what if

what if…
- I woke up every day with the goal of becoming a better person
- I put everyone and everything else before myself
- I looked at life with an eternal persect
- music was not as important to me as worshiping God is

just a few thoughts

-cc

seasons

so its been forever since ive writen in this guy!  I have had some recent encouragement from my friend Jeff Ponder and seeing as my buddy kurtis johnson just revamped his blog, i figured it was time to start mine up again.

so the Chris Coleman Band rock days are officially over.  We had a great last show with my old friend Corey Crowder and my new friends from Abandoned Kansas.  Huge thanks to all of my friends who made it out to support us one last time.  It was bitter sweet and as great as the past 3 years have been, I’m even more excited about what the future holds for the Chris Coleman Band.

I am finally moved into my new house and it rules!  I honestly couldnt be happier with life right now.  I have been spending a lot of time writing and demoing different songs, trying to decide what direction I want to take.  Either way you look at it, I am pretty excited about what is in store for me and the guys that I play with.  

Big stuf is only a month away and I cannot wait!  This summer is going to be the best summer ever.  I cant wait to worship, hang on the beach, and meet a ton of new friends.  Its going to be fantastic.  

Hope all is well my friends and family, I will try to keep this thing more up to date in the future.  

-cc

Gear

So I’ve had a few facebook messages recently about the gear that I use, so I have decided to write  a little blog about it.  Lets face it… we all love gear.

Electric Guitars:

- Standard American Telecaster

- American Vintage 1967 Reissue Stratocaster

- Reverend (im not sure what model it is, but its got humbuckers and its tough sounding)

- 1954 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Reissue with P90s

My main guitar is still my telecaster.  Its the cheapest guitar I own, but i always come back to the sounds it produces.  I typically use my strat for fat lead sounds and use my Les Paul for really gritty rhythm sounds.  I hardly ever use my Rev, but when I do its for that fat mesa dual rec sound we all love.

Acoustic Guitars/Preamp:

- Breedlove Atlast 250sf plus (yea, its a cheap import but it does the job)

- Martin D15

- Yamaha CJ12 Jumbo (probably my favorite acoustic, its just reallly huge sounding)

- Avalon U5 (the secret to good acoustic tone)

Amp/attenuator:

- Dr. Z maz 18jr 

- Dr. Z airbrake attenuator (basically allows you to run your amp really hot without killing front of house with too much volume)

Pedals/effects (in order of my chain):

- Blues Driver

- Line 6 Echo Pro

- Fulltone OCD

- Elelcto Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb

- Boss DD-20 gigadelay

- mxr micro amp booster

Control Interface:

- Ground Control Pro

- GCX rack looper

- ernie ball volume jr. (I use a stereo cable which allows me to use this as a sturdy expression pedal for my ground control pro.  I use this for an expression setup for my echo pro.  Line 6’s expression pedal is way cheap and breaks too easy.  I think this is a much better solution)

I use this set up to run all of my pedals through a true bypass looper, the GCX.  I then control the effects through midi with the ground control pro.  This gives me full function of my echo pro (hundreds of presets and tweez, tweek, bpm, mix, repeats, ect.), which essentially is the green line 6 dl4 in a rack unit.  The ground control also allows me to switch on and off my stomp boxes in true bypass.

here are some pics.  enjoy!

-chris

new songs for download

so we put 3 new songs for download and on myspace.   download em’ here!  happy thanksgiving 

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=febe06afc6dc15bdab1eab3e9fa335ca8beb049a55bfffd5

-chris

Big Stuff (with 2 f’s)

Ive been really stressed out this week about a lot of things.  There is a lot of uncertainty involved in what I do for a “living”.  Everyday I’m faced with questions like: What am I going to do in 10 years if and when I have a family, and how am I going to support them on being a worship leader/musician?  How am I ever going to buy a house?  Can I really survive on “living my dream”?

Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely a very hard worker and I am very determined to do succeed at the things I feel like God is calling me too, but sometimes it gets to be a little much.  This week I’ve been trying to finalize some things for this summer and where I am gona be leading at and its got me totally stressed out.  I really want to be at Big Stuf again this summer, not only because it’s a great opportunity but because I really believe in what God’s doing there.  Everytime it looks like things are gona work out something always falls through.  Ive been so worried about it that I had a nightmare about it last night… I know its crazy, but it means that much to me haha.  

I had a moment of reality with my neighbor tonight.  Every thursday I go out to eat with their family.  Super nice folks!  They have planted a church here in conyers where I live.  I was telling them how worried I am about things and how all the uncertainty of being a worship leader gets the best of me sometimes.  I was wearing my Big Stuf shirt from last year and I told them how I was crossing my fingers I could serve there again this summer and Alan’s wife asked me if I had been praying about it…  Now let me start by saying that I have been praying about it but its more or less a, “God I really want this and please make this work for me.”  Sometimes I am so guilty of making my prayers more about what I want rather than what God wants with my life.  Its not a hard concept, but sometimes i lose sight of the big picture when I get caught up in the moment.  So tonight my prayers going to be way different than my prayer last night.  My prayer is that God will use me to reach students for Jesus where ever in the world He sees necessary, and if thats Big Stuf I know that God will pave the way for me to get to serve there again.

I cant wait to see my mom and my dog tomorrow.  I have missed those two like crazy!  I am looking forward to seeing my family and spending some time at their farm in Charleston.  Hope you guys have a great thanksgiving, love on your family as much as possible!

-chris

home sweet home!

its been a crazy 2 months.  Ive only had one weekend at home since weve been so busy. its been so great though, God is just doing some awesome things in our hearts as a band and as friends.  

this weekend was my last fall retreat for this year, and ive gota say it was by far the best one weve done in a long while.  First baptist Hendersonville was the coolest group of kids and leaders that weve got to hang out with in a forever.  we met so many great kids and hopefully made some long lasting relationships with them.  im so stoked about what God has in store for our band, its gona be great.

I got some time at home now that the fall retreat rush is over.  im looking forward to spending some quality time with my mom, dad, and charlie-murphy (my dog).

-chris

what do you worship?

Im reading loiue’s book the air I breathe.  what a killer read.  check this out, a lot of times I feel like I miss this.

worship: what we value the most.

we were all designed to worship.  the way the worlds set up a lot of times we end up worshiping God-created things rather than the God of creation.  For me its my guitars and gear.  So much of the time i find myself longing for more things.  Reading those words hit me right at home.  We were singing lead me to the cross last night and when I was talking to the kids I really had a huge epiphany…   I said to the kids, “whatever it is you are putting before God, put them at the foot of the cross tonight”.  As I was saying that I spoke those same words to God as my prayer.  The more I lead worship the more I find that it’s not about leading the kids by saying something profound but rather putting myself and their shoes and reassuring them that we are searching, struggling, stumbling, and worshiping God together on the same exact level.  I think thats when true authentic God-centered worship-leading happens.  

we are at woodland christian camp this weekend and im stoked.  Cool stuff is on the horizon for us as a band.  We are going to be hiring my dad as our bus driver/roadie.  haha I know he’s stoked about it and so am I.  My dad and I have a unique relationship in that he still wants to be a part of what I’m doing, and even though im 21 years old I dont feel “too cool” to have my dad on the road with me.  Hes great and I cant wait for him to see what me and my guys are all about.  Plus, traveling in the RV beats the snot out of ole’ Jeepy.  Don’t get me wrong shes faithful but it gets pretty tight in that joint!

-chris

and so it goes…

lifes been awesome!  been leading worship every day.  this is my first day off in 7 days.  i love it!  I got to lead with some buds i hadnt seen in a while and that was great.  We def had a great time.

I got to see my parents, charlie-murphy, and my grand parents this weekend and that was excellent.  I hadnt seen them in a long time.  On a crazier note, I woke up at 11:30 on Saturday to the sound of sirens, police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck, and my grandma screaming in pain.  She fell down the stairs and they had to take her to Grady in a helicopter.  It was nuts!  Praise the Lord that she is totally fine, they thought she had broke her neck but really she just got bruised up pretty bad.

We are going on the road this weekend and I am excited!  I’ve missed it a lot.  I cant wait to see what God has in store for us and the kids this weekend.

I’ve been listening to Billy Joel, and so it goes is one of the best songs ever!

-chris

a new season, a new day

October baseball starts tomorrow.  I am sooooo stoked.  I went out and bought me an Angels cap today so I’d be ready for the play offs.  If they can hold off tampa bay theyre gona kill it for sure!

I was really worried about things slowing down so much in between the summer and fall.  Its crazy coming off a summer of doing 8 camps back to back to not having anything book other than the regular Sun and Wed events.  Things have definitely started picking up though with fall retreats starting up.  I am on the road every weekend for two months straight starting thursday.  I cant wait!  I miss being busy and ofcorse it makes life a lot easier.  We’re going to Kentucky next month for a 3 day fall retreat for First Baptist Church of Hendersonville Tennesee.  Its always awesome going to a new state.  Ive never been to Kentucky other than passing through it when I was on the road this summer.  I could not be more stoked.  I cant wait to load up the new and improved pappa smurf, and get back on the road.

oh yea i almost forgot.  First Baptist Church of Hendersonville found out about my band through this blog.  How cool is that?  Thats two days in a row i was shocked to find out that someone actually reads this thing hahah!

-chris

whats playing on my ipod

1.  anything top 40 country (sorry im a sucker for twang, a good hook, and a banjo)

2.  Whiskey Town- Strangers Almanac

3.  Saves The Day- Through Being Cool

still no ryan adams… I cant dig him yet, everyone tells me im crazy.  I like what he did in whiskey town but his other stuffs boring to me.  sorry haha

gnight

-chris