Good Ole Bluegrass (ft. Jimmy Barrier)

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Monday, May the 8th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text. It's 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. If you guys want to help us keep the conversation going, you can support the show by sharing it online. Let me know if that's a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify and where you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description, so you can do just that.

But before we do anything else, let's go ahead and hit the verse of the day. You sound so charming when you say that. You guys can keep the conversation going by supporting the podcast, sharing it online.

Let me know if that's a good five-star review. That's my radio voice. I practice it. Very charismatic. Very charming.

Yeah, it's like a little bit of calmness to it. You guys can help us do that by doing this and by doing that. But before we do anything else, y'all know what it is. It's the verse of the day. Oh, gosh. Read it to them.

It scared all of our listeners, including me. Read it to them. The verse of the day today, before John pops a gasket, comes from Galatians 6, verse 10. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. There's a bunch of people in the world whose desire is just to get ahead, to get even with somebody or just to get out of a difficult situation, but we have desires that service us.

That's sort of the human nature of what we do. How do I get ahead? How do I gain from this interaction? How do I gain from this choice? What he's saying is, as we have opportunity, let us do good for all. Let us do good to all, especially of those who are the household of faith. If you're a Christian, your desire should be to do good, even if you don't gain from it. The crux of this verse is those who are the household of faith. As Christians, we're supposed to be an example to the world of what the love of God looks like. That's to people who are outside of our faith, but it's especially to our brothers and sisters who are in Christ. If I am hateful to you, and I mistreat you, and I am self-centered and egotistical, and I only look out for myself, what picture does that paint for the world about what the body of Christ is like? If we can't even get along and we are both Christians, why would a non-Christian want any part of that? I don't want none of that.

It looks just like what I got, but worse, because they're at least pretending that they don't do it. Our love for one another is twofold. Number one, we should do it because we are being obedient to God and being Christ-like, and number two, because we are a good example to the world around us of what it means to be a follower. And I want to speak this next segment in love, because I've got love for all of God's creatures. I've got love for all people. But right now, we need to get into the gripe vine.

That's a hard transition. Love all people straight into the gripe vine. Welcome to the gripe vine. Do you want to explain to the people what the gripe vine is? The gripe vine is a delightful segment on our show where we, Jon and I, and sometimes our sound engineers will pluck a gripe that is ready for harvest. Here's what it sounds like right here.

Boink! It is ripe. It is filled with tartness, acrid comments, and it is ready for consumption. That's it.

That's it, man. I've got a gripe today. Your gripe today.

Okay. Slow people. Like driving or just, oh. People who are slow. That just moves slowly?

That moves slowly with no urgency at all. So I'll be sitting in my house, and my wife will say, we need to be somewhere at six o'clock. And I look at the time, and it's 5.30.

And I'm like, okay, this shouldn't be a problem. I'll shower, put on a shirt, put on pants, put on shoes. I'm ready to go. It's six o'clock. My wife hasn't even showered. And so I'm like, hey, babe, it's time to let's go. And she's like, I'm not ready.

I haven't been getting ready. I've been doing this and that and this and that. And I'm like, okay, I'll help you.

Give me a list of things that I can be doing. So I'm like, okay, I'll go change the baby. I'll put the baby's clothes on. I'll do this.

I'll do this. Hey, you're ready to go? No, I'm not ready.

I can't get ready if you keep asking me. People just move slowly. And it tees me off. Is this people or is this your wife? My wife is one of the worst. Your wife is pretty slow too. She can be. However, we do have five kids to get from location A to location B.

So that's a production anytime we go anywhere. It's not just my wife, although she's one of the main offenders. David is also fairly slow. What? You are pretty slow. You can be slow. And I think that's bad. I'm slow.

I think that's bad and should be avoided. That's why it's on the gripe vine. I'm slow when it comes to things that you think are important that I know are not. Like this morning. This morning. You wanted coffee. I was going to bring this up.

I was just going to say this. You texted me, coffee, three question marks. Three question marks. Yes. What does that say to you? Already aggressive. Right. That says...

Multiple punctuation, already aggressive. That says to me that... This is urgent. No. That says to me that I'm on the way. I expect you to have coffee made for me.

It was $9.50. Right. That right there makes me like, hmm, no. You're like, I'm going to take my time. Not I'm going to take my time.

I'm not going to have it ready when he gets here. So then I asked, I was like, hey, is there coffee? And you're like, in a minute, I just got to write an email. Okay. That's perfectly reasonable.

That was at what? $9.55? $10.40 around and you're still writing one email? One email? I wasn't writing the email for the whole time. So you told a lie. I wrote the email. You told a lie. I had to get like pictures and stuff to go in the email and then I had to link all that.

And then after I finished that, I moved on to some other stuff and I did like the radio show or I did like the stuff that goes on Pastor Sha's PhD page. So that was all of that happening within that hour. It wasn't just the email. I just told you the email so that you would get off my back.

See if this helps. Okay. And I realize this is unsolicited advice. You're the one who harvested the gripe.

So I'm going to help you refine the gripe. Get ready last. You get ready last. Like say, okay, I'll watch the boys. You go ahead and get in the shower.

I'll get them ready to go. And then when you got out of the shower, cause it doesn't, I mean, how you said 15 minutes maybe for you? Well, that was a lie, but it made my point. So yeah, 15 minutes. Yeah. Not as long for you to get ready as it does for your wife to get ready. Which is typical.

Typically as guys, it doesn't take us as long as it does our wife to get ready. So you're saying kind of lounge for a while. No, no. I'm saying you accomplish like, okay, I got to pack the diaper bag. Okay. I got to change the boys.

Okay. I got to get them dressed and ready to go. Got to make sure we got this, this, whatever we're, wherever we're going, make sure we have what we need. You do all those things. Let her go get herself ready and then be like, okay, babe, we got 10 minutes left. I need to do this.

X, Y, and Z. You get the boys in the car and I'll meet you out there. I just got to, and I think that's bad advice, but I will, I'm not going to, I'm not going to dismantle it because we, this intro is kind of running long. I just got a text from Melissa who works in the office with us. Y'all want coffee. And guess what?

If I were to say yes, which I did, she's going to make it right now. And that's the way it should be done. And I'm, I'm, I feel like I'm showing my entire behind right now.

You are, but I feel like a lot of your problems too would be solved if you just brought coffee from home. That's, that's fair. That's more than, that's more than fair. All right, we got it. We got to stop this intro cause it's running long, but that's my gripe.

Slow people. Well there you go. We've got a great episode planned for you guys today. Hopefully I'm not going to move through the rest of the episode slowly, but at an enjoyable pace where you can benefit from the conversation. We're going to get Dr. Shaw, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be right back. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is Jon and I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work. And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, PhD. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know, if you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, I'm just pop off the podcast.

I'm just playing, keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God honoring lives.

One of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes, but you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbaddonShaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your very first time joining the podcast, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abaddon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website at AbaddonShaw.com. And I got to say, you've got a full house today. We do. I'm very excited about this episode. Those of you who are watching the show, you already have kind of an idea of what's coming up. If you're listening, maybe not so much, but Dr. Shaw, why don't you introduce our special guests on today's episode. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, people may not realize that, but back in seminary days, gospel music is what I used to listen to all the time.

From the Gaithers to the cathedrals. Yeah, a little crab family. Oh yes. That was our thing. And I used to work on a paint crew and we had that little stereo box over there flaring.

Had it blasting. Yes. And you know, man, we would sing along. We thought we could sing just as good, but we couldn't.

Yeah. You don't realize how good some of those guys are until you try to sing this song. I thought I was like as good as Jason Crab and then I was like, Oh no. Who was the one in the original group who used to hit the high notes? Oh, come on. In the Gaither vocal band. Oh, I know who you're talking about, but I can't place it. Jimmy Fortune?

No, they've had several ones. Now there's another one. Can't think of his name.

But he used to, Michael, what is his name? Anyway, it'll come to me in a minute. I'll look it up.

And I thought I could hit it and I would try, but it didn't work. But today we have my good friend Jimmy Barry here with us along with one of his friends and buddies on his group. So welcome to the show.

Thank you. Donald Dixon is here with us. We call him Chip. We've been playing since we were kids. It was like 1973 is about the time that, well, actually the band that we played was called Salt Creek Express. And that was formed back in 1974, 75, somewhere in there. And we used to go down to Lewisburg to the Folk Festival in Lewisburg and compete in the Folk Festival.

And we were kids. Doc Watson came one year and played. There was a guy named Alan DeMint that ran that.

And he ran it every year and it was run through the college. Alan DeHart. It's not DeMint. It was Alan DeHart was his name.

But he's very iconic in music that was here and around. That's right. And the name of your group currently is? It's a play on words now. Don't everybody laugh.

That's why I ask. It's Jimmy and the Sound Barriers. I love it.

So you can constantly like break the sound barrier. So what I do is I swap out banjo players or a swap out guitarist or I have something that somebody can't do and can't commit to vacations, this, that, and the other. And I have something on 4th of July and I don't have a banjo player. I just sub in another banjo player, you know.

So how many people all together on a... In a bluegrass band, you usually have a dobro player, a bass player, a main guitar player, a banjo player, and a, what else? A fiddle player. A fiddle player. If you can get one, they're rare. That's a tough one to get. Is it hard to find a fiddle player?

It's hard to find a good one. Oh yeah. I can imagine. That's the qualifier. Like you may be able to find a fiddle player, but are they up to do stuff? Yeah, yeah. That's hard to do.

It's hard to find, in that genre of music, it's hard to get someone youthful to play that kind of music. Well that's what they say too. They say if you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the van. Exactly. I've heard that once or twice somewhere. I can't believe you've heard that. The lead guitar is hot, but not for a Louisiana man.

Somewhere I see this going on the floor. Very nice. Tell us how, for both of you, how did you get started playing music? Where did this appreciation for gospel music specifically come from? Well mine started with an album that I got. It was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, and it had a history of music and iconic people on it. But that's where I kind of really started, and friends of mine, Curtis Tyndall and H.E. Tyndall, they played music, and we would sit around on the neighborhood corners, and all the kids would come out and we'd play.

We had a guy named Al Wester that played a washboard, and his dad was Westerility, and Bill Wester, and John Wester. He's their brother. He's in Washington now. I think he's an interpreter for in Washington.

Spanish interpreter is what I heard. But I hadn't seen him in a long time, but I'm gonna tell him about this podcast. Hey, they can listen to it from anywhere. That's right.

Come on. And we played with another guy that I don't want to miss mention, and his name, Tommy Tunstall, and he played with us forever. We did little small gigs when we were young in different places and stuff. Now these are all from right here in Henderson, Vance County? And then it kind of involved older people that were around that helped us, and I wrote some of them down so I wouldn't miss any. The fiddle player that's gonna come for this night of praise is Dunk Preti was his grandfather, and he had a place over in Franklin County. And by the time we turned 16, we would get into Volkswagen and go over and play on Friday nights at this little shack, they called it.

But we'd play music there. And his name is Clifton Preti that's gonna be coming. I got my fingers crossed. He works where he may have to be out of town, maybe out of the country.

So I got my fingers crossed on the fiddle player. We're afraid of him. But you'll be amazed if he's here. You'll be amazed with J.W.

Sanders, who's the banjo player. And J.W., where is he from, Chip? Clarksville. He's from Clarksville.

Clarksville, Virginia. Yeah, we go off there quite often. And of course, you'll be here, Mr. Chip? Yeah, I'll be here doing whatever Jim needs me to do. So what do you play? Whatever he needs me to play. Okay. Just... He's multi-talented.

Is that right? You know, I think he wants me to play the bass on some of the songs that he sings, and I'll be playing the guitar most of the night. You know, I like to have another bass player other than me when I sing my songs, because it's kind of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Yeah, I was going to imagine. You engage in two different parts of the brain at once.

I have what I call lyric-detention-deficency. I'm amazed when I watch people play drums and sing at the same time. I'm like, I don't know how you do that. That's incredible.

Yeah, it takes a lot of concentration. Oh, yeah. They got their feet going, too. Yeah, I know.

Yeah, and they're still singing. You played on your worship team when you were small in India, didn't you? I did.

I did. I played, of course, synthesizer, and then I used to play some drums. Yeah. You were telling me about the different instruments they had. What was the one, the little piano box that was called? It's like an accordion, but it's called a harmonium.

That's right. Yeah, I used to play the harmonium. I still can. Still can.

It takes a few tries, and it'll get back in. I would imagine it's kind of hard to find one here and there. Yeah, you can find one in the big cities, yeah. It's pretty cool. We've got to work on finding a harmonium. Yeah, a harmonium. We've got an episode dedicated to that on the show. We've got to write it down to somebody.

It's just an accordion is all it is, really. How did the nights of worship get started here at Clearview? Because that's something that we've been doing for a good while. Yeah, and I think worship is such an important part of Christian life, especially church life.

Sometimes people downplay that. They focus on the word, which I'm very much passionate about that. But worship is almost like the drink.

It helps you swallow the content down. That's why we have worship. It gets our hearts and our minds right upon God and ready to receive the word.

So the nights of worship that we started here at Clearview are so beautiful, so well-attended. You see people just raising their hands, worshiping God, raising... Music is powerful. Music is powerful.

And Dr. Shaw, being the theologian that you are, I've always heard that Lucifer's job was the minister of music, because he knew it was powerful. And that's why with music and worship, it's such a thing. You tread in that direction with humility and recognition that when you're praising God, you're telling the enemy, I got your job.

That's right. So you always do it in a sense of humility, never bragging, never boasting, because you know you're under attack. There was a time when you told me that, that it really transformed the way I thought, because there was a time where I felt like there was so much trouble or so much just... There's attacks. Just attacks and fires, constantly putting out fires. You can't do anything creative because you're constantly putting fires out. And I was talking to Dr. Shaw about it, and he's like, well, you're telling the devil that this is your job now, and you're doing his job. Of course he's not going to be happy with you doing it. If you're not strong, and if you're not guarded up in the Word, and you don't have Christ on your side, of course you'll always be put in fire.

Your heart has to be in the right place. That's right. That's a good point. And that's kind of what you were saying, too, like musicians just being a different breed of people. If it's not managed well and God's not on your side, it can breed disaster.

It can. But also at the same time, what a blessing that it is when God is with you. Oh, yeah. I wanted to mention, we're going to have an array of ages in there, and we're going to have a guy named Matt Nelson that plays harmonica with us. And he is his 93rd birthday this month. What about that? That's amazing.

He's going to be there. And then we'll have a nine-year-old, which is with the Hognate Band. Oh, man.

Nine decades of difference. Yeah. And some of the things that you think about with air travel and flight and things like that. This Matt Nelson tells the story of when he was a kid. His dad knew down in Kitty Hawk and how you went across on the ferry. He knew the ferry driver. So he says, I remember the ferry driver. And that ferry driver is the one that took the Wright brothers over. Isn't that crazy?

From 1902 to 1907, he took the ferry. And then he knew that guy. Gosh. And we'll have the same gentleman here on the stage coming up on May. Yeah. And when you think about that, think about the technology that we're sitting around in his room with.

And then this man who's going to be on stage knew the ferry. Generations are not that far removed, really. And I love the fact that music is what is bringing everybody together. We talked recently on the show and here at Clearview about the importance of generations standing together. And Dr. Shaw, the term that you put forward, and I love it so much because the heart is behind it, is an intergenerational church.

Absolutely. Not just a multigenerational. Multigeneration means we have all different generational groups like Silent Generation, you know, the Boomers, the Gen Xers or the Busters, Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha.

They're all here. Intergenerational is where they learn to interact and appreciate each other. And I believe so much that we don't have that in our country right now. We're divided. We're divided on so many levels. So many levels. Age is one of them. Age is one of them. Racial, socioeconomic, political. I mean, so much division.

And I think it's the enemy has used certain people to make it happen. You know, the Hognat family is Jamie Hognat. And they're out of Bahama. Oh, I know Bahama.

Yes. And I always kid him, tell him he's from the Bahamas. But Jamie, he's 49, and he learned in church how to play with his dad and his uncle. And so when he started, when he was 15, and so his kids, he wanted to get them involved in it. So they were five, six, and seven. And it's a dobro player, a banjo player, and a fiddle player. Evan, Grayson, and Brooke. And Brooke is the oldest girl.

She's 17. He plays the fiddle, and it's beautiful. And they're going to do some songs. It's just going to be jaw-dropping.

I just saw her. But see, they're passing on, we're passing on this tradition down to the next generation. And that's necessary. That's essential to maintain the culture, maintain who we are as a people. You know, if we don't pass it on, if we just hang on to it, it'll die with you. That's right. So having these multi-generations on the stage, it's so vital.

And hopefully it'll inspire other people. Yeah. And I think everybody has to understand that we have to listen and we have to use the culture music of today to attract them. You want to have something fresh and something new. But still, I don't want to lose the stuff that was there.

That's right. I think you build on it. You build on it. And you do it and you present it in new ways. You know, the gospel has been around for 2,000 years since Jesus preached it. And yet at the same time, we keep finding, we're not finding a new message, but we're finding that same message, those same words, and we're presenting it to people in the context of today. I mean, that's why we do all the things we do with the TV or the light board or all these things that we do on the stage to attract people, because the message stays the same.

Absolutely. And it's the same, I think, with these gospel songs. The message they're putting out is the same, but we're finding new and creative ways to do it, and we're showing those generations that, hey, this music is for all generations to enjoy.

That's right. And just to add just a little bit more to the separation of the youth and the old there, you know, you can think about the first plane that this guy, that people saw. You know, they saw a first plane, and now you see a plane go over and it doesn't matter. Yeah, nobody thinks about it.

Nobody thinks anything about it. And so, you know, the technology has gone, it was at all, you know, the phones, your phones, when it first came out, you know, the bag phones and things like that, it was like, wow, he can talk to somebody in his car. To be a massive brick is what they used to have at one time. Yeah. Do you feel like there's something to be said about, you know, where we live in a world where we're so overloaded with information, we're so overloaded with negativity and bad news that, you know, you listen to bluegrass and gospel music, and it just takes you to a time where things just seemed simpler, like where things seemed easier, like the message of God was just clearer? I do. I do.

And I kind of put that on the back of one of the fliers about it takes you back to a simpler time. I know that I do this when I look at the news and it gets so overwhelming and so frustrating. And so I know the answer to that. I know what you should do. Why aren't you doing it?

Why aren't we doing it? You know what to do. Right. But I take the remote and I change and I watch Andy Griffith over time. I go back and I watch something that puts me in a better place. Like the darlings?

Yeah. We've kind of hinted at it a little bit, but for the sake of our listeners and our viewers, let's talk a little bit about this actual night of worship that we're talking about, the Gospel Night of Praise coming up right here at Clearview on May the 21st. It's going to be such a wonderful night of beautiful music. Like we said, songs that remind you of a simpler time, kind of take you back and give you that feeling of nostalgia of when life was a little bit simpler.

Life had a little slower pace to it. That's amazing. And that leads into the night of worship that we're talking about, the Gospel Night of Praise that's coming up right here at Clearview, May the 21st. If people would like more information, you can text us here at the radio show, 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com, especially if you're local, if you're in the area right in North Carolina. We'd love for you guys to come out and be a part of this beautiful night of worship. You're going to see people of all different ages engaged in this act of worship. They're enjoying the same kind of music, all with the purpose of supporting, of course, the ministry, Anchor of Hope, right here at Clearview, and of just the night of worship, the night of praise together. That's right.

And if you want to listen to that Anchor of Hope episode where we actually had your wife, Ms. Kay Barriere, on the show before, we will link that in the description of this podcast. You guys can go to that link. A very, very important ministry. Yes. Absolutely.

Very critical. So we want to show our support for that ministry. We want you guys to show your support for that ministry as well.

That's right. Make sure you guys check it out. The Gospel Night of Praise coming up May the 21st here at Clearview Church.

If you'd like more information or if you'd like directions to the church, you can send a text to 252-582-5028 or contact us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Mr. Jimmy, Mr. Chip, thank you so much for being on the show today. This was fun.

This was very fun. Absolutely. Well, my question is, are we going to do Man of Constant Sorrow? Come on, man. I just had to ask. I just had to ask. I've seen through all my days.

Yeah, we've been picked on about doing that song. That's one everybody knows. I know. I know. Very true. So cool. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.