Treasure—that is what you are.
Honey, you’re my golden star
—Bruno Mars
“Treasure” is a brand new addition for Scarlet Fever Band, specifically requested to be played at the wedding reception we did last night for Mackenzie Bruce and Kevin Gusweiler.
Friends and fans of this band will know that wanting us to learn a new Bruno Mars tune is a pretty easy ask. Bruno writes amazing pop music, in the style of classic R&B/Soul, prominently featuring horns and funky grooves; the central core of this band. Yes please!
I don’t know exactly why the couple asked for this specific song, but just seeing the two of them together on that unseasonably warm, October night, along the banks of the Scioto River at Genoa Park, it wasn’t hard to come up with a reason. These two treasure each other. I heard in the speeches from the father of the bride, best man, and maids of honor that Mackenzie and Kevin have been together for about eight years now. Yet the aura around them suggested two college kids on their third date—such a sweet, happy couple!
Getting to marry the person you treasure is fantastic; but, for me, the full extent of the treasure is deeper and wider.
It was inevitable that at some point in my alter-ego life as a wedding band guitarist, I would eventually start identifying less with the young couple, and more with the parent(s) of that couple. My own kids are still pretty young—the oldest not quite to high school yet—but watching Mackenzie and Kevin interact with their parents, I recognized the look in each parent’s eyes as the same sense of other-worldly love and pride I feel as I watch my boys move through their lives. Mackenzie’s dad was positively beaming with joy, being surrounded by his close-knit family, extended relatives, and brand new relatives from Kevin’s family. Further, weddings make abundantly clear that your closest friends are also easily described as family members.
Sitting down for a meal with the other band members before we started playing, inside COSI at the “Atomic Café,” I understood that my Scarlet Fever friends are every bit as much a family to me as my blood- and marital-relatives. Our friendship is the bread of life to me, made from a mold all its own. I truly treasure each of them.
And I treasure the entire process of it. Even at 50, likely too dang old to be dancing around like an idiot to the Scarlet Fever Band throw-down, I love being a part of my musical family, coming together to bring as much happiness as we can to one huge, newly-united family. The throbbing drums; the sick grooves; the hipper-than-hip horn lines; three amazing singers giving 110% of themselves; and all the people on the dance floor, soaking it all in… it’s still amazing after all these years.
Seriously, what’s not to treasure on a night like that? Thank you, Mackenzie and Kevin, for having our family join with yours for that amazing party!
Honey, you’re my golden star
—Bruno Mars
“Treasure” is a brand new addition for Scarlet Fever Band, specifically requested to be played at the wedding reception we did last night for Mackenzie Bruce and Kevin Gusweiler.
Friends and fans of this band will know that wanting us to learn a new Bruno Mars tune is a pretty easy ask. Bruno writes amazing pop music, in the style of classic R&B/Soul, prominently featuring horns and funky grooves; the central core of this band. Yes please!
I don’t know exactly why the couple asked for this specific song, but just seeing the two of them together on that unseasonably warm, October night, along the banks of the Scioto River at Genoa Park, it wasn’t hard to come up with a reason. These two treasure each other. I heard in the speeches from the father of the bride, best man, and maids of honor that Mackenzie and Kevin have been together for about eight years now. Yet the aura around them suggested two college kids on their third date—such a sweet, happy couple!
Getting to marry the person you treasure is fantastic; but, for me, the full extent of the treasure is deeper and wider.
It was inevitable that at some point in my alter-ego life as a wedding band guitarist, I would eventually start identifying less with the young couple, and more with the parent(s) of that couple. My own kids are still pretty young—the oldest not quite to high school yet—but watching Mackenzie and Kevin interact with their parents, I recognized the look in each parent’s eyes as the same sense of other-worldly love and pride I feel as I watch my boys move through their lives. Mackenzie’s dad was positively beaming with joy, being surrounded by his close-knit family, extended relatives, and brand new relatives from Kevin’s family. Further, weddings make abundantly clear that your closest friends are also easily described as family members.
Sitting down for a meal with the other band members before we started playing, inside COSI at the “Atomic Café,” I understood that my Scarlet Fever friends are every bit as much a family to me as my blood- and marital-relatives. Our friendship is the bread of life to me, made from a mold all its own. I truly treasure each of them.
And I treasure the entire process of it. Even at 50, likely too dang old to be dancing around like an idiot to the Scarlet Fever Band throw-down, I love being a part of my musical family, coming together to bring as much happiness as we can to one huge, newly-united family. The throbbing drums; the sick grooves; the hipper-than-hip horn lines; three amazing singers giving 110% of themselves; and all the people on the dance floor, soaking it all in… it’s still amazing after all these years.
Seriously, what’s not to treasure on a night like that? Thank you, Mackenzie and Kevin, for having our family join with yours for that amazing party!
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