Paul of the Smith Persuasion, Men in Gitis, Smith Family Reunion, J&P, Sprinky, Justin Stoody, Tommy Hall, a bluegrass radio show we listened to every sunday night on the way home from church, and American Idol.
It all started one day back in the year 1999 when Derek Noe came over to my house and played "Needle and the Damage Done" on a junky guitar I found in our attic. I thought to myself, "If Derek Noe can learn to play guitar, then surely I can as well."
So I started strumming my guitar a lot while my dad was trying to watch Fox News Channel. He would usually say something like, "Will you take that thing somewhere else!?" or "Is that the only chord you know!?"
But then one day something strange happened. As I played my guitar and my dad watched Fox News Channel, he turned and slowly looked at me with a sense of wonder in his eye. He stared as my nimble fingers danced effortlessly across the strings. The notes I played changed from sounds to colors and painted the living room walls. As I pressed string to fret, the sound became hypnotic.
My mother was drawn in from her sewing in the sewing room. Together, my parents stared at this person on their couch not as a son, but as a performer. As a musician. As a hypnotist. As an artist.
I played on as our neighbor shut off his lawn mower and turned slowly toward our house. Outside, birds bashfully stopped their singing. Flowers ignored the sun and bent their blooms toward the sound. Small animals heroically burrowed toward us, the origin of the earth's vibrations that wed vibrations on the steel beneath my hands.
Upstairs, my sister pressed her ear against her floor. Across the hall, I heard a Nintendo pause as a controller slid mindlessly from my brothers hand.
Soon, tears flowed freely from my mother's eye. I thought, "Not now, Mom. Please...don't do this to me now." And yet she cried.
I gazed at my father, who now had tears of his own. I thought, "Oh, no! Not you too, Dad. Stay strong, Father. Stay strong for me, I beg you! Embrace the song! MELT INTO THE SONG, MAN!"
But how strong could he be? Is he stronger than lyric? Is he stronger than song? Is he stronger than the sound of a boy becoming a man?
A few years and college classes later, I found myself married, sitting in front of a computer at a desk overlooking a parking lot from the sixth floor of an apartment building in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I just happened to be creating a MySpace page and trying to start an argument with my wife at the same time when she said, "You are such an antagonizer!"
u had heart surgery? seriously! Im still in funk wayne IN.. woking for Aetna Insurance.. Hoping to move to hawaii in a couple years if the Lord allows it ;) Yeah south carl. is great u been to south of the border yet.. I love that cheesy place!
I want you to sing it sad-like, but in your voice. Do all the verses if you want but make Devil verse really dramatic. LOL Oh my goodness, I can't wait! Thanks Bro.
