What is (or was) I.C.U. - Continued...

MUSIC (download center)     PHOTOS     FLYERS (historical documents!)

After much searching and auditioning we found a hard hitting drummer that joined our ministry, Ricky Davenport. 

We kept practicing, kept improving and kept playing every chance that we could.  Our wives (those who had wives) and families were very supportive of what we were doing.  It was really a sacrifice for everyone in a lot of ways (hey, if your getting into music ministry you need to know that it's TOTALLY HARD WORK).  Everyone put a significant amount of time, money, energy, blood, sweat and tears into the band.  Most of the songs have my name on them as "written by" - but in truth, the songs came together as a band.  I would show up with some chicken scratch, some words and simple chords and the guys would just start jammin' on it and it became a song over time.  It was an exciting time for all of us!

About the same time as we felt like we were starting to get real tight and sounding good we began to run into a few complications...

You see, we hadn't started our ministry until we were mostly all already married, in our mid 20's, and having little babies.  (Mostly, not Kevin or Ricky, they were the young pretty boys that the girls really liked to come and see).  Our schedules began to get a lot more complicated with work and the families and we had to decide whether we were going to keep going or not.  We had agreed we each other that we would never turn down an opportunity to play (to minister) unless we absolutely, positively couldn't - and everyone had been extremely dedicated to this.  However, with the arrival of little ones, you have to change some of your priorities. 

We decided to take a break over the summer months (I believe that was the summer of 1989, someone help me out if I'm wrong) to spend time in prayer and with our families.  We had been practicing twice a week (three to five hours each practice) and playing when we could for a few years already - so a break was nice.  After the break we all met in Kevin's trailer and we decided to end the ICU era.  It was a sad day...  We had been through a lot of trials and lessons together - we had changed a lot of lives together (including our own) - and we had become extremely good friends (I love you guys!, sniff, sniff).  So we divided the equipment and assets (of which there were few), spoke about the good times, and went our separate ways.

We all live in different parts of the country now.  I live at a Salvation Army camp (Camp Gifford) on Deer Lake on the eastern side of Washington state. Joe lives in the eastern part of Washington as well (although not close enough!).  Ricky (I believe) still lives in southern California.  Ron lives on the western side of Washington state - and Kevin lives in northern California.  Paul (our original bass player) recently moved to the Deer Lake area as well.  He and his family are a great help and support with our ministry at Camp Gifford.

We rarely see each other any more - but there is a bond that will never break between us all.  Whenever I pop in a tape of ICU I close my eyes, and smile, and look around (in my mind) and see the guys movin' and groovin' on the Long Beach platform where we used to practice.  It's a kind of bittersweet memory, you know, that kind that feels bad just because it's over... but then again, I guess it's not really over anyway, is it?  Here you are listening to the tunes all over again.

Just a word about the tunes. All of these songs were recorded "Live at Practice" in Long Beach, California.  They were taped prior to our break up and really, aren't the best portrayal of us (I think we got better and tighter).  However, the songs themselves are intact and they're still a lot of fun to listen to - so, hey, have fun!  I'll be adding songs from time to time so check back every so often and see whassup :-)  

God bless!  I hope you enjoyed reading about I.C.U.!

PS - the "Pictures" page and ".mp3 downloads" will be up as soon as possible.