Serving the Voices Blog

Posts from December 2013

Life and Lyrics

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Photo Courtesy of Fire At Will Photography

Life and Lyrics
By: Sydney Fontaine

I love music. I love the feeling of strings against my fingers. I love it when you can hear the audience lifting their voices, and see them stomping and clapping to the beat. I love when you can feel a buzz in the air from the music resonating with the people in the room. I love it when the message we bring to the stage impacts people. I love that music is such a diverse art form.

Music isn’t just a string of words to communicate a point. It pulls you into the emotions of the artist. You’re not only hearing their convictions and passions, but you’re experiencing the emotions they’re experiencing. You’re drawn into the picture that they’re painting. That’s a powerful tool, and the effect that it has on us can be life-altering.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned as an artist is that my words carry a limited amount of authority in the lives of those I interact with. What really matters to people is that your actions are in line with the convictions you sing and write about. This realization can be intimidating. It’s easy for me to string together eloquent words on how you can make a difference in the lives of those around you, but until I show you proof, none of it matters.

I pray that my life exemplifies surrender.

That’s why I travel around, casting off the familiar and comfortable and replacing it with a life that demonstrates what I believe. That’s why I play music. I believe God has a plan for our lives that’s bigger than what we could every imagine. I believe that He calls us to love others more than our reputation and personal comfort. I believe in giving it all up to Him every day.

As I’ve had the pleasure of writing for RYFO, it’s spurred me into contemplating what defines the voices that RYFO works so hard to serve. Why do we put up with sleeping on floors and in vans, and driving through the night to get to shows that we may or may not break even at? Because we’ve been a given a platform to bear our hearts to people. We have their ear and we need to take it. For the sake of what we’re called to communicate, we must take that risk.

A lot of people I’ve talked to on the road seem to think this kind of radical obedience to a call is out of reach for them. Don’t fall into that way of thinking! You have just as much (if not more) capacity than I do to live with passion and conviction. Find a way to communicate the message you want your life to convey and go for it.

Music is my medium. What’s yours?

A Personal Connection

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Photo Courtesy of Fire At Will Photography

A Personal Connection
By: Lori George

It’s a rare occasion when one of your all-time favorite musicians reaches out to you and offers you helpful advice.  It’s even more of a rare occasion if they share a personal story about their lives that they’ve only shared with their family members and very close friends.  So personal in fact, that they never shared it during thousands of interviews with various press all over the world. They entrust you with their story, without your asking, hoping that you will only share it with others who might benefit from it.

That’s exactly what happened to me.

In the not-so-distant past, I found myself in the midst of some very unfortunate circumstances. Absolutely none of my relatives or friends had ever been through what I was attempting to navigate on a daily basis. There were no books, magazines, or websites that served as a “how to.” I humbled myself, and on a whim, I made the decision to open a line of communication with one of my all-time favorite musicians.  To my complete and utter disbelief this artist became genuinely interested in my life, and wanted to keep in touch so they could check in on me and offer me some pointers.  I gladly exchanged contact info with them and four days later I learned from this artist that when they were my age they too had been navigating the same situations I was navigating. This artist shared with me their personal heartache and their daily fears. One example they shared was how they’d survived living in an old abandoned building.  Since sleeping at night wasn’t an option, this person stayed awake throughout the night and read their Bible until day break. Later on those times served as the foundation upon which their catalogues of albums were built.

I never would have imagined this person went through so much. They seemed so incredibly together.  Not just their outer appearance, but their overall presence on stage, how they interacted with others, and during interviews on radio, television, and magazines. I never imagined the pain, anger, confusion, depression, anxiety and doubt they’d endured. In light of my experience I’ve found myself reflecting on the interactions between musicians and fans. I wonder what the music community would look like if musicians and fans started interacting on a more personal level. What kind of change would that introduce in their lives?

As a contributing writer for RYFO I’ve begun to realize that my interaction can and should be the norm rather than the exception. I invite you to learn, as I have, about becoming A Different Brand of Fan. With a new perspective and approach on being a music fan, you may end up making a personal connection with one of your favorite musicians.

The House Show Agency

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The following post comes to you from our friends at The House Show Agency (HSA). We recently partnered with HSA to further grow our Host Home program.

Hello! My name is Andrea Howat and I run The House Show Agency. I began booking house shows for Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken back in 2011 and have been booking house shows ever since. I now book house shows for multiple artists including Jenny & Tyler, Audrey Assad, The Brilliance, and more.

If you’re unfamiliar with a house show, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an artist comes and performs – usually acoustically – in your living room! Countless artists are incorporating house shows alongside traditional tour dates (clubs, colleges, churches etc). It’s a really cool way to connect with fans in an intimate, listening-room environment. And they’re super easy to host!

House shows provide an opportunity for musicians who are newer in their career to establish a fanbase but it’s also a way for more established artists to debut new music, fill in off-days on tour routes, and reconnect with fans in a unique way.It has become an increasing trend over the past few years and it shows no signs of slowing! We’re really humbled to get to work with some of the best independent singer-songwriters in music today.

We’ve booked shows from California to Florida, Texas to New York, and many places in between. And we’re continually looking for more host homes all over the country! If you would have any interest in learning more about being a house show host for one of our current or future artists – I’d love to connect with you to tell you more about it. Or if you have any friends who you think would be interested in hosting, please consider forwarding this email along to them! We’d be most grateful.

Hosting house shows is a great way to enjoy music, foster community, practice hospitality, and support independent artists. We have some exciting potential artist additions to our roster for 2014, and we’d love for you to be involved. We’re grateful to get to do what we do, and to partner with an incredible organization like RYFO. We hope you’ll come alongside us as we aim to grow the largest house show network in the country and build something new together.

Feel free to email  for more info. Read our FAQ’s on our website. Or connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/houseshowagency.