Kansas

Well, it was a weekend of beautiful weather in Greenville SC. Finally, it feels like fall! We'll see if it sticks, or if the hot weather returns.

Two cool things took place Saturday. First, my bluegrass band played at the Pumpkintown Festival. It's a great fall festival - arts and crafts, pretty setting, greased pole climb, hayrides, good food, and live bluegrass music. Benji was sick, but still sang better than I do when I'm well! Cathy made the trip and really enjoyed the experience. We got to meet Leo, Dave Snyder's new golden retreiver...what a beautiful, well-behaved dog! Anyhow, it was a nice afternoon.

Second, on Saturday night, I went to Fall for Greenville to see Kansas perform. I've been listening to Kansas music since I was a teenager. I remember it well -- my brother David and I, against our Dad's advice, joined the infamous Columbia Record Club. 7 albums for 1 cent, too good to pass up. That first shipment came, and in it we had chosen the double-live Kansas album called "Two For The Show". We spent hours listening to that album!

This is the third time I've seen Kansas live in the past five years. I'm a huge fan of progressive rock (lots of keyboard, musically complex, crazy time signatures, top-notch musicianship, etc). Kansas is considered "America's prog rock band", as most of the other big names like Yes and Genesis were British.

Anyhow, they played a phenomenal show. It is the 30th anniversary of the classic album, "Point of Know Return", and they played a number of songs off that album. Musically and vocally they were superb -- I know a lot of young folks there had to be thinking, "Man, that old guy sure can play guitar!" Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind were the encore songs, and really brought the house down!

Interestingly, Kansas broke up around 1980 because two of the members (guitarist and songwriter Kerry Livgren and bassist Dave Hope) had become born-again Christians and wanted to start doing songs that were "overtly" Christian. Dave Hope became a preacher and left the music scene, and Kerry Livgren went on to create a number of great Christian "rock" albums.

For many years of my life, before coming to know Christ, I used music as a "safe place", something to run to when the pain and trouble in my life became overbearing. Kansas' music was certainly part of that. Now that I have a relationship with Jesus, I look at my favorite music as a nice gift from God to be enjoyed, but not something that is central to my life as it once was. As I stood listening to the concert last night, I realized that I really needed to thank God for how he has blessed my life, and how he revealed to me that I can turn to him for my comfort in the tough times.

Although I love listening to great music like classis Kansas, it is not a crutch in my life anymore, but simply one of many wonderful gifts in my life that God has given me.