I believe that the first time I met Brent Woody was when Morningstar, the Christian band I played in with Chris Osborne, recorded a couple of songs in his home studio in Seminole. Some-

time after that, I made a church change and Brent invited me to a

new one where he was starting as the worship leader. It was North

Shore Community Church, with John Baxter as pastor. I was there for a number of years and got to work with him on the music team.

          I'm not sure on the timeline when Brent did this,

but he was legendary to us because he toured as the keyboard player for Mark Farner of Grand Funk RR fame. From time to time, Brent would bring in clients and friends of his to perform. One that stands out to me is Lori Chase. Brent had produced her album and written many of the songs on it, in that same home studio that we did our recording. There was a spectacular duet she sang with Charlie Stamas, who, all these years later, befriended me when I had cancer. That song, The Other Side, is one of Brent's best, and there is one more that he performed for us several times called In The Long Run.

          I left North Shore, probably in 1999, and found myself

at a Calvary Chapel church plant in south St. Pete. See my Barnabas/CalvaryChapel page. Brent moved to California,

I think during the time I was there. When he returned to Florida, he signed on as worship leader at Fellowship@Tyrone.

I assisted him from the beginning and eventually the worship team expanded. Anne-Marie even sang with us. Ken Cook was another talented guy on the team who had worked with Brent from years before. Ken is playing the drum pads in the videos.

I learned a ton from Brent about the Korg keyboard and how to be a worship leader. He even got me started by letting me use many of his sequences in my Korg Karma keyboard when I took over as interim after he left. I eventually learned how to create my own tracks using my keyboard, but he always had a unique and surprising harmonic sensibility. His sequences are unparalled, really.

          Somewhere on this timeline Brent went to law school and is today an attorney, working to assist victims of sex trafficking.  Here is a WEDU public television roundtable he was on. He has excelled at this work, just as he has as a musician. He keeps a hand in it, the music, so you never know.  

          I have photos from his first law office. I haven't seen the Woodys in several years now with all the crazy stuff happening, but I keep tabs from the sidelines.

That song was ultimately recorded by Mark Farner on Thirty Years Of Funk: 1969-1999 The Anthology.

I have that recording, and I like it, but I always preferred Brent's own winsome voice on it.

We kept waiting, but he kept doing projects for other artists and never released an album of his own, to my knowledge. Brent was so kind to send me his version of the song and give me permission to post it here.

In The Long Run (Brent Woody)