Wired Mesh

Can You Hear the Greg Baus Singing?

You may know Gregory Baus the Reformed warrior, the good-hearted and combative contributor on Andy's blog. But do you know Gregory Baus the existentialist folk singer? I thought not.

I was flipping through the stacks at Chad's today, admiring Isaac Wardell's classily-packaged record and purchasing the Alejandro Escovedo tribute album, when I found a pile of locally produced CDs. One I immediately recognized as the Kudzu Musicians Sampler #1: 1997. The Kudzu consortium was still kicking around when I arrived at Covenant in 1999, but hadn't quite managed a second compilation (it never did) and was already receding into legend. They were a group of Chattanooga musicians, disproportionally Covenant students, trying to find away to write Christian music that... well, that didn't suck. (I think a lot of the members were also trying to hook up with singer Summer Ray. That was the story, anyway.) They played shows under the Walnut Street Bridge, guitars strumming into spring nights.

Jade Alger loaned me the album, and I listened to it a good bit my freshman and sophomore years at C-nant, especially late at night, editing the Bagpipe school paper. I had no idea who any of the musicians were. None of them seemed to play shows any more, having passed the mantle (if not Summer Ray herself) on to musicians like Issac Wardell, Chris Ammons and Tom Okie. Time passed, a lot more albums were released around town, and Jade took his CD with him to Slovakia.

...And then I stumbled across the record again this afternoon, checked the liner notes, and realized I now know three of the singers: Greg, Paton Williams (a co-member of my church) and Dan Polk (now living up the seaboard, hobnobbing with politicos). It's very, very strange to hear them singing fervently some seven years ago, before they took wives and fathered children, before their lives became entangled with mine in any way.

Perhaps I'll find a way to post one of their tracks on Thursday. Meanwhile, there are still plenty of Kudzu albums in stock at Chad's. If you rush over, you can find some fine, or at least earnest, Presbyterian songcraft.