All about my horses!

Nathan Granner

Nathan Granner- Movie Star – Susan Engle’s son

Usually the story is about the usher, but you will all be astounded at the Usher Mom story. Some of you know my son, long time Kansas City resident Opera singer Nathan Granner.  He was the artistic director of the first non Kauffman Center resident production about composer Virgil Thomson’s music sung by a variety of Kansas City  produced by an Atlanta PBS station.  (The production was never aired.) Being the mom of the artistic director and singer, I got a backstage pass and sat in the green room during rehearsals pretending to be a famous person.  I also got to sit on the Helzburg stage during a UMKC Conservatory performance where Nathan was one of the singers.  I had no idea that I would be an usher in late 2012.

Nathan left Kansas City to get a Masters of Music at UCLA.  Turns out, that was the winning ticket for his opera career.  UCLA music professors can help navigate a student’s opera career, during and after their student status.  Most of the Nathan’s professors are also opera singers.  Win Win for referrals!

His career sustained the cost of living in LA, even during the pandemic.  Two years ago, the big blast came.  Nathan got a call to ask if he would take a role in a movie!  The original plan was to produce an opera, but everything locked down when Covid hit.  Restrictions loosened but opera venues were still closed.   It was decided to make a movie instead of an opera!

Your Kansas City boy is the star of Mr. Chips!  The book was written in 1939 and two movies were made of it.  This version of Mr. Chips is the first ever OPERA MOVIE!

Yours truly got to watch two days of filming.  When I was there, 3 people were filmed with a movie crew of 54 people!  Movies are filmed in San Francisco Treasure Island in huge WW II Air Force hangers!  (HUGE). The crew are professional set designers, sound people, 6 people on the camera crew, producer, director etc!  Nathan had his own trailer in the hanger!

Joy for Your Soul

It’s an invisible thing.  It lives within your body.  It’s named often, mostly during a religious event.  It has never been imaged in an MRI or found during an X-Ray.  But it’s there at birth and no one knows when it exits at the ending.

Soul

Soul sister….Soul brother… Save my Soul… Pray for my Soul

etc

Nathan Granner sings and the audience is deeply moved.  I’ve seen people at his concerts tear up and cry.  He sings; People cry.  People feel like they’ve been hit with an invisible 1000 lb emotion.  It takes us by surprise.  Ben Gulley is singing with Nathan now and their voices pair up.  This means they pack 2000 lbs of raw emotion.

Two thousand pounds  of emotion go into every pore in your body.  The 2000 lb voice sledge hammer slams into the deep portion of your human body and wakes up your soul.  The soul goes from zero to corvette max speed in a nano second.  The law of physics dictates that something must move when hit by a 2000 lb sledge hammer.  Some people break out in teary crying.  Some people stop breathing.  Others are taken from earth into a mysterious other world.  This is the moment of pure joyful soulful happiness.

That is the explanation of what happens when you listen to Ben Gulley and Nathan Granner!

On Monday, I was invited to a Gulley Granner photo shoot.  They recorded three songs for a promotional video.

I sat there  listening to Nessun dorum seven times.  I lost consciousness for a while.  They recorded another song, but I had been transferred to a Star Trek Universe for a while and missed the takes of that song.  My body was there, but I was traveling in fog underworld.  When I came back into my body, I underwent ecstasy listening to Ben and Nathan singing “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”.  “Jericho” is on their new CD, Hymn!  I got to hear them sing Jeremiah seven times.  My soul was screaming!  I would walk over burning coals to get to hear them sing that song and my soul would never let the fire touch my feet!

I was “On Fire” the rest of the day.  My feet never touched the ground the remained of that magical day.  I’m so thankful to be “the mom”!

You can experience a 2000 lb sledge hammer in person if you purchase their CD, settle in and turn up the sound!  The Hymn CD!  Gulley Granner dot com!  http://gulleygranner.com/hymn

Nathan Granner, Operatic Tenor

Nathan Granner, operatic tenor, who sang the anthem the last two weekends at Longview Horse Park. He lives in KC and hires out to sing for special events, including weddings. www.nathangranner.com
Here is YouTube of Nathan singing at Longview Horse Park while Kansas City Mounted Patrol carry the flag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0mCVQMgFhs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Nathan and the National Anthem-HORSE SHOW!

Nathan Granner sings National Anthem at Fox Trotter Horse Show

Sing it OUT!

A mother’s dream come true.  Nathan, my wondrous son, sang at the Kansas City Regional Fox Trotter Horse Association Annual Horse show.  (I  knew you would want to know what KCRFTHA stood for!)

Nathan Granner rides Velvet in the historic Longview Horsepark arena

Nathan Granner has been all over the world singing.  He’s one of The American Tenors.  He is famous and loved by everyone who knows him and has heard him give a concert.  He’s been featured on PBS. The American Tenor Concert filmed at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood was shown all over the USA and Nathan was usually on the air helping stations raise money.

That and more!  He is an Operatic Tenor.  He’s humble and much fun.  He’s an animal lover and makes a loyal friend. He’ll do anything he can for you.  I know all this because he’s my son and I’ve watched him grow from a lovable young kid into a lovable young man…and then we discovered that God gave him this amazing voice.  Look him up on Facebook.  Look him up at www.nathangranner.com.

Nathan rode Velvet into the arena behind the flag horses. Velvet is famous too. She took him in that arena at a fox trot.  Look at  her stride it out.  Velvet is a multiple World Grand Champion in the Missouri Fox Trotter Youth Versatility events. She is also the only Missouri Fox Trotter that attained Level 3 in the Parelli levels. She’s been seen by around 18,000 people as she was in the Parelli USA tour events with Jennifer and Tony Vaught.  She’s done it all.

She carried Nathan into the arena, strutting her fox trotter Stuff.  Nathan dismounted and sang the National Anthem with those low and high notes that everyone longs to hear. The crowd simultaneously broke out in goose bumps. There must have been a million goose bumps at the historic Longview Horse Park that Saturday night.  Loula Long Combs would have been proud.  I bet she heard Nathan and saw all those fox trotters in the arena that Saturday night!

Bring em in at the Fox Trot sez Nathan!!!

Nathan and Velvet

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