You may have heard of Attention Deficit Disorder. Well, my wife thinks I’ve got a similar issue with projects & hobbies. I’ve always been this way. There is always something stirrin’ in at least one or more of my many pots I keep on the stove. Sometimes it’s a long time plan and other times it’s a quick fix just to see what happens and see what it will lead to when the smoke settles. All in all, it’s always something…
Apart from strictly family projects that last a lifetime but bring about family memories that will also last a lifetime, there are two things that seem to come to the forefront.
My music is by far my favorite of this group. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. The first song I ever sang on stage was the old hymn “At Calvary.” My dad still laughs about me singing that song and having absolutely no idea what the words meant and to be honest, there is no honest way they could have been applied to a 5 year old. After years of feeling pressured to sing, play something or participate in something, I just stopped. I didn’t much like the music I was allowed to play and listen to either. You can call it rebellion or whatever you like but I just called it freedom. I still sang and played, but on my own time and pretty much all alone. Besides, girls were much, much, higher on my list of priorities for quite some time. I was given the chance to play the drums for our church youth group and I jumped at it. Then I was asked to play bass in a new band and I jumped at that. I’d never played the bass before but it looked easy enough, it only had 4 strings and the bass player rarely has to perform a solo. That lasted long enough for me to start singing back-up and realizing just how much I truly loved singing… and I was terrible at bass. It had been years since the last time I had sang on stage in public and during that time, my voice had changed. I was much older and I wasn’t sure if anyone liked how I sounded. After spending some time buying into the idea that others liked what they heard, I went out on the road singing gospel tunes with my dad who was a traveling evangelist at the time. Since then I have recorded several cassettes and CD’s, been featured on TV and radio, and I’ve had the blessing of meeting so many great and wonderful people while traveling. As far as I can tell, music and singing will always been a part of who I am whether it’s in public on a stage, on a recording, or just in the shower.
The writing is somewhat of a new thing with me, songs AND books. I’m still learning grammar and things which is funny considering I took it every year I was in school. You’d think I’d know it by now. What I’m finding out though is that just because you have good grammar doesn’t mean it’s something someone wants to read and not everything that is enjoyable to read is considered perfect grammar. I guess I’m winging it for the most part. It’s a great way to express myself and get my thoughts out there though. The songs I’ve written for my recording projects were a blast. Basically they were things I wanted to say or thoughts I’d had and somehow they managed to rhyme and fall into place with a melody. While it may seem more deep or difficult than that… It’s really not with me. I get an idea and run with it. My next CD project will have ten brand new songs I’ve written over the last few years and I am really excited to see how they turn out. With my first book, “Dead or Alive”, I was hesitant to a degree because I didn’t know if anyone really cared what I had to say and if they did, would they care if it was in print rather than said? On top of that, maybe they DID care but my writing may not be good enough for them to bother. To that I must say, so far so good. The book was well received because of or in spite of my writing style. I’m fine with that. The message and content is more important to me than the acceptance of the writing style. The great thing is that it has given me a chance to write more. Now I’m writing articles for various publications and working on more book projects.
Right now, I’m working on my next CD (begin recording in the studio June 5, 2006) and I have submitted the rough draft of my next book just this week. Both are scheduled to be out later this year… And then it’s on to something else…
God has truly blessed me and I’m so thankful.
Eddie
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