Brian Enter's the World of Blogging

Well, I've finally done it. I was all freaked out about starting a blog because I thought I'd have to be an HTML geek to do it, but here I've found a way of blogging while simultaneously using NO technical know-how.

So much to write about... for those of you who happened upon this site by accident I'll need to tell you that Rescue is an acappella group that started some 8 years ago by people younger and more educated than myself, but through a series of events in 2004 Rescue almost didn't exist for 2005. The founder/arranger/producer Jason Overstreet was about to give up on the idea of continuing Rescue when he was slammed with phone calls and emails from people who wanted to try out for a position in the group...he hadn't advertised or asked for any auditions and it seemed strange that people would call him, out of the blue wanting to know if there were any openings. That fact and the fact that there was still a faithful list of people who were offering prayer and financial support, Jason felt that it was not time to give up, but it was most definitely time to get on the phone and see who might be interested and able to meet the challenges of a group like this.

I was in barbershop singing high tenor with a quartet called Sold Out. We had won our district in 2000 and were currently ranked in the top twenty competing quartets internationally after the SPEBSQSA contest in July 2004 that was held in Louisville, Kentucky. Jason had some experience in barbershop and in late January or early February, he called a mutual friend, Tim McCormic (Top Ten International baritone, and International level chorus director). Tim said he knew of a guy in Sold Out who would fit the bill and Jason recognized the quartet name from a local contest in Forest Grove, Oregon that Rescue had been the featured musical group on, a year or two ago. Tim reminded him of a particular song ("What'll I Do") that I was featured on. Jason remembered me, and gave me a call.

I had been going through some intense personal struggles which seemed to be coming to somewhat of a close except for one thing, my family and I needed for me to find a job where I could use my gifts and talents so that I could be at peace with my life, and not constantly feeling like a round peg in a square hole. One Friday, I believe it was in early February 2005 I was driving home from work, literally, crying out to God in frustration.
"You designed me with a purpose...I believe it! You have carefully shaped me so that I will fit into a specific and peculiar place in your kingdom, but with all of my struggles and weakness, did I somehow miss your call? Surely you don't want to leave me like this, twisting in the wind, wondering, as I have since I was still in High School, what it is that I will do when I grow up. I'm 36! I have held a job that I'm not good at for 15 years! I am married to a woman that wants the best for me, and it hurts her to see me lost and wandering like this! My three children need for me to be in a place of confidence in you and what I am doing with my life, but slowly my dreams and the promises I thought I was given have faded to the point where I am not sure if I believe they are even mine to have. Please, Jesus! Have mercy on me and give me a vision for what you want me to do! Bring me into peace with my calling! I feel like I will die without it!"

I had prayed that prayer many times in the last ten years, but never so intensely as that moment. When I arrived at home my message machine was beeping, signaling that I had a message. I pressed the play button.

"This is Jason Overstreet of the group Rescue. I was talking with Tim McCormic he gave me your name. I really think we need to talk because Rescue has some openings and I'd like to see if you might be interested. Call me on my cell at..."

My jaw dropped and tears came to my eyes, and I pressed the button again to see if what I thought I heard was really true. Then I needed a witness, so I got my ten year-old to listen to it with me. And we proceeded to leap around the kitchen and sream a lot. It was pure joy. Even if it didn't end up being THE opportunity for me, it had already proved to me that God has the power to take my mixed up life and make complete sense of it in a heartbeat.

I calmed down and immediately called Jason and set up a meeting for the next week on Tuesday afterwork at Burgerville. We met and talked, I gave him a sampler of some demo stuff and some performance recordings. He's a pretty serious guy and after the meeting I was pretty sure I wasn't very impressive to him, but that he liked me enough to have me audition for him. he liked my demo that I sang with Buddy Rasberry for his new album, and he showed me a very impressive demo from one of the other guys who he was looking at for the group (Dustin Allen). Rescue had been booked for a barbershop show in Canby, Oregon and had to remove themselves from it since there wasn't really anyone left in the group. As God would have it, Sold Out was now booked to headline that same show. I told him that we ended up having that show and he said he wanted to come down and watch it.

He came to the evening show, but it wasn't just him...it was an entire group of people, so when I went out to the lobby to meet and greet, I was overwhelmed when I saw Jason and six or seven others. I can remember seeing Colette, Scott, Luke, Shawn, Adam, Dustin and I think one or two others. These were all younger, beautiful people (yeah, even you Scott). I could not have been more uncomfortable. I even stepped on Scott's foot at one point...the horrors! If I had actually known that all of these people (excepting Colette of course) were trying out for Rescue, it would have had me rocking in a corner like an orphaned baby monkey (Psych 101, PCC). Jason mentioned that Dustin was the one I heard on the demo, and Dustin and I chatted for a bit about it all, and there was a instant level of respect and friendship. Little did I know that within two months we'd be riding back and forth across Portland to rehearsals together and spending hours of time on the tour bus doing prison ministry and singing at churches all over the west coast.

The following week we had an orientation meeting at the Rescue office on Thursday. Friday and Saturday were auditions and I was told after Saturday that I was in the group and that he had decided on a bass if he could only work out the details on getting him to move up here. There were more meetings and auditions in the following couple of weeks and then Jason finally decided on the new group. It would be a five-part group with live vocal percussion. Me on the 1st tenor/2nd tenor/lead/sometimes baritone part, Tommy Daniels trading off with me on pretty much the same parts depending on the song, Dustin Allen 2nd tenor/lead/baritone, Luke Coles on baritone/some leads/vocal percussion, and Joshua Wheeler from Lubbock, Texas on monster bass.

That's how it all came together for me so that I could finally come into my calling, find some of the promises God had given me earlier in my life, and meet my dream of being able to do albums and tour professionally.