There is a country song called “Buy Dirt.” Country music has a genre of “advice songs.” These are songs that offer words of wisdom about how to get through life with the least amount of disappointment and pain and to experience joy and happiness. “Buy Dirt” is one of those songs. Tucked into the chorus is this: Do what you love, but call it work.

My favorite job was playing guitar and singing for people. The other aspect of this was playing guitar and leading people in worship at churches, camps, and conferences. I did not make a lot of money doing this, but I loved every minute that I did it.

The first time I got paid to do it was at a ladies’ luncheon in Sacramento when I was eighteen. I think I earned twenty dollars for singing two songs. Shortly after that, I sang for a group of junior high students. Then for the next few years, I began singing with others: Blanco & Hanks, Prism, A New Song, Doug Hanks and Friends, and the Doug Hanks Band.

In 1981, I went to Nashville to record the “Walking in the Father’s Love” album. After that album, I performed with a band and as a solo act for the next few years. I traveled to almost every state in the United States, flew into most major airports, traveled thousands of miles in a bus or a van or in my trusty Volkswagen. I performed, as I said before, at churches, camps and conferences, but I also sang at military bases and detention halls for youth. The largest group I performed for as a solo act was in Estes Park at the YMCA of the Rockies conference grounds for a Student Venture Getaway in the summer of 1984. 5,000 high school students were attending. I gave a concert and led songs at this conference. I was on stage with several leading Christian speakers including Josh McDowell and Dawson McAllister.

In 1991, I became part of a country group called “The Silverados.” We sang Top 40 country songs and a few classics. We sang primarily at concerts in the park and at non-profit fundraisers. In 2011 on Veterans’ Day, we opened for Tim McGraw and performed for about 6,000 people at Camp Pendleton, CA. We formed a short-lived group called “Rockin’ on Heaven’s Door” out of The Silverados that played classic rock. Covid more-or-less killed that group.

Now, I can hardly call performing music work. You play music; you don’t work music! But like the song says, “I did what I loved, and called it “work.” And you know it’s work when the government insists that I pay taxes on the paycheck.

(Pictured: Opening for Tim McGraw, November 2011, Camp Pendleton, CA.)