So I decided to start this series because I thought it would be fun to share and let yall see what I’ve been up to over the past couple of months.
I started doing these recordings about two months ago. A mix of Christian and secular. During the first month, I was just using the WhatsApp recorder, so the sound quality is pretty rough—very lo-fi—but on some of those I still managed to captured some cool moments.
About a month ago, I downloaded Lexis Audio Editor, and the sound quality is a lot better. This week I have two songs for you… Cruise by Florida Georgia Line and Your Winter by Sister Hazel, which I recorded last night. I also tried singing it in the key of D for the first time.
Anyway, I hope yall enjoy them. Thanks for listening.🎙️
When I was fourteen.. my best friend was killed in a dirt-bike accident.. I can’t begin to tell you what it did to me… Crushed is the only word I have right now.. and even that feels too small..
We were closer than brothers..
After the funeral.. I fell into my bedroom. That room became my world — my home inside my home.. I shut down.. Closed myself off.. No access allowed..
Everyone was worried about me..
It felt like I was on a camping trip in the wilderness alone.. And I stayed there for a whole year..
I needed something… but I didn’t know what..
I started borrowing CDs and cassette tapes from my uncle..
I found an old tape in a forgotten box in the attic — Bob Dylan’s Another Side of Bob Dylan… and I disappeared into it.
rock… country… blues… folk… old… new…
Hank Williams Jr… And the only Christian song I even knew back then.. Amazing Grace..
I didn’t just listen — I drank it.. And the more I drank.. the thirstier I got.. So I went swimming in it.. Something I still do..
Meanwhile.. God was walking the edges of me…
One night.. I awoke from a dream that wouldn’t let go… and there in the corner of my room was a silhouette.. shaped like a guitar..
my mother was so worried about me she didn’t know what else to do.. So she got me an acoustic guitar.. And one night.. while I was sleeping… she placed it right where I would see it.. the moment I opened my eyes..
and so I took it
I played it… and I played it… and I played it…
until my fingers bled
until it started playing me..
I learned it — taught myself — until it learned me back..
Song after song.. Day after day.. night after night… Month after month.. From the fall of 1988 into the winter of 1989..
I played it…..
until it became my heartbeat..
And finally…
after a year in the wilderness…
I emerged from my room..
ready to face my giants…
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of the 90’s…
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First song i ever learned on guitar 👇
I had many songs embedded in this story.. but it was causing it to load super slow.. so I deleted most of them…
My Friend Joey’Me`
Psalm 34:18 (NKJV)
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.. and saves those who are crushed in spirit…”
How do you write what people actually want to read?
It’s a guessing game really, and what may interest you is just not my thing and vice versa. So who cares.
Hey, how about a ghost story?
A true one, that really happened to me late one winter night in 2o15 when I was living in Florida.
Or are you chicken? bawkity bawk?
If you’re scared, just say so. It’s ok to be. I would probably be too right now if I were you.
Cmon, man up, turn the lights out, take the covers off your head. Stop calling for your mama. You can handle it. I believe in you.
Okay, without further ado, let’s get into it. Before you change your mind and scroll away.
It was around 3 a.m. and I was driving to work, and my wife at the time was with me. I was working as a commercial driver, driving an 18-wheeler on a dedicated run twice a week. I would leave Lakeland Florida, and head up to Atlanta and get loaded, then back down to Jupiter Florida, I was delivering helicopter parts to Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, in Jupiter, where they make them, and then finally back home to Lakeland. The entire run was around 1,200 miles and took two days to finish. Then I would take a day off and do it all over again.
My truck was too big to keep at my house. There was no room for it. So I found a business down the road that had a secured, gated parking area for large vehicles, and I paid them monthly to keep it there.
So yeah, my wife and I were driving, I often took her along, she enjoyed it and it was nice for me also to have her, to help pass the miles, so we arrived at the storage place. I pulled up to the gate, punched in the code, voilà! the gate opened and I proceeded to drive to the back where I kept my big ole shiny black sexy brand new at the time Peterbilt 579 with 53-foot trailer.
So we pulled up and parked, got out and grabbed our bags and traded our little bitty Ford pickup for the big dawg Pete.
Also on a side note, after skillfully maneuvering the big boys around all the time, once you get behind the wheel of your personal vehicle, you feel like you’re driving a little go-cart or bumper car or something. No matter how big or what it is. It still feels so small in comparison.
We got in and got settled and I fired her up and started doing my pre-trip inspection and my log book and all the other paperwork, and entering everything in my onboard computer. There’s much more to it than just driving, like many think lol
It was always a ghost town around here at this time of night. No pun. No fun. Absolutely nothing or no one around, and it was an eerie place on an eerie stretch of road. Just had a noticeable feel to it. If that makes sense. Just had to be there to see for yourself.
I had been working this particular run for over a year and it was routine for me now and I was very familiar with it and my surroundings. Too familiar, actually lol.
So I got everything entered in my computer and all the freakin paperwork done, then one last look at all my dashboard gauges and air pressure and stuff, then a final nod and wink to my co-pilot and we are ready for take off.
Seemed like any other night.
The business sat right on Highway 98, and as I exited the gate and approached the road, I yielded and looked both ways and there was absolutely no other vehicles coming in either direction. We were totally alone. Or were we? So I slowly proceeded out. I crossed the two southbound lanes and made my way into the center turning area to make a left onto the two northbound lanes.
As I started the turn into the far right lane, I was going very slowly when suddenly my headlights hit the side of the road, I could not believe my eyes. WTH IS THAT!?! I slowed even more. So I could see.
She and I both saw it at the same time. She gasped loudly. Every hair on my body stood up as she said, “OH MY GOD, BRYAN, GO GO GO!”
It was right on the edge of the road, just a few steps into the grass, and it was directly in front of us, maybe 15 feet away, with my super bright headlights right on it, lighting it up like the noonday sun.
I can still see it so vividly in my mind today.
Would you like me to describe it to you?
I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.
It was a person, but yet it wasn’t.
It was wearing lighter colored semi baggy blue jeans and a red long sleeved hoodie sweatshirt.
It wasn’t transparent. It was a solid figure that you couldn’t see through at all.
About 5’8 or 5’9 and around 170 pounds if I had to guess.
And it was frozen there, looking through us. We were frozen too. We just knew at the time that it wanted us to see it.
Are you ready for the good part?
The hoodie was up and filled as if a head were inside it, but it had no face. Just thick utter darkness instead, that I can’t even describe well to you.
It had no hands. It had no feet.
And it appeared to be hovering maybe six inches or so off the ground.
It was just clothes that were filled out as if a person was wearing them.
But there was no person.
And it was staring us down, with no face or eyes.
My wife then cried out in fear again for me to “GO GO GO!”
And I did.
As I passed, I tried to look back in her passenger side mirror for another glimpse of it, but I couldn’t see anything. It was too dark and hard to tell.
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We never saw it again but every time thereafter, when I drove by that spot I would nod and wink and think to myself, “Yep, right there, right there. That’s where that thing stood. That thing we saw. That thing we saw that night.”
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I would like to hear your thoughts and comments.
Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?
What do you think we saw?
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A Cover of Overkill by Men at Work
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I’m 6’ft tall, but for some reason, I look short here idk. Maybe because the person taking the pic is up higher than me looking down. The Chocolate Hills on the island of Bohol in the Philippines 🇵🇭
Today has been tough for me musically and spiritually. It’s like I just can’t play or sing. I’m not flowing. Everything feels hard. That’s not normal for me.
I wasn’t going to post anything, but some on my other platforms look forward to my Sunday post. I prayed about it, and I need to get over myself.
Because it’s not about me and my best. It’s about Him.
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Mercy Came RunningForever Reign
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“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV
You can teach someone to play an instrument or they can teach themselves and if the talent is there then they can become quite good depending on what they are willing to give to it.
But you can’t teach heart.
All you can do is tell them about it and it’s something they have to find inside themselves.
It’s a pouring out of yourself to the listener.
I’m not saying I have it but it’s what you want.
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He said, “Drifter, can you make folks cry when you play and sing? Have you paid your dues? Can you moan the blues? Can you bend them guitar strings?” He said, “Boy, can you make folks feel what you feel inside? ‘Cause if you’re big star bound, let me warn ya, it’s a long, hard ride”
This is my friend Paul. He’s a radio journalist and Middle East commentator in Israel. He’s also a gifted poet and a writer.
Below is a link to one of his latest video poems on Rumble.com about Trump’s hair. 😂 You can also check out his latest book. The information about it is at the end of the poem. He actually has a series of Trump’s Hair ones lol
Also Paul’s YouTube channel is below. Check him out.
It’s 9am on a Saturday morning and you’re in your kitchen, sipping coffee and trying to wake up and sober up from a crazy night of drunken naked twister with your neighbors Jim and Linda when suddenly you look out the window and you can’t believe your eyes. There’s 50 individuals dressed in full camouflage and carrying guns walking down your street.
WTH! OH NO… IT’S ARMAGEDDON! I MISSED THE RAPTURE! PUTIN IS ATTACKING!
Wait… hold up for a second, relax. Don’t freak out just yet.
Is it maybe possible that you and your vintage Volvo station wagon with the Flux Capacitor just somehow traveled back in time to my neighborhood in 1988?
If this is the case, then don’t worry. It’s not Putin.
It’s just me and my friends, and they’re just BB guns. We left our real ones at home today. Maybe tomorrow.
We are on our way to the woods behind your house to play war and shoot at each other.
It’s ok don’t worry. You’re safe, and we’ll try not to shoot your windows or each other’s eyes out. But I can’t promise ya.
Let the real Hunger Games begin. 😎
Ok… enough with the time travel. Let me really take you back to 1988.
Often on the weekends, all the guys in my neighborhood would get together in the woods and play war or capture the flag. Usually we would have around 10 people on a team and there was normally like 40 or more of us.
Everyone had BB guns. And many were high-powered pump rifles.
We had a 3-pump rule and no shooting in the face or manhood.
But those rules weren’t always followed. Luckily though, no one ever lost an eye, but many got wounded and ended up digging BB’s and pellet shrapnel out from under their skin.
And I’m willing to bet that still today some guys have trouble going through the metal detectors at airports. lol
Seriously though, it was no joke man. It was intense. Fight or flight. All-out survival. People were trying to literally freaking hurt you… shoot you and make you bleed. You had to play smart. Lol
A Dream I Had A Few Nights Ago & A Bob Dylan Cover
It was nighttime, and I was slowly driving along through an empty parking lot in a black full size pick up truck. It felt like maybe an 80s model Chevy.
When all of a sudden this zombie looking guy started throwing what looked like hatchets at me.
So I mashed on the gas Dukes of Hazzard style and got my ass outta there.
My heart was racing.
I made it to the main road then I relaxed and felt safe. It was a beautiful night with different colors through the sky and many shooting stars. They just kept coming, one after another. There were great mountains all around that were lit from the sky. It also felt really pleasant out. Like a late September night in Georgia.
I kept driving until I reached what looked like a small school or college nestled in the mountains. I parked my truck and jumped out and went inside as if I knew what I was doing and where I was going.
At the end of a long hallway was a room with the door open and a light was on. Inside was a super tall man. Like 8 feet or so. He was slender, good looking, with dark hair and well dressed.
I approached him as if I had business with him and we had a conversation but I can’t remember it. Then I told him that he was really tall and he just winked and nodded.
Then I left him.
As I walked back down the long hallway, there was a woman in front of me on her knees. She was very attractive with brown curly hair. I stood before her, then she reached up and took my hand, and with a burn in her eyes, she told me she wanted me, for me to pick a room.
I immediately thought of my real life girlfriend, and then I told her sorry, but I’m engaged.
Then I walked away and left the building. Once outside, I looked up, and the sky was just alive and incredible still with these shooting stars. They were dancing everywhere.
As I was about to leave, the woman cried out and stopped me and asked if I could give her a ride. I said yes, then she got in the back bed of the truck, and in a sensual way, she laid down, and I began to drive off.
Things are about to get really strange.
I fell asleep at the wheel while driving. I only found this out once I woke back up inside the dream, but there was a time period in the dream I couldn’t account for.
So I open my eyes in the dream, and I’m like, where the hell am I? I’m behind the wheel and flying down the road, and it’s now daylight. On each side of the road, there are huge mountains and these huge white stone statues of ram heads. The horns are black with gold and white stripes.
Then suddenly the road ends and we go sailing off this cliff and way far below was a broad river and we’re plummeting toward it. I was terrified. My heart was on its way out of my chest.
I knew I had to act fast. I looked behind me, and the woman was still with me, now in her bra and panties.
So I hurried and climbed through the back sliding window to get to her. I told her if she wanted to live, then she needed to listen to me right now because we are about to crash into a river. I told her that I’m going to pick her up and just before impact that we would leap into the water. She agreed. Then I scooped her up and held her in my arms, and I watched as we fast approached.
With her arms around my neck and just seconds remaining, we jumped from the bed of the truck into the murky water.
As she clung to me, I swam for what seemed like forever. It’s OK though, remember I told you before I’m a good swimmer 😁. Then we finally made it safely to a narrow shore.
But now there’s no way out because in front of us is a sheer rock wall hundreds of feet high.
So I told her that we must climb if we want out of this thing. I encouraged her. Told her she could do it. She agreed, and we started up.
It was a long way up. It was so hard. I wasn’t sure if she’d make it, but if she doesn’t make it, then I don’t make it because I’m not leaving her.
