A Spiritual Journey

There was only one position left to be filled in the new band...drums. In a hard rock band...in fact, in any band...the bass and drums are the heartbeat... the essential elements that all the other music is built around. Charles was an extremely powerful rhythmic force, and he had worked with some of the best drummers in the business. And the relationship that a drummer and a bass player have is crucial, because they have to "feel" things as one. In Charles' experience, he had found guys that "felt" things the way he did, and whenever that had happened for him, his bass work was complimented, and that made his music very powerful, and his job fun. This new music was powerful in its own right, and so Charles was really looking forward to the "high" that playing in this band would create for him. After we had played with Barry for a while, we realized that there were some times when things were very good...but...there were also times when a drummer who had the confidence that only comes from years of experience, would have made things sound more the way Charles and I envisioned it. We talked about it a lot...and we both saw pros and cons about bringing Barry into the group. On the plus side...Barry was there, and he was ready...he was very motivated, he was a team player, he had no substance problems, he had a lot of natural talent, and he was somewhat moldable because he was so young...and most importantly...he was Mark's brother, and they were close...and that fit right into my belief that...bands that are like a "family" make the best bands. On the negative side...both Charles and I had worked with drummers that had the one thing that Barry lacked...the seasoned sound that only comes with experience...it is something that is hard to put into words...but you knew it when you heard it. There was one other factor we had to consider, too... Because Barry had invited Mark to jam with us, Mark had made the assumption that Barry was already in the band, and when we informed Mark that we hadn't made that decision yet, he let it be known to us that if Barry wasn't on board...then neither was he...and that created a real problem for me...I wanted to keep Charles, and I wanted to keep Mark, but there was a chance that no matter what I decided...I might lose one of them.

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