Sam Newcomer

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! 2011 saw me leading worship on Sundays at the Axis and on Wednesday nights with Awakening. It saw me teaching English to Nashville natives, Czech immigrants, and Buddhist monks. It saw me working at a nursing home, and loving it. It saw me making new relationships and fortifying old ones - though some ending altogether. It saw me reading, writing, crying, watching, listening to great music. I recorded and released an album. 2011 didn’t skip any seasons, it was unsurprisingly surprising. It also saw me contemplating a HUGE life choice: attending seminary. 2012 will reveal the these things and many more, and I can’t wait. Indeed these days are gone and I move forward.

Here are more photos from the recent “Glorious Journey” video shoot.

I wish everyone a remarkable new year! Spend these days with friends and family, and live in the sunshine. — Sam

What a Glorious Journey Home!

Here it is, folks! I’m super excited to present to you all the finished product, the official music video for “Glorious Journey!”

For such an upbeat, happy song I knew that its music video would need to reflect that. And I have a lot of people to thank for making the idea for this video a reality. To Miles Cary for originally asking to take on this project and helping me flesh out all the details / filming it - thank you! To Caleb McLaughlin for taking a dreary November day and filling it with crazy colors and a sun with a face (haha) - thank you so much for beautifully editing it!

Thank you finally to all my friends who were able to help out in the video - Brian, Rachel, Ross, Will, Kevin, Ben, Tyler, Josh - so much craziness. But I loved it!

Hope you all enjoy this video. I absolutely had a blast making it and it turned out even more awesome than I expected! Love you all!

Sam

An Awakening Sampler!

Many of you know that I’m involved in a ministry on Belmont’s campus called Awakening. It’s been a time of growing, as we say hello to new faces and rejoice as others scatter throughout Belmont and Nashville. Last year, my friends Ben and Kevin set out to record an Awakening “CD,” inviting students to perform original songs and covers. It was amazing to discover the hidden talents of some of my friends, to hear beautiful songs and beautiful hearts. God has truly inspired us by music.

And we want to share it with you all! Kevin has just put the album on Noisetrade, a wonderful website for independent musicians and labels, and the 14-song sampler is available for free! I contribute an acoustic version of “Glorious Journey” from my latest album.

We pray that this sampler will show others none but Jesus. That his glory will shine through the voices and instruments and writings. It was truly a blessing to be a part of recording this, and listening to some of these pieces for the first time, I can’t help but smile and thank God for my family, his body. I hope you enjoy these songs!

In Him,

Sam

Success!

Me and the gang as we top off our day of shooting the music video. What a beautiful evening. Thank you to all of my friends and new friends who came out and made this a fun experience - I had a blast! About a week for editing and then we’ll have the finished product. Can’t wait to share it with y’all!

Providence

Just dug up this old poem/unfinished song from May 2011. On the one hand, it bugs me that my computer is filled with a ton of files that are “untitled,” but on the other, I love stumbling upon old creative bursts - this one makes me smile. I’ve given it a proper title now: “Providence.” O how it resonates with me half a year later!

I feel compelled to reflect on where I am
And how this hour last year I had conjured up a plan
And how God turned it over and taught me something new
And how this hour I won’t be so quick to assume
That God couldn’t shake my core again this time around
‘Cause I stand here and if that’s what it takes, then baby shake me down
‘Cause I crave direction and last year’s path won’t do
So Jesus may I strain ahead and go on chasing you

We’re Shooting a Music Video!

Hey Nashville! I’m extremely excited to announce that for a class project, the same Miles who recorded my cover of Josh Garrels’ “Flood Waters” will be shooting a music video for one of my songs, “Glorious Journey!” We’re still in the planning process, but we do know that we are gonna need a lot of help!

The premise of the video is that I will be playing and singing the song while undertaking this “journey.” I’ll constantly walk forward toward the camera, joined by a troup of musicians and attacked by various things of the world - all in one shot.

So here’s what we need:

1) We need at least four people who want to be the musicians: a trumpet, a tambourine, a ukulele, and a background vocalist/stomper (haha). They will join me as the song progresses and go through this “journey” with me.

2) And we need a LOT of people who want to “attack” us, starting off calmly and growing into a chaotic, hilarious mess! We want to have an element of humor to it because it is a happy song. Miles and I came up with some ideas:
- super soakers
- silly string
- streamers
- water balloons
- plastic swords/light sabers
- “ghosts” (people under sheets running around)
- toilet paper

The more people we can get the better and more insane it will turn out! If you are interested in helping out in one of these areas, or you have some awesome ideas of your own, let us know!

Because of busy schedules (and because the days getting darker earlier) - we set the date for Friday, November 18 from 3:00 - about 6:30/7 pm. We haven’t picked out a solid location yet, but we will try to make it within reasonable distance of campus. Stay tuned for more details.

So mark this on your calendar - we need lots of help, but I know it’s gonna be a blast! We’ll see if we can provide some dinner or something after for everyone. Listen to the song here: http://samnewcomer.bandcamp.com/track/glorious-journey and RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239668582757587

Thanks guys, really really excited for this!

Sam