That Wonderful Garage Band

I didn’t know it possible to have that much fun in a garage. But I did. If I’m doing my math right, a 10 foot by 15 foot garage provided us with 150 square feet of musical heaven. The name of my brother-in-law’s blue grass band is “One Way Train.” They let me ride along Saturday night and what a fun ride it was. We were the Baby Boomer boys, out for a night of strumming and funning.

The group has quite the variety of styles. They do secular and Christian. They play bluegrass, country, and a little soft rock thrown in for good measure. This night we played John Denver, and the Eagles. We played country gospel hymns with four part harmony. My brother-in-law, Frank, has also written a lot of amazing songs and we sang those as well. I had listened to their demo CD, so I knew a few of the original songs—or at least I thought I did.

Bear in mind these guys play together ever week. I’m sitting in for the first time. They graciously placed a notebook full of words and guitar chords in front of me, so that was no problem. They had amps, microphones and the whole gig. It was a cozy studio, with a few sleeping bags, canned goods, and garbage cans to add to the garage motif.

Frank and I have played together for over 25 years. He and Joni and I would trio all over the place. This night, we did a couple of Frank’s and my favorite songs to get me warmed up. No problem. Then we got down to business and played some of their numbers. I strummed along, and added some bass vocals, but there were a few problems. They all stopped playing during one song for a “dramatic pause.” I kept right on playing. Frank was playing an electric 12 string, which I break the 10th commandment every time I see it. Matt was on bass guitar. Steve was playing lead, and Mike was on the drums. At one point, Matt and Frank dropped out so Steve could do a solo. Dummy me kept right on strumming.

About the fifth time this happened, I glanced around at the other guys, expecting to see scowls, or at least a random dirty look. Nope! They were smiling and enjoying our time together, despite my wrong notes, missed chords, and a few other guitar guffaws.

The climax of the evening came when we sang John Denver’s hit, “Take me home Country Roads.” That was the first song I learned on guitar, and if I do say so myself, we sounded pretty doggone good.

I don’t think the Apostle Paul played in a bluegrass, country rock band, but he knew something about playing together. In Romans 12:5-6, we see these words. “So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

Paul, of course, was talking about the church. It’s my goal and desire that our church, and especially our small groups, take on a garage band mentality. We, as individuals, join in and put our gifts together to make beautiful music that a tone deaf community longs to hear. We welcome the first timers that want to sit in with us. We put up with their mistakes because we haven’t played together as much. It won’t be long, though, before we are making fantastic music together and are having a lot of fun doing it.

Let’s get on The One Way Train and play together!