Old News Kept for the memories!!

That's right! :)

LB, while touring Israel in search of his spiritual calling, ran across this Bedouin tribe in his travels. The tribe leader asked for a hand in grinding the coffee beans to be served to the guests in the tent that day. The Bedouins are primarily Muslim in faith, and used to be nomadic sheperds. Today, they live in more permanent homes (as opposed to their traditional tents). They are also schooled in the city, and so the children must go out on their own when they go to school. You can find more information on the Bedouin Wiki.

I'm back from the Holy Land! Wow!!!! What an experience! More to come later...cuz....kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Huh?

Wha..?

Oops! Okay, so I'm suffering from a bit of jetlag. I'll put up more info as I can make it available. Keep checking back! I'll setup a special area on this site for the trip. he he he...I'm tired. But I have TURKISH COFFEE!!! :)

Cya!

LB

When the plans for this started, I was just headed over to see that which I've not seen. Now, there's more to it. I've decided to have myself baptized. I'm looking forward to this being a deep, spiritual experience for me.

What's more? Momma PoundCake is joining me on this outing!!! We've not had a long time like this together, so I"m REALLY looking forward to this trip. We leave March 20, and return on March 29. I'll be taking video, stills, and soundbytes. I'm also going to be writing a journal for the trip.

But I digress. My mother and I, along with 10 or so people from my church, are headed on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to "walk the footsteps of Jesus". It's a trip that I'm taking to see the things I've read about and studied in my life. I am hoping to put up a special section here at the WhiskeyTree to show my journal of the trip. I'll be doing videos, pictures, songs, and daily journal entries. They say there will be inernet access at the hotels we'll be staying in. I'm getting very excited. :)

Some may ask why the deep delving into Christianity lately? Well, it's not just lately. But, I guess I'm getting older (as much as I don't like to admit it) and a little more reflective of my life and what I want from it. I've been through too much to NOT believe in the existence of God. But, I'm a geek at heart, and so it's difficult reconciling what I've learned through science and what I've come to believe in my faith. But, it's a personal journey. I try to not push it on others. Sometimes I talk about it too much, but hey, that's just my nature. :)

Well, if anyone asks, I'm eager to share. But, with the way people are so touchy about spirituality, I'm less verbal about my faith, publicly. I'm not ashamed, but have to maintain decent relations with mass numbers of people due to my choice of passions (performing). It's an odd way to live, but these times are something more than just odd.

They showed some pictures of the car and the tree(s) in the accident, as well as the lyircs to the song as I was singing it. Here's the monologue I gave after playing the song:

I wrote this song after surviving a serious accident involving a lot of whiskey, an SUV, this guitar, and a tree in February of 2003. It took me over six months to get back to normalcy afterward. And to this day, I still have bits of memory pain in my bones. Just before the accident I had told a good friend, .Something has to change, soon!. Well, it did. And it wasn.t what I meant or expected.

I knew, once again, God gave me the chance of living another day. And it wasn.t just a chance, but a very specific and purposeful intervention because it.s happened before. I had a near death experience (as an infant) and another accident similar to the Whiskey Tree about 17 years ago. God has given me his grace many times now due to these incidents. So, I've felt a sense of purpose for His plan for some time, but only focused on it while the accident was fresh in my mind or during times of inspiration. This song is a constant reminder of that time, and I sing it to Him each and every time.

The shear magnitude of grace I've received is phenomenal. I sometimes lose focus on the power of it. But these times, and this song, remind me of His grace and I sing praises just thinking about it. And every day I sing to Him, especially here at GCC, I feel His spirit fill me and His grace flow down on me.

God Bless You!

It was a wonderful moment!

There are other plans on the horizon, but not 'til I return from my trip to Israel. I've been working closely with my good friend, BLUE, from SanityCheck.Net and the plans are being developed to forward the progress of the CD projects for both myself and his current project, Booze Monkey. It's an exciting time!

But, I told you I had some good news! :) First off, Friday, I went into the Naked Acre Compound Studios for mic tests. It was a breeze. I just played and BLUE did all the work! :) It was fun. Actually, he is such an eloquent writer. Let me direct you to his description of the day in his blog, Partial To Grey. I like the way he flatters me, too. :) There are a lot of really interesting tidbits on BLUE's blog pages. Check it out. He's not like anyone else I know. And he'll challenge your thinking. :)

Our session on Saturday went just wonderfully! We had a good time, and I learned some nuances of recording. That'll help later on with the final CD. So, with this I'll have some good recordings to start booking gigs again, and hopefully get my name and my music out there a little more. This day was just a joy! Although, it took a good while and many takes, we got some good ones. I have to say, though, that it was just fun and interesting. BLUE was telling me about things as we did them. It's nice to have a person with experience working with me on this stuff. 'Cause I'm a dummy in this arena! :)

Sunday, at church, the worship band I play with really nailed both sets for the services. It was just fantastic! It's really great when you're on like that and everyone else is on the same page. It's almost effortless. Everyone in the band was just spot on this past Sunday. But this is a group of fine (yeah, imagine that, even Christians make good musicians) musicians. :) The highlight of that day was Susan singing Tryin' To Love You - A Trisha Yearwood Song.

Finally, I got to see my cousin, Patrick, play in a conference championship game tonight, and they won the game! It was close and a good battle between the two teams. That made it really edge-of-your-seat exciting. :) Patrick didn't know I was coming and he was thoroughly surprised. It was the highlight of my week! :)

It's great when things go well. I'm a little wiped from it all, honestly. You know? That "too much of a good thing.." thing!?

PEACE!

LB

There is light at the end of the tunnel too. I'll be working with Sanity Check Musec on various projects over the remaining months of Winter and Spring. Among those projects will be my debut CD. For those of you that have been waiting for it, hang in there. It won't be long now. I'm very excited about the projects I'll be participating in over the next year. It's going to be VERY exciting! And hopefully, before Summer, I'll be back out and performing again!

Well, that's about it from the Whiskey Tree for now! Stop by often. I'll keep ya posted on the goings on!

PEACE!

LB