Blues in a Baptist Church

I attended the Biker Feed and preceding church services at South Canyon Baptist Church this morning, and it was great.

A couple of guys from the Christian Motorcycle Association, Rich and Bud, spoke at the service, telling about their ministry and how they came to Christ. Bud said he came from a very rough background: alcoholic parents, running wild in the streets of Albuquerque, doing and selling drugs, and all sorts of stuff until God got through to him and changed his life.

They also played, sang and led some very excellent Christian blues. I didn't know there was such a thing, but I enjoyed it very much. So much of the music today is just trash: guitar that sounds like some kid in his basement, male singers that sound like zombies and female singers that whisper or whine their lyrics in a monotone. That goes not only for the secular music, but the Christian music that has sadly followed the style trend.

But blues hasn't been affected by this sickening trend. That's why if I listen to any secular music that's come out in the last 10 years or so, it's more than likely Kenny Wayne Shepherd or something like that. But these guys had some good blues riffs that praised God, got your foot to tapping and hands to clapping. Since it was in a Baptist church, some might have swallowed their snuff (I grew up Baptist, so I can say that), but I think they'll recover. Everyone I saw there seemed to really enjoy it, too.

Afterward, the church had a free lunch for bikers, church members and anyone who wanted to come. Jeff Slathar, the pastry chef at the Colonial House Restaurant, spent most of the past week smoking, seasoning and otherwise preparing some delicious beef brisket (the Rapid City Journal had a big article on these preparations in the Food section of the Wednesday dead-tree edition). And man, was it good! Didn't need them, but I had to have seconds.

So all in all, it was a fairly unconventional Sunday, but a very good, refreshing one. I'm going to have to do some looking around for some Christian blues CDs now!