Uncharacteristic

Of all the things that I do semi-regularly, this is by far the strangest... for me at least. Here is some background first:

When I was in high school, I was completely lost. I mean really lost. As in, I had no idea what was going on and lived a semi-panicked life-style, drifting from one social tragedy to the next. Lets just say that I don't have many good memories from any of my teen years.

When I was in tenth grade, this guy named Kris befriended me. He was, and still is a great guy, and as quickly as I could, I hid under his personality. He was a singer and a keyboardist and I picked up a second hand bass guitar, put stripes of black electrical tape in random pattern on it, and grew my hair nice and long. The thing was, I barely played bass. I did like music, but the "band" bit, for me, was pretty much all external.

During that time however, I did develop a love of drums. After high school, when all of that school stuff dissolved, my love of music/drumming stayed. I kept on playing while my social life shifted around and new groups of friends phased in and out. I actually, eventually got to where I could hold my own.

Later, to foil the plotting of a soccer captain named Ash from taking my girlfriend while she was at college at Temple, (a strategy that ended up working by the way) I moved to Washington DC for a while. It was closer to her than Massachusetts and I had friends living there that graciously allowed me to stay with them. While I was there, I picked up guitar.

I am, at heart, a hermit. I would love nothing better than to be by myself for a long, long time. One of the best vacations I have ever had involves me camping alone, without any human interference for a week. I don't do well with crowds. My students might argue this, but teaching is a whole different thing... just trust me on that... Well, enough prattling on, here's the crux:

Every Sunday, I get up in front of a crowd of people and sing and play guitar. The picture is what I see once a week. It is so far out of my character it isn't even funny. I am not a spotlight kind of guy. But here I am, willingly, in front of people. I am slowly putting together a band. (We may have just picked up a keyboardist and another guitarist today and any bassists or drummers out there that are wanting to put in with a folk alternative vibe, please don't hesitate to contact me :) )I am practicing with a violinist. I have videos on youtube. I must ask myself every week where all of this came from.

There is definitely something in it for me. There must be or I wouldn't keep coming back to it. I love the oneness of being in a band with talented musicians. I love the anticipating of each other's moves. I love the build and languish in music. I love the intimacy that comes from being in a band. My new band is just beginning, and I just left a really solid group of incredibly talented musicians, that I miss. I can't wait for all of those perks to come alive again.

So here I am, with Bridget by my side (a very talented singer), every week, completely out of my element, and willing myself to keep going. Life is strange and can take you so far away from who you tell yourself you are, if you are brave enough to let it.

db