GMWA and San Francisco...

GMWA-Gospel Music Workshop of America in Cincinnati was really great... we had never been to GMWA before so we were very excited.

Mom came with us again, to help with the baby and everything. Our Dad also surprised us in Cincinnati...he was driving his motorcycle to West Middlesex to their vacation home up on the Church of God Campgrounds and he just HAD to stop to see us.

Our Dad is one of our biggest fans, and it makes us feel so good, because we know and feel how proud he is of us....

Our set went great, but the best part was definitely the different artists we got to meet. We sat at a table with the Nevel Sisters who we really hit it off with. We also met the newest winner of Sunday's Best Y'Anna Crawley, who was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING... She is THE TRUTH, and has such a great spirit. Wil says her voice is mixture of Brandy, Faith Evans, and Kelly Price...a pretty insane mixture in my opinion... :)

Next was Cali and our concert for the San Francisco 49ers...

Coach Mike Singletary called Phil a while back and told him he wanted us to do a concert for the team on the first day of training camp. I think he had seen us sing a couple times at Abundant Life in San Fran.

The concert went really well, and the team chaplain gave a little word after we sang. The spirit of God was so evident and He moved in such a powerful way.

We got to have breakfast before and brunch after with the team. We got to meet a bunch of the players and of course I felt so dumb because I didn't know any of them!! :) They were all really nice people and we had such a great time...

Boston City Hall Plaza

2 down... 3 more to go...

On to, Boston City Hall Plaza...

As you all may know by now, Ashmont Hill is from the GREAT city of Boston, Massachusetts...Home of the Sox, the Celtics and of course the Legendary Patriots... In fact, our name Ashmont Hill is named after a neighborhood in Dorchester right around Ashmont train station where Phil, April and I grew up... Wil grew up around Dorchester too, just not exactly in Ashmont Hill...

As much as we love our wonderful city we very rarely get to actually do events in or close to the city... So when we got the call to open for Donnie McClurkin at the annual Gospel Fest at Boston City Hall Plaza, we were very excited... Every year the City of Boston puts on a Free Gospel concert and bring in a great artist... Some past artists have been Dottie Peoples, Kirk Franklin, and Karen Clark Sheard...

What a it was sight to see our beloved Bostonians worshiping God along with us!! It was absolutely amazing... It was so good to have the band back with us after a few dates without them!! It's so cool to look back and see them totally getting into the worship experience along with us, we feed off each other, and it's NEVER the same without them!! :)

Well, I know this is a short one... but, until next time my loves...
Debaleelee from AH...

Philly...Let's Face it, We go for the Cheese Steaks...

Hello Again!
Glad to see me back so soon?? :)

I'm determined to catch all you guys up before we head out on the road again because I REFUSE to become so behind that I feel like I'll never catch up...

Ok, I've got about 4 more tour dates to tell you all about... in the next 4 blogs...
Philadelphia, Boston City Hall, GMWA in Cincinnati, and San Francisco...

On to Philly... City of Brotherly Love and Mom and Dad's hometown...

Again we begin our day meeting at Phil's house... This time April has brought along a Nanny and then SURPRISE!! Mom shows up to go with us too!! Mom has since gone on another trip with us in addition to this one, and we ABSOLUTELY LOVE having her with us...

It's about a 6 hour drive to Philly and we decide to divide up the driving time a bit so Phil doesn't have to do the entire trip...

*SIDEBAR* Phil's driving is a bit of a running joke between us and the band... He is the TYPICAL Boston driver... drives WAY too fast, rides people bumpers like crazy, always brakes way too late, esp. on the highway...which REALLY freaks us out!! We pretty much have our lives flashing before our eyes when Phil's driving on the highway... LOL... And if you try to follow him?? You're pretty much gonna get lost, because he speeds through yellow lights and you get stuck behind the red and he doesn't even look back to make sure you are still behind him. And for some reason, he has the HARDEST time following the GPS! April is always like, "NO!! Phil, not here!! Turn there!!" :) But it makes sense... he's an artist!! Brilliant people who write songs like "Your Masterpiece" don't have time to be worrying about driving well, he's too busy creating some other concept or song that will completely blow our minds!! And it's that and SO many other things that make him our Phil, and that's why we love him... :)

So we arrive in Philly on Saturday, which is perfect because we CAN'T come to Philly and not go to...

PAGANO'S!!! People can talk all they want about any other place they think is the best but it doesn't matter because they are ALL WRONG. THE BEST place to get THE BEST and the most INSANE Philly Cheesesteak, IN Philly, is at Pagano's... It's one size, humongous, with the best grade beef, mushrooms, onions, triple cheese... mmm...SO GOOD... and I never get through more than half... :)

Sunday we sang 2 songs at both services at West Oak Lane Church of God, Pop Pop Shepherd used to be the Pastor, the Pastor my Dad got saved under, but he passed a few years ago, and his son Horace is now the Pastor.

We had an unbelievable time... The anointing and the Spirit of God was so evident and we are always grateful how He shows up and Powerfully moves in and through us...

After church, we went to visit April's Godmother, Mother Joel in a nursing home not far from the church... A powerful and amazing evangelist and woman of God. She never married and doesn't have children, so apart from some of the saints at West Oak Lane she doesn't get many visitors, so she was very glad to see us. We brought CDs and sang with her and she played with Little Zee... we had such a great time... Very difficult to be in such a sad place, and some of us were even moved to tears seeing the conditions that some of these Elderly people live in. But even in the midst of it all, Mother Joel still has a smile on her face, still knows she has a purpose on this earth, and is still getting people saved... what an amazing woman... :)

Well, that was Philly, until next time...

Love Always,
Deb from Ashmont Hill

CONNECTICUT...

Hello All,
Sorry it's been so long!! I've missed you!! Things have been so incredibly hectic that I just really haven't had time to blog all about our adventures!! But I've been keeping a journal in my mind, so don't worry, I will catch you all up with plenty of detail :). AND I promise, that I will try very very hard, to come on and tell you all about what's going on with your beloved Ashmont Hill AS it is happening, instead of so late as it will be now...

Ok, I've got about 5 tour dates to tell you all about... in the next 5 blogs...
Connecticut, Philadelphia, Boston City Hall, GMWA in Cincinnati, and San Francisco...

Let's start with CRAZY Connecticut...

Well, I don't know if you all know this but we, Ashmont Hill, are actually full-time worship leaders at our wonderful home churches Jubilee Christian Church here in Boston, MA. Phil and April mainly lead in the main campus in Mattapan, and Wil and I mainly lead in the Stoughton campus. Us, along with other AMAZING worship leaders in both locations, also switch around whenever we can, and even AH leads altogether sometimes. I say all that to say, that in the rare times when we ARE home on weekends, and not out on the road in one of your fine cities, we usually are leading worship.

On this particular weekend, it just so happened that we'd be home, and none of us were leading worship in either location. And instead of our wonderful brother/fellow AH singer/AH songwriter/AH manager thinking, "Well why don't I just give us a nice weekend off to relax, and come to church like everyone else..." He comes up with the idea for us to set up some engagements in our neighboring state of Connecticut. He makes a few calls, and some great stuff opens up. It started off as 1 church, then 2 churches, then went to 3, then 4, and when all was said and done, we ended up doing 5... Yes, you heard right, 5... 5 church in one long, crazy, insane, exhilarating, and exhausting day.

6AM
The day begins with us meeting at Phil's to load up a church van and carpool the 2 hour drive to CT.

8AM
We arrive in CT and decide to go to Cracker Barrel for Breakfast...
*SIDEBAR* Cracker Barrel holds a very dear, and at the same time a very sickening place in Ashmont Hill's hearts because back in 2008, on our very first tour, with the lovely and amazing Natalie Grant, on the off days when we were stuck in Nashville, living in Red Roof Inn (because why spend $$ on a nice hotel when we are back to living on a tour bus in only a couple days??), and desperate to get out of our hotel room for ANY amount of time, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast EVERY DAY. That's right people, for almost 3 straight months, if we weren't home in Boston for a couple days, or out on the road, we had Cracker Barrel EVERY DAY. Sometimes a couple times a day... Needless to say, we got RIDICULOUSLY sick of it, and loved it at the same time cuz let's face it, it's Cracker Barrel, uhm Pecan Pancakes?? the best French Toast ever??

Anyway... :) On to...

Church #1:
10:40AM
Rehoboth Church of God
GORGEOUS church, absolutely beautiful... (we actually have a concert there next weekend and I'm VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing it again because it was that beautiful...)
We did our 2 songs and it was really really great...

The biggest downside to this whole day was that we didn't have our band with us, but I'm actually glad we didn't because it was already such an insane day, it would've been 4 times harder having to deal with instruments and sound systems when we absolutely had no time to do so.

Church #2:
11:45AM
Ebenezer Temple UHCA
For the size of the church, it was pleasantly surprising how great the sound was!! And the Spirit of God was SO heavy in that place... so great... :)

Church #3:
1:30PM
Citadel of Love
Not exaggerating, they shouted and danced and sang for about an hour before we got up to sing... and we loved every minute of it!! :) At one point, the Pastor and most of the choir ran about 5 laps around the sanctuary... And no joke, I saw this older woman in front of us, pull out a washboard, (like the metal thing they used to rub and wash clothes on back in the day) and a wisk (the kind you stick in an electric mixer) and scrape it against the washboard during the shouting as her own personal makeshift tamborine... LOL... It was SO AMAZING to see that kind of abandon for God. One of the best things about what we get to do is going around to all of these AMAZING churches we would've never known about, and experience the way they worship God.

*SIDEBAR AGAIN* Sorry guys but it's been a while!! I have a lot to say!! :)
Speaking of abandon in worshiping God...
Last October, we ministered at Covenant Church of Pittsburgh's Annual Conference... and that year it happened to be a worship conference, and Bishop Garlington (our father's Bishop) invited all of these amazing worship artists to come and lead throughout the conference...
Well, one particular artist, was a husband and wife duo named Brian and Ramey Whalen, POWERFUL, ANOINTED, UNBELIEVABLE people of God... Anyway, they led worship during this one particular service...and they had about an hour to do so... They sang a song called "Praises Rise" for about 45 mins... during that 45 mins, they had everyone, running, jumping, shouting, dancing, and pretty much going crazy for Jesus... it was AWESOME...

Church #4:
5:30PM Grace Worship Center
They put together a special service for us to come through because they heard we'd be in town... really warm and gracious people... :)

and Lastly, FINALLY...
Church #5:
7:45PM
Latter Rain Christian Fellowship
By this point, April's baby, Little Zee, who pretty much is ALWAYS in a smiley and happy mood... pretty much had ENOUGH... LOL... he let out a scream that we'd never heard before in our lives...

We had a wonderful time at this last service, but to say we were tired was the biggest understatement of the year...

Well, that was our Connecticut adventure...
At the end of the day, we reminded Phil that we only live 2 hours away, and will NEVER AGAIN do 5 churches in one day... :)

But, it's ALL TO BRING HIM GLORY... and to spread His LOVE, and get this CD out to as many people that will listen...
Until next time my loves... I PROMISE the next one won't be so long in coming...
See you soon,
Deborah from Ashmont Hill

Ashmont Hill- "Your Masterpiece" Release Concert

I've been putting off writing this one, probably because I knew it would be near impossible to describe the event that was our album release concert for Ashmont Hill's sophmore album, "Your Masterpiece."

We definitely pulled out all of the stops on this one, or should I say our amazing record label Axiom Records did. We figured we should take advantage of what we were going to do and not only have a concert, but do a DVD and Audio recording as well, that way we can use the footage in many different ways. It's something that we always wished we could have done for the first album. The idea to do all 13 tracks was mostly because we love EVERY SINGLE song so much, we literally couldn't think of what song NOT to do. Also, we heard that Gungor did that at their recent release concert and we thought that was SUCH a cool idea! Not to mention that we pretty much LOVE Gungor.

So of course we used Jubilee our home church, we had the stage extended, took the band out of the pit and put them on the stage with us, a lighting company, a camera company, and 2 photographers. We got T-shirts and pictures done, and pretty much worked our tails off rehearsing and getting ready for this event. NO ONE did more work than Phil, so I must take some time to commend all of the hard work he does for us. The 4 of us are constantly having meetings and telling him to give us some of the million things he has to do, he's one of those people who doesn't often ask for help so we kind of have to make him :). But he does an AMAZING job and we love him... :)

We got the word out all over Boston and Massachusetts, had incredible people who put together street teams and made flyers. The stage was set, hair & makeup and wardrobe done, we all gathered with the musicians, Mom and Dad, and prayed for God to come, to move, to have his way in us and in what we were about to do.

And He did. The concert was an amazing success. The BEST part was that because we sold the CD in church 5 days before, SO MANY of the people knew every single song. Probably the best was "I Want to see You" when everyone in the place was jumping and crying out "I want to see you, I want to know you, your heart, your face, reveal to me, through all my days, show me your ways." The entire place jumped so much that we literally thought that the floor was going to cave in. Or "All to Bring You Glory" where in the end we all fell to our knees and sang "It's all for You"...over and over... God came in and made it a genuine worship experience that we will NEVER forget. I wish we could do it again! :)

Brooklyn Tabernacle...When in doubt, stick with Buddy...

Well, it begins again... New album, New band (well, we actually HAVE a band this time), New everything. We, Ashmont Hill are back out on the road promoting our brand new album just recently released on May 25th, 2010 entitled "Your Masterpiece," and we are just brimming with excitement for what God is going to do.

Let me start by introducing myself, I am Deborah, one of the four members of Ashmont Hill, a contemporary christian/gospel/worship group out of the Boston area. Pleased to meet you :) I am COMPLETELY NEW at this so PLEASE excuse me, I am no writer... We just thought this would be a fun way to share some of our amazing, incredible, and hilarious journeys with you, our "Ashmont-Hillites" :) I will be the main person writing these blogs-since I'm probably the person in the group who pretty much talks too much :)... But you will hear a bit from Phil, April and Wil at different times as well.

Well, let's get started...
Brooklyn Tabernacle, our first date since we finished our second album "Your Masterpiece," so our first time doing brand new material. We practiced like crazy for weeks and weeks, and as we walked off of the plane (yes, we took a plane the LONG 35-40 minute flight that it was from Boston, don't ask me why-probably because NONE of us wanted to drive 3 hours battling New York traffic) excited about doing a 45 minute set for our beloved Brooklyn Tab. It's been 2 years since we'd been there and we were very glad to be back.

Like what usually happens when we arrive in a new place, we check in at the hotel, and venture off STARVED trying to find something to eat. The nice woman at the front desk tells us what street to walk down, where all of the "good" restaurants are, and we all start walking-April with little Zee in the stroller... We pass tons of sketchy diners and Asian places including an Indian place that Wil and Phil were seriously considering, and I-though usually a HUGE lover of Indian- was not so sure about... Finally, April, tired of walking around with a hungry baby, settles on a diner that looks pretty clean. Jim our guitar player and Law our MD decide to stay with her. Phil, Buddy our bass player, Wil and I keep walking-hoping for the best. Out of nowhere, Buddy says in his Tupelo, MS accent, "Ima walk up this way, catch yall later" and this is where we should've said to ourselves, "When in doubt, stick with Buddy..." because he will ALWAYS, INEVITABLY, find the BEST place to eat. But instead we say, "Ok, catch ya later..." and decide on a swanky place that promised Phil fried chicken and macaroni & cheese (say those two things to Phil and he's ALL IN :)), and then tells him as soon as we sit down, that they in fact don't have either. The 3 of us are about to settle on some salads (which of course would've been the healthier choice) when Phil gets the most glorious phone call from none other than Buddy. All he says is 2 words, "Dallas BBQ" and we are out of our seats so fast, apologizing to the waitress-but not feeling too bad since we hadn't ordered anything yet.

It makes sense that usually the BEST thing about being on tour is the FOOD. All of the different places, GOOD and BAD become the scenarios of our most hilarious moments and stimulating conversations. Ah, Dallas BBQ-it was heaven... Rice and Beans, Corn on the Cob, Ribs, and these things they call Sticky Wings that had a sauce that was completely intoxicating :)... heaven...

The next day, the concert was so great. The church just got a new youth pastor, GREAT guy, and he was having a service to revamp the youth ministry... All the kids were up standing right in front of the stage which is always the BEST because we get to see their faces and hear them sing along...

I have to admit I was a bit nervous as I walked out onto the stage. I don't usually get nervous anymore, not because I'm super confident, but because no matter what, whatever He wants to do, we are going to get out of the way, and let him do. The thing I NEVER get used to-and never WANT to for that matter-is the way God moves in such an amazing way. How His presence comes in and does something SO miraculous in our hearts and minds that we can never get enough of Him.

Brand new album, brand new road, a whole different ball game, and all we can do is stretch out our arms and wait for Him to move, because we are NOTHING without Him. "How much more can I tell of who You are, when jealously You sought me out and WON my HEART, and now BY LOVE REDEEMED, I tell my story, All to Bring You Glory..." To make His name famous, to bring Him Glory...it's the ONLY reason we do... what we do...

Catch yall later guys...