Ever since joining WP… my email’s basically a firehose to the face… I just close my eyes and mass delete crap daily… So if you ever need me… give me a warning first… And if you reached out and heard nothing.. “now you know and knowing is half the battle..” 😎`’.,°~
…….📧💥📨🤯→🙏🆘’…….@~///↓→+?!’SOS
Seriously tho… I try and like quick scan it… but it’s overwhelming…
Hey yall… today the spotlight lands on Tonic… They’re excellent if you ask me.. I was so impacted by their music back in the mid-90s… and they’ve stayed one of my favorites through the years.. I still perform their songs to this day… because they live deep in me. They formed in 1993 in Los Angeles.. with Emerson Hart leading the way on vocals… and they’ve always had a way of mixing honesty.. heart.. and melody in a way that just hits life right where it lives…
I’ve got two songs for you today…
🎵 You Wanted More — 1999 — from the album Sugar… (also it was featured on the soundtrack from the movie “American Pie…”)
🎵 Waltz With Me — also from Sugar 1999… a beautiful track…
Hope you enjoy… press play and let the songs do what they do…
Big Daddy Weave 🎶 I Know 🎶 We Want The World To Hear…
Today I want to spotlight one of my favorite faith side artists… Big Daddy Weave… They formed in 1998 after meeting at the University of Mobile in Alabama… They have been pouring out honest heartfelt worship ever since… Their lead singer is Mike Weaver… and this one is personal for me… because I once served in music ministry with two of his family members… so this band has always felt close to home for me…
I have two powerful songs for you today…
“I Know” released in 2o19 on the album.. When The Light Comes… This one means a lot to me… I had just found out about Charlie Kirk… I was sitting in silence… grieving… then this song began to play… it became a moment I will never forget…
“We Want The World To Hear” from 2o08 on the album.. What Life Would Be Like… An amazing album… probably my favorite from them…
I hope you enjoy these today… 🙏
..¹⁴³…..♪~♪..[..]..◎~◎”
On my darkest day… From my deepest pain… Through it all… my heart… will choose… to sing… Your praise… `.°-‘.^ …t`
This song has the “F” word in it… only once… in one line… so you may not want to listen… if it may offend you… 👇
I was born in September of 73`… a Gen X kid… when I look back now… I realize things…
Yeah maybe I was doing stuff early on that probably could have waited until I was an adult…
but life was different back then…
the world was wider… lighter… rawer… simpler… all at once…
And us kids…
we were all little grown-ups…
From the time I was about eight until I was fourteen…
life couldn’t have been much better…
I grew up in a fairly large community of side by side houses… side by side families… where everybody knew everybody… neighbors didn’t just nod — they shared life… they borrowed sugar… they brought each other meals… they sat in yards and talked about real things… hearts… stories… struggles… faith… loss… laughter…
It wasn’t perfect — but man… it was real…
My great-grandfather lived with us in those days…
he was one of a kind…
old as dirt… tougher than leather… stubborn as wet cement…
he had lived much… And he never ran out of stories…
He’d sit outside every day… in this beat up old folding chair…
And half the time.. I’d pull another chair beside him… and just listen…
He was a war veteran — A Purple Heart… other medals he earned through blood and grit…
Infantry… France… WW2…
he’d tell me stories of laughing under fire… marching… waiting… freezing… fighting… barely surviving…
And I’d pepper him with a thousand questions… because I couldn’t get enough…
Later.. I found out from my grandmother… that he had taken many lives in battle… those stories… he never told… those belonged to him… and God alone…
What I did see… was a man who had walked through hell…
And somehow came back kinder… tougher…
And still able to laugh a little… And love a lot…
And without making speeches… without preaching a word…
he was shaping the boy sitting beside him…
In those days… my parents worked…
so most times I had to fend for myself…
I had a house key… freedom… responsibility…
but there were rules…
Do the right thing when nobody is watching…
Be about character… Be about integrity…
Be about it…
Be a decent human being…
And oh yeah… be home by dark…
On the edge of our community… the world exploded into a massive forest deep woods stretching for miles… thousands of acres… trees… creeks… hidden lakes… trails… wildlife…
a giant playground for kids who hadn’t yet learned to be afraid of living…
I spent countless days exploring those woods…
fishing… riding dirt bikes… shooting guns…
no supervision… no phones… just trust…
Sometimes on Saturdays I’d wake up before the sun… pack myself a sack lunch and some drinks… grab my fishing poles and tackle box… strap it all to the back of my dirt bike… And disappear into the woods…
All… day… long…
Sometimes friends came along… sometimes it was just me and the world — And honestly… those were some of the best days…
Many mornings my great-grandfather would stop me before I left… hand me his old .22 pistol in a worn leather holster… And tell me to take it “for protection”… because us kids needed guns back then haha… we learned early… how to treat and respect a firearm… it was a great privilege… responsibility… And it was ours…
I’d strap it to my waist like a cowboy… fire up that dirt bike… And ride off into the blue…
Freedom… Adventure… Responsibility… Trust…
A childhood that felt like life training…
And I am grateful… deeply grateful…
Those years shaped me… they toughened me… they softened me… they taught me courage… solitude… resourcefulness… respect… curiosity… wonder… independence…
I didn’t know it then…
but those were Holy days…
And I am thankful I grew up when I did…
in a world… full… of little grown-ups…
`’x.~¡-^;‐
Also… my great-grandfather’s middle name and mine… are the same… Loia… pronounced Loy like Joy…
I forgot to mention my dog… Buck… he was there too… he didn’t live inside a fence… he never knew a leash… he was free to roam… just like me… he followed me everywhere… he loved to swim… while I fished…
I’m the blood on your guitar… I’m that wave You caught back in 1975…
Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 