Three questions with Shaun Groves

Shaun Groves and his "girlfriend" in India | Photo via ShaunGroves.com

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Shaun Groves has a new album coming it — Third World Symphony. It’s sweetness!

The album drops Aug. 30, but you can listen to the entire album here and pre-order your own copy of musical greatness here.

And being the gracious guy that Shaun is (I mean how many other artists stream their entire album online two months before it’s released), Shaun offered to take some time to answer three questions for any bloggers out there that were interested (hint, he’ll answer questions for your blog as well) — so naturally, I had to take him up on it. Here’s what he had to say:
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Shaun Groves – Third World Symphony (my first listen)

My first memory of Shaun Groves was receiving a demo version of his album Invitation to Eavesdrop (circa 2000). I don’t recall if it was for a project we were doing with Lighthouse 21 or for Powerline 89.9… but I do recall us giving a number of the tracks a fairly good rotation during our Saturday night radio program in Waco.

It was a great album to introduce us all to Shaun.

A few years later (2003/2004?) he gave a concert at UMHB and I remember thinking afterwards as he took the time to talk with those in attendance, that he wasn’t like most of the “christian artists” I had worked with over the previous few years at UMHB.

Fast forward a few years, and his record company was gone and Shaun was left without a recording contract.

But it wasn’t long before he found a new voice through his blog (which I discovered through Kevin Hendrick’s recommendation). And then after months (if not years :-)) of trying, we finally connected earlier this year and I was able to interview him and share his story on our podcast.

As part of the interview, Shaun told us about his latest project – Third World Symphony – an album that was crowd-sourced through Kickstarter.

Fast forward to today and now the album is complete and the countdown has begun until it officially releases August 30.

(You can pre-order the album now on Shaun’s website for only $10!)

But Shaun, being as gracious as he is, has published the final mastered versions of the album online so we can all wet our whistle and get a first listen.

And so… I’ve listened. And I really enjoyed it.
Continue reading Shaun Groves – Third World Symphony (my first listen)

Doing it all wrong

Shaun Groves just returned from a week+ long trip to India with a group of bloggers for Compassion International (read their thoughts here).

As part of their trip, Shaun he met with a couple different pastors who are choosing to do church outside of the norm.

Shaun Groves in India

Shaun writes

This guy’s doing it all wrong.

He’s the pastor of a church in Kolkata, India that’s partnering with Compassion International – he says to “serve” kids in his community.

Pete and I saw a lot of unchurchy stuff going on at this church….

This is a common mistake for pastors in the developing world. They don’t know any better. They’ve never been to a pastors conference.

I’ve seen this time and again: churches in the third world doing stuff we Christians in America are savvy enough to get politicians and non-profits to do for us.

Check out Shaun’s blog for pictures and more info… and then I encourage you to say a prayer for all the guys doing it all wrong.