FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everybody -

Well, the BIG NEWS from the CIA Summit yesterday was the unveiling of the “New” IndieHeaven.Com. The new design of the site is AWESOME and it’s something we’re proud to send people to as independent artists. The features are amazing - I think it’s one of the best music/media sites I’ve seen.


Check it out …
www.indieheaven.com/artists/fredmckinnon

You can listen to ALL the songs through the cool music player, and you can cast votes for artist, song, and album easily. I’m grateful for the support you’ve shown over the year.

Also …
Now, there are two Radio Charts. The IH Radio, which is hand selected by the editors. (I’m not there … yet).
THen, there is the “Fan Faves” .. which is similar to the OLD Radio Chart. Fan Faves is where you can go show some support by rating my cut of “You, You Are God”, as recorded on my Worship Under the Stars CD/DVD.

(Vote/Rate “You, You Are God”)

Yesterday was a packed day, and today is no different. Back-to-back sessions were full of information, but I kinda wish they had a few more breaks and longer dinner scheduled … us “creative type” can’t sit there for 7+ hours of non-stop, back-to-back sessions without getting a bit stir crazy. Thankfully, they have a cool coffee bar and snack shop right there in the room.

I spoke to Jeff Nelson yesterday about maybe getting some help producing my upcoming piano CD … you know, the one I’ve been promising for a decade.

Also enjoyed meeting several of the IH artists I’ve grown to love from the “charts” and “forums”. Last night as I was leaving, I stopped outside and had a nice talk with Sean Smith, who is a big name there, featured on the IH Homepage, and has gained a ton of momentum since last year’s summit, including landing a national distribution deal with TAG. I found out that Melinda Doolittle, one of my favorite voices on this year’s American Idol, sung backup on his CD! How cool is that!

Speaking of Idol … I’m sad that Chris Sligh got voted off - he’s a fellow worship leader, and he had a great voice. The whole “Sanjaya” think is ridiculous … Sean was telling me about how as a backup singer, Melinda had a huge advantage, and I reminded him that American Idol doesn’t seem to be about how well you can sing anymore. Too sad.

Oh well, time to drive into Franklin and attend the sessions.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Hello from Nashville, TN … as promised, a quick update/recap on the CIA (Christian Indie Alliance) Summit here in Franklin …

Last night was a great time of “Meet and Greet” and worship. This church where the conference is held is in “The Factory” in Franklin, Building 8 … it’s totally cool - like a huge coffee shop. (speaking of, my hotel only had decaf coffee in my room - who wants that?).

One of the biggest surprises was after the worship time, I turned around to see Matt Davis and his wife, Dawn, from Savannah. Matt and I were both drummers on the Georgia Southern University drumline back “in the day”. It was nice to have an old friend present.

Centricity Records artist, Jaime Jamgochian led worship last night. She was incredible - what a voice … what piano chops. She can play, she can play, she can play, and she’s got an incredible voice. More than that, it was obvious how passionate she was about her worship. I really liked her style and passion.

Today we have some worship with “Bread of Stone” and then a host of sessions and workshops, including some devotions, vision focusing, “Taking Care of Business” with Brian Smith from FFH, a Dave Ramsey coaching session (yeah!), and a few hours of production workshops with several well known producers, followed by some panels from INDIE leaders, and INDUSTRY leaders. Margaret Becker will be teaching on life calling and mission statements this afternoon, and then a big concert tonight after dinner. It’s gonna be a long day, but I am praying that I can soak it all in!

Time to get ready and take off … thanks for praying for me!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Hey Everybody -

Sitting here in the Atlanta airport … preparing to board my flight to Nashville, TN for the IndieHeaven.Com CIA Summit and Momentum Awards. It’s gonna be a great weekend. It’s a packed schedule of worship, concerts, and classes/sessions … I’m looking forward to networking, making a bunch of new friends, and learning a LOT as well.

Saturday evening is the Momentum Awards - thanks again to all those who voted and showed support. I’m just honored to have made it as a Finalist, and look forward to the entire event. If you are in the Nashville area, c’mon out Saturday night.

My flight from Brunswick was short and sweet - I’m bringing along my digital camera and hope to get some pics and blog a bit while I’m out there.

Chat w/ ya soon!
For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Hey Ya’ll -

Just a quick “hello world” post … I’ve been in McRae, GA - my hometown since yesterday afternoon. I’m playing piano in a wedding for Nichole, my sister-in-law’s niece. They’ve always been like family to us and I’m glad I could be involved in her wedding. The music is cool, and my favorite is that she is coming down the aisle to “Feels Like Home” by Chantal Kreviazuk .. an awesome song. Then, the Recessional is a way cool arrangment (from Adam Sandler’s 50 First Dates) of SomeWhere Over the RainBow/What a Wonderful World with this dude playing mandolin who can REALLY SING. Kudos, Nichole, for thinking outside the box. Another cool thing was that she’s having “Just Want To Say” by Courtney Spears as well - a fellow IndieHeaven.Com Artist. The wedding will be GORGEOUS.

I miss my family. Joy and the oldest three went down to Disney Campground this week - they left Tuesday PM. I’ve had my 10-month old son, Andrew with me .. we’re having a blast. He’s about to go spend some time with Bill & Sue Otten - lifelong ministry friends. They live in Dublin, GA where the wedding is happening. Then, I’ll drive back to St. Simons Island tonight - I imagine my 3 kids will be asleep, but I hope Joy is still awake … I want to tell her “Happy Anniversary” in person … as 9 years ago, tonight, I asked her to marry me … and thankfully, she said “yes”.

OK - so, I’ve been building quite a blogroll that I access each day on my Google Homepage. I’ve found that many of these well-known bloggers know and link to each other, and I’ve been following their trails - successful pastors, worship leaders, etc .. .and I want to hear what they have to say. Well, I’ve said before that I really enjoy blogging - even if NOBODY READS. But, we’d all be lying if we didn’t admit that it DOES FEEL GOOD to KNOW that somebody out there reads what you write .. in the event you have something worthwhile to say … you’ll have an “ear” .. (or an eye!).

So … scroll down the right side of my page and you’ll find a bunch of new links to some of the blogs I check each day. I’d post them individually below, but I’m running out of time - gotta get on my black suit, get Andrew up, and get in the car!

Speaking of blogs .. I’ve claimed my blogs on Technorati. Technorati is a site/service that tracks blog posts, comments, etc - kinda like a “blog search engine”. I’ve heard of it, but it recently was a hot topic on Steven Furtick’s blog, so I figured he may ditch it, but I’m gonna pick it up. So, you can now add my blogs to your Technorati fav’s:

OK - so, looking forward to a great service (3 of them actually) tomorrow morning at St. Simons Community Church.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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