song and included it in his blog.

Interestingly, Eric has had a copy of Dr. Veith's book The Spirituality of the Cross, which includes a chapter on the subject, for a number of years and may have been reading it around the time he was writing the song.

CD Baby has announced that starting on Monday, January 25th and continuing for two weeks, they will donate $1 of their cut from every CD sale through their website, and $1 from every download sale over $8.99 on their site, to the American Red Cross and to Mercy Corps, a Portland-based relief organization with a large presence in Haiti.

If you're not shopping for CDs right now, you might prefer to donate directly to one of our favorite relief organizations, Lutheran World Relief.

Since our lives and our music are so intertwined, it seems appropriate to note here that Eric and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary today. Ten years, ten (and more!) ways to stay in love.... We are very blessed and very happy. The first ten brought us a Ph.D., two CDs, a wonderful daughter, and a major move, and I'm sure the Lord has lots more interesting things in store for us in the years to come!

Tonight we performed for the first time in Fort Wayne. Just up the road from our house is a coffee shop called the Firefly, and they've been hosting an open-mic on Wednesday nights. Summer attendance being lighter than what they get in the fall and winter, we got to play for half an hour instead of ten minutes. We had fun, we were well received, and as an added bonus, we didn't have to have a babysitter for our daughter! The Firefly's summer open-mic runs 5:30 to 7:30 PM, leaving plenty of time to get Lauren home for bed. Not to mention that the place is just three minutes from home. They're hosting one more open-mic next week before taking a summer break, so we just might show up that night as well. If you're in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi!

We're still in the Midwest, but we'ved moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a few years. Our email address stays the same, but our new phone number is posted on our Contact page.

We have just learned that one of the singers who sang on our song "Surprised by Joy" on our CD More Than Enough, Denise Marie Stein, lost her battle with chronic leukemia early this morning. Her sweet voice, beautiful harmonies, and generous spirit will be missed.

Last night we performed for a father-son banquet in Union City, Michigan. Accustomed as I am to living a couple hours away from my father, I was surprised to see so many fathers there with their grown sons. I doubt it surprised Eric, since he grew up in a small town himself, but I'm more a city girl (much as I dislike the crowding and traffic). They were a good audience, and we enjoyed visiting with them before dinner, sharing a good meal, playing, and talking afterward. Always nice to leave a gig feeling we've made new friends!

As Long As I'm Here, the benefit CD for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, is now available at CD Baby. Nearly 90% of the disc's CD Baby sales will go directly to the Society--not only are all the songs donated, but CD Baby is also donating 50% of its profits! So enjoy a great collection of songs and support a good cause.

Today I received our artist copy of a new CD, As Long As I'm Here, compiled for the benefit of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The official release date has not yet been set, and the date and details of the CD release party have not yet been finalized, but I just had to give you a heads-up. This CD was conceived by a friend of ours while she was battling acute leukemia (who is now in remission following her bone-marrow transplant), and we were happy to be asked to contribute our song "Surprised by Joy" to the nascent project. Little did we know how big the little home-grown idea would become! Three years later, the final CD boasts songs by Tom Chapin, Anne Hills, John McCutcheon, Josh White Jr., and--oh wonders!--Peter, Paul and Mary! There are also tracks by Pamela Campau, Annie and Rod Capps, Foxfire, Stewart Francke, David Mosher, Siusan O'Rourke and Zig Zeitler, Ann and Will Rowland, and Matt Watroba. As you would expect, we are thrilled and very humbled to be part of such a project. I feel like a little baby guppy swimming with a sailfish! We'll post details on the official release and release concert as soon as we have them.

When we discovered the new website format had broken all our links to individual songs, we had to revert to the old one. That meant the Guestbook had to go again too, since we get too much spam without the security feature. Oh well.

Another new song from Eric has joined the ranks of the "Works in Progress" on our Music page. You'll notice all the lyrics are on one long page now--"Works in Progress" are way down toward the bottom. Let us know how you like the song--and the look!

Our web host has added new security to the guestbook, which is supposed to eliminate spamming. We'll see how it goes. Feel free to leave your comments!

The most recent online evidence of Eric's recent songwriting activity, the love song "When I Give You Roses," is now up in our "Music" section! As with the previous entry, "Who Knows?", the MP3 is a demo-quality recording made on Eric's Sansa Fuze. We hope you enjoy it!

The holiday break has sparked some new songs from Eric... Look for some rough MP3s to hit the web site sometime soon--thanks to his new MP3 player/recorder! We'll probably create a new subhead on the "Music" page for "Work in Progress" or something similar.

In response to those who have asked us for a recording of our Christmas song "The Best Gift," we have uploaded a demo version for the 2008 Christmas season. It would have been a full studio version, except that the computer wasn't cooperating. Advent is a busy season, and we may not get another chance to do it properly before Christmas, so we did a rough version with a handheld digital recorder, just to get it online for you. Merry Christmas!

We've also uploaded a demo version of "Your Mother" recorded the same way. We're hoping to do a digital-only release of our own tunes early next year, which will include studio versions of both songs, so stay tuned!

Today I removed the Guestbook from our site. We enjoyed hearing from friends far and near, but over the last several months the number of bogus entries has been climbing. Unfortunately, those who wish to abuse it to promote their own sites or agendas have ruined it for the rest of you. Should we eventually move to another host with a different system for vetting entries, we'll happily reinstate it. In the meantime, you're still welcome to send us your thoughts and comments directly via our Contact page. You can also publish your opinions of our CDs at CD Baby. We very much appreciate your support!

Last night we performed for a roomful of young Lutherans on their annual youth retreat in Marshall, Michigan, for the second straight year. Last year we were very pleasantly surprised at the good reception we received at our first show for that age group, and this year was even better. Apparently our fame had preceded us...several of the young people identified themselves as "Issues, Etc." listeners when we were being introduced, and when we started singing our song "Hey, Preacher Man," which frequently appears as bumper music on that show, I couldn't believe the number of digital cameras and cell phones that suddenly got pointed at us! A number of the young people said later that they'd heard the song on the show and hadn't realized it was us. It was a great night, and we had a great time talking to the youth.

Just in case you didn't notice it on our Calendar page, the location and time for our concert at the annual Lutheran Youth Retreat in Marshall, Mich., have been changed. We are now scheduled to play at 8:30 PM at Schuler's Restaurant, NOT the Stuart's Landing bandshell. It's going to be a bit chilly for an outdoor evening concert!

A fine radio program has returned to the airwaves and internet! Visit Issues, Etc. to learn more about an intelligent, biblically oriented talk show dealing with issues in the social, political, and religious spheres. Great listening!