Thanks to Craig Mitchell, evidence of my first album “Reason To Live” appeared on Face Book. It garnered a whole lot more interest than I’d have expected.

Recorded early in 1978, the album collected the original core of my Christian coffee shop set from the ‘seventies. From memory, I used to add some black spirituals and covers of songs by Larry Norman, Barry Maguire, Randy Stonehill etc to fill it out. By the time I made the recoding I was doing four or five gigs a week – that was on top of being in my first year as a candidate for ordination, finishing off my BA at Qld Uni and being in my first year of marriage (Heather and I married very young. She was 20 and I was 19). It was a busy, not very easy time.

One thing that stands out to me when I look at it now is that I was pretty much the youngest person in the group (aside from Hilary who played the flute on one track). The rest of the participants were a fair bit older – although much closer to me in age now. They were people I looked up to. Experienced people. Recognised for their skill and achievements. Although I count them now as friends – some of them very close friends – there’s no doubt that at that time they were mentors. I am so grateful to have had so many people who put in a lot of effort and attention into helping me find my path and learn my craft.

Does that still happen?