Greg Carl - Banjo, Guitar, Vocals
I grew up listening to the Beatles and Cat Stevens, had a grunge phase, punk phase, a country phase, but I started playing music like Pearl Jam and Weezer in high school when I saw how the girls flocked to hear my brother strum and sing “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town”. I’ve been playing sad folky guitar music ever since.
That being the case I suppose there’s some irony that my singing ability was developed in seminary choirs. So what started as a way to charm became a part of worship or a way to spend time with friends. It might sound strange but I’ve never thought I would be anything but a priest, so what’s a Catholic priest got to do with playing all this raucous music? Plenty. If the person is made by God for sharing life, for being in communion, music is one of the most basic forms of practicing for eternity. Excellence in the the give and take, harmony and melody, rhythm and syncopation, are like tiny little lessons, they reveal something beautiful, true, and good.
I don’t get to play with the band that often, but the joy of playing music, and the friends with whom I’ve been blessed to share that joy, have become a part of the way God has revealed His goodness to me in this life, and called me to serve Him as His priest. God willing I’ll be ordained in June 2012.
God bless,
Deacon Gregory Carl