I started taking guitar lessons when I was 16, but I didn’t really pay attention, or practice, or go…to the lessons. The thing I did get was a Harmony Acoustic Guitar (from Sears, I think) and a book w/a finger chart of all the chords. After I got saved I picked that guitar up and started learning the chords. My senior year I bought a used Acoustic Epiphone 12-string with a bolt-on neck. I put rainbow stickers on it and quit wearing shoes.
My parents also bought a piano when I was 16. My mom had taken lessons as a kid so she had some reference. I sat down and started plunking out chords and scales. I would listen to songs and attempt to figure them out. I know I must have made a tremendous racket, but my parents never said a word.
I was saved at the height of the “Devil’s Music-Backwards Masking” craze (that time where it was popular to listen for Satanic messages inserted in rock albums, but you could only hear them if you played the album…backwards...tricky) So most of my albums were “off-limits.”
I went to my first Christian concert at Des Moines Tech High School auditorium. It was Andres, Blackwood, & Company. I thought my life was over. It was the most depressing evening of music I’d ever spent (and I had even gone to see The Atlanta Rhythm Section!). They played a preview of their edgy, somewhat controversial song “Soldiers of the Light.” I thought God would have to a.) deliver me from liking music or b.) I was going to have to kill myself. (Luckily I received “Colors” by the Resurrection Band later that week so I didn’t have to kill myself.)
That same summer I saw Phil Keaggy live in Des Moines and I was hooked. NERD ALERT: Phil’s bass player for that tour was a young Doug Pinnak (King’s X) dressed like a cast member of Godspell complete with a giant afro and rainbow suspenders.
My senior year Tony Beaverson had come through our town a couple of times, once with his partner and once by himself. He had clever lyrics and a quirky voice. Me being a sort of neo-hippie, I tracked well with him (again, super-cool.) When I arrived at Bible College, Tony was just coming off of his Summer tour. His partner was going to do something else, so he was looking to re-form Potter’s Clay.
What Tony did was so unique and so ahead of his time in many ways. Tony was a photographer and had a wonderful eye. He would use old-school rear-screen slide projection to accompany his songs. He had been performing since the late 70’s and no, there were no laptops, PowerPoints, or video projectors. The latest innovation at that time was “transparencies” and “overhead projectors.” He used two slide projectors and a devise that faded them in and out seamlessly. He would tell stories with his voice and the projected images while often remaining totally in the dark for much of his performance.
That first week of college (my freshman year, his senior year) we busted out our guitars and started playing. We added Margie as a singer and keyboard player and Tony’s brother Todd as our Tech guy.
I gained so much experience that year. He helped me pick out my Ovation Balladeer from Crazy Music in Columbia, MO. Tony shied away from rhymes in his song writing. He was more interested in clear and eloquent content. He showed be how to book a tour and how to schedule. He literally showed me how to travel around the country and stay at strangers’ houses. He always made time in our travels to hike and sight-see. It was one of the most enjoyable years of my life.
During that time I found my voice. We had tight 3-part harmony that wasn’t “Country” and wasn’t “Gospel.” We were a bit “Folky” but not quite Peter, Paul & Mary. I really learned to listen (we never used monitors) and I could visually hide a good bit of the time because we were constantly in the dark. (One of our “shows” was an hour long and totally used the slides to tell the story.)
We toured about 8,000 miles the summer of 1982 and recorded out “tape” out in Colorado. Then Tony left me and went back to Traverse City, Michigan. My Bible College days all went down hill after that. I ended up living in the piano practice rooms. I spent hours each day practicing. I took lessons, but it was no use, all I had to do was hear the lesson once and I could play it. I never had to sight-read. I sang with some different groups but it wasn’t the same. I sang in a men’s quartet and that was fun. I sang in a mixed quartet, that one, not so much. This was no “round-hole/square-peg” situation. There was not even a puzzle for me to be a part of. So I went to the University next year.
In hind-sight, there were a couple of things I would have done differently. I probably should have left when Tony did. I should have either gotten my 1-year certificate or my Associates. But I wanted to take the classes I wanted to take regardless of what they were. So I headed to Kirksville Summer of 1983.
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