Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Morning journal,

Suppose its time to put a little background to my music journey of life.  Let me begin with the  banjitar. Never heard of a banjitar? Well a banjitar is a cross-over between a guitar and a banjo. For we guitar players who don’t want to learn how to play a new instrument, the banjitar is a perfect replacement for the banjo. It plays like a guitar.

Interesting how I came to play a banjitar. Some of my cousins and church folk were having a pig roast out in the country. (Couple-three years ago.) Good friend Larry Jeane was with us and had a banjitar with him. Seems he inherited it but didn’t know much what to do with it. 

So, here we go, Nathan on the guitar, me on the banjitar. We begin by picking in unison the Spanish song malaguena. (Our style and design.) At the end everything gets real quiet. Larry looks at me and says, “I got no business with this thing.” And so the banjitar has been on loan to me ever since. 

—  By the way if you aren’t familiar with malaguena you can listen to it here. We aren’t near as accomplished as Jose Feliciano, but what do you expect from a couple of country boys. However, it is nice to make the comparison —

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LFvqmIi9Ymc

A family of musicians…

All three of our kids, Nathan, Andre and Shana, are great instrumentalists. And of late I’ve had this burr in my saddle to get the kids together to work on some music with me. Wouldn’t it be great to hear the ‘Martins of Sabine Territory‘ send forth some good old gospel renditions. Course I always love slipping in some ole songs like, ‘Mama don’t allow no low downs hanging around here’, ‘Froggie went a courting,’ and, ‘This trains a clean train.’

(Just funning with the Sabine Territory bit. ‘The Martins of Sabine Territory’ is the name of my genealogy site.)

Actually it has been a long time…

Speaking of gospel groups it has been a long time since I’ve worked with one. Had a couple long years ago. (Speaking of the 60s and the 70s.) Then when I became an evangelist, I took my guitar, my Bible, my sweet Betty, and my kids, and off we go. We preached mostly in Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. Over time the Lord gave me my own unique sound and songs. 

If interested you can listen to some of my music at this site. (Its in-house so don’t look for professionalism.) I’m on the guitar and our three children are on other instruments. Have a couple of back up singers:

http://www.christianchallenge.org/JubileeCD.html

Everyone has music roots…

The music we enjoy the most will likely have been imprinted in us during our youth. I sure feel sorry for kids today. Not sure that screeching I hear is real music.  

My earliest emprint takes place in the 40s, when we lived in California. To this day I love 40’s music. Songs like ‘Sentimental Journey’, ‘Buttons and Bows’ and, ‘Some Enchanted Evening.’ 

– Ok, you asked for it —

Sentimental Journey         http://youtube.com/watch?v=L_0tcQrHAZw

Buttons and Bows               http://youtube.com/watch?v=TywQe3A7dHs

Can you tell that I’m on a sentimental journey?

Well the forties was also when I became exposed to Mexican music and I fell in love with the Spanish sound. Here is one that I dearly love. (It was written in the 1800s but has remained quite popular over the years.) It is entitled ‘La Paloma.’  — Might help to understand a bit of Spanish —

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_Y5ikAyE64Y

Here it is in English —

La Paloma (’The Dove’)

My dear, la paloma sings in the tree above;
He sings with his sweetheart softly their songs of love;
Canta, la paloma sing us the serenade.
Canta, en la noche sweetly your serenade.
Fiesta is here, we smile and guitars are playing;
Breezes are blowing, as we are gently swaying.

La paloma, the dove,
La paloma sings on this summer night;
He coos, oh, so gently,
He coos so gently, under the stars so bright!

Fiesta is here, senoritas and hombres dancing;
Guitars softly playing, making the night entrancing;
Our hearts fill with love, we wish this could last forever;
This magical time that brings all our hearts together.
La paloma, the dove, la paloma sings in the tree above.
He sings with his sweetheart softly their songs of love.

This brings me to gospel music…

In 1949 we returned to Louisiana. My first experience with church life took place in a small Pentecostal Church near the Sabine River. What an experience. I was nine years old. Needless to say gospel music also entered my music imprinting. And its been that way ever since.

Yes indeed. My music journey carried over through the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, and so on. I well remember my Navy days and the music that was popular during that decade.

But it was when I came to know the Lord Jesus in a personal way, that only the music that extolls Him has truly found a resting place in my soul and heart. How I love to get together with my country cousins and make a joyful noise to the Lord, with our fiddles, guitars, banjitars, and anything else we can put a joyful noise to.   

Now that we’re getting older…

Most of my cousins and I are all in our sixties and seventies. Betty wants us to get together sometime in January at Christian Challenge for a gospel hoe down that can be recorded. Says she wants this for our posterity.  That’s a fancy word for the offspring of a given progenitor. 

— Seems she thinks we are projenitors. Guess that means something like ‘bonified.’  —

A new music studio…

Well, the burr has been making me fidgety. Couple weeks ago I brought me a ‘Music Studio’ for my computer. Then had Nathan order the equipment that I needed to do some home recording. (Two mikes and all.) Now all I have to do is figure out how to use all this stuff.  

Course this puts me in a dilemma — I’m supposed to be writing books. That’s ok. I’ll find time for both.

As for music, I could write about music forever. And that comes from a fellow who cannot read the first note.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a feel for how I feel about music, and a bit of my music background.

Much love coming your way,

Buddy