Nov · 14 · 2007

in one's blood  : ingrained in one's nature : occurring as an innate or seemingly hereditary principle, inclination, or talent © 2006-2007 Merriam-Webster

 

Over the years I've had periods of down time.  Some as long as 2 years, where I didn't even get a guitar out of it's case, much less play it.  Why I can't say for sure, only to surmize I have typically spent so much energy while in a band, that I reach a point where I'm empty and need some down time to recharge.  The past 8 years it's hard to say if bouts of depression have played into it, but this has been a pattern for me.  I tend to think that as I get older my energy reserves just aren't what they used to be, demanding more down time, or rather, less "up" time.

In the last few weeks, I can't pin it down more than that, I've started to actually feel like playing again.  I have played ever so briefly a few times, which is a start.  But I find it almost humorous that another idea from Eric should come along within a few weeks of this happening in me.  Of course, time would play out that Eric would eventually propose something again anyway, so the significance of it can probably be written off.

Since last Christmas I've often thought about the Praise band at Indian Creek, where I invested a great deal of time and energy.  I miss that band a lot.  Not just what we did, but I had so many dear friends in that band.  I also find myself thinking back to SC and all that we did and how rich of an experience it was.  The thread that ties those two bands together is, simply, God.  My faith.  And the practice of it.  And I'm realizing not having that in my life is probably the one thing I'm missing the most, that kept my energy up, and kept me active in some sort of musical avenue.  Since that horrible time, in 2000 and following, nothing has been the same.  That includes my sense of self and knowing who I am and what I am supposed to be doing.  I've been a hollow shell.

Eric sent an email, and then called last week to offer one more in a long string of musical endeavor proposals.  God love him for his persistence!  This one has nothing to do with SC, but we hardly talk without SC turning up in the conversation somehwere.  This particular idea is about putting together a band to do covers and originals of Praise music.  It would be done in our "style", that is to say what comes natural to us in who we are as musicians.  It wouldn't be a constant thing requiring weekly rehearsals and regularly scheduled gigs.  It would be simply as things "come up" and it happens to be convenient for us.  I'm obviously boiling down a couple of long conversations here.  I told him, in short, to get me some recordings, and to try and find our old keyboard/vocalist pal (from a one-off band years ago) Tony Ross, and we'll go from there.  And BTW… if YOU know Tony… we've had problems in the past finding him… tell him to contact one of us PLEASE.  He can reach me here.

What does all of this mean?  Well, it's not a reformed version of SC, however I would venture to speculate something to do with SC could grow out of this.  This will, as I understand, use the name The Encounter, a name Eric has used for the past couple of years or so when ever he's done any sort of Praise thing.  At this point it's hard to say what level of participation I'd have beyond simply playing the way I do, but I'd guess at the very least I'd do some arranging.  Maybe a lot more than that, but it's hard to say at this point.  It's WAY early in the planning stage for anything like this to be known.

Continued in Part 3

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