Tag Archives: First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation

Unplugged and Praying-Maundy Thursday Edition

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Last week, streaming was a little too weird, with six screens staring back at me. So this week, I’m just going to pre-record and post.

This Maundy Thursday Unplugged Prayer Meeting was done in one take (no edits) down at the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation. Had fun making it and I tried not to go off the rails. Oh well….

It’s Thursday Night Unplugged Prayer Meeting/Maundy Thursday version

Thought the sound mix with guitar (acoustic) and vocals was a solid one. Played my Epiphone through the Vox and mic’d it directly into the DAW along with the vocals.

Setlist:

Broken Little Bird (JimBMe)
Main Man (T Rex/Marc Bolan)
Tulsa Time (Don Williams/Eric Clapton)
Wonderwall (Oasis)
Self-help bromide
Living in This World (JimBMe)
Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young)
Icarus (Gold Connections)

Unplugged Prayers for Rock and Roll Salvation

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I am doing a combination of recorded videos and live streams as part of the work of the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation. As the church’s music minister, here is my contribution: a setlist of songs played Thursday afternoon.

Later that night, a live stream went out on the interwebz. I thought this was a more energetic (and slightly different) set. By the time we went live Thursday night, I’d played three sets, so my fourth set that night was a bit underwhelming, in my opinion. You be the judge, though. Oh, and there’s even a brief self-help segment about midway through the set. Bromides by Baumer, or something like that.

Rock and Roll Church-Sunday, March 7/Do You Want to Get Well?

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Rock and Roll Church this week was pre-recorded earlier in the week. It makes for a “less bumpy ride” than dealing with stream issues. Plus, it gives people some flexibility in being able to watch/listen if Sunday morning don’t work for them.

Time: March 7, 2021

Location: First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Low-Fi Salvation

Host: JimBaumerMe (music)     Rev. Jimi (sermon and edification)

Set 1:

Sermon:

Set 2:

Note: I mentioned “Burkean Conservatism and John Michael Greer” in my sermon and a link. Here it is.

Can I Get an Amen? Rock and Roll Church Update

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My time in the pool during my twice-weekly swims are very productive. Not only are they good for me, physically—they are also where I work through ideas—like how to make the most of the idea for what I’ve been referring to as “Rock and Roll Church” each Sunday.

Sunday morning at the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation

I admit, week one was one bumpy ride. My live stream went down, and there were a host of other issues. My main beta testers were patient. One so-called friend I asked basically walked away from our friendship with a two-line email. Oh well. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. It’s too bad you can’t read, or have an ounce of patience and compassion. But looking back on whatever we had—friendship would be too generous for me—you’ve always missed basic queues (and not just with me).

But hey, it’s another week and another chance to come to the alter of rock and roll and party like it’s 1999, or so sang the purple one, Prince.

I’ve got it figured out. Live streaming isn’t necessary. No! We can all gather on Sunday morning and at least for the Sunday services from the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation, I can pre-record them and that way, no streaming messes to clean up or fix. Better than that for you, dear worship participant: you are not locked-in to Sunday mornings. I know you’re busy cleaning the tiles in your shower and with other important things like organizing your sock drawer.

I’ll embargo the videos until 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Then, they’ll be there for you to watch at your leisure, when you aren’t so strapped for time. I think I’ll split the service into three videos. Music pre-sermon, then the sermon from Rev. Jimi, and then, post-sermon, more music from JimBaumerMe. That seems to make sense to me.

Then, there are the logistics of weekly services and the prep that goes into making them mildly entertaining (or irritating, depending on your perspective). I think I’m going to do the Sunday services twice a month. Then, on the weeks when there is no Sunday morning Rock and Roll Church, let’s gather together on Thursday nights at 7:00 for an Unplugged Prayer Service. That one will be live-streamed, with JimBaumerMe strumming along on his acoustic.

Here is the schedule I’ve mapped out for March and April. We’ll see how things go. I know in May, open mics are opening up. Perhaps by then, I’ll be gigging so much, we won’t need to gather on Sundays, or maybe we do these once a month instead.

But for now, plan for the following over the next seven week:

Sunday Morning Rock and Roll Church

March 7

March 21

April 4

April 18

Unplugged Prayer Service (Thursday nights)

March 18

April 1

April 16

April 30

To the Bunker, Earthlings!

 

Not To Be Deterred

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Since I began streaming at the beginning of COVID, I’ve been chasing improvement in the audio of each subsequent stream. I did okay when I played everything on the acoustic, save for the first disastrous foray with YouTube’s live streaming option. What they do is “squeeze” bandwidth if you are using the free version of their live service.

To be fair, YouTube’s strong suit is that it allows you to store your videos and not chew up bandwidth on your own website. For that, they are awesome.

Of course, everyone uses Facebook for everything—including streaming. I get it. You can roll out of bed, push the hair out of your face, grab a guitar and warble out a few tunes.

But what if you are like me, trying to capture a live sound that’s more than you plinking out three chords on your ukulele? Rock and roll (the lo-fi variety) with an electric guitar pushed through an amp and—oh my God!! Distortion!! Then, if you top it with some drums—what the fuck?

Anyways, I decided that OBS might be the way to go. Then, when I began ironing out my mix, then tested it last Thursday on Facebook—major problems. That was it for me and Facebook. I don’t like Zuckerberg for reasons I won’t bother with here. But the major reason is I can’t do what I want to do with Facebook.

Then I had a great idea. I’ve had my JBE WordPress site—this one—since 2013. I’ve been kind of neglecting it the past year, or maybe, a better way of framing it is this way. Rather than recognizing WordPress is a site for my writing, it’s actually quite capable of supporting my music endeavors. With a plug-in or two, I should be able to stream on this site, right? Well, not necessarily.

For those of you who consider technological nirvana, turning your smartphone on and off and setting up your voicemail, this isn’t for you. Hell, I’m not going to elaborate any further than to say, there were more speed bumps than I anticipated. Due to that, I couldn’t capture the actual live stream via video, so I took some time Monday after work to create a facsimile. It comes pretty damn close in capturing the music from Sunday’s first service of the First Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation.

JimBaumerMe delivers, per usual, even if it’s his Plan B, or Plan M.

Stay tuned for the next advisement about our next service—it will be here, not on Facebook.

Launching Rock and Roll Church-Sunday Service

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New England-style Congregational Church (Maine Memory Network)

There was a time when salvation really mattered to me. Perhaps it still does—just in a different way than before.

Music has been something that has offered me a way forward following the tragic death of my son, Mark. Back in August 2018, I never thought I’d be sitting here, promoting a Facebook live event—especially not an event like Rock and Roll Church.

What do I hope to accomplish with a facsimile of a Sunday morning worship service, sans the usual spiritual trappings? Actually, music has a spiritual component that’s often overlooked. I mean, Larry Norman, the father of contemporary Christian music, did ask the question, “why should the devil have all the good music?” Really! Norman knew that music was a medium that could be used powerfully—in his case—to glorify the god who he believed in and exalted in his music.

With a new EP out and songs that I’ve been playing now for a few months, I thought the time was right to roll out a setlist made up of these songs and a few others. Also, as COVID has shut down regular opportunities to play each week via open mics and gigs at music venues, this is a good time to develop some momentum with regular streaming gigs.

I plan to play for an hour or so. I’ll blend a few covers and I’ll probably offer some between song banter, some thoughts on things going on in the world, and a bit of background about the songs I’ll be playing.

Come on down to the First Congregational Bunker Rock Church of Lo-Fi Salvation and join the JimBaumerMe/aka, Reverend Jimi as he shepherd rock lovers through a unique rock and roll experience.

Rock and Roll Church
Facebook Live
Sunday10am

Get Back to Rock and Roll!!