Patrick P Welch

After graduating from Duke Divinity School, I travelled across the US with a fellow musician playing multiple venues with some notable gigs including opening for Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. I performed just before Steve Stills at The Cellar Door in DC. Later in 70s I formed a band in NYC  and worked regularly playing in NYC and New Jersey in places like Kenny's Castaway Club and Folk City, and many other not so famous venues. In 1980 My wife Gail and our then three children  (now four) moved to WNC where I worked in Mental Health. My wife Gail and I and our  children moved to Winston Salem where I did a residency in Pastoral Care and Chaplaincy, and then began work as the //Director of The Center For Growth and Development in Greenville, NC, providing mental health services primarily to Burroughs Wellcome Corp, and other businesses.  From there, I became a pastor for 32 years. I always played music during this, I taught at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, where I also got a Doctor of Ministry degree, and then worked for a Psychiatrist. (I am a National Board Certified Counselor and until I retired i was also an LPC.)  In 2010, I had a quad bypass, stroke, and heart attack,  and was forced to be on disability and then retire from the two churches we were serving. Gail, who is a nurse helped me  greatly to recover taking me to rehabilitation 3 times a week. I was in the hospital for 5 weeks total, Gail pushed me around in a wheelchair and did all of my care.  Since then I have been in rehabilitation mode, and music has been a big part of that. I now play about two times a month and spend most of every day working on marketing my music. I have licensed three songs to Fervor Records for TV purposes and three others to Pop Up Music in the UK to be a part of their catalogue. I am enjoying this new/late identity I am developing.