Hi Patti,
 
Yes, I grew up in Escondido and have lived in Vista and San Marcos and am now in Valley Center just NE of Escondido. That's great that you know this area!
 
I did explore the Christian music side of things immediately after exiting my secular band as word spread and I was contacted by first one and then another Christian band (one rehearsed in Vista and the next in La Costa) and I also began collecting Christian records with the same gusto that I had been doing with secular. I played briefly with both bands (and some years later started one of my own) but I was determined to follow whatever God wanted for me and it ended up being the "wilderness" for a while just working labor jobs including a long stint at a ranch where I was able to learn a lot from God. I even ended up getting rid of the Christian records early on for the same reason as the secular, not because they were bad but because I was placing too high a value on them and what they represented to me: the meaning of success. I sometimes wonder if I may have taken the "sit in the lowest room" thing a little far or am I doing this right.
 
But you are correct, I never liked working labor and hated "yard work" as a kid (which the ranch was 90%) and being in a band was a way out from that so going to work was as you said, what I was not good at. Even the music I play now (mostly in a 3 piece with my wife and another guitarist/bassist, sometimes expanding to a 5 piece country/variety band) we play a lot for seniors in senior centers and some yacht clubs and resorts or occasional casinos etc, is not really the music that I'm good at. I was a rocker but fortunately my partner is good at standards and "knows all the chords" while I can fake a lead over most changes. Just last week we played at a senior center in Escondido and it was an Easter party so Dennis, the other guitarist launches into the "Bunny Hop" and I didn't have a clue. He played the lead part and I was expected to come up with the chords but I was lost and he didn't like that. Maybe it seems dumb me sharing this but the truth is it really bothered me because he laughed to my wife that I couldn't play a simple blues pattern but I didn't know what key he was in so calling out "4" or "5" or "1" didn't help until I got that at least first. I have often felt like I "missed my calling" as they say but I'm hoping that my true calling is yet to come when we get "over yonder" and until then I must remember that "Godliness with contentment is great gain".
 
Here is an example of me faking a lead over an original song that a friend was working on and playing for me for the first time as we recorded it onto a new tape machine he had just gotten and we were having fun trying it out. It's a sort of Christian song about the tribulation called "Strikin' At Ya".
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx55wktAxws&feature=g-upl&context=G2ab1056AUAAAAAAABAA
 
It's weird that that kind of playing is easy for me but I never get to play like that.
 
Thanks Patti,
 
Barry Amundsen