Into the Frozen North

"Into the frozen wilderness"
We set down in Anchorage with one big bag,3 kids and 50 bucks to my name after 8 years in LA. I had no idea what I was gonna do.We caught a ride with my truck driving brother. There was a very kind and genrious couple from church hat took us in (they had a large house and all their kids had grown up and moved way) so it gave me time to find work,buy a car get a place. I snagged a construction job right away and started saving money to get back on my feet. I was nice in some ways to be back in Alaska it being my home where I grew up. I was able to buy a beater car in short order. One of things that started almost a day or two after I got there was I was offered a teaching job . I was hanging out in the music store I used to teach at before when the two guys working there started asking all these theory questions and I knew all the answers. They said they were in dire need of a teacher and currently had a list of about 5 students. I figured some money was better than none so I became the local teacher. I worked construction monday thru thursday and taught all day Saturday and Tuesday night. Meantime I'm working with this guy who did construction and played clubs on weekends. I had been thinking for a good 5 years before Ieft LA that Christian music was beginning to paint me in a corner. There was so much more music I wanted to explore and I had never been a "working" musician. Strange as this may seem even though I had toured and been signed to a label I didn't feel like a legit working musician because I had never played clubs,gigs or anything that wasn't church related. standing
I get this construction job with this cool guy named Loren. He starts picking my brain all day as we work about theory,scales chords etc. Turns out he was one of the busiest musicians in town. I'm sitting home one thursday night and I get this call from a guy who has the house gig at this club in town. They played 60% oldies and 40%
country. Having never played in a cover band this was gonna be interesting. He needed a guitar player for one night ,the pay was 90.00 bucks. He goes Loren says you are the total shit on the lead guitar. I found that funny cuz he had never heard me play note one. I could have been bullshitting him the whole time.(but then again I always seem to look like a guy that knows what he's doing when it comes to the guitar) Plus Bill the guy who hired me was a hard ass who was known for kicking players off the stage if they didn't know what they were I doing.I find all this stuff out later but as I'm setting up my gear,and tuning both my guitars. I start warming up and thinking "I don't know a single song but right before I left LA I got heavy into 50's music,Chuck Barry,the Coasters,Buddy Holly. Bill goes to this other guy who helped him find me"Well he can play heavy metal lets see if he lasts a single set" Bill gets up and asks me if I knew the Nashville Number method...I think for a moment go then I realize it's the cycle of 4ths and 5ths...I go ya...so off we go. He points and says take a solo....well I just got off the plane from LA they say take a solo there it better be pull out all the stops . I look up and I see this hard core 30 year club vet standing there with his jaw hanging open. At the brake he shakes my hand and says "You are a real good picker" thats what country guys say "you are a good picker" blues guys "Great tone" metal heads "you shred"jazz guys "you can really blow" Bill turns to the guy who helped him find me and says "my other guitar player just lost his job.....what started out as a single night gig turned into 5 months
And 5 months would eventually become 18 years years that would see me play everything from a 10 piece funk band to classic rock,blues, country, hip hop shred and tons of Jazz both in a solo,duo and trio context.God was once again training me.