Today was Mother’s Day, about which I’ll write later. But I wanted to share something that happened in church, first. By now you know Adam, Aaron and I have played in church, or for church, twice. They asked us to play again for the offertory, a song called I’ll Fly Away by Albert E. Brumley. So, Aaron’s bass teacher wrote out a bass part for him, and we rehearsed it after church last week and everything went well. After listening to the song, Adam decided NOT to add the drums, because it would not really add to the song. The way Trinity does it, it has sort of a campfire feel to it, so I agreed with Adam that it was not worth packing the drums.
   When we showed up early to do a soundcheck and rehearse, the choir director tells me that we’ve also been asked to play Lord I Lift Your Name on High for the recessional. So, naturally, I freaked. Afterall, this was NOT THE PLAN. If I had known, we would have packed Adam’s drums and practiced, etc. But Aaron just says, “(don’t worry Dad), I have the music.” So, he gets the music out of his gig bag, and is ready to go, just like that. I ask the guest guitarist, a high schooler, if she knows it, and she does. So, we do a quick rehearsal, I do a little arranging for the guitar part, and then we have to go downstairs and robe. I was really bummed we didn’t know last night, because Adam really wanted to play this song(which he did last time we did it in church).
   The service goes flawlessly. We do I’ll Fly Away. I’m running the sound board for this, so I can hear it from the back of the church, and it sounds wonderful. I see and hear Aaron change the bass part by playing it up an octave for part of the verse, and it sounds great. I later ask him why he did that, and he says,”well, they’re singing up high, so I played up high.” So now he’s ad libbing! The congregation applauds for the song, which they only do when they really, really like it. See, they’re not supposed to applaud in church, but sometimes, they can’t help it.
   Later, we play the recessional, which has become my trademark song at Trinity, and it just JAMS. Aaron plays the bass two different ways, one way, which is simple, and another way, which is much more decorative, which he saves for the last two times through. There were a lot of baptisms this day, and it takes a long time for the choir to process out while they are singing, so we end up playing LOTS of verses, and Aaron plays the decorative bass line LOTS of times. We got into a really nice groove, and I totally enjoyed what I was doing, nevermind that IT WAS NOT THE PLAN! The congregation also enjoyed it, and we got lots of compliments, as did Aaron himself. Our friend, Pete, told him “Man, your bass line was KICKIN'” Another told us, “It’s so nice to see you and your boy playing up there.”
   I guess I didn’t have to worry. Afterall, he has the music!