New Music

There was tall Peter Wertz on the wash tub bass, Rick Erickson on guitar, Pat, aka Patty me boy, Morado on the jug with an assortment of guest stars on the spoons, Jews harp and washboard. And of course Sally, doing her little sisters part was constantly promoting the virtues of her current ear worm. Oh that the jug band would incorporate it into the repertory along with the Ol southern favorites like I’ll Fly Away or Way Down.

There was some truly beautiful music goin’ on though. I remember a line from a Dan Horan original taken from the Old Testament where the prophet referenced a name for Israel calling them Jeshurun. The hauntingly sad and beautiful melody moistened eyes as we could all personalize the message.
“He found him in a desert place and in a waste howling wilderness…”
The song followed the story as God took the battered and bruised Jeshurun in, cleaned him up and restored him.
We all felt like Jeshurun at that point of the story.

Another minor toned melody written by one of the girls went:
“When storm clouds fill the darkened sky, prayer is in my heart. Thunder and lightning. But peace is in his name. Peace is in his name.”
I remember openly weeping with twenty or so others in the living room of The Oklahoma City house as a lovely young voice sang The Outlaw:

Some say he was an outlaw
That he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians
And a few old fisher men

Some say he was a prophet…

Some say he was a sorcerer…

Some say he was a poet…

Some say he was the Son of God
A man above all men
That he came to be a servant
And to set us free from sin…

Sally’s tune was nothing like those. She must have been frustrated at the lack of play her creation was getting.

Somewhere along the line one of the older sisters or a patroness as the female pastors were called, must have laid down the law. We didn’t see Sally any more. She just disappeared possibly to another house, who knows. But her ear worm lived on.
It wasn’t uncommon during a prayer time for someone to spontaneously lead out in a worship song. I can’t ever remember that happening out on the slopes doing forestry work except on one particular occasion.