In autumn of 2009, it seems like it rained every day. It was raining so much, I thought that it might be about time to build an ark. This is when I got the idea of writing a song about Noah. The main idea for the song was to write about Noah talking about how his neighbors reacted to his ark building. The idea for the tune came quickly. The chorus of the song was also relatively easy to write. The verses came slower and the song sat half written for a while.
When I was in high school, I was in 4-H. I wasn’t that active, but I did participate in a few things that they did. I competed in a talent show a couple of years, making some of the worst song choice decisions I’ve ever made. A good friend recruited me for the crop judging team. The man who was the leader for 4-H in our county, I’ll call him Mr. M, had been the 4-H leader when my dad was growing up. My dad was very active in 4-H and Mr. M knew him really well. Mr. M could never remember my first name and always called me “Wheela”.
When you work with people from China, it is not unusual that they give you tea when they visit. Here is a picture of some of the packages of tea that I have been given by suppliers and coworkers from China during their visits over the years. When I went to China, I spent 2 weeks there and drank Chinese tea at many meals. I didn’t think it was anything special. It is served hot and I thought it was weak. I always drank it at any meal when it was offered mainly because I thought it was something that I could trust. During the week that I was in Xiamen, one of the guys from the supplier we were visiting asked me if I liked the Chinese tea. When I told him I did, he said he wanted to get me some really good tea to take home with me.
Sometimes it seems like I’ve had this guitar forever. You know how it is, sometimes something happens and you remember the circumstances around how you acquired something. Something that happened yesterday reminded me of the things that happened when I was purchasing this guitar. Because the things that happened are related to my latest CD project I thought now would be a great time to share them with you.
In spring of 2006, I had the opportunity to go to China. I was there for my 44th birthday. I was also there on April 1st which was a Saturday. We had a free day that day and spent it in and around Hong Kong. We had several adventures that day including a trip to Monkey Mountain. I was travelling with a guy named Mike who asked me if I was interested in going to Monkey Mountain and I had never heard of it before. He told me that it was a park with walking trails and monkeys were free to roam on the trail. I was game. Here is an excerpt from the journal that I kept during the trip:
About September 24, 2012, news outlets starting reporting about an incident at a University of Tennessee fraternity party involving a young man going to the hospital after receiving a wine enema. As more reports came out, I started investigating about this practice that I had never heard of. As I read more about it, I decided that this might be a subject for a novelty song. I realized that this story wouldn’t be in the new that long so I should probably move quickly. I was also traveling out of town the next week. I really wanted to write the song, record it and make a music video before I left town on October 1.
Next time you watch the video for “Tennessee Boxed Wine Enema”, here are some bits of trivia and things to look for:1. Those are my wife’s hands operating the spigot of the wine boxes.
2. My son shot all of the footage for the video. He also put the video together.
3. The scenes where I am sitting on a bed wearing headphones and playing guitar were shot during the actual recording session for the song.
4. When we shot the scenes where I am dancing, there was no music playing in the room. I was dancing to no music at all.
5. The “running man” dance was done for specific fans of my dancing.
6. I used to work for the company that manufactures the garden hose featured in the video.
7. The phone is NOT plugged in.
8. I am complaining about enemas in my fake conversation on the phone. It’s worth it to try and read my lips during that part of the video.
9. We only used 2 glasses of wine during the shoot, one red and one white.
10. After the video shoot, I drank one of the glasses of wine and my wife drank the other.
When people hear me sing “Arkansas”, I often get asked what I have against Arkansas. I stick by my story that the state wasn’t really the inspiration for the song. Although I draw on references to lots of things in the state, it is really a thickly veiled metaphor for something else. It’s something that I’ve not shared with anyone.
When was the last time have you heard Genesis 1 and the book of Revelation being told in songs? God has gifted singer-songwriter Art Wheeler the unique gift of taking stories, some from Scripture and some of his own creation, and setting them into music. Art has just released his album of story songs last year entitled “6 Minutes After 7.” This year, he has just released a brand new single “Creation.” We are honored to be able to catch up with Art for this exclusive Hallels’ interview:
Hallels: Thanks Art for your time. For readers who may not be familiar, how would you describe your music?
Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my music. First, my music has Christian themes. As far as style, it is hard to put it in one category. The majority if it has more in common with the country rock of the early 1970’s but it also has a strong folk influence. I try to maintain a humorous tone to my music whenever it is appropriate.
