I grew up in the small town of Maurice, Louisiana, with a population of 1,000 people. A town where everybody knows everyone, and no one ever leaves.
Seriously.
My kids went to the same school that I did, both of my parents, and both sets of grand parents. No one leaves.
Until me. I've lived in Tanzania and currently live in Jordan (the Middle East, not Texas).
When I was about 10 years old, I had a passion to start learning the guitar.
Someone, out of the kindness of their heart, gave me a chord book the size of a Bible, with literally hundreds of chords inside. I was immediately overwhelmed. I assumed I needed a doctorate in music theory to play the guitar, so I quit. Ok, so I was only 10.
A few years later, at about 13, I overcame my fear and picked it back up, but it was a rough and arduous journey; you know, blood, sweat, and tears.
I had only been playing the guitar for a month, when the church my family attended announced their guitarist was leaving and they needed a replacement. My mother signed me up, and that following service, I was on stage at age 13 in front of a wopping 30 people. My knees quaked, and I knew none of the chords for any of the songs. The leader taught me one chord at a time, from one song to the next, and this went on for years, and it's how I learned.
At age 18, I became the music director of that small church, which had then grown to about 300 members. I also became the worship leader at my college campus ministry, Chi Alpha, while studying computer animation at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
During those years, I also wrote a lot of my own music, and had some show up on local radio stations. I competed in a songwriting competition in my town, and won the grand prize for a trip to compete in Nashville.
I got some offers to move there and record, but I was in love (with my now wife, Megan) and didn't want to leave. And I was also still deep in my studies in college.
