into the closet deep

Last night I dug into my old cassette archive, old concerts, old recordings with family and friends. I pulled out about five tapes and skipped around and listened to some old memories. Most were recorded at Christian Brother's SKYLIGHT. One night (1985?) Brooky, Doug Moore and I swapped songs on stage. I was terrible, Brook and Doug shined. Brook was funny that night. Anything I said between songs, he had a nice put-down/comeback. Despite my lousiness...it sounded as if we and the audience had a jolly good time wot.

I listened to a couple of The Guise tapes (circa 1990). Brook, Michael, and I did some really nice stuff back then. We were pretty much the stage band for CBA in the late eighties. We would sing our original songs as well as songs of friends. Michael sang Pat Terry's song IN MY DREAM and I'd sing Malcom & Alwyn's FOOL'S WISDOM. The three of us did a nice version of AMAZING GRACE. I loved singing with The Guise and still jump at the chance to sing with Brook and Michael. We've led worship as The Guise a handful of times at Vineyard over the course of the last few years. I think we sound better now than we did back then. The recordings I have at Vineyard are a lot better than the old cassette recordings from SKYLIGHT. Still though, I am glad to have them.

Some songs The Guise sang:

Amazing Grace

Taking The Time

Where Are You Now

Insane Man

Sugar Blues

How Could You Be So Good

Jesus Knows All About It

Guilty

My marriage and move to Bowling Green in 1990 ended The Guise as the stage band. I would drive down every now and again for some reunion gigs at Skylight. As Brook and Michael got more involved with Permanent Wave (while I was away), a great worship band. They sounded great too. I've got a cassette I need to dig out of the closet of them, the night Larry and Pearl Brick came to town. Permanent Wave was a different animal all together than what The Guise had been. I will admit that I really felt outside of a good thing back then. I would have loved to have been a part of that band but alack and alas. By then, I had recorded STAND and was playing a good bit around where I was living. That time playing solo did me a great deal of good but still, I missed playing with friends.

I laid down on the couch late last night with the headphones on listening to a tape that Brook, Dan, and I made back in 1995. Brook gave me a call while I was still living in Bowling Green. He asked if I would have a Saturday next time I was in town and play around with him and Dan. We met at Brook's house and he pretty much turned on his little portable four track recorder and just kept it running. I don't think we did much that day that sounded great but we had the best time. Last night I laughed at all our dialogue between the songs. That was the day Dan started improvising the song PULL THE CORN COB OUT. Maybe most people would think all that banter and small talk silly but I'll treasure that day.

I've got so many tapes filled with a million memories.