Marriage

Not long before I left Fairbanks I was having a cup of coffee at this place called the "Two Street" station. The place was owned by a former Gospel outreach pastor named Danial. His son Nate was running it now and had been for quite some time. As I made my order Nate asked me what I had been doing musically lately. I told him that recently I had been doing mostly jazz. Nate related a story to me that really blessed me. I've known Nate his whole life. Having known his Dad since the late 70's. He's always been a really good kid. And a very smart one. During the late 90's I formed the Steve Olsen Band. and we became a regular performer out at the Howling Dog Saloon in Fox (just outside Fairbanks) We were a dyed in the wool classic rock band. Skynard,Stones,ZZ Top,the Doors...I love that stuff I never get bored playing Hendrix,Stevie Ray. I never was much of a Stones fan until I became a band leader and stated playing their stuff. They truly are the worlds greatest bar band. We LOVED the Dog it was and is one of the most fun bars to play at. It was to bad that in my last years in Fairbanks the management had decided to import more out of town bands to play there rather than locals. When we played there I had a killer guitar rig (the best I ever had) and a killer rythum section. My bass player was a guy named Dave who could play anything,from funk to punk. A great guy too. Always on time hell he never even drank much(i made up for that) my drummer was this lefty named Johnny who I had been playing with since I had returned from LA(on and off) the guy was a groove king who NEVER dropped a beat both of them were easily world class players. Thats what was odd about that little town in the interior of Alaska there were players there that could easily hold their own on any big time stage anywhere. They just seemed to like Alaska. Our shows at the Dog were always high energy no holds barred rock fests. Anyway Nate told me he had been dating his girlfriend for quite some time and remembered I was playing the Dog this one weekend. He decided to take her out to dinner then come see me. Turns out his girlfriend loved classic rock and Totally loved to dance. Well they came out that night and I was doing the rock thing,playing guitar with my teeth,behind my head standing on the tables running thru the crowd...making everybody go nuts. She had an exceptional time that night. Nate told me at the end of the night he proposed to her and today they are happily married. There are times when I hear things like that that I am so thank full to God for the gift he has given me. I got to play a small part of the birth of a family. Precious.