We are so excited that we are just beginning our 3rd year doing what we love together!!! When we first decided that we wanted to perform music together we had no idea what that was going to look like. Although Joshua had spent most of his young-adult life on the road with his family, performing together in a gospel band, (he definitely had no intention of creating the same experience) he didn't have a clue where to start our own journey. I for one had only performed in church choirs and school bands, never had I ever done anything solo or focused on a career as a professional musician (even though secretly I had always wanted to perform lol). So, here we were with an idea and no idea how to do it! While we attended some of our self-development seminars something that we had learned and heard was "find a need and fill it....everything else will fall into place". Well, we knew we LOVED singing together so the next step was easy right? Not exactly...Joshua was the only one that had any musical experience and the only one who knew how to play an instrument...the piano. So, I decided that I would learn an instrument too and still we fell short of what we were looking for. He grew up in a family band where they did all their own music and believed that was the way it should be done. However, there were only three of us and at the time our youngest daughter had decided she wanted to do this with us (more on that later). Our youngest had been playing ukulele for about a year and now wanted to learn the drums too...so at this point it looked like it may be possible to pull everything together! We had heard about others using tracks and thought ,well maybe while we transition and learn to play our instruments we could fill in with some tracks. This was a huge step for us and we experienced a lot of resistance around using tracks. Resistance in ourselves feeling inadequate as musicians as well as from fellow musicians that had their own judgements about using tracks. Resistance is a funny thing and will show up many times as a test to see how committed you are to the results you say you want to create. However, this is the exciting part!! What we found was our audiences didn't care about the tracks at all, in fact many of our audiences only focused on the experience and how we made them feel!!! This was a pivotal moment for Joshua and I!!
Oh yeah, let me back up a bit here I almost forgot to mention how we found the need!!! We decided that performing for some local senior care centers would provide us with some practice in front of small audiences. Since we hadn't performed together as a group before, this would be a great experience and opportunity to grow as a band. Well, during that process of scheduling local shows...I found and was hired by 20 different senior communities in our area!!! Oh boy did we find a need! At this time we were running into lots of resistance from other local venues in our area while trying to book shows. So, we were being coached to find the need and step into contribution and all the other pieces would fall into place. We had no idea what that was even going to look like lol. Each time we stepped out to sing the next opportunity would show up and we were getting clearer and clearer on our vision and what WE wanted. Here is where everything changed. We decided if our local senior care centers had such a great need, then others around the country did too. We had always said we wanted to travel together!!! This was an opportunity to contribute on a GRAND scale, doing what we LOVE and TRAVEL!!! So the decision was made...we were buying a bus and traveling the US bringing music to underserved senior communities!!! OUR VISION WAS BORN!!!
Earlier, I mentioned resistance and how it shows up to test your commitment. Well, oh boy were we tested! When we made this decision we had no idea how much we would be tested! At this time we were closing our electrical business, had already sold our home to pay whatever bills we could before we finally decided that bankruptcy was our best option. There should have been no reason we could have ever been approved for the loan we needed to get our bus and the universe does amazing things when you have a clear vision of what you want! We drove to Washington state to pick up our bus and we thought we had 3 months before the deadline of January 1, 2016- the date that we had set for ourselves to renovate the bus and officially be on our first tour as a band. We experienced a major fuel tank issue that cost us the savings we had planned to use to do the renovations. Our daughter decided she was not going to join us on tour as a band member and would be staying in GJ. This was a major blow to our band. We had been creating our branding and presence as a three piece band and now we were down to two. We were only a week away from our deadline and our bus wasn't even close to being ready for traveling full time when Joshua started questioning whether we were supposed to leave and maybe God was trying to tell us this was not our path? Through some soul searching and honest communication....Together, we faced our fears and decided to keep going!!! With the help of some friends and Joshua getting odd jobs we created the funds we needed to do the basics to get us on the road on the date we committed to! We renovated the bus in about 8 days and have only made a few changes since the day we left in our comfortable tiny traveling home.
We have learned so much since then and continue to grow and learn together! We stepped out into contribution to fill a need with what we love to do and have continued to be blessed each step of the way. This past year we decided that we get to play an even bigger game. Our vision remains the same about bringing music to under-served communities AND to do this more effectively we get to be the BEST COUNTRY MUSIC POWER COUPLE! As we grow our influence as musicians, songwriters and singers...we will have more opportunities to serve in contribution. We "Go Where We Are Wanted" and you know how we know this? Our fans, friends and audiences are inviting us to their hometowns, they are booking shows and want to share us with their friends, families and communities! We are so grateful for our friends and family that have stuck with us through the tough times as well as the good times and just wait..... more GOOD TIMES are coming!!! Each one of you make it possible for us to keep going, through your product purchases, donations, prayers and never ending encouragement....THANK YOU!!!
This year we are playing BIG!! Bigger venues, better paying venues, bigger audiences, growth and more original music...get ready for MORE!!! May the opportunities, open doors and adventures BEGIN!!!