Some time has now passed since these recordings
were finished. To me they are almost classics at this point.
But the more I listen back to them I see that there is much
more that just intriguing melody and well thought verse. Honestly
this is less a collection of songs and more of an expression
of a period in time. I was there. I was sitting in the room
at times when some of these songs were recorded. I played on
a few of these songs. I heard them at times coming together
while lying in my bed trying to fall back asleep at four in
the morning. And it makes me warm to think of such a time. These
songs reflect something of a reluctant bachelorhood, a longing
for love, a growing of faith. A time where all of my favorite
songs started with some sort of crude belch or sniff or something
which blatantly contradicted the seriousness to be found in
the minutes which would follow. A time filled with mid-night
trips to Waffle House with the windows down to let in as much
of the crisp autumn wind as could come into my old mini van.
A time when it was somehow necessary to get in your car at 1
am and drive across the country just to see what the Lord had
to teach in some place we had never been. A time to learn hope.
A time to say "Lead on oh Lord", for no man we could
ask could do the least to answer the questions we were asking.
It may seem to someone who is just casually listening to the
verse and humming the melodies that these songs are filled with
depression and loss. The truth of the matter is quite contrary
to that. Indeed there is sadness, but a sadness so saturated
in hope and a desire for truth which would shortly there after
grow into joy, grow into love, grow into family. Truly I am
blessed to have been part of the life that is in these songs.
It goes far beyond Brendan, or myself or any of the other people
who were there at the time. These songs are a reflection of
growth, A start to a life of abundance which I am blessed to
have been a part.
