Sparks from the Fire

Yeah, it’s true, and I’m bustin’ my buttons with pride over our very own Watchfire Music artist Tom Tipton’s performance just this last weekend.  He sang the Star-Spangled Banner at the Minnesota Vikings/Dallas Cowboys playoff game in Minnesota before 70,000 people and knocked ‘em dead.

Tom’s 76 years young and still got the voice to fill a stadium – The Metrodome, in fact.

I spoke to Tom yesterday and he had not come down from his lofty heights just yet.  He raved about the day.  It seems that they gave him and his family and friends a catered suite at the stadium and all the trappings while they all watched the hometown Vikings beat the Cowboys and advance to the NFC championship against the New Orleans Saints.

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Tom Tipton is clearly not Irish. So when we first were conceptualizing his Best of Tom Tipton CD and we decided to add 4 new recordings to this rich treasure trove of his musical life, it was a bit of a surprise to me that he came up with the idea of this Irish classic song.

But, as Tom said, this was a song that he had sung since childhood, taught to him on his mother’s knee and rendered a capella many times over his life to his most appreciative audiences. [A capella: without instrumentation, voice only.]

It seemed like a novel addition to a CD otherwise full of inspirational Spiritual and Gospel classics. So I said to Tom, “Send me the music and we’ll do it!” He answered, “I have no music.  I’ve always just done it a capella.”

Thus began the great adventure. (more…)