Music and a meal combine in July 17 program
singing, local food are ingredients for July 17 program
By LINDA M. LINONIS
leetonia
Music and a meal are a match made in heaven at many church events.
That will be the case at a unique event called “How Can We Keep from Singing ... and Eating” on July 17 at Leetonia Mennonite Church.
Greg Bowman, executive director of Goodness Grows, a faith-based food and farming ministry at Common Ground Church Community in North Lima, came up with the idea as a “community-building evening of sharing local foods and acoustic live music and singing.”
A member of Midway Mennonite Church, Bowman had heard and seen the praise-band members whose participants are Adrian, Christian and David Labra and Adam Witmer. Bowman also knew that The Walking Roots Band was involved in a Hymn Reclamation Project, which sets old hymn lyrics to contemporary music.
He wondered if a collaboration could evolve.
Through emails, Adrian Labra has corresponded with Greg Yoder of Walking Roots. Adrian Labra recently met with Yoder and Seth Crissman, also of Walking Roots, when they were in recent dinner- theater performances at the Dutch Village Inn in Columbiana.
“Through song, you find real meaning in a broad range of emotion that you can’t do in words alone,” Bowman said.
Yoder said he’s excited about the “Singing and Eating” event for a simple reason: “We believe a lot of important faith formation happens when we’re singing ... and when we’re eating.”
Adrian Labra said he, his siblings and Witmer also are in the Labra Brothers Band, which plays Latin rock. “We do a lot of music in Spanish,” he said, adding they also have favorite music from Eric Clapton and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
“We’re hoping to get a taste of bluegrass,” he said of some of the music of Walking Roots. “It will be Latin and bluegrass fusion.”
Yoder said Walking Roots’ repertoire is “acoustic-Americana, faux-folk, blue-ish-grass and roots music.”
As for collaborating with the Labra brothers, Yoder said he’s looking forward to what will take place. “That’s one of the beautiful things about this project. We’re bringing ourselves together and meeting at the table, trusting that in honoring each other’s traditions, we’ll be able to create something that may be holy,” he said.
In relation to the Hymn Reclamation Project, Adrian Labra said the bands are working on “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and plan to work on other selections.
“It’s an opportunity to express our faith and share our love of music,” Adrian Labra said. “We’re integrating two distinct genres and making a sound.”
The Walking Roots Band has been taking old hymn texts and writing new music for them. “Many of our texts come from centuries ago, but they resonate with us because of the timeless truths they speak,” Yoder said. “We value history and tradition as we approach faith in the 21st century, and we’re connecting it to the music that we love. People have been doing similar things for a long time, and we’re excited to be placing ourselves in the stream of that storied tradition.”
As for food, Adam Lee of The Sprouted Table is creating a catered meal. “I like what’s light, healthy, local and natural,” Lee said. “It’s seasonal cooking.”
Lee draws on the bounty of Valley farms. “I believe in supporting local farmers,” he said.
He has worked for 12 years in the restaurant business and has traveled internationally, which has given him another perspective on food preparation.
Another aspect of his approach to food preparation — local, fresh and seasonal — involves his affiliation with First Unitarian Universalist Church in Youngstown. Lee cited the church’s Farm to Family initiative to help support local farmers.
Yoder described eating as a “sacred act, one in which we are connected to the sustaining power of the created earth and connected to our brothers and sisters with whom we join in table fellowship.”
Aubrey Helmuth Miller of Kidron, a banjo player, also will participate.