Working for a living

"Working for a living"Within a year of returning from LA I was supporting a wife and 3 kids with music and music only. My student load had grown from 4 to 30. I was playing 2 to 5 nights a weekstarting depending on who needed what (the was the club work) and there were the occational wedding. These were the days before DJ's and Kareoke. Bands were playing 6 or 7 nights a week. The city fathers had not shortened the bar hours yet so some weeks I was playing from 10 pm to 4:30 am 6 days a week. We had rented a nice 3 bedroom apartment in North Pole.I had worked briefly for a buddy that was a printer but that didn't last. I had no real talent for the job. I was getting pressured at home to give up playing music and just get a strait day job with benefits,retirement etc. I was making full time pay yet working part time. I could spend lots of time with my kids.What was cool about this period was I was really starting(for the first time)to use my education from G.I.T. I had this one gig where half the night was reading real book tunes. To my knowledge I was one of the first guitar players to use real book charts. I also had to build a book of tunes I could not only play but sing as well.I had lost a few gigs because of the vocal. I built a set list of Stevie Ray Vaughn,Hendrix,ZZ Top and The Stones ,The Doors as well as misc.r&b number s. A list of around 60 songs Between lessons and gigs the rent was getting paid . I got up one day looked around my apartment. Average place, couch love seat,coffee table,tv, cd player toys strewn in all directions all the stuff you find in a young couples home.The thing was my guitar playing had gotten us all that. That was deeply satisfying
I had not done any Christian music. There really wasn't a Christian music scene although I could have gotten something going but I really felt like God wanted me in the , there was something there for me to learn
I had not written any songs in 2 years cuz I knew the wife would freak. In a conversation with a producer friend of mine I said to hell with it and started to write. I wrote 12 songs in 2 weeks. I wrote 4 at the same time. Of those 12, I recorded 4 and had that as a cassette demo for years.The first few years back in Alaska were cool in that I wasn't some rock and roll preacher I was a truly a working class musician.
I'd like to say things at home were cool. The went from bad to worse. She continually discouraged me with what I was doing with the music. She wanted me to go to work in Prudo Bay. So finally a chance came but to do so I had to dump everything. Lessons,house gig. Little did I know the season runs the opposite of the construction in town. I come back 5 weeks later with no prospects. One thing good that came out of my job up north, two weeks into the gig they made me assist foreman in charge of 12 fitter helpers.
Here is where I turn into the true "Midnight" of my life.One that would be years digging out of.