The context of Covenant Chapel (an Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Leawood, Kansas) is the critical core that created the camaraderie of Upward Hill.

Bud ("Leo"; see Bud's page) was one of the founding members of the church in 1989 when he left the worship team at Heartland Community Church to play keys and bass for the fledgling Covenant Chapel congregation's  worship services. Then, in 2002, Bud met Dave (and his lovely wife Rivers) when he joined the staff as Director of Covenant's High School ministry. Later, the ineffable Steve Bailey (read more....) migrated from California (with his vibrant wife Amber) to become Covenant's Middle School Director in 2004, hopeful that the kindred sprit he felt with Dave would grow spiritual - and musical - fruit. 

(Bud baited Steve to move to Kansas. During an early visit to KC, Leo Bud said "You're a drummer? Move here with us - - and we'll be creating the most joyful of noises. You'll see!" And so... Steve did!)

Upward Hill's first show was Dave's CD Release Event in the Covenant Sanctuary in November, 2003. Bud joined Dave, along with Rick Thaemert and Grant Craig, for a solidly-received evening of worship and praise. (excerpts from that show here and here). Upward was downright downhill from there!!

In the spring of 2005, Dave, Steve, and Bud started playing as Dave Partin and the Glassey Eyed Boys in coffee houses (examples here and here) and local Youth events - with Dave leading on acoustic and electic geetar, Steve pounding his Pearl drums and Bud playing key bass and keyboards. Sometimes a guest guitarist would sit in - like Joe Hart, Logan Gillespie or Greg Hertfelder.

The band then became "DaveP & the Joy Band" - - until Upward Hill was finally christened and officially launched in summer 2006 at Rock The Light (pics here) when former Covenant student Mr. Matt Loolooian (Matt's page ) graduated TCU and decided to fuse his musical soul with the fortunes and blessings God is giving Upward Hill. The Lord also gave us the band's name - which appeared like magic after Dave read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (see Wikipedia page...), the 2nd most popular book in the world after the Bible.

Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in his simple, unassuming style:

The band hopes we can discover through our music a similar self-introspection, well tempered by humility.

2007 promises to be the band's breakout year. We'll be in the studio in Abilene, Texas recording rhythm tracks, guitars, and vocals for the upcoming CD. Watch this space for more details.