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Barry & Michelle Social
Rainbows, Rockin' Moms and Canadians
Canada, here we come. We are starting at the bottom of the rainbow and driving to this far and distant land next week to reconnect with family and friends-the other end of the rainbow. We are playing three different venues and we want the Canadians to come in droves. So here is all the information you'll need to find an event that will work for you! We still have available dates if any of you Canadians are in need of our services. Just contact us at ascensionarts@mac.com.
GOSPEL MUSIC JAMBOREE, July 17-19
for the Jamboree, our scheduled appearances are as follows:
Friday (17th) 10:05 PM
Saturday (18th) 2:15 PM
Saturday (18th) 9:15 PM
Sunday (19th) 9:30 AM Leading worship
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, July 19th When: 7:00 PM
Where: Weslowski's, 6020 59 St.
Here's a fun bit of news for you--Michelle was chosen to be a featured artist at www.rockinmoms.com. Read the interview here.
7000 Miles
Barry has had a solo project in his back pocket for a few years now. I, as his biggest fan, keep trying to get him to play the songs for folks to give them a taste of what's coming. Much against his will, I got him to youtube this one for ya. Enjoy! And locals, Barry is playing a solo set at the Woodland Park Christian Artist's Festival at 1pm this Saturday, at the Ute Pass Cultural Center. Come on out and support your local art.
Caravan to Texas
How many Patty-Clegg-Sparks can you fit in your car?
Do you want some Patterson's in your life?
We are entering an awesome new season of availability for concerts and itinerant worship leading and we are trying to get the word out. We have been full-time arts and worship pastors at our local fellowship, New Covenant Christian Fellowship since 2005 and it has been an amazing experience. We have benefited so much by putting down roots here in Colorado. It has been good for our kids to come off of the road for a season too. By September, we will be working only half-time at New Covenant and to us, it seems the best of both worlds. Since we have been off the road, we have missed live performance and the adventure and joy that comes from being with new people in new places. We will still be leading worship at New Covenant on a fairly regular basis and pastoring a group of folks as well. But we can't WAIT to come see you.....
In the past six months we have been experimenting with traveling again and we are loving it. We have been loading up our bambinos and doing a mixture of house concerts, church concerts and worship events. We love all three of these avenues and are chomping at the bit to do more. So, tell your friends - the Pattys are back. If we can serve you, wherever you are, in any of those capacities, please let us know. We are booking for the summer and fall right now.
And now to the woman who makes it all possible, Melissa Clegg. Melissa has been working with us since October 2008. As you may remember from our blog back then, she gave up her secure employment and took a risk on us. Her duties have included childcare, admin. and everything that goes with travel and performance. She has wiped noses, typed memos, practiced for hours, loaded and unloaded bazillions of times, performed and ministered to audiences of all sizes and has done it all like a champ. Her servant's heart is her motivation and in the process, she has become a part of our family.
It is hard for us to convey what she means to us. It's like duplicating ourselves in so many ways. With Melissa around, the admin. work is divided and conquered. The kid to adult ratio goes up and the overwhelmed feeling goes down. The music sounds better. She is a huge source of blessing to us and we are stupendously grateful to all of you who have given towards her salary to give the gift of Melissa to us. If you are interested in giving us some more Melissa, we would be so blessed! You can do that by either clicking on the donations tab to your right or sending a check payable to Ascension Arts to the mailing address listed on our contact page. All gifts are tax-deductible.
P.S. We are touring in Alberta in July, so you Albertans let us know if you want some Pattersons!
Parkchurchdenver.org
We have had the distinct privilege to be a part of leading worship every few weeks for a growing fellowship in Denver and we love it. Our friends, Brian and Jenni Brown are pastoring this fellowship and we are both Christ Fellowship Ft. Worth alma mater We love that they moved to our state. We feel like we are the ones who receive the most as we get to hear the Word come out of our friend, Brian. He keeps Michelle's attention (a feat in itself) and his words roam around in our hearts. Check out our calendar and come worship with us at Park Church.
Bring on the Bovees
Bovee recording week is next week and today we are finalizing song plans. You are gonna like this....we will keep posting updates.
Terrible and Beautiful
We spent an awesome Easter weekend in Denver. We did a Good Friday house concert for White Fields Community Church and spent the night with the Steer Family. As soon as we walked in the door, Lorri hugged me big and said that she had read that my mom had breast cancer, so did she and that she looked forward to connecting on that issue. Not one to mince words, I was delighted to hear that there wouldn't be much small talk during our stay with the Steer's. The concert was a sweet time of communion and remembering the body and blood of Christ. We felt connected to our audience already and the whole night was a delight. Over breakfast the next morning, we got to
hear more of Lorri's story and we still feel humbled to have been
around her. The truth that she is happy and hopeful convicted our hearts. We invite you to her blog at www.lorriscancerupdates.blogspot.com to read her story for yourself. Once again, the biggest perk of our job was the people we encountered and connected with. Lorri, thank you for opening your home to us and letting us witness the beauty in you. God is good.
5 ways to improve your life.
Because we care about you :), we want to make sure you know about the music we love and believe in. We have five cd's to push on you today and you can thank us later. We are connected to all of these folks and believe so much in what they do and it's power to brighten your life. And the nominees are:
MARK BOVEE - VIEW FROM THE HILL
MARK BOVEE IS ONE OF THE REASONS WE EVER SOUND ANY GOOD. HE HAS PLAYED ON MOST OF OUR PROJECTS AND WE PERFORM LIVE WITH HIM REGULARLY. THE MAN IS A GENIUS. HIS LATEST RELEASE IS
A COLLECTION OF ALL ORIGINAL SOLO PIANO IMPROVISATIONS BASED ON THEMES AND IMAGES EXPERIENCED DURING HIS SABBATICAL IN THE ALLEGHANY HIGHLANDS OF WESTERN VIRGINA. THIS CD A SOUNDTRACK FOR OUR LIVES, AS IT IS A STAPLE IN THE PATTERSON HOUSEHOLD. MARK AND HIS WIFE CHRISTI, ARE THE ANCHORS OF GREENHOUSE ARTS,THE ARTS COMMUNITY WE ARE A PART OF. AND WATCH OUT, MARK AND CHRISTI ARE SLATED TO RELEASE THEIR FIRST CD TOGETHER LATER THIS YEAR. IF ONE CAN PUT A THOUSAND TO FLIGHT...HERE IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITES. CLICK ON ALBUM IMAGE TO BUY. Ancestral Stories Suffering & Pain
THORN'S MUSICAL JOURNEY - BROKEN SWORD
A NATURAL FUN RECOMMEND FOR US - MICHELLE'S LITTLE BROTHER. DARREN AND HIS WIFE, REBECCA, LIVE AND WORK IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND. READ UP ON THEIR ADVENTURES HERE. BROKEN SWORD, THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM DARREN THORNBERRY'S BAND IN SCOTLAND, IS FINALLY FINISHED AND READY TO SHIP. THE SONGS ON BROKEN SWORD WERE WRITTEN BY DARREN IN EDINBURGH AND RECORDED ON THE ISLE OF MULL IN 2008. THE ALBUM REPRESENTS A PROLIFIC TIME OF WRITING ON SUBJECTS RANGING FROM OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY (NOTHING TO LOOK AT) TO SPIRITUAL POVERTY (MIDDLE OF MY ROPE) AND MORE. IT'S A ROOTS-ROCKIN' AFFAIR, AND WE'RE UTTERLY CONVINCED YOU'LL LOVE IT! HERE'S MICHELLE'S FAVORITE CUT FOR A TEASER. CLICK ON ALBUM IMAGE TO BUY. Broken Sword
TODD WARREN - BREAKTHROUGH
OH GOODNESS. WE ARE SUCH LONG TIME FANS OF TODD THAT WE FEEL LIKE STALKERS. WE ARE FRIENDS SINCE MICHELLE WAS A TEENAGER AND EVERYTHING HE DOES SMOKES UP OUR SPEAKERS. THIS IS A LONG AWAITED PROJECT AND THE ONLY WORD WE CAN THINK OF TO DESCRIBE IT IS...NECESSARY. IT IS SO FULL OF HOPE AND TRUTH THAT WE TAKE IT LIKE A PRESCRIPTION. IT CHANGES THE ATMOSPHERE. THE ARTISTRY IS YUMMY AND YOU NEED THIS. IT WAS REALLY HARD TO PICK JUST ONE FOR YOU TO SAMPLE, BUT HERE YA GO. CLICK ON ALBUM IMAGE TO BUY. Compassion
ABIGAIL MAYNARD - COVERED IN RED
AS YOU MAY REMEMBER FROM OUR BLOG, WE HAD THE DISTINCT PRIVILEGE OF ASSISTING ABIGAIL WITH HER DEBUT. SHE HAS VOCALS BEYOND HER YEARS, AN UNCANNY CONNECTION WITH HER GUITAR AND GREAT WRITING CHOPS. BARRY PRODUCED THIS RECORDING IN JANUARY AND WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SEE HER LAUNCHED IN HER GIFTING. CHECK ABIGAIL'S SITE FOR PURCHASING INFORMATION. HERE'S A LITTLE TASTE FOR YOU. COVERED IN RED
FIKE AND DANA - MAKE A SOUND
WE MET THESE GUYS WHEN WE WERE BOTH PERFORMING ON A FLATBED TRAILER IN BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (WHERE MOST GREAT ARTISTS GET THEIR START) AND BECAME FAST FRIENDS. THESE GUYS ARE STELLAR WORSHIP LEADERS, WRITERS AND PERFORMERS AND WE WERE THRILLED WHEN THEY ASKED BARRY TO MASTER THEIR LATEST WORSHIP PROJECT. THEY LIVE IN COLORADO SPRINGS, SO WE GOT TO BE A PART OF THEIR CD RELEASE CONCERT, WHICH WAS WAY BEYOND FUN. IN A DAY AND AGE OF CHURCH WORSHIP AS AN INDUSTRY OF SORTS, FIKE AND DANA'S MUSIC CONTINUES TO DRAW US IN WITH HONESTY AND PASSION. WWW.FIKEANDDANA.COM HERE'S A SONG THEY LET MICHELLE SING ON.I'm Not Waiting
Tour Tabloid #2 - Prizes and Surprises
Prizes given for the youngest concert attendee ever--little Miss Lillian Warren, 4 days old! Montgomery, AL. Montgomery is like coming home for us. Tim and Karen Dilbeck pastor a body that hold the official record for the most times asking us back. We have relationships there that made this event conversational and rich. Once again, Alabama is good to us.
Baton Rouge was a Blue Renaissance family reunion for us. We were with Jared & Sarah Hornsby(our old touring buddies), Ben & Lori Kennedy and our dear, dear Sue Fletcher flew in to surprise us. It has been a long time since we have been together but the connection between us all was fresh and familiar. We all have much the same journey in ministry and it felt so amazing to be able to relate so fully to your friends. Besides getting to hang with them, we were delighted that when the first event was over, musician types hung out and jammed and shared songs. It got us thinking about the possibility of a future Baton Rouge multi-artist house concert showdown. We finished our event calendar worshiping at the Baton Rouge Vineyard. The folks there sang loud and loved well and it was the perfect ending to a really fulfilling journey. We'll be back, BR.
Our final landing place before attempting the three day journey home was in New Orleans with Kris and Esther Sparks. We set up for a live recording with them and incorporated bird chirps, kids playing and street noises into the vibe. We will let you know when Esther's project is completed, because you will want to
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