If it's not one thing, it's your mother...: Judah & the Lion

Hello, Monday.

A couple of things happened this weekend... Saturday marked the 1 year anniversary of this blog. I think that's pretty significant. I would say I'm basically hit-and-miss when it comes to sticking with things, so this relationship is doing pretty well!

Saturday was also a good time for the Baums to be lazy. We've got a lot going on this month, so we enjoyed a day of errand-running and swimming at the pool.

Sunday was a full day. I had to work the church nursery with Collin that morning. He made sure to tell all the kiddos, "MY mommy". How's that for sharing? Oh well!

Sunday evening was highly anticipated around here. Some friends of ours had a house show last night featuring a band called Judah & the Lion.

Disclaimer: The rest of this post is going to be a general gushing over this band. Bear with me!

I had actually heard of Judah & the Lion a few months ago. I cannot remember exactly how I came to be familiar with them, but I had heard their album Sweet Tennessee and really liked it. So when our friends told us about the house show, I told Jarrod we were going!

Judah & the Lion is a group based out of Nashville, TN. They are a bunch of twenty-something, Belmont students. Resembling groups like Mumford & Sons and Needtobreathe in both sound and appearance, they are the most down-to-earth group of people. The thing about a house show is that it is incredibly intimate and lends itself to easily making friends with people. It's also incredibly forgiving of technical difficulties and indulges little girls in their desire to twirl endlessly around a room.

Collin tends to shy away from loud settings with lots of people, so the first couple of songs he actually said in my ear, "I don't want to yike it!" I just kept smiling and clapping his little hands for him though, and he got over it quickly. One of the girls traveling with the band made sure to speak with him several times. She gave him one of the band's stickers, and that alone endeared her to Collin for the rest of the night. He woke up this morning asking for "that girl, Caroline". And let's not forget to mention the time he discovered that giving high-fives and making scary faces with the band members would get him plenty of laughs. He is like his mommy that way...shy to the death, unless there is a foolproof way to get a laugh!

So proud of that sticker!

Thank goodness for Ms. Caroline and her attempts to draw Collin out of his shell!

By the end of the set, Collin was clapping and bouncing up and down to the beat of the music. There was a fantastic new song they did for us that included having the audience shout "Hey!" and Collin loved it. He fell asleep last night telling me about how "those two guys, they play the guitar and I said, 'HEY!'"

So pretty much, if you haven't heard of Judah & the Lion, you need to give them a listen. They are definitive Americana. A banjo, mandolin and guitar always. Vocal harmonies that will make you cry tears of happiness. A depth to their lyrics that enables them to stay true to both their Southern roots and contemporary music but also spills over with their love for the Creator of the Universe.

And if you have a thing for suspenders, you'll love seeing them live.