Miles, Music, and a Few Tricks Along the Way

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had…?

I’ve done a lot… I love a lot.

Sports… fishing… music… writing…
working out pretty religiously these days…
and I’ve always loved driving… oh… I’m a people and animal whisperer too…

I drove 18-wheelers all across the U.S. for 17 years… professionally.
Spent time training student drivers with FedEx Ground…
that part stayed with me… something about watching it click.

Same thing with teaching guitar and music back in the day…
there’s something about passing things on.

But if we’re talking secret skills…

I can juggle.

Learned it as a teenager from a guy at a pool hall…
with billiard balls.

And this one’s a little ridiculous but true…

I can throw grapes so high they disappear…
wait… track them back down out of the sky…
and catch them in my mouth.

Oh… and I can juggle grapes and eat them at the same time…

Yeah… I know… lol…

Nothing special… just a fun way to feed your face.

Not today though… too much other stuff to juggle…

˙uoıʇɔǝlɟuı ɥʇıʍ ƃuıs I sɐ ƃuol oS
…ʎɐs I ʇɐɥʍ ɹǝʇʇɐɯ ʇ,usǝop ʇI

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson

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Shakespeare & Me & Ben Howard (Week 21)

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Willy `•.

“A light condition in a beauty dark.”

Me `’.,°~

…that light in a shit storm…

Ben Howard !i¡-

“Keep your head up, keep your heart strong.”

Isaiah 45:3
“I will give thee the treasures of darkness…
and hidden riches of secret places…”

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson
All rights reserved.

`’.,°~

Coming Home… Where It All Started

First Song I Ever Learned on Guitar…

I’m laying here in bed… in the dark… listening to my YouTube music app.
Something I do most every night.

I’ll usually pick a song to start it off… then just let it go wherever it wants to go.

Lately though… one song keeps showing up.
Random… but not really random.

So much that it’s got me thinking…

It’s the very first song I ever learned on guitar —
“Coming Home” by Cinderella, off the album Long Cold Winter.

I learned it in November of 1988.
I was 14.

I had no idea who Cinderella even was at the time…
but that season turned out to be the longest… coldest winter of my life.

Back then, I’d go to my uncle and ask for CDs or cassettes.
Every time… he’d give me this deep stare… then walk over to his collection.

You could tell he was thinking.
Choosing carefully.

He knew what I was going through.
He knew I wasn’t just listening.

He knew I was building something…
a foundation… for who I’d become… as a musician… as a person.

He’s no longer here now…
but looking back… he knew exactly what he was doing with me 😁

Every song on that album is 🔥.

And it’s kind of crazy…
that an album with that name would land in my hands
right before my own long cold winter really set in.

To this day… it’s locked into my personal all-time albums list.
Forever.

Back then, there was no internet.
No Google. No YouTube tutorials.
No quick tabs you could pull up

No smartphone.

I didn’t even have sheet music.

All I had was a chord book.

So I learned every chord in it…
then started figuring out scales and patterns on my own.

Trial and error.

A lot of wrong notes…
but I remembered them…
learned to avoid them.

That’s how I learned songs —
by listening…
by playing along…
by feeling it out.

Everything was different back then.

But here’s the sweet part…

Lately, when I pick up my guitar…
I feel like that 14 year old kid again.

And that’s something I lost for a while.

I’m happy it’s back.
I’m happy I’m back.

Not losing these calloused fingers ever again 😎…

I took a ride in a world… I’ll be spinnin for the rest of my life… ♩ ♭ ♮ ♯

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.

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Advertise Your Blog… On My Head

I offer a service kind of like Blaze… but way hella better.
The cost is similar, but I will work with you.
If you have coin struggle… you can pay in many other ways.
It’s not about money… never was… never will be…

because you see…

I can help you customize stuff…

you know what I mean right?

So you only pay for what you need. 🤷‍♂️ 🦤

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson | All rights reserved

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Flyleaf (Week 19)

There For You 🎶 Cage On The Ground…

Before Lacey Sturm ever stepped on stage with Flyleaf, she had already lived through the kind of darkness most people only write about. As a teenager she battled deep depression and survived a suicide attempt… and what came after reshaped everything. Her faith didn’t become an image or a lane — it became the core of who she was. That’s why her voice hits different. It’s not just tone or technique… it’s survival, it’s prayer, it’s something real breaking through. A lot of those Flyleaf songs weren’t crafted for radio… they came straight from her journals, her struggles, her conversations with God. That’s why you feel them more than you just hear them.

What makes her story even more wild… she walked away from it all in 2012, right when things were peaking after New Horizons. No drama… no crash… just a decision to step back for her family and her calling. Most artists hold on tighter at that point — she let go. And when she came back, it wasn’t to pick up where she left off… it was to start fresh with her own solo career. Same intensity, same raw honesty… just even more personal and stripped down. That contrast you hear in her — the softness and the scream, the broken and the bold — that’s not a style she learned… that’s a life she lived.

There For You 🎶
Year: 2005
Album: Flyleaf

Cage On The Ground 🎶
Year: 2012
Album: New Horizons

✝️ 1 John 3:18
“Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

© 2026 bryanforchrist | All rights reserved

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Some Men Say It… Some Men Live It

Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

This is Pastor Wendell Wilson…
he discipled me.

I met him in June of 2o08…
and ended up living with him for about five years.

He ran a Christian rehab for men down in Florida…
and after I finished the program…
he asked me to stay on…

become his resident director.

So I did.

I served there for four years…

and somewhere in all that time…
he became more than a pastor to me…

he became a father.

He was one of a kind…
a remarkable man.

I could tell you story after great story…
so many memories…

but what stands out most…

is how he lived…

How he loved people…

I’ve never met anyone who genuinely loved others like he did…

And the way he spoke to you…

man… he had a way with words. He backed them up too.

He would say things to you…
right in the moment…
exactly when you needed to hear it most.

One profound thing he told me that never left…

“Son… people would rather see a sermon any day… than hear one.”

That stuck like Chuck with me.

I still carry it.

Because as powerful as words can be…
they don’t mean much without something behind them.

I can say the most beautiful things…
turn your stupid heart to jello…

but at some point…

I need to shut my mouth…
and be about it.

Show you.

Let you see it.

Because I’d rather see something real…
than hear something perfect.

No matter how well penned it is…
it’s empty…
it has to be lived…
it’s just beautifully nothing…

I’d rather see things clearly…
and say things simply…

let action… with feeling… be the real pen…

Pastor Wendell passed away at his home in 2o16…
surrounded by friends and family…

and it was beautifully real… to see.

…,’…,’…t

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson | bryanforchrist | All rights reserved

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Outlaw Roots — The Hank Jr. Legacy (Week 11)

Dinosaur 🎶 All In Alabama

Sup yall… got two of my favorites for you today…

If I was ever forced to make a top 10 list of Hank songs… both of these are on it—no question.

I’ve played ’em hundreds of times over the years…
for myself… when no one was around…
and for plenty of others along the way…

And honestly… it’s been a little while…

So I think I’m gonna grab my guitar later…
sit back… and run ‘em both again…

Just me… the strings… and that old feeling…

But for now… let me quit talkin’…

and let’s get this thing goin’… ♩♪

🎶 Dinosaur — 1980 — Habits Old and New

🎶 All in Alabama — 1980 — Habits Old and New

Hope yall have a great weekend…
and don’t be like Hank and go fallin’ off the side of any mountains 😄♩♪

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson | All Rights Reserved

`’.,°~

Less Notes ♭ ♯

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

I know which one I want removed

I’m thinking of cutting this finger off—
just make do and play power 5 chords on guitar.

but at least it’s not on my forehead 🤷‍♂️

… 💯👇

.

And now I’m tied to a train
Down memory lane
Stuck on repeat
Repeat the same old same

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson | All rights reserved

`’.,°~