Nov 26, 2019
I write to you from Somewhere-On-The-Road, USA. CITIZEN WAY has been touring in support of our new album “LOVE IS A LION” which is named for the Lion of Judah…our Savior Jesus. We just celebrated 15 years of music and ministry. I started CITIZEN WAY in 2004 after Alison and I married. I, Alison and our three girls are committed to serving the Lord with our lives and we choose CITIZEN WAY as our primary outlet. As hard as this whole thing is—we feel right at home. To help you understand our world a bit better, consider this rough sketch of the life of a touring Christian artist a smidgeon of our reality…
This band. Wow. Haha. I could have easily justified calling it quits so many times. Practice. Pray. Start a band. Loving life. Minister to anyone who will listen. Jesus! Make music we like. This is fun. Fight with each other about direction. Fight about tempos. Fight about fighting. Maybe I should have been a solo artist? Come together stronger. Living the dream. Play for free. Play for free some more. Play for hot dogs. Pay to play. Pay to play some more. Play for rowdy teenagers. Play for sleeping pew warmers. Play for judges who judge you ruthlessly cuz they are judges who just like to judge anything in general. Play for the janitor. Be away from home. Long days. No sleep. Make two independent records we love and will barely be heard. Write a hit song. Get rejected by record label…again. Keep going. Sign to a label 7 years in. Ahhhhhhh…we finally made it!!! Change our name cuz label says so. Start over on social media. Hand over rights to songs. Woo hoo! we’re on a label. Pay to play on big tours. Van. Drive through the night…again. Van dies. New van. Transmission dies. New transmission costs more than the van is worth. Still feeling called to this. Management retires from the music biz. We got this!!! Alison and I lose our son Jeremiah to a miscarriage. Cry. Hurt. Hopeful. Jesus. Don’t quit. Move to Nashville to be with family more. Lose my other job that pays for this job. So much good out of the hurt. So much!!! Start over. New life will come. Release a record we didn’t play on. Hit song off new record isn’t wanted by the record label unless we pay for it ourselves. Song goes #1 for 10 weeks. No real help to promote it so the song kinda fizzles. Lost opportunity. Bummer. Hire new management. Run merch for other artists to make money for food and gas. Band members can’t afford it anymore. Band members (our actual brothers) retire. Sad. Booking agency thinks we all retired and stops booking us. Pray. Hard. New management. Can’t afford them. Fire management. New management. Can’t ever get a hold of them. Fire management. New management. Wow haha. Next single didn’t work at radio. Still feel good about this. People forget about us. People can’t get our name right. Super fans can’t get our name right. It’s CITIZEN WAY—no “S”. Still loving the best parts of all of this. This is hard. Promoter forgot to pay us. Promoter forgot to advertise. Promoter never even showed up. “Oh, we are vegetarians as stated in the rider we sent you months ago thanks!”—caterer says “great…I made salmon!” Sigh. Pray. Feel compelled to give away 10% of our merch money to local ministries wherever we perform. Start GENEROSITY ROCKS. Awesome! Way awesome!!! Totally works. Feel good. Raise money for a bus through GENEROSITY ROCKS. Buy old bus. Bus burns down. Embarrassed. Still loving this somehow. Flights cost more than our paycheck. Pray. Smile. Choose joy. Tired. Make new record we paid for through our amazing donors who join us in the studio. Buy new bus (used). Bus driver is a no show. Loving making music. Loving each other still. Loving serving the Lord. Thankful we’re not working a desk job. Thankful our families are behind us. Thankful to write songs that matter to people who matter. Songs like “LOVE HAS WON.” New baby girl. Happy tears. Kept that take. Jesus. We made it to today. Thank You Lord! Flat tire.
Haha…it’s just so true. All of it. Haha. I laugh as I write this thinking of all of the crazy stuff we have seen. Like the time the pastor tried to ride a Harley on stage but fell over on the ramp and broke the bike. Hahahahhahahahahahahaaaaa. Wow that was funny. I can’t quit. How could I?! The story in the making is too good. It makes me cringe sometimes thinking about what we’ve all lost and what we’ve all sacrificed. But I can’t quit.
It’s a calling. It won’t leave me alone even though I wish it would sometimes.
Phil. 1:6 says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus”.
If you’re called to something you’ll likely not sleep until you do something about it. As a follower of Jesus, and if you’re breathing, you’re called to something. Stick with your strengths. Bloom where you’re planted. Pray in the morning for wisdom and joy. Do it. Something. Build His kingdom. Not ours. It’s worth it.
So many of you have a brick in my foundation with your name on it. Some of you taught me how to do this. Some of you support us every month. Alison, the band, and I just want to say thank you. Wow…thank you!!! We need you. If you feel called to support us please consider becoming a monthly donor to CITIZEN WAY at www.generosityrocks.com. We are thriving because of donors like you.
This family of SDBs is special. I am here because of the Lord using you. I am a proud SDB. I am thankful for us. I’m also three classes into my SDBU ordination. Woo hoo!!! Please feel free to write to me anytime at ben@bencalhoun.com
In Jesus’ name,
Ben Calhoun
