Thursday, October 21, 2004
David Clark's New Ground Concert
DAVID CLARK RETURNS TO TINNEY CHAPEL UMC at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 3, in our new Family Life Center auditorium. The Georgia-based singer/songwriter/syndicated columnist concludes a 90-day performance tour of the Northeast and Deep South before performing at Tinney Chapel, David's first stop in a series of Southwest concerts.
Choose to be blessed Wednesday, Nov. 3
It is our great pleasure to invite you not to miss the opportunity of a lifetime, Wednesday, November 3, at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium of Tinney Chapel's new Family Life Center!
Like all of you, I have attended so-called big-time events featuring big-time names, and who has heard of this David Clark?
I have heard of him. I have read his self-syndicated newspaper column. I have listened to his songs, stories & exquisite finger-style guitar on CD. I have heard Paul Harvey quote him on his popular radio program. I have read rave reviews of David’s shows all over the Deep South and elsewhere. You can learn a lot about David Clark at his website www.outofthesky.com
David’s songs and stories speak eloquently to us of life in all its sublime layers. When our spirits are temporarily broken, David always finds Christian threads to help us mend the torn fabric of our lives.
I have known David Clark for about seven years, although until his visit here in March, we had never met in person. Our relationship was forged and nurtured by telephone, letters, e-mail and the sure knowledge that we are kindred spirits, even brothers.
A gift for storytelling and a love of words coalesce to form the compelling style that speaks wondrously from each tale told by my friend David Clark.
To David Clark, words wave like flags in a breeze, and the gentle winds of the right words in the right places at once surprise and soothe the soul.
David Clark writes & tells us about phrases and phases of life in and around small Southern towns: dog days, picking up turtles, crop roots reaching down to China and the revelatory roots of his own psyche.
As an observer of both human and divine nature, David Clark’s keen eye for description and ear for expression speak eloquently of life’s transience and transcendence to assembly line workers in the city and tractor-driving tillers of the soil alike.
David Clark’s distinctive prose speaks to us all in the evocative, epic language of crying skies and living water that articulates the ethos of our innermost expectations.
David Clark and I hope to see you at Tinney Chapel UMC, Wednesday, November 3, at 6:00 p.m. There’s no admission fee. A love offering will be taken to help with his expenses on this, his second tour in the Lone Star State.
Let’s make him feel special, because he really is!
After David's appearance here in March, the next installment of his weekly newspaper column examined Tinney Chapel, Winnsboro and his unique relationship with Joe Dan Boyd, the author of this post. That column reveals a lot about David Clark, and is reprinted below:
Visiting New Ground
copyright 2004 David Clark/Cochran, Ga.
I spent the past 24 hours with my good friend Joe Dan Boyd in Winnsboro, Texas. I've known Joe Dan for about seven years from phone conversations, but we'd never met face to face. Joe Dan is the reason I write a weekly column, because one day a few years ago he told me I should. He's been a writer and editor for over 40 years.
Joe Dan is one of those angels one stumbles into when one is trying to find one's way.
The time I spent with Joe Dan and his wife Peggy was about as normal as one can get. For one thing, Miss Peggy had a home-cooked meal on the table shortly after I arrived yesterday afternoon. I've only been travelling about a long week now, but it doesn't take much time on the road to appreciate homemade meatloaf and sweet potato pie.
Following a luxurious homestyle meal and shower, there was six hours worth of talking with Joe Dan about everything under the sun. Then, I slept like a log until I woke.
This morning, Joe Dan and I explored the beautiful little town of Winnsboro. We bought gas at an old filling station where the owner washed Joe Dan's windshield. We journeyed into an old-time hardware store. We spent time watching strong men build a section of new sidewalk. Joe Dan and I talked about craftsmanship as we watched these men perform the graceful art of concrete finishing.
Joe Dan mentioned that more and more, he's grateful for normal days. He said he knew that one day he might be willing to "trade his kingdom" for one more normal day.
We walked in the rolling Texas woods behind his house. He told how his ancestors long ago cleared the trees from the field where we walked. Joe Dan said they always called this field "the new ground," and 100 years later, he and his brother still call it that.
We talked about how new ground took hard work to create. We talked about finding new ground every day.
We squatted beside a little branch running through the woods. I felt like a kid as we watched that water. Joe Dan talked about the bridge he'd wanted to build across that branch, and how he hadn't yet gotten around to building it.
We walked back to the house through the new ground. We talked all over again about how good it was to spend just a normal day.
It wasn't normal to see Joe Dan and Miss Peggy, to eat Miss Peggy's excellent cooking, or to walk a Texas field and sit beside a Texas stream.
It wasn't normal to be able to thank Joe Dan in person for his friendship and inspiration.
But for just a little while, the not-normal was just as normal as could be. It is one normal day I will always remember.
And a hundred years from now, I'll still be calling my visit with Joe Dan the new ground.
*****
