During our time together this weekend, he brought back a great Willow Creek song that he had written. How many of us take time to let the Lord love us?” — that concept hit me like a ton of bricks. We all put too much stuff in between God and ourselves; jobs, school, ambitions. Take a moment and let this settle into your heart.

(click title to play Mp3 of the song)

Let The Lord Love You

I cringe every time you cut yourself down;
You hide your pain like it doesn’t count.
So when I hear you laugh are you cryin’ deep inside,
‘Cause you fall below the standards in your mind?
Though you’d never deny our God’s a loving God
You feel He turns away when you make mistakes.
But our Heavenly Father nurtures His own,
To Him you matter more than you’ll ever know.

(Chorus:)
So let the Lord love you;
Let His voice be heard above the rest.
Hold on to what you know is true;
And let the Lord love you.

We may search for truth, but we listen more to lies.
Play them over and over in our minds;
Till we’re left with some distored point of view
That cripples who we are and all we do.
There are times you’ve gotta fight for all you’re worth;
Stand up to the voices from the past.
And as you draw close to Him the more moments you’ll have
When His love overwhelms and you know it’s true;

(Chorus)

© 1989 Rory Noland

But I had to tell Don I couldn’t jump in right away; as a music teacher and working solo artist, I had commitments I had to fulfill. As a freelance musician – I only take show offers they come in, and since my name is fairly well-known, I can kinda afford to pick and choose opportunities as they come in. My last musical show was in 2002- SOV’s production of “Grease”. While I loved that show, that particular production was wrought with bad production which really slowed down rehearsals. The band did a lot of waiting around for several days in pre-production. So I was really gunshy about doing another student-run musical. RENT was a big-change of pace from that. The show was very well-run and well-rehearsed, it made the rehearsals go so much easier.

Right away, I found out that I had joined a very talented group of musicians in the band. Simonson as director has a tremendous gift for knowing when to direct us vs. when to just let “the horses run” a little bit. I had never played a gig with Mike Giles before then; we had just known each other from traveling in the same circles. He is a great guy to work with and a fantastic musician – turns out we are both the same age and went to the U of I at the same time circa 1997-98. The main pianist, Johanna Sholar, is a fantastic musician. She was way fun to work with. She could play the entire show and all of our parts with no problem. ha ha! The other guitarist, Kyle Folvag, is a very promising kid who plays in the ISU jazz band. I really enjoyed working with him – we talked a lot about guitar stuff (it’s a disease!) and playing in bands, etc. The rhythm section of Rachel Petsche and Lee Plummer who were ISU music majors, was really solid. They added a lot, and were incredibly fun to work with. I saw my role is “ultilty guitarist” – I picked up all the rest of the guitar parts Kyle didn’t play – riffs here and there, doubled piano and strings parts, and also ended up putting a healthy amount of my own “Sheeler-isms” in there, just for fun

The cast themselves were all amazing musicians. I got to know some of the cast – Nick Prenger, Colin Morgan, Jonathan Brugioni, Heather Smith and several others. It turns out that many of them were Ankeny High School theater alums — as was my cousin Luke Sheeler, whom many of them knew. So that was a kinda cool “six degrees of separation” thing! But the cast blew me away with their vocal ability. Wow! They’re gonna go places!

As we started dress rehearsals 4 days before opening night – the band was allowed to just mess around before the show started each night. In fact, we were encouraged to come onstage 15-20 minutes before and warm-up etc. I started messing around, digging through my repertoire of rock tunes – I’ve been in bands since a young kid in the mid-1980s. Well, it started to catch on. Since the cast came onstage from the audience (more or less) this ended up being a great way to warm everyone up. We finally worked up a nice little jam/set of songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”,”Jump”, “Walk This Way”,”Purple Rain” and others, just for fun. We were really just messing around. It really got everyone fired up, and ended a great impromptu way to start the show!

The show itself was fantastic – full of great acting and great songs. My heart ached genuinely for the characters – spiritually and emotionally. It just reinforced for me, who much the world needs love and healing. I continually prayed to God every night for everyone involved, and the audience members, that He might speak through the performances, and that hearts would be moved.

Colin Morgan (Angel) sent me a YouTube clip of a version of “Contact” one of the (ahem…) “headier” numbers of the musical. This version of the tune that Colin sent me was a little more techno that original with a ripping guitar solo underneath of it that reminded me of the classic dance/metal shred tunes like “Beat It” (Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen), “King of Rock” (Run DMC with Eddie Martinez), “Black Cat” (Janet Jackson and Nuno Bettencourt). Colin thought it would be a great idea. I agreed, but I let it slide for several days, ‘cuz I didn’t want to surprise or upset the director, Simonson, or the sound guy. Ultimately, after a lot of prodding from Colin and Nick, I decided to go for it (what would they do, fire me?) and on the Saturday night show during the last run, I laid down some guitar heat on “Contact”, which IMO ended up being the best show of the entire run. I talked to the guys afterward, and they were blown away by “Contact” it somehow gave it a new edge. I was just doing what I do – and to think I almost left that part out.

Anyhow…despite my initial reticence… my time with SOV’s production of RENT was the most fun I’ve had in a musical. I was warmly received by the cast and crew, and I felt like I was an encouragement to the team, and hopefully I contributed to the overall product. Unfortunately, it seemed like the whole thing was over just as soon as it started, but I guess “time flies when you are having fun”! But I’m so glad I had the opportunity – and was able to work with an amazing group of talented, teachable, hard-working, and gifted people. I walked away very tired, but very humbled to have the experience.

Saturday night 3/12 was the same. I played one of my usual shows at Cafe Milo in Ames; a spot I’d played dozens of times since 2008. It’s a place I love to play. As I was setting up my gear on Saturday night, I noticed that there were not too many people in the place. Then it dawned on me….SPRING BREAK! So yet again, I was faced with playing my tunes to a captive audience of zero. Fortunately a few friends did show up, I made some tips and sold some CDs…

But I had some other thoughts that night. First, I looked the rows of seats by the windows at Milo, and remembered that three years ago my new (at the time, now ex) girlfriend had brought all of her friends up from Des Moines to see me. As I sat there last Saturday night, I just looked at that now-empty table and shuddered inside, shedding a silent tear. Some memories last a long time.

Secondly…though there were hardly any people there…I really felt glad to be singing my songs, and I sang them as if the place was packed… I know that perhaps I don’t have the greatest singing voice in the world, and that maybe I’m not the greatest writer or musician the world has ever seen. And perhaps not very people connect with songs that I write and perform. But I’m incredibly passionate about what I do, and there came a time where I just said to myself “go for it, don’t hold back. Don’t worry about anyone else. Do what you do.” And Saturday night at Milo was one of those nites, I just went for it, even though there were less than 10 people in the whole place, and several of those people left when I started playing…

On Saturday night’s set, I dug out several tunes that I had not played in a VERY long time if ever. “Always Have The Moon”, “In My Eyes” and “Witness” were three of my songs that are most personal to me, and I never play them because I’m shy about them and what they mean to me in my life. And so I’m always hesitant to play those tunes. So anyway…I brought out all three of them last weekend and just went for it.

It felt SO good to play those songs! Like a huge burden was off my shoulders. It helped me come to grips with those songs. It’s like God was watching that night…hey… maybe He was.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/prayers-and-promises-r1153751

http://www.allmusic.com/album/letters-from-north-of-town-r1409192

1. They raised over $150 in donations alone!
2. Desi Thompson joined me and TORE IT UP!
3. I was interviewed by Channel 15 (LINK: http://search.whotv.com/default.aspx?ct=r&q=Jefferson+Benefit)
4. We recorded the whole thing!!! I will be sifting through the tracks in hopes we can do a LIVE album!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dmx/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BENEFIT CONCERT
for the Jefferson IA fire victims and families

Ryan Sheeler with special guest Desi Thompson
Jefferson-Scranton High School
101 Ram Drive, Jefferson IA
Sunday, Feb 5th 2012, 2PM – 5PM
A Freewill offer will be taken – ALL PROCEEDS go to the families

Contacts:

Ryan Sheeler
Phone: 515-460-0192
Email: ryan@ryansheeler.com

Ruth Broman, JSHS Guidance Counselor
Phone: 515-386-2188
Email: RBroman@jefferson-scranton.k12.ia.us

http://www.van-halen.com/

http://www.vhnd.net