I can't quite believe the generosity of fellow Mudcatters. I have received so much from this community. The only way to take it all in, as a concept, is to be part of the cycle of giving. So I got an idea today. Bear with me while I explain.

I learn new songs by hearing them, so when I became our church's Saturday night musician I began to assemble a library of tapes so I could learn while driving. I have more than a dozen now, mostly Gaither Homecoming tapes. And some other stuff, tapes of clips, that people have sent me, and so on. The old hymns on these are wonderful. I didn't grow up hearing them, so they are a wonder to me now.

But once I have learned the ones I like, I don't listen to the tapes much-- they become what I sing, see? I go on to get the next one! And I don't really have time to copy all I would like to copy to send to all the people who have sent me stuff, or who I think would like these. And we aren't set up yet to tape our Saturday service so I could share them when I sing them.

So I would like to just lend them to Mudcatters. I'll send them out in batches of four. If you hear something you like, there's a good chance I already have the words and chords in my binder, and I can post to requests.

So please e-mail me if you want in on this, and I will reply with a form to fill out so I can e-manage the addresses. The deal is, you keep each set of four for two weeks, and then you send them on to the next person on the list, and then eventually they come back to me because I will have new musicians to train and they should listen and choose some songs too. So each person on the list will have each others' addresses and e-addresses.

A donation to Mudcat if you take me up on this would be nice, if you can. The church bought the tapes, so this will only cost me postage on the first mailings of them. So it should benefit Mudcat, yes?

~S~

motormice@hotmail.com