Living Waters

Living Waters started as a house music ministry group at a retreat center in MA in 1976. In imitation of Lighthouse in Ann Arbor it expanded to a full production with dance, drama, lighting and sound production. Travelling in a converted bus LW played in at least 8 states, including Yankee Stadium, the World Marriage Encounter Convention, Hartford Civic Center and more. They did many styles of music and venues, including liturgies, conferences and Teen Retreats, but as time went on, a lot of the songs were original compositions There were many highlights: the song Peter the Rock was presented to and blessed by Pope John Paul II at the hands of Ambassador Ray Flynn. Living Waters played and sang with Dana and John Michael Talbot. Eventually, the group became a faith family, many members marrying other members in the group & having a lot of talented kids. Now, the band continues to meet and pray together. Actual performance has been rare, but in the past year LW has achieved amazing success on the Internet. The band has been featured on Windows Media and the ReverbNation main page. (Living Waters remains one of only seven Featured Christian artists on ReverbNation and is high on the global charts.) This music is now being played on Catholic Jukebox and is listed on grapevineonline.net. After 35 years of continuous existence as a band, they have now achieved their long-term goal of a digital album release, Refresh on itunes, Amazon mp3 and other sites.) Dive in & GET REFRESHED!

Summer of '75 / A mustard seed of an idea / Fooling around in the Annex (musical inception): Dave Bourque, Joline Bourque, Mike McBride, Mark Lajoie, Jim Gagnon, Danny Gagnon, Kathy Hilliard, Mary Poulin, Chuck Rossignol; and Eddie McKay, Jim Bourque and Mike Higgins on crew (a bunch of 15-18 year olds!) [After seeing us, Jim Babish & Tom Doran met with some of us and said they can help us with sound, lighting, blocking etc. Sounded like they knew what they were talking about! Ann-Marie had seen dance out in New Mexico.] Getting Organized (and adding Dance, circa 1976): Omer Bourque, Jim Babish, Ann-Marie Donovan (Babish), Beth Medeiros, Beth Timlege, Peggy York, Michelle Cormier, Bob Alence, Cindy Markowski, Debbie Gunn. Adding Drama, singers, dancers (circa 1978): Mike Mattingly, Joyce Akillian (Rossignol), Cathy Cormier, Sharon Mattingly, Kathy Sullivan (Bourque), Denise Carr (Vassel), Ann Dallamora, Celine Vachon. Major concerts begin. A new identity: Greg Loell, W Anthony Vassel, Mary Gillis, Carole Chatallian, Steven 'Pepi' Pipitone Over the next decade or so? HUNDREDS of concerts! Early-80's: Suzanne Bertrand, Chuck Trella, Tom Untersee, Pat Sullivan, Becky? MID-80's: Anne-Marie Bourque (Loell), John Drahos, Miles Tardie, Kevin Turenne, Joe DeAngelis, Marcelle Foucre, Jeff Case, Joyce Murphy (Drahos), Julia Tice (Lajoie), Joan Evans, Chrissy?, Cindy Hall, Elaine Therriault, Don Morrier, Michelle Foucre, Dede Kirby, ? Barbara Mulholland SINCE THEN.... 90's: Continued Christmas and Sheepgate concerts; family matters; diminished concerts 2004 Plus Reunion Concert, weddings, dormancy 2010-11 new interest, monthly pot lucks, funerals, wedding, birth of websites & wide internet exposure, first digital release "REFRESH" ANY MORE????

It's been years since our last full scale concert. We still do the occasional liturgy or prayer service and many of us are musicians in our own churches. A couple of interesting concert possibilities are on the table for the summer since our recent internet explosion. Like it? LOVE it! Special moments? Playing Yankee Stadium, getting our song to Pope John Paul II, playing a concert and singing with Dana & John Michael Talbot.

For Mark Lajoie? The Beatles, "The Messiah" & other classical pieces, U2 has been major, early Christian rock, like Second Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman & Petra, some prog rock like Yes. For Greg Loell, our guitarist, I can add The Who, Rush and some blues. Tony our drummer has always loved jazz like Spyrogyra.

They had an excellent sound system which we plugged into, plus, they LOVED us and liked featuring us to our best advantage.

Good question!