On stage is one man, tattoos on his arms, hair in a ponytail, earrings
in, and a hat on..... Perhaps fifty years ago this would not be the type
of man one would expect to see singing to Christians of all ages. But today,
Eli fits in wonderfully, especially with the people in 'generation x'.
Perhaps it is because his lyrics are so acoustically driven, or possibly
even because Eli's raspy voice sounds like a cross between several artists
we are all familiar with: Cat Stevens, Jim Croche, Keith Green, and
even Rich Mullins. Whatever the reason, he is very personable, and the
first words out of his mouth are a word of prayer
.
Eli tells us how flattered he is that everyone has shown up for
the concert. He half jokingly tells the audience that each time before
a concert he prays that God will bring three people. So, this crowd is
a wonderful surprise. Then he starts telling the gathering audience about
prayer and how sometimes we wait to pray. Like when we bounce a check and
say, "LORD!"when all along we should have been praying and communicating
with Him. Eli tells these vividly strong stories all night long,
continuing to keep the crowd's attention. Another story is started out
by explaining that he knows you can't get to heaven on good works. But,
just pretend that you could see what type of a mansion you could have in
heaven. He slightly laughs and says a couple years ago he was thinking
about what type of a mansion he would have if he died. He didn’t like the
mental picture he got. The picture was something like two little boards
or a little shack with no roof, and he envisioned his wife hitting
him, saying "Stupid!" So, he decided to start loving God more with his
heart.
After another song, Eli begins to explain the next tune. He starts rambling in this hilarious way about this song being new to some people. Then he changes directions (about 9 times) and says it may not be new to some people and if that is you, or if you don’t want something new, or if you are just stopping in, go get some coffee in the back...(a plug for the people selling at the back of the tent?) Then, he begins to move his arms around and jokingly says, "Welcome to my world." This little bit was incredibly funny, but each time his sentences changed direction, I got a tad more confused.
My favorite song
of the evening was one not on his new album. I hope he has plans to record
it. The chorus goes something like: "I don't mind if I wear secondhand
clothing, it's part of who I am and who God made me. "It is an incredibly
nice story about all of us having things that we may not be proud of, or
'holes in us. But, through Christ, all of us have a chance to be used again.
Eli's raspy voice lends itself perfectly to this beautiful melody. Evidently
the crowd agrees with me on this because they give him a huge round of
applause. Eli smiles from ear to ear and asks if he should quit while he
is ahead. Of course he chooses not to, and instead tells us why he is called
Eli. He says, "Believe me, it's not part of some big rock thing."
Once named Paul Falzone, Eli had to change his name because of a financial
identity problem with another person. So, ForeFront Records was happy to
go along with the name change.
Eli sings a couple more songs, each time taking a moment to compliment his band who isn't there..... While Eli is certain to add humor to his concerts, he also packs in some life lessons. One such lesson stemmed from the song "Righteous Beggars". In this song and his explanation of it, we are reminded that even in church we will get hurt. We are human and must learn to forgive. Don't let ourselves be hurt twice, once by the person, and then secondly by ourselves letting it interfere with our relationship with God.
For the most serious song of his set, Eli starts telling the audience how he is sort of the Forrest Gump of Christian musicians. On his way toCornerstone his vehicle is pulled over. Now, he has long hair, and so do the other two guys in the van. The ForeFront records man gets out and goes to talk with the officer. Eli is kind of getting upset, thinking this wouldn't happen if he didn't look the way he does and is admittingly getting an attitude the longer he sits there and waits. After what seems like forever, the officer comes back to Eli and wants to talk with him. It ends up, the guy knows of his music and Eli starts signing autographs on the side of the highway for his youth group! When they get ready to drive away, the two are hugging and Eli is thinking the people driving by must think the long haired freaks are really in trouble, they are begging the cop not to haul them away. His whole life is kind of like this, including the next song, "King of the Hill". When he was thirteen he took a picture of a cross up on a hill. This picture somehow stayed with him. It had to endure several changes of homes, and it even stayed with him the two times he was homeless.
When he was twenty, he found the same picture and this time wrote a song about it. In his own words, "It sucked." Then, about a year ago, he finds the same song and picture. He's out delivering pizza and he is the only one on duty. All of a sudden he gets this song in his head and knows he's gotta go write it! So he tells his boss, "Hey, I've gotta get off work and go write a song for God." And she lets him off work.
Eli sings a
couple more songs from his latest project, Eli, and tells more stories.
Everything he does seems to speak so loudly to many of the people gathered
around. Even his eyes light up and tell yet another story. After his ninth
song and many stories, he waves, says thank you, and walks off the
stage. The crowd wants him to come back. So he does.... Eli tells
us about this "Happy Jesus Song" from an old CD. He says it's kind of like
a camp song and if we don't sing along, he knows 'Kum By Ya' in five languages
and will make us sing, because he has the power of the microphone......
It was a great concert and Eli's rapport with the audience was superb
during the concert as well as afterwards.
By Cathy Courtwright
