Bro. Claude I Ain't ... or Bro. Greg Either
Choir shuts down in June and we have to soldier on with volunteer musicians to provide special music in the summer, things like anthems and offertories. So, every year, I get volunteered to do music on the last Sunday of the summer, Labor Day weekend. The thought is that the fewest people will be in attendance for me to annoy. I view myself as a sort of Pete Seeger wanna be who is trying to sing gospel music.
One advantage to being at the end of the summer is that I can prepare music on vacation. In the evenings I sit down with my guitar, strum a bit, listen to the Red Sox a bit, sip beer a bit. A fine time. This year, it rained for all but about three days of my two-week vacation, so I figured the Good Lord was telling me to do music with a water/rain theme.
Before I understood the theme I was called to address, I had been learning a number of tunes I'd downloaded from Greg Scheer's site. Once I understood the theme, I only had two pieces from Greg that fit my water theme. Thus, I cast about for something else. Why not Send Down That Rain, by Bro. Claude Ely? Sure, the concept of latter rain led to heresy, but it's a nice tune, and the idea of a last-minute rain preparing us for the harvest, so to speak, isn't a bad concept.
I had learned Bro. Claude from an mp3 I acquired a number of years ago from the good folks at The Dove Song Foundation (who, alas, are no longer making mp3s available). I just made up some words and chords similar to what I had been hearing, and I was good to go.
As from Bro. Greg, I had learned the tunes from sheet music. This past Friday night, I discovered that Greg now also has mp3s available for many of his tunes. I decided it would be cheating if I heard how the song was intended to sound before I sang it in public, so I only listened to the mp3s after yesterday's service.
It turns out, I can't rock like Bro. Claude, nor can I be mellow like Bro. Greg. Sort of in the middle, I guess. My pastor said I made him think of Bill Staines. Perhaps what he was thinking was that I had a gray beard and glasses. I don't play guitar upside down and backwards, nor particularly well, for that matter.
For your listening pleasure, here are Bros. Claude and Greg. Think of me as being sort of in the middle, but with somewhat less talent. It's the spirit in which the gift is offered that counts, right?
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After choir last Thursday, I realized I should have said that you should imagine the songs as Willy Nelson might have done them. My friends Brian, the crazy tenor in the choir, Norma, the woman who sits in the last pew on the right, and John, the late machinist where I worked, all told me that I was a dead ringer for Willy Nelson. Again, I think it's the grey beard, with a hint of the red from former times. But, who knows? I've always liked Ol' Willy; I could do worse than remind folks of him.
Send Down that Rain by Bro. Claude Ely
