Saturday was November 21st. My daughter and oldest child, Livi, turned 15!
That’s crazy for so many reasons, but in the context of this blog, it’s crazy because that means about 15 years ago, I wrote my first Slugs & Bugs song. I wrote the chorus to Beautiful Girl to the rhythm of my hand on her tiny back, trying to get her to burp halfway through her bottle.
We lived in a little 700 sq foot duplex. When it was my turn for a midnight feeding I would carry Livi to the far corner of the front room to give her a bottle, so Amy could stay asleep.
This year I carried Livi farther away than she’d even been – as she toured across the U.S. and through England and Wales with me all Spring, playing fiddle and singing and running the merch table. We had SO much fun, and great adventures like this epic trek along the cliffs of Wales from a lighthouse to a castle.
This past Saturday, our family went on a more local adventure as part of our day celebrating Livi. We hiked the 3 mile Gainer Ridge trail around Radnor Lake in Nashville. It was warm and sunny at the start, and got chilly and blustery by the middle. That’s when we took this picture…
Now here’s that song I wrote back in late 2000, for that tiny baby. I never knew how much my parents loved me until I held her in my arms. My, how the years pass…
Beautiful Girl
I’ve got you swaddled and I’ve got your bottle
And you’re too loud to ignore.
Your mama is sleeping
The angels are keeping
So cry no more.
Hey beautiful girl,
Daddy loves you, he loves you.
Most beautiful girl in whole wide world.
The stars are all shining, the birds are reclining,
The squirrels are all nestled down.
The trees in the forest are joining the chorus,
And swaying to the sound.
Hey beautiful girl,
Daddy loves you, he loves you.
Most beautiful girl in whole wide world.
I know that moons rise, and time flies,
and sweet little girls get older.
But when your tooth aches or your heart breaks
will you still cry on my shoulder?
Hey beautiful girl,
Daddy loves you, he loves you.
Most beautiful girl in whole wide world.
The Slugs & Bugs UK tour left a powerfully deep impression. But it was not from the concerts, even though they went spectacularly well. It was not from the castles or ancient cliffs of Wales. It was not the rolling fields of yellow oil seed flowers. It was not the delicious traditional Sunday Roast or hearty and satisfying Full English Breakfast. It was not Big Ben, not Harry Potter Studios, not the Van Gogh paintings hanging in the National Gallery, not even the moving visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where I strained my neck from staring up to see ALLELVIA painted across the choir lofts, my eyes brimming with tears.
Of course, it was the people. We met and made fast friendships with scores of wonderful people like Grace Forsythe, who traveled 8 hours round-trip to retrieve us from Heathrow with a smile and served us two spectacular home-cooked meals in Liverpool because she loves Jesus. I will remember Upney’s Pastor Johnny – with the quick lilt and humble confidence forged in the damp beauty of Northern Ireland. He’s funny. And he made us lasagna from scratch. I’ll remember Pastor Phil and his wife Monique – South African transplants to the Welsh seaside. Months earlier they saw us singing in our living room in Nashville through the magic of an online concert. Last week I sat in their living room in Wales and learned that I enjoy Rooibos tea, black, no sugar.
Then there was Ginger and Beth – our gracious and hardworking hosts at the American Air Force Base near Cambridge. Two enlisted women volunteered at the Slugs & Bugs merch table. They were so helpful and friendly with Livi. We arrived late to Winchelsea School in Dorset, but Tim (Assistant Head) and his staff didn’t even blink. They are used to improvising since it is a school for children with special needs. This concert was one of my favorites, again, because of the people.
I’m leaving many out, including my own kin (Grace and Michael Freeman – I’m looking at you), but the truth is, all our hosts went above and beyond to care for us, and none more than Tom and Rachael Hart. Tom is a associate pastor at a church in Dagenham, east of London. Tom and Rach contacted many churches about booking Slugs & Bugs, and because of their hustle and trusted reputation, we doubled our number of concerts. Then, they arranged details for every show – serving as the Slugs & Bugs “UK office.” Then, they decided it would be better for Livi and me if they provided the entire sound system for every show. That means loading their PA, driving us all over the United Kingdom in their Honda CRV, setting up, running sound, and tearing down for every concert.
Are you getting this? Did I mention they’ve got 2 girls under 4 years old? That means the grandparents pitched in as well, keeping the kids while Tom and Rach served us for two weeks. Add to all that, Tom and Rach are warm and hospitable companions, quick to laugh at my attempts at UK accents and even quicker to sound like Forrest Gump for laughs at their own expense. They deeply love Jesus and his gospel, and I’ll be forever grateful that Livi got to see them sacrifice with such joy and patience. I already liked the Harts before this trip. Now, for the Harts, I would fight a rabid badger to the death.
The point I’m finding in this post is, this tour was a massive effort, and many hands got dirty. The people of the Slugs & Bugs UK tour, are many. They are pastors and pastors wives, cooks and drivers, soldiers and missionaries, farmers, parents, grandparents, and cousins. People phoned newspapers, knitted spiders, painted backdrops and hung fliers. These people have kids and families and fiancés and some are in wheelchairs or they’ve recently lost loved ones. Some are battling depression, fatigue, or chronic pain. And they all came out and had a blast making much of Christ and little of ourselves. There is so much joy to be found among friends who take Jesus seriously, because that means they don’t take themselves very seriously at all.
I heard one British dad volunteer confess, “This is terrifying,” before launching into ‘I Wanna Help.’ In the end he wore a huge grin.
Thank you, people of the United Kingdom. Six months ago this tour was a dream. Now it is a memory as we’ve hit the U.S.A. ground running. Next week we launch a Kickstarter Campaign for Sing the Bible Vol. 2. But today I’m thinking of all those people we met in England and Wales. Many of them brought home Slugs & Bugs CDs. If they are tucking in kids tonight, they have a few new lullabies they can try.
“Our Father, in heaven, hallowed be thy name...”
Here’s a few fun pics from our tour through the United Kingdom! We’ll be back in 2016!
Slugs & Bugs on the Isle of Wight!With the Harts at the National Gallery (off Trafalgar Square)
Livi and our first new friend in the UK. Grace drove from Liverpool to Heathrow to pick us up, and she was delightful company for two jet lagged yankees.Livi and Rachael on the seaside cliffs of Wales.This Anglican Church (St. George’s) is over 1000 years old.Scale model of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.Vincent Van Gogh painted this painting. But that was a while ago…Amy and I on the tube, after a long, “fab” day in London.A “proper” Sunday roast at a pub in Wales.Saying goodbye to Harry Potter StudiosThe only existing photo of the Harts setting up the sound system… this was concert #5, in Stowmarket.Pastor Tom Hart with daughter Jodie running sound in Dagenham.A few brave men, shaking off that infamous “British reserve” for the kids…Livi and my cousin Grace Freeman at the Henry VIII Hampton Court Palace
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Looking for some awesome music to listen to with your family? Cool. We’ve got some.
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Just a quick post today. Livi and I are minutes away from boarding our Virgin Atlantic flight to London.
Last night some dear friends called us and prayed for us over FaceTime. It was a caring gesture and was deeply meaningful for us. Our friends prayed that the gospel would take root in the hearts of those who hear us, and I’m writing this to ask if some of you would pray the same thing.
Many of our concert hosts in England are voices in the wilderness. In England and Wales, there are not churches on every corner, filled with people, like there are in Nashville and so many cities where we play in the US. Please pray with us that our words would be made attractively peculiar by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the fun and silliness of Slugs & Bugs will reflect the peace and joy that comes from our rest in Christ, and that my words will be clear and true.
To paraphrase Tim Keller, Livi and I are carrying dynamite. Pray that we would handle it with care and that God would use our foolishness to make his wisdom known. Thanks so much. – Randall
As many of you know, my 14 year old daughter, Livi, is touring with me full time this January through May. She sings, plays fiddle, leads hand motions, trains the merchandise volunteers, helps load in and tear down and is always great company. This is March, so we’re over halfway through this sweet season and I’m already bracing myself for when she goes to high school this Fall.
For now, though, Livi is neck deep in the Slugs & Bugs day-to-day. She likes helping me think about how to spread the word about Slugs & Bugs music, and a few weeks ago, she surprised me with this amazing video. (Kids these days! I didn’t even know she knew how to edit!)
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Looking for some awesome music to listen to with your family? Cool. We’ve got some.
To purchase our word-for-word Scripture CD, Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs, click here.
Subscribe to our mailing list (to get discount coupon codes and FREE coloring pages!) (click here)
Last week, we posted our Old Testament Video on the Slugs & Bugs facebook page, and it was a hit! This week, I thought it would be fun to post here (with the original ending) and see how quickly the Slugs & Bugs neighborhood could identify all the Old Testament references. Most of them are pretty obvious, but a few might make you flip open your Bibles!
Matt Cosby animated the song, and we had fun brainstorming and coming up with different scenes for the train cars. Leave a comment below identifying a reference, and on Wednesday (if all have been identified) we’ll pick one comment and send that person a free download of the video!
To purchase this song and the rest of Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs (click here)
Subscribe to our mailing list (get discount coupon codes and FREE coloring pages!) (click here)
Ever since we released Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs, folks have been asking about a “Volume Two.” On that note, I’m happy to say I’ve been writing new scripture songs for many months, and now would be a wonderful time to hear Bible verse suggestions from you and your family.
The Slugs & Bugs community gave tons of great verse suggestions on facebook and this blog for Sing the Bible (Vol 1), and a handful of those suggestions became songs (Romans 8, Two Shirts, What is the Book, He Will Rejoice and others). So, I’m excited about this next step toward a “Volume Two.”
Please leave your Bible verse suggestions in a comment below. Ask your kids, ask your friends – spread this post around. It’s a big Bible, after all. Thanks so much, everyone!
How to “loosen the bands that hold back our lives.” – Oswald Chambers
This is a lightbulb moment in the life of many Christians, because identification with the death of Jesus can be a confusing trap. It confused Peter in Luke 22:33-34, and God “purified Abraham from this error” in Genesis 22. It confuses me often.
When I think “die every day” (1 Corinthians 15:31, Luke 9:23) means to give up stuff, I miss the mark, and fall in a trap of hopelessness. Giving things up to try and please Jesus is as hopeless as the crucifixion without Sunday morning.
It’s what happens after the sacrifice that clarifies. Jesus reconciled us to himself through death, (Colossians 1:22), and afterwards he gave us the Holy Spirit. What happens after I give things up? New bad habits? Bitterness or guilt because I fall off the wagon? Not if my sacrifice is powered by its connection to the love of Jesus, and his death and new life for me.
In light of the love of Jesus, and the cross, and the forgiveness of my sin, daily sacrifice is joyful, and even the most difficult trials are not without sustaining hope.
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I’m spending this week sharing notes from my daily time in My Utmost for His Highest. If this is a benefit to you, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
Order the new all-Scripture CD Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs (click here)
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As we looked back over 2014, we couldn’t help but chuckle and grin and scratch our heads. It is amazing what you can fit into a year! Here’s a few of our highlights.
January 11 – First ever online Slugs & Bugs concert (eventually performing five online shows in 2014, including one for Tom and Deb (and now Joy!)Henderson)
January – April – Designed and built the Shedquarters! (Finally, Slugs & Bugs has a home.)
May – Produced our video for “Old Testament Song” (with Matt Cosby)
June – Performed and led songwriting sessions at (the hugely successful) Inkwell Conference – hosted by StoryWarren.com
June – Harry Potter World!!
July – Slugs & Bugs returned to Canada!
July – Slugs & Bugs released our first DVD – with 18 songs and animated videos!
August – Officially released Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs
September – Launched new website at http://www.slugsandbugs.com (and webstore, sweetly and admirably maintained by the S&B merch czarina, Amy Goodgame!)
September – Restore! We turned up the promotion and raised over $3200 in Sing the Bible sales for the amazing work going on at Restore International.
October – Led the worship for Together for Adoption conference in Greenville, SC
October – performed/spoke at Hutchmoot – the annual conference for RabbitRoom.com
November – Slugs & Bugs first ever concerts in beautiful Idaho
November – We had 23 family members over for Thankgiving. (Amy and I slept in the Shedquarters… cozy!)
December – Performed the Ryman in Nashville with Andrew Peterson’s Christmas masterwork -Behold the Lamb of God
And along the way…
Performed total 56 concerts for live audiences (dead audiences are not recommended)
Designed/printed new T-shirts, temporary tattoos, posters, and ornaments
New photos with Jeremy Cowart
New illustrations with Joe Sutphin
First ever Slugs & Bugs TV appearance
Wrote 14 new songs! (Including helping my friend Andrew Peterson work out the title track of his brilliant compilation CD After All These Years – don’t have it? go get it…).
WHEW!
Of course, even though I included Harry Potter World and Thanksgiving, the Goodgame family has a whole separate set of highlights that include things like… Harry Potter World and Thanksgiving.
From my family to yours, thanks for coming along for the ride. Thanks to all of you who drive to concerts, follow the blog, chime in with encouragements on facebook and twitter, and buy CDs and other Slugs & Bugs products for gifts for loved ones. If your family has been blessed by Slugs & Bugs, be assured that you guys bless my family as well.
We’ve got a HUGE year planned for 2015. My daughter is touring with me, we’re headed to the UK in May, and we’ve got some really exciting stuff just around the corner (right around my birthday…) So stay tuned! We hope to see you out on the road, and out there in the Slugs & Bugs cyber-neighborhood!
HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Goodgame family… and the whole Slugs & Bugs team.
Love “Sing the Bible”? You’ve GOTTA check this out.
The very same Ugandan kids that sing on “Sing the Bible” are starring in an independent film called “Imba Means Sing.” It follows African Children’s Choir #39 for almost two years – even including some footage of them recording with Slugs & Bugs in Nashville!
Follow the link below to learn more, and consider helping this movie reach the finish line! It follows Moses and Angel and the rest of Choir #39 through their ACC experience.
Moses is the Scripture reader on “Freedom” (Track #1 on Sing the Bible). If you’ve ever wondered who that kid was, now’s your chance to see him. Click the link and check these amazing kids out!
We had three concerts in Idaho over the weekend, and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year. We landed in a rare Boise blizzard, and woke up to over a foot of snow. It was beautiful, but the best part of the weekend was having my daughter, Livi, with me. Not only did she rock the fiddle, hand motions and harmonies for every concert, but she also took pictures! (see below)
Eagle Christian Church hosted two wonderful concerts around Boise, and we finished up our tour at Watersprings Church in Idaho Falls. Everywhere Slugs & Bugs travels, we experience gracious hosts, and Idaho was no exception. The temperature dropped to a frigid 12 below zero, but the people were warm and welcoming. We made new friends at every stop, and may even head back to Idaho (and Utah next door) this summer when we hit the Northwest again.
Leaving Nashville… we snapped this pic and texted it to Amy (mom) just before liftoff!
This was the view from our hotel room window in Boise. Amazing!
We had time in the morning and went to see Big Hero Six. Also Amazing! Seriously, go see it.
At one of the sweet host churches we visited. There was no shortage of snow!
When Livi wasn’t playing fiddle or leading hand motions, she snapped some pics, and this is one of one of the warm Idaho crowds.
On Sunday in Idaho Falls, it was 6 degrees outside, so of course we went on an adventure. This is the Snake River, frozen.
Livi at the frozen Snake River!
These kids (and their leaders) set the bar HIGH for the future kids choirs. If you’ve got kids that like to sing, We’d love to do a Sing the Bible concert at your church in 2015!
In case you haven’t heard, Livi is joining the Slugs & Bugs Live tour full-time! From January through May, Livi will accompany me for all S&B concerts. So if you’d like to bring us in to your community, find out more by clicking HERE.
Order the new all-Scripture CD Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs (click here)
Subscribe to our mailing list (and get free Slugs & Bugs coloring pages!) (click here)
I recently came across this homespun youtube video from last year’s Slugs & Bugs concert in Kodiak, Alaska, where bears truly have no cares. The Kodiak Baptist Mission hosted Amy and me for 3 days, and Kelly and Stephen Foreman were wonderful hosts. The Baptist Mission is doing such important work in that difficult part of the country, and we were honored to come and share the light and love of Jesus with their community.
Their video does a great job capturing the fun we had in Kodiak, Alaska!
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Order the new all-Scripture CD Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs (click here)
Subscribe to our mailing list (and get free Slugs & Bugs coloring pages!) (click here)
Slugs & Bugs is gearing up for a big Spring tour, and we’ve got a super cool announcement to make. 2015 marks the 6th year of touring Slugs & Bugs LIVE, and for the vast majority of those shows, I’ve traveled solo. Sometimes my family or a friend or one of my kids tags along, but for the 2015 Spring Tour, I’ll have someone with me for every concert, and her name is Livi Goodgame!
Yes!! By Livi’s request and after much prayer, we’re allowing our (almost) 14 year old daughter to take online courses for the rest of her 8th grade year so she can tour with me full-time. Livi is an extraordinarily poised and mature young person, and she will bring so much to the tour.
She is already an experienced harmony singer and she’s really getting good on the violin. She has her mother’s gift for detail, which will help so much behind-the-scenes. Of course, the coolest part for me is getting to hang out with my daughter so much. After missing so many weekends of her life so far, having my “Beautiful Girl” with me for a few months will be a dream come true for dear ol’ dad.
Next Fall she’ll head back to the classroom for good, so if you’d like to book a father-daughter Slugs & Bugs LIVE concert, it’s only available for Spring 2015! (click here to learn about booking a concert!)
More on this coming soon, but for now, here’s a clip from a recent Slugs & Bugs Online Show with Livi (standing) and her good friend Skye Peterson (seated, and also a talented musician) singing “Romans 8” from Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs.
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Order the new all-Scripture CD Sing the Bible with Slugs & Bugs (click here)
Subscribe to our mailing list (and get free Slugs & Bugs coloring pages!) (click here)
We are donating 100% of our September profits from Sing the Bible to Restore Academy. Why are we doing that?
In the Fall of 2012, I traveled to Uganda with a small team headed up by my friend Bob Goff. Bob is the founder and “chief balloon blower” of Restore Academy – a K-through-12 school in Gulu, Uganda, one of the most war-torn areas of the country. While we were preparing for our trip, Bob’s book Love Does was quickly becoming a national phenomenon. By the time we hit Kampala, Love Does had become a New York Times best seller. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and be inspired to live a life of adventure, filled with love.
It was love that inspired Bob to start a school in a city with a huge population of children orphaned by the ravaging of the LRA in Northern Uganda. And it is love and grit that keeps these amazing kids going. I spent only one day with the students there, and it was all I needed to see the strength and passion and kindness they carry with them wherever they go. (Read more about them here).
That’s why we are raising money with 100% of Sing the Bible sales in September. The world needs these young people. They have overcome so much. Unfortunately, many graduates from Restore can not afford higher education. Even though it is cheap by Western standards, tuition costs for these future leaders can push University study out of reach. Now, with your help, more students will attend college and bring more hope to their country’s future.
I’m quite honored to partner with Restore Academy, and you will be too. Pick up a copy of Sing the Bible today, and let’s see how many kids we can get through their first year of college. Consider buying 5 or 10 and giving them to friends. All the songs are word-for-word Scripture, so you could give them out to church members, or your sunday school class! They also make GREAT Christmas gifts.
Finally, if you’re wondering if you’d like this music, check it out and decide for yourself. Here’s a page where you can listen. Even with 30 second clips, you can get the gist… (for full songs, click through past blog posts like this one). If you’ve heard the music and you love it – share in the comments below! What is special to you about this music? Help me encourage others to pick up a copy while they still count for the young people of Restore Academy.
A few years ago, I sat and ate with a preacher and his family after a Slugs & Bugs concert, utterly stunned by their working relationships. The 3 year old son repeatedly hit the mom, spilled his drink on her on purpose, threw his food and spit right in his mom’s face. Meanwhile, the preacher did absolutely nothing to deter or address the insane behavior. I was so incensed and flabbergasted by the whole thing that I ended up excusing myself early before I said something I would regret.
I stewed and prayed the whole drive back to the hotel, and I had a difficult time getting to sleep that night. For days, then weeks, then months, I intended to call or write this guy and have a talk. At first, I wanted to shame him for his utter neglect of his spouse. Later, I wanted to help him – warn him about the kind of kids he was raising, and appeal to his sense of gospel sanity as a father and a leader. Eventually, I let myself forget about it – either unconvinced it was my place to intervene, or too scared of the confrontation.
Then, this morning, I had a conversation with a friend about their 5 year old daughter. She was adopted at 2 years old, like my son Benjamin, and they share unusual attention-seeking behaviors. They both ask constantly ask questions they already know the answers to, and they both pretend to be dumb sometimes. But my friend’s daughter also hit, stomped on, and spit on her in bizarre circumstances. She may simply be working through the pain that she carries from having been orphaned, but still, as they say with a hashtag, #notgonnafly.
For years, they’ve been struggling (with admirable communication, maturity and self-discipline) with how to stop this unacceptable behavior, and nothing has worked, until a few months ago. Out of desperation, they applied a new strategy. They would totally ignore their daughter’s terrible behavior, unless it really injured somebody.
What!?! I can’t imagine the incredible restraint required for this parenting tack, but they did it. And it worked. After two months (two months!) of prayerful endurance in private and in public, the spitting, hitting and stomping all but dried up. Amazing. There’s a whole ‘nother blog post in there somewhere.
But that got me thinking about that preacher and his family so many moons ago. I really don’t know what they were going through. If I had loved them instead of judging them, a follow-up phone call might have been much easier to make. We might have become great friends.
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Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. – James 1:19-20
Our animated videos have always been a huge part of the Slugs & Bugs Live concert experience. At every concert, someone always asks me where they can get them, and now I finally have a good answer! You can purchase all the animated videos from the first three CDs right here at the Rabbit Room.
There are 17 videos on this first DVD, including old favorites and some that have never appeared in concert. Here’s the track listing…
1. Stop
2. The Postman
3. Who’s Got The Ball
4. God Made Me
5. Bears
6. Chicken Wiggle
7. Tractor, Tractor
8. Tiger
9. Jesus Loves Me
10. Shepherd Dad
11. God Makes Messy Things Beautiful
12. I’m Adopted
13. Mexican Rhapsody
14. Where You Gonna Go
15. I Wanna Help
16. Dizzy
17. Ninja
These videos have consistently captured the simple joyfulness of Slugs & Bugs music. I’m so thankful for Scott Brignac and Nora Ashkar for the delightful productions that have brought Slugs & Bugs to the screen for thousands of families, and I’m thrilled to finally have a video for Ninja – by Matt Cosby.
There are 3 animated videos available on Youtube (Bears, God Made Me, Tractor-Tractor), and amazingly, Tractor-Tractor has over two million views. Here it is now for your green and orange enjoyment…
Slugs and Bugs 