Tim “Doc” Caudill began playing trumpet when he was in the fourth grade. By the 7 th grade he had fallen in love with the guitar. His parent bought him a guitar for Christmas from Western Auto and within a year he had his first paying job.

The band was a country and western band made up of junior high kids. The Chaparrals were quite the hit in and around their hometown of Bakersfield, California. Clean cut junior highers playing country music were a novelty as much as anything in the 1960’s when most young people were wearing tie-dyes, cutoffs, had scruffy hair and were listening to Jefferson Airplane.

Doc continued his music career through high school and college playing in a number of bands in a variety of genres, but blues seem to really turn him on. Soon marriage interfered with his music and family pressures forced him to hang up the guitar from about 1976 to 1985.

After his first marriage broke up he began playing again. This time drugs and alcohol interfered, but Jesus stepped in and he gave his life to Christ. Before long he began to look for opportunities to serve God through music. He began playing in church and eventually became a worship leader in 1990.

Through a business move to Fort Smith, Arkansas and eventually Kansas City where he works in industrial sales, he kept playing, singing and developing his chops.

He moved to Gardner, Kansas and began attending New Life Community Church where Lester Estelle was the worship leader. When Lester left, Doc was offered the role. About that time he was also offered the job as lead guitar and lead vocalist with Mission Blues, a Kansas City based Christian blues band. The terms “Christian” and “blues” in the same sentence really got him excited and he knew he was in the right place.

Doc says that “Music was created by God for the purpose of worshipping Him. The devil has tried to corrupt it and use it for his purposes.” Let’s give God the glory and keep playing the blues!