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Two things happened in Atlanta this weekend, the second of which I wasn’t expecting. First, my wife and I scored major “parent points” with our daughters by taking them to their first real concert. We planned the trip more than two months in advance. The $120 outlay for tickets was our pleasure. But what I didn’t expect was to leave the Matisyahu concert that night thinking I had just seen one of the greatest musical performances of my life.

Matis who?

Try to envision a Hasidic Jew with long, curly locks, a bushy beard and skull cap standing on stage in a smoke-filled venue cranking out the best darned Reggae you’ve ever heard. It’s a mind-bender, I know. But Matisyahu is no freak show. He’s the real deal when it comes to his religious faith. Take the lyrics to his best-know song, “Jerusalem,” for example. “Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it’s supposed to do.”

But this is more than an amateur music listener’s concert review. This is about stating a fact. And that is, as concerts go, there was an importance to this one. I could sense it. So could everyone else. The acoustics in Variety Playhouse were perfect, and Matisyahu was larger than life. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that a film crew was on stage capturing each moment, or that a digital microphone tower was set up in the row behind us. This concert was being recorded. If Matisyahu’s Live at Stubbs performance in Austin, Texas catapulted him to fame, his concert in Atlanta over the weekend will surely be his next album.

It was just…that…good!

The funny thing is, I’ve never been much of a Reggae fan. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s the mind-numbing two-chord tempo, or the familiar image of Bob Marley shrouded in ganga smoke. But when a Hasidic Jew dressed in traditional garb bellows, “My spirit needs fitness, that’s why I flip this,” in beatbox, you listen. No matter who you are. No matter your taste in music.

Matisyahu. That’s who.

Continue reading »]]> Over the summer, I received a flurry of emails at work from viewers who wondered if “that was Tim Waller they saw” on Dr. Charles Stanley’s Sunday morning TV broadcast. “If that wasn’t Tim, it sure looked like him,” said one. “I’m pretty sure I saw Tim and his wife on In Touch,” said another.

Yes, folks. That was us you saw.

My wife and I were in Atlanta the weekend of June 20-21. I was up for an Emmy award for a story I did last year on failures within the 9.1.1. system. (Yes, I won!) But equal to the excitement of winning my first Emmy was getting up the next morning and driving to First Baptist Church of Atlanta and getting to see Dr. Stanley in person.

What we didn’t count on in a church that large was showing up in one of the cutaway shots! In fact, we had no idea we were on until a week or two after the broadcast when emails from News 4 viewers starting pouring in. My first thought was (and this is funny coming from a TV guy), did I look okay? Was I scratching my nose when they took the shot?

The sermon in which my wife and I appear is Countdown to Judgment, Part 4, Our Eternal Rewards. You can watch the entire sermon here. We pop up for a brief moment about three-fourths of the way into the sermon. Plus, watching will explain why my wife and I appear to be laughing. Dr. Stanley had just said something funny, though I can’t remember what.

And for the record, you may see us again on In Touch. We’re heading to Atlanta to see friends this weekend, and guess what we’re doing Sunday morning?

Iva Waller talking to Dr. Stanley