The “Other Side”…………..Part III

As I look back , over my nearly  64 years on this planet, I'll always remember my 1996-2004 move to Arizona, as one of the DUMBEST moves I've ever made, although there were three POSITIVE things that came from it.

1.  It gave me a much deeper appreciation for Idaho.

2.  I made 3 or 4 good friends down there.

3.  I finally started to get my life right with God, and began playing in church instead of for drunks in smoke-filled bars.

I moved to Apache Junction (near Phoenix) in 1996.  In 1999, I joined a Baptist church out there are began playing with this little gospel group.  That's Kelly Kimble at the piano, Amber Farley at the drums and John Flumerfelt on the bass.

When you've dedicated a huge portion of your life to music, there's just something very rewarding about playing for folks who are actually LISTENING, instead of throwing darts, slapping pool balls around, choking you out with their cigarette smoke, mixed-in with an occasional bar fight, often PERILOUSLY close to your expensive instruments.

I needed to get my entire life right------including my music direction.

I also played a good share of "Bluegrass Gospel" with my good friend Billy Pepper, and a lot of late night jam sessions.  Here we are playing an outdoor festival out in Tempe, Arizona.  Left to Right:  Tammy Samp on the mandolin, Billy was our lead singer (TREMENDOUS voice!), Jeff Ford on the banjo, and I was playing lead guitar.

But after another couple of years, the heat and the crowded population was taking a toll on me.  I loved being around the good folks and playing music, but the rest of it was just getting to be a "gaggle", so in 2004 I said "enough" and headed back to Mountain Home.

Although I won't play in bars anymore, I WILL play for dances when time allows, and I've often played with my old friend Curly Surles, when he's needed a lead player.

Here we were in Glenns Ferry a few years ago.  Along with Curly & I, are Orla Knight and Jerry Heath.

We even played at a GAS STATION up in Lowman!  THAT'S an interesting gig to put on your "resume", eh?

Out at Curly's barn where he lives.........and occasionally, I've played at care facilities for the aged.  (THESE are always special times.......a lot of those old folks are just "left there" and forgotten about.)

My favorite musical enjoyment today is with the gospel group I play with now........Mike & Marilyn landers, my longtime buddy Irv Levine, Bob Cisco, and a few others who jump in there from time to time.  In addition to playing in church every Sunday, we also put on a "Western Gospel Night", one Saturday evening every other month, and the sanctuary is usually packed!   Lot of fun.

And we still get out to do things like the Weiser Festival", and such.

There WERE problems last year.  I'd been fighting some pain issues in my left hand, on & off for the past couple of years, and it finally reached the point where the "cortisone shots weren't "gettin' 'er done" anymore, and there were no guarentees that the surgery would fix it.  It was a tense time after 42 years of doing this.

But I've been doing this too long now, to just "put it down"............

You can't fool "Mother Nature", nor can you out-run "Father Time", and there'll eventually come a time when I'll HAVE to quit, but when it IS time, I want to quit on MY terms, not the doctor's.  Hand is pretty much healed now, the pain is gone and the finger-speed is coming back.  I'm playing again, and I feel like I've still got some miles left and a few more songs.

And while life itself hasn't always been an "even exchange", my music has ALWAYS been an old comfortable "dusty road".  Through some pretty dark times, I've always had an old guitar around, that's enabled me to "shove things aside", even in an old studio apartment sometimes, late at night, when guitars sound especially good.

And when things are going WELL in your life, and you're up there on that stage, it's pure magic.  You don't know or care what day it is, who the president is,  or if it's gonna be your last day on this earth.  You don't care.  You're just "talking" to those people out there from the ends of your fingers, and until that last gig is finished, nothin' else matters.  The rest of the world doesn't even exist.

I dedicate this 3-part blog to my Dad, who had the PATIENCE to get me started.  He passed away in December of '88, but he got to hear me play on several occasions prior to that, and that alone has made it all worth it.