A tribute to My Girl

On December 29, My Girl had our 4th baby boy.

Now, that’s impressive enough – that’s a lot of babes to grow and push out – AND it’s impressive that God has designed her to return to the same shape she’s been since we got married after each delivery, but what really gets me is that she lives with those boys all day every day and none of them have “mysteriously” died yet.

Let no man deceive you:  there is no job on earth harder than being a good, stay-at-home mom.  If it were me at home with these young lads that bear my semblance, they would all end up gagged and duct taped to the wall by 5pm.

She allowed me to take this picture, and I feel it reasonably sums up her life and my awe of her.

Moms of the world:  be Proud of your daily task and the weight of your responsibility.

My Girl:  I love you.  I’m proud of you.  You make me happy.  Don’t forget.  :)

Another fear faced…

This past Saturday, January 10, I faced a hidden fear and everyone said they enjoyed it.

My freshman year of High School, I was in my first band:  The Seventh Seal.  This band was epic.  Trust me.  (Imagine me in the Ninety’s equivalent of a hair band…)  The Seventh Seal broke up after 4 years because we sucked our drummer moved away.

For six months after High School, I co-lead a group called Twenty Two Twenty that formed for one show, and broke for “creative differences.”

Later, my freshman year of college, I started playing with two friends – T.j. Bayer and Jason “The Man” Todd  - calling ourselves, HBT or Hartke, Bayer and Todd.  After adding Eric Bausell, we created the name More Than Me (because HBBT was getting weird).  More Than Me went through many changes, watching friends come and go, over the next 6 years, and having accomplished some really fun events, finally broke up.

A couple of us from More Than Me, started a side project called Feeling Nedly that had a few shows, and lasted for about 6 months.  That was the last

I’ve never been through a nasty band break up, but every time an endeavor fails, it’s frustrating.  The last 12 years and 5+ bands left me deflated and trigger shy, but I still had an unquenchable desire to write and perform music.  Every band I tried seemed to fail, and I had a self-conscience fear of being on stage without the security blanket of a band behind me.

This past Saturday, though, I performed my first venture into “solo-dom.”  I got to play at a St. Louis favorite, Blueberry Hill, and a few friends helped make the music sound a little prettier.  Here are some selections for you to see.