jackiefrancois@gmail.com
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upcoming events
holy family cathedral
orange, ca, 7pm
Feb 27 keynote speaker
idaho catholic youth conference
boise, id
March 1-5 tob training
theology of the body institute
quarryville, pa
March 7,14,21,28 masses
santa clara de asis catholic church
yorba linda, ca, 5pm
March 12-14 worship leader
confirmation retreat
big bear, ca
March 16 acoustic night of worship
st. michael catholic church
poway, ca
March 20 spirit&song prayer jam
anaheim, ca
March 26-28 worship leader
confirmation retreat
somewhere, ca
top 10 cool spots of 2009
To see the countdown to jackie's top 10 favorite
cities, countries and sights of 2009, click here
fun spring concerts
for some odd reason, a bunch of my favorite worship
leaders and artists came to southern california this
spring--and even more amazing was that i had
never seen any of them in concert and was able
to go to all of them! i was stoked when
chris tomlin came to san diego a few months
ago. then i got to see phil wickham and
charlie hall in concert, where, to my
surprise, the guy who played electric guitars on my
cd (taylor johnson) was playing for phil wickham that
night. my friends and i dropped by charlie hall's
booth to say "hi" and give him kudos for his awesome
music. his beard makes me want to chop a tree down!
then hillsong united (my favorite band) came
to san diego. my friends and i got to go to a
pre-show event, where the hillsong peeps were, and
got to meet joel houston, who is a stinkin'
amazing songwriter! then, even better was that brooke
fraser was singing with them!!! i about peed my
pants, since she is my absolute favorite female
singer/songwriter/worship leader ever. it was so
awesome to worship God for two and a half hours
without a guitar in my hand!!! and i love
hillsong united. that concert was probably the most
worshipful/prayerful concert i've ever been to.
finally, matt maher and shane & shane came to
anaheim. i ended up seeing 25 other friends at that
concert, who came to support matt. only recently
(january) did i start listening to shane & shane,
and they have become one of my favorite groups! their
harmonies are so tight and amazing. after the
concert, matt maher introduced me to them and i
snagged a pic with them, too. they are quite the down
to earth/jolly guys. what a cool spring this has been
musically!
hopenspace, turin, italy
hopenspace was a first-time event where five
international christian artists were paired up with
five different italian composer/artists. we sang
their songs with them and they sang our songs with
us. (i sang a song called "una giornata di sole"
with/composed by a young man and woman named ruggero
and francesca. it was very cool to sing part of it in
english and then sing part of it in italian with
them!) what a great weekend! this time in italy was
definitely different than the last three times this
year, since it was less about the food and location
and more about the amazing people i met and hung out
with for three days. i especially grew close to jnr
robinson, a jamaican british gospel singer, and his
gf, justyna, a lovely polish girl. on sunday, with
our free time, we even took a little side trip to
milan, which i had never been too! the other artists,
suzan and bryan, were just as fun to hang out with,
and it was great to see fifito again! and of course,
all the italian peeps that i met the previous two
times (like nuccia and claudio, mauro, massimo, and
marco) were just as lovely this time around! all in
all, i had a "massive" time!
religious education congress
re congress is the largest 3-day gathering of
catholics in the united states (40,000 people). every
year they gather right in my backyard at the anaheim
convention center. being in ministry, this conference
is like a huge reunion, cuz i always see youth
ministers that i've ministered with, music ministers
that i've sung with, speakers who i've listened to,
etc, etc. i got to give two workshops at youth day
(15,000 teens), which i had never done before, and it
was awesome to see teens in my workshop that i had
spent a week with at camp last summer in arizona! the
spiritandsong.com prayer jam is always one of my
favorite events, since before i was one of their
artists, i used to attend this saturday night worship
event every year. this was my third time singing at
it, and it was one of my favorites, since matt maher,
tom booth, josh blakesley, jesse manibusan, steve
angrisano, sarah hart, valimar jansen and santiago
fernandez were there.....those are some heavy
hitters! it was so much fun!
n'awlins
a week after i went to louisiana for the first time,
i came back for a 2nd time to give a concert in
Rayne, LA. However, i flew into New Orleans, so i HAD
to experience some of that cool city before making
the 2 and half hour drive to Rayne. (Fun sidenote:
Norm MacDonald aka "Turd Ferguson" from SNL's
Celebrity Jeopardy was on both of my planes from LAX
to New Orleans and we even talked a bit waiting in
line for the 2nd plane and at baggage claim. He was
going to do some stand-up comedy in N'awlins. Totally
down to earth, cool guy--go Norm!). When Jamie (the
concert host) picked me up from the airport, we
picked up our friend, Jimmy, and headed down to the
French Quarter to experience some awesome beignets
and coffee at the famous Cafe du Monde (which i had
seen on the Food Network and was totally excited
about!!). This experience reminded me very much of
France--sitting in a cafe, eating a pastry, sipping
coffee, while smelling smoke and dirt and listening
to street performers play their music (in this case
it was two ladies on a violin and classical guitar).
Then we walked around to Bourbon Street (thankfully
at the more peaceful and not so naughty daytime) and
saw other famous landmarks. Then Jamie, who is such a
cool and fun guy, drove me up to Rayne, the Frog
Capital of the World! The next day I had a concert in
Rayne's Depot Square, which is the coolest little
grassy area, with Gazebo-type stage, a fountain, and
train tracks in the background. My favorite part of
the concert was when I started listing off the Cajun
food i had experienced in the last two weeks. People
were cheering more for their food than for my music.
My kind of people!!!! HAHA. It was great to see a lot
of friends and to hang out with Orillion family (who
housed and cooked amazing food for me!). I heart
louisiana! I don't think this will be my last trip :)
my first crawfish boil
i went to louisiana for the first time in the
beginning of february. along with crawfish etouffee
and chicken fricassee, i got to experience none other
than a crawfish boil. although it was the beginning
of the season and the crawfish were smaller than
usual (or so i was told), 14 friends gathered around
and devoured pounds and pounds of yummy, seasoned and
spicy crawfish, along with the potatoes and corn that
were cooked with it. by the end of the night, my
fingers were pruned and stained with seasoning. they
also were tired from working so hard to get the meat
out of each crawfish. but boy, it was worth it! no
"fussin'" over here!
new album!
click here to order
Jackie's debut album
Your Kingdom is Glorious
OR check it out on
iTunes