Change was the only Constant

Shortly after our daughter, Emmy Lu, was born, I was offered a new job as a Marketing Manager in Sunriver, Oregon. I would say goodbye to my fourth time in working in the television world. I would say that was the last time ever again, but you never know.

I also started to step back from performing as much with The Rum and The Sea, because of the lack of time from being a father of an infant and a toddler. I was motivated to continue building my solo project, Victory Swig.

I began to plan a new endeavor to create an “away” project while keeping The Rum and The Sea as the “home” project. A lot of the performers with The Rum and The Sea were unable to travel. I was interested in doing concentrated shows with strong players in different towns like Portland or Seattle and continue growing on my music journey. The idea was to land a big show at a nice venue and play a show with some of the best players in Bend.

I was helped out by a friend of mine, Jaimie, who was interested in developing a career in artist management. I asked her to look around Seattle for a show. She came back with a gig opportunity to play at the Hard Rock Café. I was really excited about trying to land a show there.

I recruited two players from The Rum and The Sea and an amazing guitarist, Dave, to practice and travel to perform the show with me. I also asked one of my favorite local singer/songwriters, Kylan Johnson, to team up with me on the show by playing an opening set. With all pieces in place, Jaimie put in the request to play the show. We landed a spot in October, which was a few months away.

I had learned from my family that Natasha wasn’t doing that well, and that she was being checked into hospice. My family asked me and the rest of the siblings to gather with them. My bandmate in The Rum and The Sea, Christopher, was so generous by donating his airmiles to me so I could travel to Arizona.

This would be the second, and last, time that all of us siblings were together in one place. My brothers with their significant others traveled to Phoenix. One brother came all the way from being deployed to Iraq. It was a bittersweet moment for all of us.

After visiting with Natasha and family for a few days I headed home. Shortly after I returned home, I got a call to let me know that Natasha was passing away. I asked for the day off from work and picked up my guitar. A new song appeared out of nowhere. It’s probably one of the most heartfelt songs that I ever wrote. “Cactus Flower” is a song about the final moments I had with Natasha a few days prior while she was in hospice. Everything I was trying to do before, with producing an album for her and family, was quickly outshined by this amazing song that seemed to come directly from my heart to my guitar and to my voice.

I decided to record the song that afternoon. When finishing up recording the song, my stepmother called with the news that Natasha had just passed. I shared the song, and the family loved it. The song was played during her service with friends and family. I performed the song live at the Hard Rock Café in Seattle later in October with my Victory Swig band.

The songwriting experience of this song in particular had validated all of my dedication to the craft. I always knew that songwriting was special. For the first time I felt its magic and warmth touch my soul.