A dream comes true...

Long story short: a few dear friends who have listened to my heart beyond my words have been conspiring for 9 monthss to get me an upright bass - and today it came to pass.  In-freaking-credible.  Now the fun - and hard work - of learning to make it sing begins, but what a blessing.

(Danny Thompson and Pentangle have long been my favorites as genre-blenders.)

Let me amplify:  ALL of my instruments have been gifts from my church friends who understood I had a musical calling but not resources.  When I was graduating from seminary, my mother-in-law gave me a sweet Martin electric bass that I still play from time to time.  When I was about to leave Saginaw for Cleveland, my friends Donna and David Minich helped the congregation share a gift with me that blew my mind:  a jumbo Guild acoustic guitar.  (It was the very one I used to visit on my days off...)  In Tucson, the congregation gave me an electric Rickenbacker for my 20th anniversary (another dream come true.)

And two years later when ALL of my guitars were stolen - still a heart breaking moment - this same congregation replaced my newer bass (a gift from the youth group) and repurchased a new Rick, too.  (The insurance for ALL three guitars helped me secure my current Taylor acoustic.)  And now my dear friends in Pittsfield have blessed me with this incredible upright bass.  It is very, very humbling and very, very sweet.