Hidden Gems from the B-Side — ⛽️ FUEL (Week 20)

Shimmer 🎶 Bad Day…

So today I’m moving on… FUEL anyone?…

Man… I’m so loaded up with music and bands… sometimes I just sit there like… who’s next?… there’s just too many…

But yeah… Fuel… one of my favorites.
They’re a little different… some songs are slower… easy… almost laid back… but when they decide to… they can come in hard and rock the absolute crap out of you.

I’ve seen them a few times… but here’s a cool one…

I lived in Leesburg, Florida from 2o16–2o21… little old house… about two blocks from downtown. Leesburg is known for Bikefest every year… bands playing all week long…

And I’m not kidding… I could always hear it all from inside my house… loud and clear.

So it’s 2o17… I’m laying on my bed one day… windows open… just chilling…

Then all of a sudden…

music cuts through the silence…

this band starts rocking… hard… sounding really good…

I’m laying there like… hold up… who is that?…

then it hits me…

duuuude… it’s Fuel !!! 😁🥳😎

So yeah… I just laid there… in my bed… and listened to their whole set that evening…

super cool.

I got two for you now…

🎧 Shimmer — Sunburn (1998)

🎧 Bad Day — Something Like Human (2oO0)

Shimmer is the song that put them on the map… these 2 are a little more chill… in coming weeks… I’ll let them rock harder for you… thought I’d take it easy on you for starters 😏…

The concert I heard from my bedroom evening

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.

`’.,°~

My Parents… The Strangest Love I’ve Ever Seen

I’ve been texting with a friend all day…
in between living life…

We got on the topic of this life of mine…
and somehow… my parents came up.

After telling him some things…
I started thinking…

Man… my mom and dad are strange.
Not them as people…
their relationship.

It’s just… different.

They’ve known each other forever… all their lives…

I mean since they were little bitty kids.
I believe… since babies.

They lived next door to each other.
Their families were close.
Friends… neighbors…

They grew up side by side.

Playmates…
then boyfriend and girlfriend as kids…
carried it through elementary school…
into high school…

They were in love.

They got married.
Planned to have me…

Succeeded 😎

I was born… started spinning around this earth… like everyone else.

Then when I was 5…
they got divorced.

Just like that.

It wasn’t some huge dramatic thing either…

they were just bored.

Like they realized
they were all each other had ever known…
thought they were missing something out there.

So they walked away.

Not long after…

they both met other people.
Quick.

Got married again.
Both of them.

Both of those marriages…
were disasters.

Five… six years later…
both divorced again.

But here’s the part that always got me…

through all of it…

they stayed close.

I mean really close.

Always together.

They’d hang out…
go to movies…
go shopping…
even take trips together.

Like… what?

It was like they were married…
but weren’t.

They got along better than most married couples I’ve ever seen.

Then one day… when I was 24…

they told me they needed to talk.

Both of them.

Sat me down in the living room…

real serious.

And I’m thinking…

Alright… what is this?
Who’s sick?
Is it cancer?
Who died?
What’s going on?

They’ve never done this like this before.

So they ask me…

“How would you feel…
if we got married again?”

“Sure! I’m all for it!
I want yall happy!”

“So who’s the lucky man and woman?
Double wedding or something?”

Nah…
Not even close.
Bruh…
They meant each other.
Again.

Now you’d think I’d be happy, right?

That’s my mom and dad.

But honestly?

It was weird.

Most of my life…
they were just friends.

They had been married to other people…
dated other people…

but somehow always stayed close.

So I gave them my blessing.

Even though it felt strange.

First time I saw them kiss…
it creeped me out… 😁

So they got married.

Bought a big house.

Within about six months…

everything started falling apart.

Arguing all the time.
Couldn’t get along.

I remember thinking—

What happened?

Where did that friendship go…
the one I watched my whole life?

They stayed married another ten years.

Barely speaking.
Sleeping in different rooms.

Both… unhappy.

Then they divorced.

Again.

Not long after that…

they became best friends.

Again.

Now I just have to laugh.

Like… you’ve got to be kidding me.

But I will say this—

I’ve learned a lot about love from them.

What to do…
what not to do…

One thing I know for sure…

When it comes to love…

I’m nothing like them.

And if I didn’t look like both of them…

I’d swear I was adopted.

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.

`’.,°~

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.

`’.,°~

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

`’.,°~

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

`’.,°~

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

`’.,°~