This Kind of Work...

I have always enjoyed that song by Hays Carll that has the line, "this kind of work no one retires." He was talking about songwriting, music and the life of a musician. I have used that line to illustrate how I felt many times. I guess I can't use it anymore, especially when it comes to the church music we have been playing. Our bilingual church choir that sang in English and Spanish is no more. 

Here is what happened. Priests were shifted around leaving two Priests to cover two churches in Lufkin that had originally been covered by three. Also eliminated were any services with overlapping times to enable the two to cover at one place or the other either in English or Spanish. The bilingual Mass time still exists but is now a service in English. 

I don't know if you know the story but around 2003 I think, the LaSalette Priest were the order at St. Pat's and Father Ron wanted a bilingual Mass. We took the gig and as there was not a whole lot of music that did this kind of thing Cathy was the main driver in developing. writing and translating till we had a repertoire developed.

Since this beginning time the bilingual music has been good to us. Our kids all came through playing in the group as well as many other motivated movers and shakers on their way to bigger and better things. Church music can teach you a lot. You learn to play but then you also learn to play nice with others.

Here's a Palm Sunday photo of us playing a few years ago.

We have had some invitations to join other groups. Our hearts are with the community unity of bilingual music. We think it's a good thing. Many other people do also and often tell us so. There is always two sides to the story though. People that don't like it will usually tell you to your face. Bilingual does not seem too important right now in the Catholic Church as a whole but the winds of change often blow so we will see where it goes.

Doing music at church takes a lot of preparation and the bulk of that falls to Cathy. She picks the music, makes song sheets, reads the readings so the picked music is liturgically correct, makes packets for each musician and in the case of new music teaches the songs. Getting a few weeks of music in the can means at least 8 hours of work.

I have it a bit easier. I polish picks, tune and maintain instruments, set up, sound check and for a couple of years now have recorded the homily and posted on line.

If we do some simple math and say we played 52 Sundays a year. We do take off but there has always been weddings, funerals, quinceaneras and extra Holy Day Services so I think it's safe to say we are in the neighborhood of 728 set ups and take downs. That's decent but we can tell already that we have extra time on our hands. 

Here's the back of my main church axe, a Fender acoustic bass. The nice strap is one Cathy got me at Matt Umanaov's in New York City a few years ago. I covered the back with Holy Cards and a photo of Bishop Ed. I have an electric Fender P Bass but somehow through all these years this one has become my favorite.  

So what now? There will probably still be some need for the occasional bilingual Service. In the mean time without this weekly finger workout we need to find a new way to keep our chops up. We have one gig on the books as Goat Rodeo but it's some months away.

For now we say thanks and count our blessings at the good times and people that have traveled the way with us. Maybe you can retire from this work.