Graham Ord

30 hour famine

grahamord — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:27:09 +0000

I am so pleased to be able to be part of this very special event which also involves some of my kids and their youth group at the Kelowna Vineyard. It is always great to see young people getting involved in causes that make a difference around the world. This initiative will raise money to dig wells in parts of the world affected by famine. The youth will be giving up all food for 30hrs to raise money for water in third world countries.
The concert will include performances from people such as:
Graham Ord, Hayden Ward, Nathan Hare, Aaron Ord, Seth MacGregor, Jordan Bosch, and Charis Ord.

Desserts and coffee will be served.
Come show your support for the youth! Admission is by donation at the door. All donations $20 and over will receive a tax receipt.
Venue is The Mars Hill Building- 1370 KLO rd Kelowna, BC time 6.30pm

To Tame A Heart – Free Download

grahamord — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 04:57:25 +0000

Over the past few years a number of people have asked if I would make this recording available again. It is a very simple collection of mainly devotional songs, I recorded in 1989 after being impacted (somewhat surprisingly) by faith.

It’s a free download if anyone would like it.

To Tame a Heart (Free download) by Graham Ord

Two C Words – A New recording

grahamord — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:57:06 +0000

I am really pleased to announce that my latest recording is now available. It is a song is called Two C Words which was written and recorded for my friend Jordan, a 14 year old young man courageously battling cancer. The song is downloadable with all profits going to assist Jordan and his family at this tough time. You can review the full song below and purchase it if you choose. Please could you help me spread the word by sharing this with your circle of friends too?

The story behind Two C Words

A song for Jordan and any others battling cancer.

My heart was like a rag in a dog’s jaws after hearing that young 14 year old Jordan Unrau was diagnosed with bone cancer. I had worked closely with his parents for 5 years before and I had seen Jordan grow from a boy into a sensitive young man. It was too much to think of him having to endure all this.

I was asked to perform at a benefit concert with a bunch of family friends to help with some financial pressures brought on by this sickness. A few days before the concert I was driving along and saying a prayer for Jordan’s healing, when the thought came to me, of how there are two C’s warring over Jordan. One is a small c, cancer who is a murderer and a thief, and the other is a big C, Christ Jesus who is a life giver and a healer. I personally use the c word to refer to cancer often because for me this disease doesn’t deserve the respect of a name. But there is also another C word over Jordan, the mighty name of Christ who is everything that cancer is not and who paid a price with his own blood for our healing. I just started singing about these two c words whilst driving along in the car, and the song just fell out of my heart. I stopped by the side of the road and wrote out the words in my note book. A couple of days later I performed the song at the benefit concert and played an extended guitar solo at the end of it which was my prayer for Jordan. The understanding came to me that words are essentially vibrations, expressive sounds made by air moving through vocal chords. Music is my prayer language, instead of vocal chords, guitar strings cause vibrations which move air making sounds driven by a heart longing to communicate. Every musician that evening must have said a million prayers for Jordan.

After the concert I asked some good friends to help me record the song and everyone jumped at the chance and donated their talents to the recording. Two of the guys are Jordan’s Uncles so this was extra special to have them involved. I have dedicated this to Jordan who I see as a young warrior whose faith in Christ is an inspiration to many. All proceeds from the song will go to his family until we hear that Jordan is well again.

CREDITS

Written and Produced by Graham Ord for Knewsense Records

The following musicians kindly donated their talents to this project

Neville Bowman: Trumpet treatments

Eric Funk: Drums

Brian Wiebe: Bass Guitar

Bruce Wiebe: Trombone and Horn arrangements

(Graham Ord: Guitar and Vocals)

Recorded, mixed and Mastered by Brian Wiebe at Solar nest Arts, KelownaBC.

Video by Nico – Fair Trade Creative.

Cover Photo by Darren Hull Photography

Thanks to Tribehouse Collective.

Dedicated to Jordan and any others who are battling cancer.

All proceeds from downloads will be donated to Jordan’s family until we hear he is well again.

Sustainability

grahamord — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:59:10 +0000

A few years ago I was asked to perform at a conference centered around sustainability. I must admit that at the time I wasn’t really sure about what it was all about. I had visions of rainbow flags, V.W. camper vans and djembe thrashing dreadlock clad whale riders smelling of patchouli oil and making a stink about anything right of Baron Keynes of Tilton. A comfortable crowd to be with for me, but what difference would I make to the equasion? I was pleasantly surprised to find that yes there were some stereotypes there, but also there was a far wider representation of people from all walks of life and social groups, just everyday people who were active in the pursuit of making this world a better place to live in. That experience did a lot for me, it made me realise that it is often the media who love to focus on the fringe extremes of ecological and environmental activism while down playing the very real responsibility that we all have to be careful with the way we treat the earth. In the past I have been party to a theology that I now percieve as irresponsible and narrow, which states that the earth will one day all pass away and a new one be formed so who gives a rip about the environement because it’s all gonna be burned up anyway. I have since thought a lot about how I am actually called to be a good steward of someone else’s property, and in doing so, it will go to ensure that my kids and their children’s children will have a better place to live in than I do now.

The Arts are also crucial to sustainability of community life. Imagine a community with out colour, sculpture, music or dance. Our well-being as people is dependent on the arts in so many ways and it annoys me so much to see funding for the Arts continually stripped back in schools and in the wider community. Thousands of years of tradition of Artists having a central place in communities who saw them valuable enough to support is being eroded away and Artists who, let’s face it, often suck at business, are burning out under the pressure of needing to be promoters, Agents, salesmen, oh and creative artists and performers occasionally. Artists can be like prophets in our midst and as communities we need what they bring to the table. Lofty ideas from our places of learning are often communicated to the general populous through the Arts. The Arts are indeed crucial to sustainability.

On Wednesday I will be performing a musical piece at the Kelowna Building sustainable communities conference with a few of my kids. It will involve the various ages and will depict the fact that we will not achieve anything unless we involve all the generations working together. I am so excited about this for many reasons but mostly because I get to perform with my kids in something that will educate us in the process and also hopefully have an impact on the delagates at the event. We will perform at 12.45pm on Wednesday 29th February.

For more details on the conference go to http://www.freshoutlookfoundation.org/events/bsc/2012

Songwriter circles

grahamord — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:49:41 +0000

I was performing in Memphis at the Memphis Folk Alliance last year and one of the highlights for me was to witness something called a songwriter circle hosted by Blue Rock studios from Texas. It was really well hosted and it felt like such a natural way to hear new songs and get an introduction to some new artists. I was so happy when we returned to Canada to find that one of my friends at Tribehouse took the initiative to get a songwriter circle going in our town. It has been running for about 8 months now and each month we have four different artists sharing their stories and songs. Usually there is a mixture of more established artists and new comers too. Its a safe environment for everyone to try new songs out and gauge how an audience responds to the music.

Tonight I will be performing there again along with Gary Norris, Bethany Petch and Hayden Ward. It should be a blast. If you are in Kelowna please come out and support the event. 7pm streaming cafe, Kelowna BC

http://www.tribehouse.org/2012/01/songwriter-circle-feb-17/

Stuck on Love

grahamord — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:44:20 +0000

When the news comes that one of your children is gravely ill your heart is pulled out of shape as you try to come to terms with the reality of the situation and try to understand the implications of the diagnosis. My wife and I have had our share of such experiences worried sick about our own children at different times. Our dear friends the Unrau’s have just heard that the youngest son has cancer and is undergoing treatment in Vancouver. Dealing with the illness is one thing, dealing with the financial pressures that time off work and all the travel involved is another.
Some of their musician friends from our town have put a benefit concert together on February 10th to create a place for our community to express their love and support for the family by collecting some cash to bless them at this perplexing time.
The show will be at The Bridge, Kelowna BC and will feature The Ord Strauss Blues revue, Andrew and Zach Smith and Windfall Prophet.
The Bridge is located at 2100 Gordon Drive, Kelowna, BC (Gordon and Springfield) The concert begins at 7pm. All proceeds will go the the Unrau’s. Please say a prayer for Jordan as he courageously battles this cancer.
He is a wonderful young man who is greatly loved in our community.

Not even spring yet!

grahamord — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:06:55 +0000

I was looking around my place over Christmas and realizing that I needed to clear out some things in the new year. Things such as my old drum kit (pictured) that I bought during a stressful time so that I could smash the daylights out of something to alleviate the stress a few years back! Sometimes it feels good to lay some old things to rest so that you can do some new ones instead eh? I so often get attached to things because of what they represesent or also because of what they could possibly become. What usually happens with me though is that years go by and I realise that I have never done anything with the things I have stashed! What was funny this time as I was contemplating my ‘winter’ spring clean my kids also began telling me that they had desires to play various new instruments. Big instruments too, like the harp and the Cello - any space I was thinking I might create will soon be filled with other stuff and this time stuff that wasn’t mine. There is a princple there I guess? I am enjoying the process of clearing stuff out and selling some things on that I hope will bring pleasure to someone else like it has me.

I am looking forward to the coming year, I dont really have too many strong plans for world domination as I might have had in previous times but I do feel good about what might unfold as I keep open and keep the road clear. I look forward to developing a few new skills on the various instruments that I own and hope that these skills will grace some recordings and live performances in the year ahead.

Thanks so much for stopping by the site, I always appreciate that people are interested in what I am doing. Have a very Happy New Year.

Trinity Baptist Concert

grahamord — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:22:49 +0000

L-r top: Graham Ord, Brian Wiebe, Andrew Smith Bottom: Norm Strauss, Kim McMechan.

Really looking forward to performing at Trinity Baptist Kelowna this weekend. Sunday at 7pm will be our last performance of Christmas Presence this season. If you are in the Okanagan BC. Feel free to join us, it will be lots of fun with great music and seasonal poems and stories. Also featuring Andrew Smith, Kim McMechan, Norm Strauss and Brian Wiebe. Details can be found under the events tab at the top of the page.

Nice shot

grahamord — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:06:27 +0000

Here’s a really nice shot from our Christmas Presence show at Bottega Farm Inn Kelowna.
Photo used by permission of Darren Hull Photography (all rights reserved).
For more great shots visit bo.ttega.com

Christmas Presence – what a blast!

grahamord — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:01:32 +0000

This past weekend was so much fun! Our shows in Kelowna and Penticton were completely sold out and we had such a great time performing before really appreciative audiences.
The last chance to catch Our Christmas Presence show is on Sunday evening at 7pm at Trinity Baptist Kelowna. Admission is by Donation.
The concert will again feature Andrew Smith, Norm Strauss, Kim McMechan, Brian Wiebe and myself.