THE BLUES

Yesterday I took the day off work. While Debra and Ashley were gone, I made a video of a song I put together about 25 years ago while living in Brookings. Back in the year 1985, I spent several Friday nights alone while Barbara worked swing shift one night a week, always on Fridays. She was a ward clerk in an emergency room.

Our children were young then and went to bed early. From the time they went to bed until Barbara got home from work, around midnight, I would often pull out my guitar, grab a piece of paper, find a pen and write songs. Never serious songs. Usually sarcastic songs.

One was called "The Stranger", about a Christian who walked into a church prayer meeting with an "unspoken prayer request".

Then I wrote "Let's Dance", using about a half dozen different Bible passages about dancing.

Having just left a Baptist church that year and having just landed in a Nazarene church, I was inspired to write one called "I used to be a Baptist, but now I'm a Nazarene".

I killed even more time on one of those Friday nights, pondering my observations of my charismatic brethren. That prompted me to write "The Charismatic, Jesus Fanatic Blues", which I recorded in my garage yesterday when no one was looking.

The video can be viewed by clicking here.